2004, the second full year of activity for Heart of the Arts, Inc., proceeded remarkably consistently with HAI’s planning of 2003. HAI’s birth in late 2002 was the product of more than 25 years of arts and cultural involvement on the Palouse from Ballet Folk and Art Train in the early 1970s to the creation of the Moscow Arts Commission in 1978 to the burgeoning of youth, university and community programs in arts and culture through the 1980s and 1990s. Throughout this time, community desires for additional venues, more educational opportunities for all ages, and further innovation in arts organization continued. A multigenerational, multi-use community center was a consistent request to meet these needs.

Renovation and restoration of the 1912 Moscow High School into the 1912 Center, owned by the City of Moscow, was a unique opportunity to address the continuing needs of citizens and the arts and cultural communities on the Palouse. The creation of Heart of the Arts, Inc., a private, non-profit corporation, served to pursue the further development of the 1912 Center to meet the needs for additional regional arts support.

HAI was incorporated in November, 2002. By-laws were adopted in February, 2003, and application was made shortly after for tax exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service. HAI received its tax exempt designation from the Internal Revenue Service in December, 2003. HAI has also recognized the desirability and need for a broader group of distinguished people from the area to assist in determining the direction of HAI and advising the corporation about the arts and culture generally. A distinguished group of advisers was assembled in September, 2003, and continues to offer their help and support today. The formal organization of the Advisory Committee provides community outreach and an opportunity to have serious, meaningful involvement from all facets of the regional artistic community.

2004 ACTIVITIES

HAI BOARD ACTIVITIES

2004 Annual Board Retreat

Board president Linda Pall led a retreat of the Board January 10 to consider direction and projects for 2004 at the home of Pam Peterson. Secretary Evie Adler, Treasurer Jack Porter, Board member Pam Peterson and ex officio member, Duane LeTourneau, chair of the Friends of the 1912 Center, attended. The group drafted HAI’s mission statement: HAI is a private, non-profit Idaho corporation, dedicated to arts education, performance, and community building. HAI works for collaboration

1 in the arts to provide education, exhibition, enrichment and excellence in the Palouse region. In addition, the Board crafted plans for the year and an agenda for the February 7 Advisory Committee meeting.

Board Expansion

The HAI Board of Directors expanded in March to include Rob Parrish, manager of the Pullman/Moscow Airport, and Julie Monroe, Moscow author. In April, the Board welcomed Nancy Johansen, long-time Moscow political and social activist in the disability community, and Tim Hillebrand, retired archeologist and library activist, of Moscow.

Further Board Personnel Changes

During the summer, Linda Pall, original incorporator and first President of HAI, resigned to become more involved with the future of the 1912 Center in her capacity as a Moscow City Council member. Evie Adler, HAI secretary, accepted the position of President. Pam Peterson assumed the role of secretary.

In September, the Board elected Duane LeTourneau, retired professor of chemistry at the , and Marysue Itani, Pullman developer and long-time arts supporter, as full members of the Board. Linda Pall agreed to serve as an ex-officio Board member. Later in the fall, several Board resignations were regretfully received because of pressing personal commitments: Rob Parrish, Julie Monroe and Marysue Itani.

At the end of 2004, the Board roster is as follows: Evie Adler, President Kenton Bird, Vice President Pam Peterson, Secretary Jack Porter, Treasurer Tim Hillebrand Nancy Johansen Duane LeTourneau Linda Pall, ex officio

LOSS OF A GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND: ERMA BOYD, 1925-2004

July 7, 2004, HAI and the entire community of Moscow lost a good friend, Erma Boyd. Erma was the recipient in 2003 of HAI’s first “Spirit of Moscow” Award. We have included at the end of this annual report a eulogy given by Board President Linda Pall at Erma’s memorial service. Ray Boyd, Erma’s husband, and the Boyd family designated HAI as a beneficiary of memorial

2 contributions to go toward an installation of a piece of art for the 1912 Center. That fund is presently being accumulated by HAI through the generosity of Erma’s many friends and colleagues. Contributions in Erma’s memory are still being accepted by HAI Treasurer Jack Porter, c/o HAI, PO Box 8656, Moscow, Idaho 83843.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES

Advisory Committee Annual Retreat

On a snowy Saturday morning with steaming cups of coffee in hand, about 25 hardy souls, all members of the Advisory Committee, discussed the future of the 1912 Center and the role HAI might play in that future. Melynda Huskey facilitated the group conversation. The most popular directions included collaboration with on arts related projects that bring in high school students [a cyber café and art gallery!]; provision of space in the building for lessons, performance, practice, display and studio activities; and provision of space for exhibition and sale of fine art. A popular idea was transforming the Great Room of the 1912 Center into a winter version of Farmer’s Market on selected winter Saturday mornings.

