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The Old Hotel Art Gallery

Organization Name: The Old Hotel Art Gallery
Website: facebook.com/theoldhotelothello/
Budget Size: $50K to $100K
Region: Eastern
County: Adams
Artistic Focus Area: Visual Arts
Community Accelerator Grant Award: $25,000 in 2025, $25,000 in 2024
Primary Impact Category: Employment, The Future
Mission Statement: To promote the arts and art education; to preserve the historically significant structures owned by the organization; to cooperate with Othello’s cultural and heritage organizations; and to encourage and promote tourism.

Children sitting around a table engaged in a hands-on activity with craft supplies and paper plates in a classroom setting.

In the heart of Othello, Washington, a two-story building from 1911 sits at the corner of a quiet street, its hallways still shaped by the blueprints of its former life. The Old Hotel Art Gallery’s original doors and worn floorboards make it feel part museum, part time capsule, part creative haven. Even the transom windows are carefully preserved cultural artifacts. For Director Samantha Copas, who grew up just blocks away and took art classes here as a child, the building carries a kind of gravitational pull.

A Cultural Anchor in Rural Adams County

For fifty years, the Old Hotel Art Gallery has served as Othello’s primary cultural hub: an art school for children and adults, a gallery and gift shop for regional artists, a consignment venue supporting local makers, and a gathering space for community events. The organization partners with schools for field trips and open houses, participates in the city fair and the annual Sandhill Crane Festival, and is even home to the town’s . In a building that once housed a two apartments and eight hotel rooms, no space goes to waste. One former hotel room is Samantha’s office, one stores antiques, and another is devoted to tourism materials. Outside sits a full-size railroad caboose converted into a mini-museum celebrating Othello’s rail history.

In recent years, the Old Hotel has become even more essential. When the local elementary schools cut their art programs, the gallery stepped into a unique role. “We’re the only organization in town offering consistent art classes,” Samantha explains. Since the pandemic, attendance has dwindled, and Samantha has been working to rebuild community awareness of the gallery’s classes after a few challenging years.

The Old Hotel Art Gallery’s role in Othello reflects a broader reality facing youth arts education across Washington. The level of government funding for arts education in K-12 schools has long been declining,[1],[2] with low-income and rural communities experiencing the greatest losses. Othello is located in Adams County, one of the least densely populated counties in the state,[3] where access to arts programming is especially limited. In places like Othello, organizations such as the Old Hotel Art Gallery are not supplementing arts education but replacing it, often with fewer resources and greater financial vulnerability.

Before receiving the Community Accelerator Grant, the Old Hotel Art Gallery was struggling to survive. Their largest annual income source, a fundraising auction, was months away, and funding was running out. Samantha recalls, “We didn’t even know if we could make it to the fundraiser.”

That changed the moment the Community Accelerator Grant arrived.

“It truly kept our doors open.”

- Samantha Copas, Director

Two-story beige building with a sign reading 'The Old Hotel Arts & Gifts Center' and a small front porch with stairs.
Three people holding paintings of swirling night skies with stars and snowy landscapes featuring pine trees.

Other Information: Samantha Copas (left) with her mother (right) and daughter (center).

Group of people decorating cakes with frosting and piping bags around a table in a workshop setting.
Four children standing and sitting around a purple-covered table displaying decorated computer mice in a home setting.
Two children and an adult crafting with beads, feathers, and colorful materials at a table in a cozy room.
Two children in red shirts sitting at a table with paper craft materials and colorful cutouts scattered around them.
Group of women seated around a table covered with a colorful cloth, painting on canvases during an art class.
Group of people seated at a long table painting on canvases in a well-lit room during an art class.
Two children stand at a table filled with bowls of colorful stones, shells, and craft materials for an art project.
Child wearing a colorful Hello Kitty hoodie focused on using a blue and white pottery wheel at a craft table.
Two women standing indoors, each holding a colorful lollipop, one wearing a black shirt and denim shorts, the other in a green tank top and patterned shorts with tattoos.
Two-story beige building with a sign reading 'The Old Hotel Arts & Gifts Center' and a small front porch with stairs.
Three people holding paintings of swirling night skies with stars and snowy landscapes featuring pine trees.
Group of people decorating cakes with frosting and piping bags around a table in a workshop setting.
Four children standing and sitting around a purple-covered table displaying decorated computer mice in a home setting.
Two children and an adult crafting with beads, feathers, and colorful materials at a table in a cozy room.
Two children in red shirts sitting at a table with paper craft materials and colorful cutouts scattered around them.
Group of women seated around a table covered with a colorful cloth, painting on canvases during an art class.
Group of people seated at a long table painting on canvases in a well-lit room during an art class.
Two children stand at a table filled with bowls of colorful stones, shells, and craft materials for an art project.
Child wearing a colorful Hello Kitty hoodie focused on using a blue and white pottery wheel at a craft table.
Two women standing indoors, each holding a colorful lollipop, one wearing a black shirt and denim shorts, the other in a green tank top and patterned shorts with tattoos.

As the largest grant the organization has received, the Community Accelerator Grant has  provided the stability needed to bridge the gap to their fundraiser not just once, but in two consecutive years. The unrestricted nature of the funding has made a decisive difference, allowing Samantha, the heart of the entire operation, to be paid a living wage. Funding has also been used to support essential maintenance on the century-old building. The team has been able to update the former hotel dining room, which will be rented out to a local business. The dining room, soon to be a bakery, will not only provide an additional revenue stream for the organization but also offer a new community gathering space.

Building for the Next Generation

With immediate financial pressures stabilized, the gallery has been able to continue its core work of arts education. Rebuilding enrollment after years of disruption has been a slow process, but a hopeful one. Community members are once again signing up for classes, from children’s drawing to adult stained glass. Parents who once took classes here bring their children. Under Samantha’s leadership, families are entering a third generation of participation – including her own. Samantha’s mother once volunteered at the gallery, and now her daughter is nurturing a newfound love of painting in the same halls. Burgeoning interest in classes is allowing Samantha to bring in local artists as teachers, and, she hopes, will soon allow her to launch Spanish-language art classes, an effort she views as a necessary investment in Othello’s cultural future.

The Old Hotel Art Gallery’s work extends beyond classes and exhibitions; it is also a guardian of Othello’s cultural memory. Its historic rooms are preserved as closely to their original state as possible. The caboose outside pays homage to the city’s railroad legacy. That intergenerational continuity is what motivates Samantha, especially during challenging stretches. “If we go away, I don’t know what that means for the artists and for art in general in Othello,” she says. “Art is valuable, it’s important. That’s how civilizations are remembered.”

References

[1] National Endowment for the Arts. Arts Education in America: What the Declines Mean for Arts Participation. https://www.arts.gov/impact/research/publications/arts-education-america-what-declines-mean-arts-participation.

[2] TeachnKidsLearn. “Why We Should Care about the Decline of Arts Education in Our Public Schools.” https://www.teachnkidslearn.com/why-we-should-care-about-the-decline-of-arts-education-in-our-public-schools/.

[3] United States Census Bureau. QuickFacts, Adams County, Washington. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/adamscountywashington,WA

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