The annual Terrain Arts Festival in Spokane returned after a two and a half year hiatus due to the pandemic. The event featured over 300 artists from a variety of disciplines, creating a festival inclusive of all art forms. There was visual art, dance performances, live music, film, literature and more throughout the night, bringing the region together to celebrate the beauty of creativity.

Converge Media sent a team including Besa Gordon, Omari Salisbury and Brady McAtee to experience the joy and power of the festival. The experience is documented the film above, giving a look into the creators and community which has formed around Terrain. You can read more about Besa’s experience here.

“You would have thought you were in a Museum,” Gordon said. “Big shout out to Ginger Ewing and the whole team at Terrain for holding it down for the arts culture in the 509 all year long and especially that night!”

The festival is the region’s largest multi art and music festival, with over 13,000 attendees experiencing art from all over the world. This year, it was hosted in the largest space they’ve occupied so far, bringing new possibilities and expanded amenities. Attendees could partake in a photo booth as well as augmented reality and the Terrain Theater and Literature Park.

“It was unbelievable to actually see it for ourselves. I’ve never seen anything like it in Seattle,” Salisbury said. “It was eye-opening to see the art culture and community there in Spokane - when you have thousands of people who wait in line to see and purchase art, it’s powerful.”

The trip came as part of the Converge On The Road series, in which Converge Media travels to different cities in the region in order to highlight and uplift culture and experience around the Pacific Northwest.

“We’re very excited for the second year of our Converge On The Road series, this is the second year we’ve been able to come over to Spokane to highlight Terrain and their work,” Salisbury said. “We’re excited to continue pushing forward and bringing the best of the community to our platform.”

About Terrain

TERRAIN PROGRAMS (i.e Terrain) is a groundbreaking non-profit building community and economic opportunity for the artists, makers and culture creators of the Inland Northwest. We work to ensure these local populations thrive, by creating award-winning programming consistently described as the region’s best. 

Terrain has successfully implemented numerous programs and events including (Terrain, Bazaar, BrrrZAAR) highlighting hundreds of artists and attracting 10s of thousands of attendees; a retail storefront (From Here) showcasing the work of 110+ local artists; a permanent gallery space (Terrain Gallery) one of the most sought after galleries in the region; an art-driven beautification program placing site-specific installations in vacant buildings (Window Dressing); a business incubator program for artists (Creative Enterprise); and special projects like Spokane’s Black Lives Matter mural. 

In 2021, our programs generated $949,286 dollars in art sales and artist payments — 83% of which went directly into the pockets of Spokane creatives. 

Event by event, program by program, Terrain is building a more beautiful, economically diverse, just, and vibrant city, and transforming the socio economic landscape of Spokane in the process.