The results of the Advisory Committee annual retreat gave HAI Board and Advisory Committee members who are on the Mayor’s Use Committee ideas and direction to assist them in Committee deliberations. The winter market idea became a reality later in 2004.

Advisory Committee Reception

The September Advisory Committee reception was held at Harley and Nancy Johansen’s home. The reception is a unique opportunity to share hospitality and ideas about the future of the arts and culture on the Palouse. The Johansen home was a perfect site for accomplishing both tasks. The contributions of finger food made the event a gastronomic success in addition.

HAI ARTS PRODUCTION IN 2004

Big Band Dance Party on Valentine’s Day

HAI greeted Valentine’s Day, February 14, with a Hog Heaven Big Band dance, with the help of Duane LeTourneau and the Friends of the 1912 Center, a HAI subcommittee. Glass artist Heath Anspach displayed and sold his evocative glass hearts in pendant and ring forms. The terrific sounds of the 1940s and the

3 arrangements of the Hog Heaven Big Band led by Patrick Adams pleased HAI aficionados.

Plaza Concert Series

A new venue at the 1912 Center became an instant hit. Four outdoor summer concerts at the 1912 Center, organized by Linda Pall, were named the “Plaza Concert Series.”

The Plaza Concerts took advantage of the marvelous surroundings of the Third Street Plaza and landscaping to spotlight local and national musicians for one hour concerts on four Tuesday evenings during the summer: June 22 University of Idaho Cello Choir July 13 Soloists from Rendezvous in Moscow, including Phillip Wharton, Jennifer Hammon, Sarah Miller, Wendy Tangen-Foster, Christine Swanson Ferenc and Marcella Czfesko, Michael Neville and Bill and Linda Wharton. July 20 Palouse Brass (Jan Simonsen, Jim Kerr, Bob Dickow, Denise Snider, and Ray Wallace) August 24 Dick and Dodie Dozier: Jazz.

Each evening had its own magic. The cello choir played the most evocative romantic elegy as the shadows deepened on the Plaza. It was a most welcome encore. The Rendezvous in Moscow soloists attracted many of the “Life on Wheels” guests from the RV conference held each summer at the University of Idaho, in addition to a solid Palouse contingent. July 20, the Palouse Brass played on one of the summer’s hottest nights. Many concert goers were deeply grateful for the Italian lemon drinks provided for sale by Zume and the Mexican soft drinks by Patty’s Kitchen from downtown Moscow. The brass quintet dressed for the occasion in Aloha shirts. The only rain date was August 24 and the Doziers were happy to perform in the Great Room, bringing a ‘Name that Tune’ format from 1912 for audience participation and approval.

Local purveyors from the Moscow Farmer’s Market and downtown eateries offered everything from pakoras to lemonade and fruit tarts for guests to enjoy as they took in the music and the Moscow summer night.

HAI was extremely grateful to all of the summer musicians who donated all of their services. HAI also appreciated the Farmer’s Market food vendors and downtown merchants who added to the ambiance of the concert series. HAI’s experiment with a new summer venue and related activities was very well received.

Winter Market

4 The Winter Market took off like a shot on November 13, 2004, in the Great Room of the 1912 Center. From 10 AM to 2 PM, a steady stream of Saturday shoppers, already nostalgic for the Farmer’s Market, visited the Great Room, appreciating and purchasing everything from baskets to mushrooms to pottery to glass to jewelry to hats to baked goodies to hot coffee, bread and breakfast items. Evie Adler, President, coordinated the event with the assistance of the Board, including a string quartet on the mezzanine. The Winter Market continued in December and will run one Saturday each month through March of 2005. The consensus was that the indoor winter market was a great stop gap until we could return to Friendship Square and warmer temperatures from May though October.

THE FUTURE OF THE 1912 CENTER AND GRANTS!

