A Line Around Your Thoughts

Our guests this week are Pollyanne Birge of the City of Spokane's Office of Neighborhood Services as well as independent artist Madison Merica.

Pollyanne and Madison came in to talk about This Is Spokane:A Civic Guide for Neighbors, which is a new zine that the city has put out to help residents get a better fix on how local government works. Madison was the lead artist on that project.

We talk about what a zine is, why it was a really good medium for this kind of content, and how it's one a few different arts-related tools that the city's using to increase civic engagement.

A big thanks to our episode sponsor, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. The new nationally touring exhibition Preston Singletary: Raven & The Box of Daylight opens there today. Visit the MAC's website for tickets and more details.

This week's episode features a conversation with author Jess Walter, whose new novel is titled So Far Gone and was just published by HarperCollins.

So Far Gone is set in and around Spokane but its story isn't region-specific. It's meant to be a portrait of a country where people who might be sitting around the same Thanksgiving table can be living in entirely different realities.

Jess and host E.J. Iannelli talk about that phenomenon as well as how much overlap there is between the author and his outspoken protagonist

Many thanks to our founding sponsor, Rogue Heart Media SPC.

For this week's episode of A Line Around Your Thoughts, we're joined by Bryan Harnetiaux, the Spokane Civic Theatre's playwright in residence since 1982.

Bryan came in to provide the lowdown on the upcoming Playwrights' Forum Festival that bears his name.

In 2025, the festival runs from June 19–22 in the Spokane Civic Theatre's Firth J. Chew studio space. This year, its 35th, there are a dozen one-act plays that will be performed in two different rotations over those four days.

Out of our festival-focused conversation sprang a number of other topics. We also ended up discussing the value of theater criticism, the importance of workshopping and why plays are never truly finished.

Another massive thanks to our founding sponsor, Rogue Heart Media SPC, for making these episodes possible.

Our guest on this week's episode of A Line Around Your Thoughts is Mallory Battista, an independent artist who works in a variety of media.

You've probably already come across Mallory's work in the form of murals, mosaic sculptures, holiday window displays, ironworking or comics. She was even kind enough to design the logo for this podcast.

We ended up talking about, among other things, zines, the Garbage Goat and the importance of public art — as well as the recent renaissance of public art in Spokane, and why that might be under threat by the current economic climate.

NB: We recorded this ahead of this year's Spokane Zine Fest, which took place last weekend, so the upcoming issue of Spokane Sequential that Mallory references is already here. The same goes for her Asphalt Art street mural near Emerson Park, which was completed earlier this week.

Her new "Dragons and Rime" bench is set to be unveiled in Riverfront Park's Sister Cities Garden later this month.

Once again, many thanks to our founding sponsor, Rogue Heart Media SPC, for supporting these early episodes.

This week's episode puts us in conversation with Marit Fischer and Rob Worstell. Marit is the chief marketing officer at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture; Rob is the organization's education director.

Although most MAC conversations tend to focus on the exhibitions, what we talk about instead are the museum's educational and outreach initiatives. They include everything from a youth arts leadership program called Teens at the MAC to the new Curators of Sound concert series.

That means there are plenty of dates for your calendar, including the annual ArtFest, which is coming up this weekend.

We also get into why these programs matter, so if the word museum makes you think of a static repository of historic objects, you might find that perspective challenged.

A heartfelt shout out to our founding sponsor, Rogue Heart Media SPC, for making these early episodes possible.

On this episode we sit down with Darya Pilram, an artist and Economic Recovery Corps Fellow.

We discuss both of those roles, starting with her very first solo exhibition titled "Embracing Imperfection: The Art of Kintsugi Repair." It runs at Spokane's Trackside Studio until May 30, 2025.

Then we dive into her work helping to establish creative districts in Garland and Hillyard in Spokane well as in Coeur d'Alene and Kellogg, Idaho.

Along the way we talk about the dynamics of Washington State's nearly $120 billion creative economy and why the creative economy itself can be such an elusive concept.

We'll also get into Creative Mornings, a new venture here in Spokane that helps creative-identifying individuals connect with each another as well as the wider world.

A huge thanks, as always, to our founding sponsor, Rogue Heart Media SPC.

Our guest on this week's episode of A Line Around Your Thoughts is Shelly Wynecoop, director of grantmaking at Spokane Arts⁠.

Fresh off the announcement of the most recent round of Spokane Arts Grant Award (SAGA) recipients, Shelly came in to talk about the projects that were funded and the ins and outs of the process itself.

We start by going behind the scenes of SAGA and then move on to address the wider impact that the grant program has had over the past nine years — including how important that impact might be at a time when other sources of arts funding are being cut.

Shelly offers some valuable tips for prospective SAGA applicants and, during the lightning round, relates the potential pitfalls of scoffing at astrology.

As always, a massive thanks to our founding sponsor ⁠Rogue Heart Media SPC⁠ for making these early episodes possible.

This week's guest is James Lowe, music director of the Spokane Symphony.

James previews this weekend's Masterworks #9 concert featuring cellist Zuill Bailey, which also happens to be the finale for the SSO's 79th season.

He also talks about some of the overarching themes and anticipated highlights for the symphony's recently announced 80th season in 2025–'26.

Along the way we chat about the unusual casualties of Star Wars, the frequently heralded death of classical music and the joys of singing ABBA songs in the shower.

A huge thanks to our founding sponsor Rogue Heart Media SPC for making these early episodes possible.

For our very first episode, we're joined by director Troy Nickerson and his creative partner Chris Jensen.

Their new theater company, Theater on the Verge, launched late last year and recently closed its inaugural production, Every Brilliant Thing.

Troy and Chris talk about why they founded Theater on the Verge and the lessons learned during Every Brilliant Thing — including why they had to walk back the announcement of their second production at the end of the run.

Stay tuned for the revealing Lightning Round questions at the end.

A big thanks to our podcast launch sponsor Rogue Heart Media SPC.