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SPR Fire Station No. 3 by Don HamiltonSpokane Public Radio rehabilitated a historic Spokane treasure, Fire Station No. 3 on North Monroe and Sharp. This community hub has state-of-the-art performing and recording studios. We are in the process of growing the news, arts coverage, and local programing you depend on. Thank you for your gifts to the Moving to a Sound Future project!

Harold Balazs Sculpture "Listen" at SPR Fire Station No. 3

Harold Blaze: "Listen"
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Spokane Public Radio
Credit Janean Jorgensen
Harold Balazs and Verne Windham are good friends, and Verne checked in regularly on the progress of "Listen."

Harold Balazs artwork dots Spokane's cityscape. Waves of steel seem to float above the Spokane River in "Centennial." Children in Riverfront Park run through the water flowing from his 24' columns of the Rotary Fountain. Scores of people have illicitly climbed the concrete tower nicknamed "Lantern" behind the INB Performing Arts Center.

SPR also has a piece of Harold Balazs's imagination installed in front of Fire Station No. 3. Titled "Listen" and made possible by funds from the Harriet Cheney Cowles Foundation, the abstract steel circular piece could be the renowned artist's final large public work.

While the inspiration is completely Balazs (pronounced "Blaze") some of the actual cutting, welding and grinding was done by family members assisting at the studio on the north side of Spokane County. Balazs suffers from a type of aphasia and also has tremors in his extremities, but he thrives on being busy with his true passion -- art in any medium.

Credit Janean Jorgensen
Balazs's relative Kurt welds pieces of "Listen" together in April 2015 at the Balazs art studio.

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