Tuesday, December 17, 2013

SpOMa Exhibit @ the MAC Soon to Close!



Spokane friends, if you have not seen the terrific SPOMa: Spokane Modern Architecture, '48-'73 exhibit at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, your time is running out. The exhibit closes on January 12.

SPOMa is the most innovative exhibit that the MAC has created in some time. Spokane is revealed to have been a hotbed of modern architecture in the 50s and 60s:  "The 25-year period between 1948 and 1973 saw an unrivaled burst of architectural creativity in Spokane—greater than that of anywhere else in the Pacific Northwest. Trained by Walter Gropius, schooled in Europe, wooed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and determined to push the design envelope, Spokane’s mid-century architects changed the face of the city and received national recognition for their efforts." Who knew, right?

Photographs, plans and drawings of such modern design icons as the Washington Water Power Central Facility and St. Charles Catholic Church are exhibited alongside mid-century modern furniture, jazz records, and other even a timeline of modern design in Spokane. A small movie theater created within the exhibit shows a loop of films that includes and excellent 30 minute documentary, the brilliantly-titled When Spokane Was Modern. Here is a trailer for the film:



SPOMa is an exhibit that will make you see your city in a new way. Unfortunately there are no plans to produce an exhibit catalog or to make the video available after the show--so check it out before it is gone.

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