It's been over a year, but the walls of "Main Street" at Clark Fork Valley Hospital are no longer bare and art lines them once again.

The Art on the Walls program was suspended last year after the student show because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but with the drop in cases, hospital officials decided to allow the Sanders County Arts Council to hang art in the hospital, according to Lisa Eberhardt, the chief nursing officer. "Based on the fact that the incidence in our county has dropped and more people have been vaccinated, putting the art up posed a relatively low transmission risk to positive benefit to our staff and patient morale," said Eberhardt, who added that they couldn't let the traditional opening reception to take place in an effort to follow social gathering guidelines.

The student show, the most popular of the four shows a year, had 222 works of art by students from Plains and Noxon schools. Plains High School student Haylee Steinebach won the People's Choice Award with an ink portrait of President Donald Trump. Plans were in place for the next show to be photos only, but it was canceled because of COVID.

It took about two hours for Ilene Paulsen, Cheri Seli and Joy Nelson, the council's president, to display the 34 pieces of artwork from eight artists last Monday. There were 24 photographs in this exhibit and one of the first times photos outnumbered paintings. It was the first time to show for Jamie Betts of Thompson Falls with four of her nature pictures, including a multiple images of a newborn deer she entitled "Fawn"-tasctic New Life." Seli, a Plains resident, had the biggest showing of all the artists with nine photos ranging from 5X7 to 19X28.

"It's been too long since our hallways have been empty - cool beans," said Darlene Malmend, a hospital staff member and one of several people who commented on the exhibit as they passed by during set up. "It's really nice to see the art again. I missed it," said Glenn Notsch, an assistant physical therapist at the hospital. "I'm so glad it's coming back. I really like it, so did the patients," he said.

The exhibit, which began in 2007, was the brain child of Gayle Kenney, who was a patient of the hospital at the time. The idea for the exhibit was to highlight local talent and to decorate the bare hospital walls to hopefully help patients take their minds off their medical problems. A new display is put up each quarter starting with the student show each January.

The largest piece in the present show is a 44-inch wide oil painting by Williamette Brickzin titled "Big Beaver Folks," which she has for sale for $2,500. Barbara Mullins of Noxon had a mixture of oil and watercolors ranging in price from $75 to $2,000. The Sanders County Arts Council and Clark Fork Valley Hospital co-sponsor the show. A portion of the sale goes to the hospital and to the arts council. Four Plains residents participated in the show, including Rod Stamm, who had four photos. Dianne Zimmerman of Thompson Falls had two pieces that weren't for sale. She had a high flow acrylic artwork that was comprised of art on several pieces of thin paper - mixed media - which took her about a week - called "Flying Flower." Her second mixed media art was a digital media piece finished with acrylic detail entitled "Sunflower Garden."

"The art is wonderfully diversified between realism and abstract paintings to wildlife and beach scenery photography," said Paulsen, who had a three-foot long watercolor of horses she called "Teamwork" that she spent about 40 hours to do and that she's selling for $1,600. "I think it is so great to have the local artists be able to once again come together and decorate the hospital hallway," added Paulsen, who has been helping set up the gallery for three years.

"We are so pleased to be able to offer this service to the patients and staff of the hospital once again. Judging by the warm welcome we received as we were hanging the show, we think they missed the art on their walls a great deal," said Nelson, who added she has placed a guest book for visitors to vote for their favorite piece in the show.

"It brings back a sense of normalcy after a long year. The staff and patients have missed the art," said Eberhardt. "It always brings a sense of calm and healing to our patients. To have the art work back in our halls means that we may finally be coming to an end of this pandemic."