Of all the places to find award-winning art, Uniontown, Washington, may be the most unlikely. A small town nestled deep in the heart of the Palouse, Uniontown carries one of the regions greatest secrets: the Artisans at the Dahmen Barn.
The Artists at the Dahmen Barn are a group of local artists who use the 81-year-old barn as a location to cultivate and hone their crafts. The 13 studio spaces are shared among 22 artists who work on their projects while visitors watch and enjoy their work.
While the 22 in-house artists develop artwork for display or commission, nearly 120 local artists display additional art for sale.
This month, the barn will host an exhibit by the Palouse Watercolor Socius. According to their website, the Socius began in 1974, when students at the University of Idaho decided to create a group for watercolorists in the Palouse area.
The influence of the Palouse region is obvious in the work featured in the barn. Many of the pieces are portraits of everyday life on the Palouse. Abandoned barns, old farming equipment and wind-swept grain fields are all expressed through the watercolor paintings adorned on the wall of the ancient, wooden building.
The infusion of painted art displayed in a rustic, folksy building introduces a new dimension to the accessibility of the pieces.
Beside the main exhibit, the barn also hosts several local functions of varying forms of alternative art.
Every Wednesday at 6 p.m., the barn invites prestigious chefs from the Palouse region to teach adult culinary courses, which is just one of the many courses and classes offered in the barn.
Potential students also have the option of taking classes in pottery, craft making and even fly rod building.
When the barn isn’t busy with instructional classes or displaying art, it hosts various local musical groups like the Spokane based bluegrass band Bluestreak, who will perform there on November 19th.
Additionally, curious patrons in a buying mood have the chance to purchase many of the pieces on display, in addition to the various items offered at the barn gift shop, such as soup mixes, locally produced sweets and other goods.
Although the barn attracts many visitors from the region, it still relies on a healthy support network to remain active. The official Artisans at the Dahmen Barn website pays tribute to dozens of supporters from around the Palouse who have made the financial contributions necessary to sustain the growth and longevity of the project.
The same website also illustrates how the project has grown into what it is today. The artisan group first inhabited the barn in October 2006, and since that date they have been renovating and adding to the space to befit their needs.
It is heartwarming to see such hard work come to fruition. The group’s dedication to introducing high quality local art to a region where such art is rarely seen is a testament to the passion of those who have spent years seeing to the barn’s success.
Sam Balas can be reached at [email protected]