COEUR d'ALENE — The Art Spirit Gallery is closing. 

While it was not necessarily planned, a series of unfortunate events over the years heightened the urgency of this difficult decision.  

“I just decided on this last Wednesday afternoon to stop talking about it and around it all and just made this decision that I have to stop the bleeding in order to save my family and myself,” Art Spirit owner Blair Williams said through tears Friday. 

Financial struggles, the COVID-19 pandemic, a flood and economic uncertainties all led to this point, as did the need for Williams to focus on health and family. 

“We ended last year 42% down in sales,” she said. “All of these things together have compounded the fact that I have to make the decision.” 

Williams held a Zoom call Monday to break the news to the Art Spirit’s artist community. 

“I needed to start the process of figuring out how to leave with grace,” she said. 

Williams expected it to be one of the hardest phone calls she’d ever make. 

“Each and every one of them gave back nothing but love and kindness and respect and praise,” Williams said. “I cried all the way through it.” 

What was established in 1997 by the late Steve Gibbs in a brick house farther east on Sherman Avenue evolved into a fine arts gallery in the heart of downtown Coeur d’Alene. For nearly 30 years, the Art Spirit Gallery has served as a venue for artists to show and discuss their works as well as a community space for events, field trips and curious community members to discover inspiration. 

Williams began serving as a consultant at the Art Spirit in 2014 to help Gibbs transition into retirement. She helped tighten protocols and define his vision for the gallery. In early 2016, she put together a plan with the University of Idaho to turn Art Spirit into an educational institution to offer certificate programs, including arts administration and curating. Gibbs was going to be hired by the U of I to teach, and at the end of the five years, he would retire.  

“Two weeks after we signed and shook hands on that with the university, Steve was diagnosed with ALS,” Williams said. “My entire focus was on keeping the gallery alive, keeping the artists happy and doing what we needed to do for Steve.” 

With no heirs, Gibbs asked Williams to take the gallery. On New Year’s Eve 2017, Gibbs passed away. 

“The very next day, Jan. 1, 2017, I had inherited a gallery, of which I only knew 50% of what I was getting myself into,” Williams said. "The goal was to let everybody know this wonderful institution is going to continue to operate.” 

By 2019, Williams was ready to step back and sought a partner or someone to transfer the gallery to so she could spend more time with her daughter, who was then 11. She began working with a potential buyer. 

“We came to an agreement that we were going to transfer ownership in May of 2020,” Williams said. “Lo and behold, March of 2020 COVID hit.”   

The bank pulled funding. Williams and her husband, Jim, had just taken equity out of their home to build a much-needed garage. 

“Instead, we looked at each other and said, ‘We’re going to need this money to keep the gallery open,’” Williams said.

In the fall of 2020, they had hope for the future. 

“I said, ‘If we could just make it to spring of 2021, I have hopes that we’ll be able to come out of this. Then, lo and behold, Jan. 31, 2021, we had the flood.'" 

Mitigation crews cleaned up after a water connection snapped in the middle of the night, dumping hundreds of gallons of water into the basement. The gallery was closed until mid-May. 

“By then, the world was different,” Williams said. “I spent the majority of 2021 just trying to navigate through the flood issues and get the ship straight and going again. By the end of 2022 I was exhausted.”   

In July 2023, she decided to close the gallery but kept it under wraps. Several groups of people approached her to keep it open. The first group stepped away for financial reasons. One group offered $25,000 more than the other. 

“Knowing that my husband and I had already lost $150,000 of our own money into the gallery, I thought, ‘I should take that,’” Williams said. “What I didn’t know is I should have asked questions, like, ‘Did you steal the earnest money?’ Two weeks before it was due to close, the person backed out and sued me for the earnest money.”   

The following year, Williams said, was spent meeting with attorneys to rectify the situation, but a predatory loan taken out to cover flood damage exacerbated financial struggles. 

“We were falling deeply behind and I didn’t know what to do,” Williams said. 

Attempts to turn the Art Spirit into a nonprofit also fell through. 

“Jim and I have not had a paycheck since February of ’25,”  Williams said. “Beyond just hosting shows, we’ve always done so much behind the scenes. Whether it’s advising artists or helping the arts and culture community, we give ourselves away heart, soul and space continually, and maybe there was a way by becoming a nonprofit we could garner the sponsorship to keep the institution alive and afloat.”   

Art Spirit Gallery manager Chelsea Cordova said that, being on the inside of things, she knew change was coming, but hoped the transition to a nonprofit model would take shape. 

“The Art Spirit Gallery has long been an anchor for Coeur d’Alene, a welcoming place for families, nonprofits, visitors, collectors and anyone seeking beauty or connection,” Cordova said. “As this chapter closes, I hope the gallery’s legacy continues in new forms that honor our past while responding to what the community needs next. I’m deeply grateful to the artists, clients, collectors, colleagues and supporters who made this place what it was.” 

Williams said she doesn’t have a closing date at this time as she and her team are taking it one step at a time.

“At times I would find myself asking, ‘Is this a sign from the universe to say, ‘Let it go, it’s time to walk away?’” Williams said. "The last few weeks it’s been so ‘boom, boom, boom’ that you go, ‘OK, I have to stop not seeing these as true signs.’”

    Blair Williams on Friday discusses the hurdles and obstacles that plagued the Art Spirit in the past several years, leading to the decision to close the gallery.

    Art Spirit Gallery manager Chelsea Cordova shares a few words Friday about the Art Spirit era coming to a close. "I hope the gallery’s legacy continues in new forms that honor our past while responding to what the community needs next," she said.