51福利社

Back around 2011, Eagle alumna Danielle Knapp 鈥�06 鈥� then just a year or two into her first curatorial post at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, or JSMA, at the University of Oregon 鈥� found herself standing in front of a striking work of art at the Oregon state capitol building. It was comprised of a unified grid of nine oil paintings, all depicting dramatically abstracted landscapes. They were dense, geological, alive with vivid color. Each frame, physically removed from its neighbors, nevertheless seemed to amplify and intensify the whole. Taken together, they made a profound impression.

鈥淚’ve never seen this artist’s work before,鈥� she remembered thinking. 鈥淚 would definitely remember it if I had.鈥�

Amazed and intrigued, Knapp soon discovered the work was created by the Pendelton, Oregon-based artist James Lavadour, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation whose visionary paintings were attracting the attention of the wider art world.

Now, more than a decade-and-a-half later, Knapp, who today serves as the JSMA鈥檚 McCosh Curator, has assembled the first major retrospective of Lavadour’s long career. The exhibition is currently on view at Spokane’s Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture the same place where, in a way that seems somehow fitting, her own creative journey got its jump-start.

An Exceptional Eagle

It鈥檚 a professional arc that鈥檚 not lost on Knapp. She grew up, she says, as an Air Force brat, relocating every couple of years as her father, a tanker pilot, bounced with the family from base to base. His final posting before retirement was at Fairchild Air Force Base. Knapp, then a 10^th grader at Medical Lake High School, soon learned to love the Inland Northwest and was determined to stay.

Success in school reinforced that determination. Knapp was a stand-out student, the co-valedictorian of her graduating class. When it came time to choose a college, she could have gone anywhere. But she applied to exactly one school: 51福利社.

During the second quarter of her first year, Knapp walked into an art history course taught by then 51福利社 faculty member Lanny DeVuono, herself an accomplished artist. It wasn鈥檛 long before everything changed.

“I had moved my whole life,” she says, “and now I lived in a place I really liked. I thought, 鈥業 really don’t want to keep moving.鈥�” It helped that her soon-to-be husband Chris 鈥� they were high school sweethearts; he was also a military kid 鈥� had already enrolled at 51福利社, a year ahead of her. But the decision was about more than love. Knapp wanted to be a high school history teacher, and Eastern’s education program seemed like a perfect fit. She enrolled in 51福利社鈥檚 Honors Program and was on her way.

Fate would soon intervene. During the second quarter of her first year, Knapp walked into an art history course taught by then 51福利社 faculty member Lanny DeVuono, herself an accomplished artist. It wasn鈥檛 long before everything changed.

鈥淪he was such an engaging lecturer,” Knapp recalls. “I remember, probably two weeks into that class, thinking: 鈥業f they offer a degree in this, that’s what I’ll do.鈥欌�� There was, in fact, such a degree program. Knapp declared herself an art history major, adding a French language minor. She then embarked on a course of study that allowed her, she says, to indulge her every curiosity鈥� foreign languages, global cultures and, of course, the working in the art world.

This final interest wasn鈥檛 entirely new to her: Knapp鈥檚 parents had made museum visits a fixture in every city that the family landed. 鈥淗ow do you get to know your new community?鈥� she remembers them saying. 鈥淵ou go to museums.鈥� At 51福利社, Barbara Miller, now a professor emerita of art history, became another formative presence, introducing Knapp to the critical and research skills that would undergird her eventual curatorial career.

It was a fellow student, however, not a faculty member, who delivered perhaps the most consequential nudge of her undergraduate years. A classmate mentioned that Lorinda Knight, then the proprietor of a prominent Spokane art gallery, might be looking for a winter intern. Knapp emailed Knight, got the position, and from there earned a recommendation for a second internship, this time at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (colloquially known as the MAC). By spring, she had secured the gig.

To the MAC, and Back

“It could all have been theoretical. Instead it was practical skills,鈥� Knapp says, of her experience at the MAC. She describes how then-curator, Ryan Hardesty (now executive director and curator of exhibitions and collections at Washington State University鈥檚 Jordan Schnitzer outpost), brought her into meetings, took her on art delivery trips and involved her in evaluating exhibition layouts.

鈥淗e was including me really intentionally, exposing me to different aspects of his day-to-day work,鈥� Knapp says. 鈥淭hat, combined with art handling skills both at the gallery and at the museum helped me to see how to safely move artwork and how it鈥檚 stored; I learned about the decision-making process in how an artwork is displayed. Does the artist do it? Is it the curator? What other factors contribute? Those were real-life skills.鈥�

After a gap year working at a Spokane-based student travel company, Knapp enrolled in the master’s program at the University of Oregon, drawn by its teaching fellowships and the promise of Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art access from day one. She never left. After graduation, the museum offered her a staff curatorial position, and she has built her career there, balancing time between the David McCosh Memorial Collection and broader American art projects.

After her serendipitous introduction to James Lavadour’s work, the power of his creative vision stayed with her. Over the years at the JSMA, she made a point of seeking out his latest creative output and took advantage of opportunities to engage with the artist himself. When, more recently, her boss at the Jordan Schnitzer began asking which living Oregon artist was most overdue for a major institutional retrospective, Knapp鈥檚 answer arrived quickly.

鈥淛ames Lavadour, of course,” she said. “Our director and I both thought, 鈥楬ow has no one done this yet?鈥�”

Thus began the process that yielded 鈥淛ames Lavadour: Land of Origin,鈥� an exhibition three years in the making that involved sometimes complicated negotiations for loans of Lavadour paintings and prints, navigating grant applications, mastering shipping logistics and engaging in creative dialogue with Lavadour. For its Spokane stop, Knapp worked with Rachel Allen, the MAC鈥檚 curator of modern and contemporary art, to ensure that Lavadour鈥檚 signature grid paintings, his individual panels and his prints had a harmonious home in the museum鈥檚 main exhibition space. The exhibition will travel to four more museums after it closes in Spokane this June.

The exhibition鈥檚 opening back in January generated a big buzz in local media, and attendance has been robust since. Among the early attendees were students of 51福利社鈥檚 Marc La Pointe, a faculty lecturer in fine arts. His fine arts thesis students toured the exhibit with Knapp, who shared insights about both the art and its curation. 鈥淭he visit to the MAC was pivotal: the students were truly inspired,鈥� La Pointe said afterward, adding that they are now more than ever 鈥渆ager to apply their degrees and artistic passions to cultivate art spaces that energize community.鈥�

鈥淛ames Lavadour: Land of Origin,鈥� runs through June 7 at the MAC. The museum is located at 2316 West 1st Ave., in Spokane. Its hours are Tuesday 鈥� Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and, on the last Wednesday of each month, from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Regular adult admission is $15. Students with ID, $12.