Built in partnership with Spokane Public Schools, The Hive is a cutting-edge facility on the corner of E. Sprague and S. Haven across from Libby Center in the Sprague Union District. Affectionately called The Hive™ for the variety of learning activities that will take place there, this building provides not only a new teacher training facility and offices for Spokane Virtual Learning but also a location for 21st century public library services like maker spaces, events, and artist residencies.
The Hive™ includes large event spaces that can be combined into one large room to accommodate 183 people, as well as one maker studio that can be reserved by the public with a library card. The meeting spaces are available free of charge. Citizens can host civic and professional groups, private employee training, or even a knitting club.
Customers wishing to use The Hive for their next event may use their library card number to book an appointment on this calendar M-Th 9-7, F-Sa 10-5, Su 12-4. At this time, access is by reservation only or during pre-scheduled programs.
In addition to public meeting space, four of the studio spaces at The Hive™ are reserved for an application-based artist residency program. These spaces will allow artists to take their art to the next level, foster connection, and provide free arts education for the public.
The artists selected for the first residency are:
- Shawn Brigman, PhD, an enrolled member of the Spokane Tribe of Indians and descendant of northern Plateau bands (snʕáyckst – sinixt, sənpʕʷilx – san poil, and tk’emlúps te secwepemc – shuswap), will explore skinning materials for application to sturgeon-nosed canoe interpretations from the Plateau culture region, as well as the recovery of handheld scale implements like basketry and salmon nets.
- Miguel Gonzales is a Chicano artist interested in building a Lotería of BIPOC leaders in Spokane as part of his goal of the development of gente in the region who have experienced, or are experiencing, language, culture, and indigenous heritage loss.
- Shantell Jackson and Stefani Rossi are sharing a studio. They find that they are inspired by one another, and their art benefits from this interaction. Shantell works with painted, textured surfaces and is eager to scale her work up with the space the studio provides. Stefani wants to explore a greater scale in her clay sculptures and her paintings that feature careful circles and lines.
- Gwendolyn Zierdt Muzzy is a fiber artist who works on a draw loom, incorporating QR codes and source code from the internet into the designs of her handwoven textiles.