Anyone who attended the Kirkland Artwalk on Park Lane tonight will probably see Kathy Feek.

As the first chair of the city’s Cultural Arts Commission, Feek has worked alongside other Kirkland residents and businesses over the years to bring art into the city that reflects its distinct culture and style. Aside from the Art Walk, she is also involved in Kirkland Summerfest and the recent Fish Frolic fundraiser. Earlier this year she was recognized along with other community members and groups at the fourth annual mayor’s CACHET event.

Previously working for the Kennedy Center Arts Education Center and Imagination Celebration in Seattle, Feek first came to Kirkland in 1999, only a year after the opening of the Kirkland Performance Center. She had first acquired an interest in art during graduate school at Seattle University, where she said she discovered the power of art to improve people’s learning abilities.

“I remember the days of high school when I was forced to do my geometry proofs in pencil,” she said. “I saw someone doing shapes in color and noticed how much easier it is to keep track of the angles… I thought ‘Wow, this is just an unbelievable difference that we’re all missing in the way we’ve been teaching.’ It helps catch all kinds of people and all kinds of learners and the needs of young children to old people,” she said. “It cuts across all of that. I’ve loved [art] from the very beginning of my adult learning.”

Feek said she sees art as a way to not only reflect their values but stimulate discussions and conversations.

“I have seen the most amazing conversations with people who don’t know each other at all discussing art,” she said.

When she first came to Kirkland, she was eager to get connected with the community and joined the cultural arts commission.

She acted as its first chair and served on the commission for eight years. Among the first things the commission accomplished, she said, was saving two bronze sculptures at Carillon Point by successfully raising $250,000 through hundreds of small donations. They also carried out a project to place art on Interstate 405. Through the arts commission, she said, the city has obtained around $1 million worth of art.

Kirkland’s first attempt to bring art to the Eastside started in the 1950s. Though it had music in the schools and a local barbershop quartet, Kirkland was known as a sports city, according to artist Merrily Dicks. Organizations such as the Creative Arts League, now known as the Creative Arts Center, were founded by Kirkland resident and Lake Washington School District Art Director Bill Radcliffe. Radcliffe also started the Cellar Gallery in 1957. Located on Kirkland Avenue, it ran until 1977 and was the first real opportunity for local artists to show off their work on the Eastside. The KAC was founded in 1962 not only to provide local artists with venues to promote their work, but also to preserve the historic Peter Kirk Building.

Though the city saw the arrival of several art galleries in the 1980s, within a decade much of the art scene seemed drifting back across the lake to Seattle, according to Dicks.

“People weren’t interested here,” she said. “They [galleries] would draw their clientele from Seattle, so they might as well move to Seattle,” she said. “I really think it has changed with different people coming into town.”

Feek sees the same downtown area as a great venue to showcase local art through events such as Kirkland Art Walk. As a consultant for four hospitals in the area, she has also acted as the curator for art at EvergreenHealth hospital.

“There is more and more research on the effect of colors and art on patients,” she said. “We don’t do just any kind of art. It’s uplifting, colorful, inspirational, peaceful; things people find comforting and reassuring. We don’t have to show everything, and we don’t do anything controversial.”

Feek said hospital art is designed to bring a sense of warmth and friendliness to a place that can often feel cold.

“It is a different kind of niche, but within that there’s a whole world of art,” she said. “People love it, they respond to it. They don’t want to go places that feel sterilized. They want to go to places where the environment feels as if people care about them.”

Since the economic downturn in 2009, Feek said local organizations and groups have turned to fundraising as a necessity, though she hopes at some point this will change.

“The things we love in downtown Kirkland, the holiday lighting, the concerts in the park, the things that are beautiful and enhancing our lives – they don’t pay for themselves,” she said. “We use the art to raise money for things that really matter.”

The success of Fish Frolic, a project which Feek headed up, suggests they have tapped into an effective method of using art to fundraise in order to purchase more art. The idea first came out of Kirkland Summerfest after King County’s 4culture provided a small grant to pay for fiberglass fish. Selected artists such as Dicks were then allowed to apply material to give it an artistic exterior. The fish were first unveiled in front of over 200 people in June at Nytec Product Innovation Center in Kirkland, and later were displayed during both Summerfest, as well as the Fourth of July parade.

“It’s been a massive project and lots of skills needed,” she said. “The people who have been working on it have been amazing.”

Feek said they have raised $60,000 so far and expect a total of $100,000 once they have sold all the fish.

“It’s sort of like using art as a Kickstarter crowd funding,” she said. “It’s been completely popular with the businesses, community and with people at Summerfest. People who purchase the fish love them. They put them in their lobbies and gardens. They’re going to all sorts of different sites. It’s very fun to hear what people are doing with the fish.”

Having previously worked in the Seattle art scene, Feek sees Kirkland as having the opportunity to carve out its own art identity that is equally as distinct.

“Kirkland I think has a real energy,” she said. “It’s a boutique community. What is great for Kirkland is variety, to have bronze sculptures and colorful art and have movement.”

One such example of how they view art, she said, is the cow and coyote sculpture located at Lake Street and Central Way, which Kirklanders traditionally decorate for the holidays.

“It’s completely silly and lighthearted and doesn’t hurt anything,” she said. “We don’t take it too seriously, and we have fun with our art. We like to experience our art.”

In addition to dedicated volunteers and strong response from the business community, Feek sees continued fundraising success as proof that Kirklanders are willing to put their money where their art is, or where it will be.

“There are people who feel passionate about it,” she said. “That’s what I love about Kirkland. You can live in a lot of places where nobody cares. I’ve found only people who care. They work with you and come day after day and show up for things.”