PEND OREILLE COUNTY, WASHINGTON

"Our county community has been identified from within as fragmented and labeled from without as the redneck, bigoted, welfare capitol of Washington State. It was time to work together and the arts provided the means.

Now, thanks to increased awareness through the Spirit of the Northwest, we have a viable working relationship between our County Commissioners and the Kalispel Tribal Council, focused on the bridge at Usk as a visual cultural 'bridge.'

The CultureWorks county-wide visioning session elicited comments that it was the only meeting at which the residents from the north county felt like they were a part of the discussion and solution.... the Spirit ideas have promoted unifying and inclusive thinking in projects, programs, organizations and governments in Pend Oreille County."

Martha Nichols, Project Leader

 

Background And Impacts

Pend Oreille County, population 11,200, has experienced vast changes in economic, environmental and social climate since the early 1990s.

The county spreads out north to south along the Pend Oreille River, spilling through the Selkirk Mountains, with five small towns dotting the riverbank. Like much of the rural Pacific Northwest, this is beautiful and isolated country.

"There's not a stoplight in all of Pend Oreille County".

Traditionally a logging-based economy, in the past decade all the lumber mills in the county closed, and unemployment is now near the highest in the state. Before welfare reform, the county ranked amongst the highest percentage of welfare recipients in the state.

Twenty miles north of Newport, the Kalispel Reservation lies on the banks of the Pend Oreille. Historically, there has been little cooperative interaction between the Kalispel people and other county residents.

Socially, Newport, the county's largest community with a population of 2,000, is becoming a bedroom community to Spokane, 45 miles to the southwest. Newport is no longer the proud, independent city it was 10 years ago. Both bus and train service to Newport have ended, and the town is now just 'on the way' to somewhere else.

The Project Team and Partners

The Pend Oreille County Spirit Team, enjoined and led by Martha Nichols, a long-time Newport arts and community activist, included a consistent band of 10-plus dedicated volunteers who worked tirelessly over three years on Spirit projects in partnership with many other county organizations.

"Our diverse team gave us the credibility and empowerment to formalize our viewpoint and take it out to county groups – the thematic structure "unity" gave us a reason to act."

The sponsoring organization for Spirit of the Northwest was CREATE, a local arts agency. The Spirit team operated independently from CREATE except for budget oversight.

The Pend Oreille project purpose and focus ("unify Pend Oreille County through the arts") became clear in the Portland airport as the project team returned to Spokane after the Spirit retreat at the Flying M Ranch. To build support, the team made presentations and gained commitments from the Board of County Commissioners, Economic Development Council, Public Utility District, Port Authority of Pend Oreille, and the Kalispel Tribe.

Beyond CREATE, the core arts organizations in the county worked together on the various Spirit projects: the Pend Oreille River Arts Alliance, The Cutter Theatre, Northwoods Performing Arts, The Evergreen Art Association, Pend Oreille County Historical Society and The Tiger Historical Center.

Additionally, the Spirit team partnered with the county's three school districts, the county's planning department, the largest private employer in the county, the county newspaper and various individual artists and tribal members.

Key Learnings

"I am still acutely aware of how much of a process this project is – how we are defining and refining and re-defining as we move along."
Kenneth Kuhn, Project Team member

• A varied and diverse team was important to success, and training in collaboration was important.
  
  
• Without good program evaluation techniques, it was impossible to statistically document the difference the team made in the county, other than anecdotal records.
  
  
• A critical element of success was the continuity of the project team.
  
  
• Holding conversations with all the county boards early in the work established general commitment.
  
  
• Process and connections were more initially more important than product, but the project became more product-oriented in response to Washington State Arts Commission input.
  
  
• The Spirit effort to build unity through infrastructure was extremely difficult to explain to others, especially others in the arts.
  
  
• The Open Space approach got people involved in thinking and planning together in a way that really worked.
  
  
• The Spirit project was judged a success when the team saw unplanned synergies between projects.

Purpose

Encourage county unity by promoting arts infrastructure; grow arts-based relationships between government and private, north and south county, Native American and non-Indian, old-timers and newcomers.

Project Outputs

• Leveraged $33,000 in additional local funds.
  
  
• Developed and installed local artists' website (pendoreilleartists.org).
  
  
• Initiated script development of "DownRiver!" an original play written about David Thompson, the first European trader in the area ­ scheduled for production in 2001 in collaboration with the three school districts, four arts organizations and two historical societies.

  "Everywhere he went, David Thompson would ask each tribe: "How is the river before me? What will I see? What is ahead?"

• County was named a Millenium Community - created and formalized partnerships between the arts, local newspaper and area service
  organizations to craft a millennium time capsule celebrating non-profit organizations in the county.
  
  
• County's new economic development plan names the arts and Spirit of the Northwest as a resource to countywide strategic planning, embedding the arts in long-term county planning and development activities.
  
  
• Promoted and achieved first-ever artist inclusion on a County design team for the Usk bridge, which connects Kalispel tribal lands to County.
  (This accomplishment occasioned the first ever meeting between Kalispel Tribal Council and Pend Oreille County Board of Commissioners.)

Project Process

• Developed clear mission, goals and tactics during Flying M retreat.
  
  
• Defined specific purpose (theme) to articulate the work to others.
  
  
• Recruited 10-person flexible team with evolving project-driven leadership group.
  
  
• Presented and gained endorsement of Spirit mission, goals and projects from all county boards.

  "We wanted Spirit to be in at the ground floor of other important county projects".

• Presented CultureWorks meeting with broad community invitation to discuss possible projects or issues to address (employed Open Space technology for county cultural planning).
  
  
• Experienced, consistent, well-respected volunteer team leader committed to shared leadership and knowledgeable of team leadership.
  
  
• Held irregular team meetings.
  
  
• Individual team members led on individual projects of their selection, which determined what projects actually moved ahead.
  
  
• Work plan for implementation of projects developed as energy ebbed and flowed.

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The Spirit of the Northwest is a regional partnership project of the Idaho Commission on the Arts, the Oregon Arts Commission and the Washington State Arts Commission, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal Agency. It is made available on the Web as a courtesy by the Community Arts Network. Questions or comments regarding this project can be addressed to Bitsy Bidwell, Community Arts Development Manager, Washington State Arts Commission, P.O. Box 42675, Olympia, WA, 98504-2675, (360) 586-2421 or email bitsyb@arts.wa.gov.