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By: Allie Raye

HATCH Creative Incubator hosted a live painting collaboration event on Saturday, May 14 in Spokane.

HATCH is located at 9612 E. Sprague in Spokane Valley. It serves as common meeting place for local artists, businesses, musicians, and creators alike, to utilize by providing private studios, various art classrooms and gallery space. For the live event, 15 local artists rotated from canvas to canvas every 20 minutes from 10am-5pm, building upon the previous artists work.

Ryan Babcock, graduate of SFCC and one of the participating artists, welcomed the idea of creative cohesion.

“I haven’t painted in a while,” Babcock said. “To be here with artists who make a living doing this is a little intimidating, but it’s been really great to participate with such creative people.”

HATCH has also been working to promote its Second Saturday art events.

Jesse Swanson, Creative Director at HATCH, hopes that Second Saturday will be embraced by Spokane Valley like First Friday has been embraced by Downtown Spokane.

“The goal is to get more people into the Valley for the art walks,” Swanson said. “We’d like to see it evolve into a city-wide arts tour.”

Swanson uses HATCH as headquarters for his print shop: Magic Craftsman Printing. He produces a quarterly fine arts and literature magazine,Terra Obscura, and numerous fine art prints from artists around the area. HATCH also houses other business productions such as, Jam Pad Rehearsal Spaces, Art Hour on KYRS Radio, and The Artist Collaboration Project.HATCH aims high to unite the Spokane arts community.

HATCH Co-Director, Jennifer LaRue, embraces the amount of creative output coming from within the studio walls.

“We’re all about the arts,” LaRue said. “Art shows, art classes;It’s all happened very organically.”

“We have around 8,000 square feet,” Swanson said. “ We have a lot of gallery space we can use aside from the private studios we rent out.”

A raffle, small silent auction and live auction of the 15 paintings will take place on Saturday, May 28 from 5-9pm.

“Artists are driven to express themselves,” LaRue said. “HATCH is for the artists and for the community.”

Tickets for the auction are $10 at the door. All proceeds will benefit HATCH to aid in advertising for future creative endeavors