When Sarah Lench introduced herself to the Philomath City Council last November as Maxtivity’s new executive director, City Manager Chris Workman turned and pointed to the bare walls of the council chambers.
“You said, ‘Look at those walls. Fill them with art,’” Lench told the council Monday night. “And it took a little while, as things sometimes do, and I probably took it a little bit further than Chris had originally imagined.”
The result is the PhiloMAX Gallery, a placemaking partnership between Maxtivity Creative Space and the city. It opened earlier this month with POST21, a preview of artists on the 21st annual Philomath Open Studios Tour, and the exhibit stays up through Dec. 10.
Lench said the setting shaped her approach. The council chambers are where residents testify, argue traffic tickets and gather for community meetings. It’s not a room most people walk into expecting to see art.
“This is a space where people who might not typically walk into an art gallery will encounter art that pushes them to say, ‘Oh, this isn’t just a random piece of art. That is the old diner before it was Dizzy Hen,'” she said.
Rather than put out a general call for art, Lench hand-selected pieces with local roots. She asked photographer Phil Coleman to pull out photos that reminded him of Philomath. Another piece captures the view from Leslie Tejada’s studio window off Decker Road. Nolan Irwin, a founding member of Maxtivity’s Teen Art Collective, has work in the show and helped Lench hang it.
About 60 people came through the opening reception.
Maxtivity plans four exhibits a year as a pilot project. Next up is an installation from a yearlong community weaving project in which more than 500 people spent over 2,000 hours weaving together. Later shows will explore Philomath’s identity as a timber town and celebrate a “creative life” through hundreds of watercolors Maxtivity received from the estate of a woman who lived to 102.
Lench also noted for the record that the city isn’t paying Maxtivity for any of it. The organization builds the exhibits into programs supported by grants, including funding from the Oregon Arts Commission, the local Kiwanis foundation and the Oregon Cultural Trust.
Council members and city staff were quick with praise.
“When you plant a seed in the garden, maybe you get a flower out of it, maybe a plant,” Workman said. “But when you plant a seed in an artist and a leader, this is what you get.”
Mayor Christopher McMorran recalled calling Philomath a blank canvas in his first State of the City address.
“I did mean that as a metaphor,” he said, “and I love that it’s also now becoming literal.”
Councilor Spencer Irwin, Nolan’s father, said the project meant a lot to his son. He described it as a real transition from creating art to displaying and sharing it.
2. Moose encounter
Councilor Rich Saalsaa came home from his Walk USA for Health Equity with plenty of numbers. He also came home with a moose story.
Saalsaa gave the City Council a rundown Monday night on the 764.2-mile trek he and longtime friend Dennis Godby finished last month in Seattle. The pair covered the route from Bozeman to Seattle in 31 walking days, passing through Helena, Missoula, Coeur d’Alene, Spokane, Moses Lake and Ellensburg along the way. They averaged 24.6 miles a day at about 3.3 mph.
That added up to 1.6 million steps, roughly 118,000 calories burned and three pairs of shoes that “literally gave up the ghost.”
The route crossed the Continental Divide at 6,325-foot MacDonald Pass in Montana. It later followed the Palouse to Cascades Trail over the mountains, including the 2.25-mile Snoqualmie Tunnel, which Saalsaa said was pitch black with water dripping inside.
The scariest moments were a tie. Montana drivers blowing past on back roads forced two dives off the shoulder. Then the pair rounded a blind corner and found a moose in the middle of the trail.
“Moose, as you may know, are not user friendly,” Saalsaa said.
Recalling advice he’d heard somewhere in his 68 years, the two marked their territory right there on the trail. The moose moved on, leaving Godby to wonder how that ever worked.
Saalsaa nursed a big blister and a wonky knee during the trip. Before it, the longest he had ever walked in one go was 22 miles.
“It was the most extraordinary experience I’ve ever had,” he said. “The people were amazing.”
McMorran, perhaps thinking of another famously long walk, had one follow-up question.
“But the real question is, did you throw the ring into Mount Doom?”
3. New sport
Girls flag football is now an official high school sport in Oregon. Philomath doesn’t appear ready to suit up just yet.
The Oregon School Activities Association’s Delegate Assembly voted Monday to sanction girls flag football. The sport will hold its first sanctioned season in spring 2027 after two years as an “emerging activity.” Oregon becomes the 25th state to sanction it, joining western neighbors Arizona, California, Nevada and Washington.
It’s the second sport to move through the OSAA’s emerging activity process, following boys volleyball in 2025-26, and the second girls sport the OSAA has added in four years, after girls wrestling arrived in 2023-24. Philomath fields teams in both.
The game has momentum. Flag football will make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, and the NFL, USA Football and Nike have all been pushing its growth. Closer to home, the Seattle Seahawks have backed the Oregon championship event for three seasons, donated $30,000 to expand opportunities across the state and provided equipment to schools starting programs.
Last spring, 57 varsity teams and more than 1,400 athletes took part. Tualatin beat South Salem 32-26 for the state title and later won the Seahawks’ Best of the PNW Tournament in June.
There’s also an incentive for latecomers. Nike has pledged home and away jerseys to every varsity team in the inaugural season, as well as to any school that adds the sport during its first three sanctioned seasons.
At Philomath High, athletic director Mike Hood said the interest isn’t there yet.
“There have been a few students who have expressed an interest, but not enough for the conversation to continue and move forward to actual consideration of adding it as a sport,” Hood said.
Size doesn’t seem to be much of a barrier, either. Among the six schools that took home trophies last spring was Amity, a 3A school with around 250 students.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
