A12
Hood River News, Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Traveling Red Chair visits Hood
River County bed and breakfasts
Where travelers once held
photos of Flat Stanley in un-
usual places, photographers
now shoot photos of a humble
red chair. Long considered
simply a place to rest after a
long day, the lowly wooden
chair has been elevated to
celebrity status, and is being
welcomed at inns and bed and
breakfast establishments
throughout America.
It’s all part of a multi-year
B&B awareness program that
focuses on a traveling red
porch chair to highlight the
comfort, hospitality and
friendliness of bed and break-
fasts, and the Red Chair has
recently been spending time
in Hood River, first at Sakura
Ridge B&B, then Hood River
B&B, and now at Old Parkdale
Inn.
Since its start in New Eng-
land in 2012, B&Bs and inns
have taken inspiring photos of
the Red Chair from beaches to
bandstands.
Thanks to a partnership
with BedandBreakfast.com,
the Red Chair is making its
way across the United States,
bringing attention to B&Bs
and beautiful travel destina-
tions. It traveled along the
East Coast and Southern
states in 2014 and is making
its way to the West Coast in
2015. Participating B&Bs and
inns listed on BedandBreak-
fast.com host the Red Chair,
Submitted photo
THE LITTLE chair that could graces the gate at Sakura Ridge B&B, on Riordan Hill Road southwest of
Hood River.
chronicling its stay with blog
posts and photos on
www.RedChairTravels.com.
It all started in winter 2012
with a single image. Woods
Hole Inn innkeeper Beth Colt
posted a picture on Facebook
of her simple red chair
perched on the ice behind her
house and watched her page
light up with “likes.” The pic-
ture was shared on the Face-
book page of Julie Ann
Cromer, a photographer from
Santa Barbara, Calif., who
was inspired by the image to
visit the Woods Hole Inn and
took a second photo of the
chair on a local beach.
Throughout 2012 and early
2013, the Red Chair developed
a personality of its own, being
photographed by innkeepers
in communities from one end
of New England to the other.
Starting in Cape Cod, the Red
Chair journeyed throughout
the six New England states on
a 9-month tour.
“This chair is the little en-
gine that could,” said Colt. “I
could never have imagined
that it would travel so far, to
every corner of America, all
on the kindness and hospitali-
ty of innkeepers. It’s a barn-
raising of sorts; the sharing of
a piece of Americana.”
Stories from the Red
Chair’s travels have been
chronicled on blogs at each
stop throughout its journey.
For a compilation of these
blogs,
visit
www.redchairtravels.com/blo
g. For a complete view of Red
Chair photos, visit redchair-
travels.com.
Businesses could contact
Mary Pellegrini of Old Park-
dale Inn at 541-352-5551 or
p a rk d a l e @ h o o d r ive rl o d -
ging.com to set up a visit with
Red.
River. Work will also be col-
lected in an online anthology
and writers will have the op-
portunity to share their
work at a public reading on
Sunday, Aug. 9, at CCA.
Registration for ms are
available at Columbia Center
for the Arts and online at
columbiaarts.org.
For additional information,
email Writing Exhibition Co-
ordinator Julie Hatfield at
julie@onlineprose.com.
The registration fee is $20,
and will be limited to 25 par-
ticipants.
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The crimson furniture visiting local bed and breakfasts (story
at left) is not the only red chair making the local scene. Hood
River artist Dawn Elle created this six-inch long piece for
Best of the Gorge art exhibit, on display through July at Co-
lumbia Center for the Arts. “I had done the chair and some-
one suggested I add the footstool,” Elle remarked. Best of
the Gorge features paintings, sculpture, jewelry, photogra-
phy, and more.
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July 10 is deadline for
Plein Air writing exhibit
The registration deadline
is July 10 for the 11th annual
Pacific Northwest Plein Air
Writing Exhibition, orga-
nized by the Columbia Cen-
ter for the Arts and spon-
sored by the Schmuck Fami-
ly Fund.
As part of the Plein Air
Event, writers join visual
ar tists in several sites
around the Columbia River
Gorge from Aug. 3-5 for cre-
ative inspiration.
“Plein air,” French for
plain air, involves creating
entirely in place, as opposed
to working from sketches or
notes done in the field.
While any genre is permit-
ted, such as poetry, fiction,
flash fiction, essay, or mem-
oir, writers are limited to 500
words.
Par ticipating writers’
work will be displayed along
with ar tists during the
month of August at Colum-
bia Center for the Arts,
Third and State in Hood
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