On Saturday and Sunday, local artists will open their studios to the public as part of a daylong tour benefiting the Valley Art Center of Clarkston. It’s a rare opportunity to step inside each artist’s world and see how it all happens.

Valley Art Center has provided classes and exhibits in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley for more than 50 years with the goal of encouraging creation. The studio tour aims to highlight some of the many forms that creation can take. A diverse assortment of artists are set to participate, from painters and sculptors, to quilters, weavers, glass artists and jewelry makers. Their spaces are just as varied, with stops covering everything from a family room painting corner to a huge quilting space. One of the goals of the tour is to emphasize that one can make art regardless of working environment, artist Barbara Coppock said in a news release.

Lewiston sculptor Ralph Crawford is among the participating artists. Crawford has earned an international reputation for his work in bronze spanning more than half a century. He is best known for casting the likeness of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who visited Lewiston in 2011 to see Crawford’s “Arnold’s Classic” for himself. The sculpture was created as the official trophy for an annual fitness competition sponsored by Schwarzenegger, who admired Crawford’s talent for capturing the human physique. Schwarzenegger has continued to commission Crawford on other occasions, and the artist has visited him on movie sets, at his Sun Valley home and in his office as former governor of California. Other works by Crawford feature American Indian leaders and other Western themes and imagery.

Tickets, which include a map with information about each studio, are available through the center. People can visit the studios in any order during the designated hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m on Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Some artists will be selling work. Many also have work for sale at the center.

— Katie Higgins, for Inland 36