The Mayor’s Use Committee

The Mayor of Moscow, with the cooperation of the City Council and staff, appointed a multi-member group to solicit further discussion about the future of the 1912 Center and bring solid recommendations back for action to the City Council in the spring of 2005. Chaired by Joanne Reece, retired executive of the University of Idaho and long-time supporter of historic preservation and reuse of Moscow architecture, the Mayor’s Use Committee includes Evie Adler, Tim Hillebrand, Duane LeTourneau, Nancy Johansen, and Advisory Committee members Joanne Reece and Carolyn Smith, in addition to Linda Pall, City Council liaison.

Grants and Major Contributions

Several generous contributions have been received from individuals throughout the year, earmarked for future development in the 1912 Center.

The Schreck Family Foundation presented HAI with a $1,000 donation for operating funds on October 26, 2004.

In December, 2004, the Latah Foundation funded a grant for tea dances for seniors to be produced in the Great Room in the spring of 2005 in the amount of $500.00.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2005 AND PLANS FOR HAI…

The Board has a full schedule planned for 2005 including the following:

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• Advisory Committee Brunch, February 5, at the home of Mary Jo and Joel Hamilton. • Continuing Winter Markets February 12 and March 12. • Second annual solicitation and presentation of the “Spirit of Moscow” Award. • Starving Artists and Just Desserts Fund Raiser April 9 which includes a progressive dinner, culminating in dessert and an art auction at the 1912 Center. • Support for Mayor’s Use Committee recommendations expected in April. • Spring Tea Dances for Seniors and the Rest of Us, featuring live 1940s big band tunes. • The 2005 Plaza Concert Series, this time on the second and fourth Mondays of June, July and August. • Creation of a pledge fund and hiring of a part-time executive director. • October Big Band showcase at the 1912 Center. • November and throughout the winter: Winter Market returns!

HAI has an ambitious agenda for 2005 including a major fund raising effort to move to the next level, from an all-volunteer group to a strong volunteer group, enhanced by staff support.

Eulogy for Erma Boyd Memorial Service July 11, 2004 By Linda Pall

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Erma F. Boyd’s immigrant grandparents walked behind wagons in the 1860s from New York to Chicago. From there, the destination for the family was Colorado. Erma was born in 1925 in Westminster, Colorado, to her second generation German father, Louis Fechner, and her Swedish rooted mother, Olga Larson Fechner. The family farmed in Arvada and it was not a gentleman farmer life. She and her younger brother and sister, Melvin and Helen, had baths growing up in the galvanized tub in the kitchen. The rest of the plumbing was exterior. This ‘basic’ family nurtured their oldest daughter, who blossomed with her beauty and brains. In high school, the good looking and smart Ray Boyd teamed up with Erma Fechner and became high school sweethearts. Ray acted in high school drama, Erma designed and painted the backdrops. Erma was salutatorian of the Arvada High School graduating class of 1942 and her sweetheart, Ray, graduated and enlisted in the Navy.

The courtship continued. Erma went to work in defense related industries. She worked for Fox Theaters as a secretary and also as a hostess for their openings. Erma’s charm was always an asset. Ray had been sent to Navy boot camp at Farragut for signalman school. Many letters back and forth kept their lives entwined. In a surprising stroke of luck, the Navy sent him back to University of Colorado within 25 miles of home and later to Colombia University in New York City. Erma and Ray got married July 15, 1945, right after Ray got his commission. Ask Ray and the family about Erma’s lack of ID and how the marriage almost didn’t come off. The Boyds honeymooned in Florida and Georgia for the next several years at the expense of the Navy.

Immediately following marriage, Erma expanded her artistic and scholastic accomplishments at Colorado Agricultural and Mechanical Arts College in Fort Collins. We know this institution today as Colorado State University. She was a gifted artist and was recognized by her peers and the faculty. She was named the outstanding sophomore student based on scholarship, campus involvement and personality. She was given the honor of Aggiette in 1948 and was Silver Spruce Queen besides.

The Navy recalled Ray for the Korean ‘conflict’ that everybody else knew was a war. The couple’s first son, John, was born while his father was deployed in the Pacific. Following the war, Ray and Erma moved to Spokane where Ray worked for the U.S. Forest Service Rock Mountain Experiment Station in Spokane for ten years. It was in Spokane where Erma and Ray completed their family with the advent of Andrea, David and Sylvia.

Erma was always a homemaker. Ray was fully supportive and honored to be the family’s bread winner. Erma knew the reality of the statement “Every mother is a working mother,” as she made her home a center of care, love and fun. After ten years in Spokane, Ray and Erma decided that a move was in order.

