Oct 07 Wednesday
Date and time of event: Oct 7, 2026 12-1 1912 Center Lecompte AuditoriumTitle: How might "Missing Middle Housing" make housing less expensive?
Speaker: Nils Peterson, Executive Director, Hills and Rivers Housing Trust
Description: Hills and Rivers Housing Trust is a community land trust creating permanently affordable home ownership opportunities in Moscow & Pullman. Peterson will share some data and insights on the costs incurred by the Trust building affordable houses, and how ideas like Missing Middle Housing might to make housing generally more affordable.
Bio: Nils Peterson, currently Executive Director of Hills and Rivers Housing Trust, retired from WSU in 2011 and took a position with the Trust in April 2014. For 17 years at WSU his work focused on uses of computers and the interenet for education. Peterson's education includes a Masters in Architecture from UCBerkeley in 1983. Since joining the Trust, Peterson has led the organization in building and rehabilitating 15 houses, and helped the Trust begin to implement its goal of being a Community Land Trust.
Join Gesa Power House Theatre on Wednesday, October 7 at 7P.M. as we welcome Humanities Washington speaker Teresa Andre to the stage for her captivating presentation of Pavement and Plucky Girls: 1920s Tales from Washington’s First Highway. This event is sponsored by Humanites Washington and is a free to the community event.
Travel 1920s Washington State along one of the first modern highways—the Yellowstone Trail—which ran from here to Massachusetts. Along the way, meet the people and places grappling with the dizzying changes this new innovation brought.
From the young people who gained new freedoms—including the women who stunned Pullman by driving without a male escort—to the bootleggers, bachelors, and flappers who drove, walked, and hitchhiked the newfangled road, join educator Teresa Andre for a series of fascinating stories that lay at the dawn of our car-obsessed culture.
Museum educator and speaker Teresa Andre is a longtime developer and presenter of history programs at venues as diverse as the Hanford B Reactor, New York State Museum, and Columbia River cruise ships.
Join us for a special evening with New York Times bestselling author Amy Tan, known for her iconic novel The Joy Luck Club. Amy will share insights from her latest work, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, a heartfelt exploration of her connection to nature through birdwatching. Through this intimate look at her own backyard, Amy’s book highlights the profound impact that everyday interactions with the natural world can have on our lives. Amy will delve into her journey into backyard birding, the inspiration behind her new book, and the broader themes of nature, identity, and storytelling. This evening will be a unique opportunity to explore how the simple act of observing birds can deepen our sense of connection to nature and strengthen our commitment to conservation.
Single tickets go on sale July 16 at noon.
Oct 08 Thursday
Jim Hodges’ “Unearthed” exhibition is a monumental bronze cast of an uprooted tree stump. The truncated form resonates with majesty while also serving as a mournful reminder of humankind’s impact upon the natural world. The sculpture is suspended in stillness, suggesting what might have been above, stretching branches that had reached into the air towards the sun that once contained life in green and barky rough wildness. With this implication, and through our interaction with the sculpture, “Unearthed” opens generative thought toward relationships between environments and their communities. The work beckons us to consider fragility, ephemerality, as well as the sacredness of life.
This work-in-becoming had its first residency in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral in 2019. Imagine that in the confines of that edifice the sculpture absorbed metaphysical power from everyday spiritual practice, from a celebration of life observed in rites of faith, musical performances, readings, by a community’s presence, participation, and social interaction. “Unearthed” has its second residency at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Washington State University, providing the academic and regional community an occasion to approach the work through intentional participation.
In time, its roots will be reunited with the ground through burial, transferring its accumulated goodwill charged with incorporeal memories and energies into the Earth. Only its severed trunk will remain visible, indicating a new role in nature.
IMAGE | Jim Hodges, Unearthed, 2015 to present
LOCATION | The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU is located in the Crimson Cube (on Wilson Road across from Martin Stadium and the CUB) on the WSU Pullman campus. Museum hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Closed Sundays, Mondays, and during University holidays and breaks.
Each year, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art presents selections from its growing permanent collection in an exhibition, offering fresh perspectives through thematic exhibitions, recent acquisitions, and curated installations.
Open August 25, 2026 through March 13, 2027, “JSMA Collects” explores the many ways artists, curators, and visitors connect with nature, place, and one another. Works on view reflect the relationships between environments and communities, while spring installations expand the conversation to themes of home, family, and everyday life, inviting reflection on the natural world and our place within it.
From its founding collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and European paintings, the museum's holdings have grown to more than 4,000 works of art. Today, the collection spans the eighteenth century to the present and features a diverse range of regional, national, and international artists whose works illuminate the breadth and evolution of visual culture.
IMAGE | Etsuko Ichikawa, Vitrified, 2020
Join us on October 8 at the REACH Museum in Richland, WA from 5:00-7:30 pm to celebrate the culmination of a three year-long project to research and document local Black history at the Hanford Site. Hanford History Project, African American Community Cultural & Educational Society (AACCES), and the park collaborated on this project to enhance understanding of African Americans’ contributions to Hanford during the Manhattan Project.
Doors open at 5:00 pm. At 6:00 pm speakers will provide insights into the research process and reflect on the impact of this history. Immediately following community elders will share stories that illuminate this rich history during a fire side chat. Program ends at 7:30 pm. The event is free and refreshments are provided.
Oct 09 Friday
