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NEWPORT — Chicky Gorat had not displayed her nature photography in years.
She said her last art shows were before 2020, when “everything went by the wayside” due to the pandemic. Then, she noticed Vessel in downtown Newport last summer, more than a year after it opened on April 21, 2023.
“I [needed] to get in there to see if I can put my artwork in there,” Gorat said.
She did later that year, becoming a member artist at Vessel in October. By Christmastime, Gorat was in talks with owner Angela Drew and other artists about turning Vessel into an artist cooperative.
Now, Gorat is the vice president of that co-op. Drew is the president, and the co-op also includes a secretary, treasurer, marketing manager, supply manager and the rest of Vessel’s member artists. They are reopening Vessel as a co-op on the weekend of the Earth Day Artwalk. The reopening is from 4 to 6 p.m. April 25, just four days after Vessel’s second anniversary, and offers refreshments and live music.
“It’s a little scary,” Drew said. “But so exciting.”
Vessel will remain a gallery, clay studio and art consignment store, with expanded hours thanks to an increased staff. Hours will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, noon to 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays from May to December. “We’ll be working together to keep the place running,” Drew said of the co-op.
She and Gorat described April as a training month, during which the co-op is learning how to work the front desk and do other jobs Drew once did by herself.
As Vessel’s only manager, curator and ceramics class instructor, Drew had to work at Vessel every day, except for the few days member artists worked to reduce their monthly consignment fees. Though she is still the only ceramics class instructor, Drew only has to work in the gallery once or twice a month now that the co-op shares her job responsibilities, which also include reviewing artists’ applications, curating the gallery and participating in local events.
“It does work a little more as a democracy,” Drew said. “Because we build on things together and make decisions together.”
Owning and teaching classes at a clay studio was Drew’s dream. She wanted to get away from the city where she had spent most of her life, so she tried to open one in Idaho after falling in love with Sandpoint and moving to nearby Priest River. Then, Drew found 331 S. Washington Ave. in Newport.
“It was kind of the perfect space,” Drew said.
But Drew could not fill all of that space on her own. The clay studio took up five back rooms — a hand-building room, a wheel room, a glazing room, a kiln room and a so-called mud room. That left the storefront, which Drew invited local artists to fill for her by displaying and consigning their work in a gallery there.
Today, the gallery features two- and three-dimensional work by 10 member artists and seven guest artists based in Northeast Washington and Northern Idaho. The three-dimensional work is almost all ceramics with some woodwork, while the two-dimensional work includes photography and paintings. Starting the day of the reopening, one corner of the gallery will host a quarterly art show, this quarter’s being Vessel’s annual Young Artists Show.
“Some artists leave and some artists come,” Drew said. “And it’s nice to kind of refresh things up there that way.”
With fewer days of work in the gallery, Drew can work on making her own pottery and adding new ceramics classes to Vessel’s catalog.
Vessel is the only gallery between here and Sandpoint or Spokane. “Newport, Priest River, this area needs a gallery,” Gorat said. She wants Vessel to expand further — after all, the co-op recognizes the importance of sharing the arts with others.
“It’s nice to say that we have this here to be able to share with the community, without them having to drive far to it,” Drew said.
To become a member artist at Vessel, artists must fill out an application and submit it in person with their art or images of it. Applications can be obtained in person or by contacting 509-7034886 or vesselnewport@gmail. com.