7 Ray wanted to go to where there were more forestry activities for his work. The Forest Service offered jobs in Florida and Pennsylvania, both of which were turned down by Ray. He got an offer to go to Ames, Iowa to teach which he almost accepted. However, luckily for Moscow, the Forest Service wanted its experiment station associated with a University. Everyone in the Spokane facility was relocated to Moscow and the University of Idaho. Good bye Iowa, hello, Idaho.

It was an inspired move. Erma loved the Palouse Hills. Her creativity blossomed even more. Erma was an early member of the Palouse Watercolor Socious. A deacon in the Presbyterian church, Erma’s artistic touch made services more beautiful and meaningful with her artistic flower arrangements.

She was a den mother for John and Dave as they grew up. She took special interest in Camp Fire Girls for her daughters, Andrea and Sylvia. She received Camp Fire’s highest volunteer recognition, the Luther Hallsey Gulick Award, for very special service and outstanding leadership. Her work, especially with Camp Fire, underlined her commitment to having her girls see the world as an open, welcoming, highly possible place. They should view the world as full of promise and potential. Their talents should be explored and realized. With that kind of mom, how can you not become all you can be?

The family first lived on Taylor Avenue from 1963-67. She identified the house she wanted to live in. 816 West C Street became known all over town as Erma’s house. A colleague of Ray’s, Forest Service District Ranger Chuck Kern, bought the house but because district rangers are a mobile lot, it wasn’t long before he had been re-assigned. Chuck knew about Erma’s passion for the house and he invited them to buy it in 1967. It was a great move. The children loved it. Erma loved it. They had wonderful neighbors. Just think of this fabulous collection of some of Moscow’s most marvelous people; Bob and Nancy Hosack on one side… Jim and Susan Calvert one house over… Dorothy and Bill Barnes across the street and Ed and Nora Tisdale. It was a great neighborhood and the Boyds made it even greater.

Erma put her mark on the neighborhood and its children in more ways than one… but one stands out. Erma was the greatest witch that C Street ever knew. Her Halloween haunted house was memorable, creepy and hilariously funny. For thirty years, Erma’s Halloween production was a show-stopper for kids.

Following Ray’s retirement, Erma and Ray were able to do some of the traveling they had planned. They went to Italy, Australia and New Zealand and frequently to Massachusetts to visit their sons and to Colorado where both of their families still lived. They took a nostalgic trip to Florida to retrace some of their Navy steps as newlyweds. About 1999 the emphysema got worse and corralled Erma’s

8 ability to be out and about but you could see her at the Farmer’s Market, where she was a regular.

The Palouse at large and Moscow in particular is a better place because of Erma’s spirit, talent and hard work. She served on the Palouse Path Task Force that paved the way for the Chipman Trail.

Erma had a special affection for the architectural heritage of Moscow. She volunteered and supported the efforts to obtain and rehabilitate the Old Post Office which has become City Hall. One of her most enduring and memorable areas of support was saving the 1912 Moscow High School. She was a continuous part of citizen efforts to try to convince the Moscow School Board that they should retain and reuse the building for high school facilities to compliment the 1939 high school across the street. Erma could always be depended upon to attend the meetings, lending her voice and her distinguished presence to preservation.

When the School Board narrowly rejected the proposal to include the 1912 building in school renovation plans, she helped refocus citizen concern on other uses. Erma marshaled advice from many quarters to help the planning process for the building, including ideas and options from her architect son, David. With her help and that of many other citizens, more than $160,000 was raised and given to the City of Moscow for the purchase of the building which is now the 1912 Center, with a community Great Room and plaza, awaiting completion of the community center dream she nurtured. For all of her tireless effort for preservation generally and the 1912 Center in particular, Heart of the Arts, Inc., a local arts organization interested in the completion of the 1912 Center, voted unanimously to give its first “Spirit of Moscow” Award to her in September 2003.

When she accepted the award in her living room, rather than at the ceremony planned for the presentation, because of ill health, Erma had a typical response: “I didn’t do anything special. I shouldn’t get this.” Erma’s family, friends and the community know a different story. Erma had an ever optimistic view of the world which we share with her loving family and her many friends here today. Erma Boyd was most assuredly a VERY special person. Her quiet, persistent efforts, her encouragement of others, and her steadfast commitment to preserving and honoring the fabric of this community were all very special. She made a lasting difference and she will be deeply missed.

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