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Save it or Lose it
Thanks to the gracious contributions of our supporters, the Save it or Lose It Laundry Building (Smoke Stack) campaign has raised a little over $16,300.
We are still $33,7000 away from our goal of $50,000.
There are still 13 days left to donate to the campaign! If 500 give at least $100 by the end of the month, we will meet our goal.
To help save Smoke Stack, please click the button below.
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Upcoming Events
July 11
Native Jazz Workshop Performance
7pm, Rasmuson
July 19
Dee Daniels and the Native Jazz Trio
7pm, PAC
July 20
TEDxSitka
7pm, Odess Theater
July 24
Dee Daniels Workshop Performance
7pm, Rasmuson
July 25
Children of Eden
7pm, PAC
July 25
Children of Eden
2:30pm, PAC
7pm, PAC
August 1
Pamyua
7pm, Odess Theater
For more information please call the Sitka Fine Arts Camp office at 907-747-3085
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Native Jazz Workshop
Three years ago, Ed Littlefield and Christian Fabian got together to create the Native Jazz Workshop. On the surface, the weeklong workshop is a standard jazz composition class, teaching students the skills of composing, arranging, and harmonizing melodies. What makes the Native Jazz Workshop different, however, is the class' fusion of traditional music with jazz.
Taught by Reuel Lubag, Jason Marsalis, Ed Littlefield, Christian Fabian, and Dennis Yerry the class "re-creates the spirit of ancient native melodies in jazz." The crux of the workshop involves taking traditional melodies-for the teaching faculty, those that have largely influenced them growing up-and adapting them to the style of jazz.
The workshop, in fact, was born out of Ed Littlefield, Christian Fabian, Reuel Lubag, and Jason Marsalis' group, the Native-Jazz Quartet. The quartet, who has been working together since 2010, plays native and folk melodies in the swing and bebop tradition. Having toured in multiple countries, many in South America, the group is known for taking national melodies and playing them within the context and jazz. Similarly, the Native Jazz Workshop teaches the Native-Jazz Quartet's process of arranging music to students.
This year, the class will be working with an old Tlingit lullaby, Ax Yeegaa. Local elder Charlie Joseph, who passed away in the eighties, taught the girls' lullaby to Ed Littlefield's mother. The song chronicles the story of a little girl who attempt to carry water up a hill without spilling it.
In addition to working on the Tlingit lullaby, students in the workshop will be working on their own arrangements, based on the native backgrounds of each student. For example, Connor Fulton, a second year student in the workshop, will continue to arrange old time fiddle tunes to the style of jazz on his violin.
According to Ed Littlefield, this year's workshop students are perhaps the most promising in the history of the workshop. The workshop's students range from those who have recently attended the Fine Arts Camp as a high school camper, and local Sitkans who have arranged to take time off of work to participate in the class.
The workshop cumulates in a final performance on Friday, July 18th at 7:00pm in the Rasmuson building on the SFAC campus.
The final performance is free. For more information, call 747-3085.
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Greetings!
Every summer, the SFAC campus comes to life. From the first days of June to the end of July, our campus teems with excitement.
At Elementary Camp, which took place on the second week of June, there was a feeling of eagerness. Everything from Circus Camp to our Afternoon Workshops and the free time in-between were filled with anxious students enthusiastically awaiting their next class with their next favorite teacher. Music started to trickle through the walls of Rasmuson and, slowly, we started gearing up for Middle School Camp.
On the first day of Middle School Camp, you could tell that the campus vibe had shifted. The energy that was quietly tapped during Elementary Camp had exploded. Our Elementary veterans and SFAC first-timers alike started taking over campus, ukulele in hand and a desire to learn, have fun, and make as many friends as possible. At Middle School Camp, we were impressed by the quality of work that our campers were able to achieve, and envious of the imagination and motivation of our students. From beat boxing to animation, the skills that our students picked up and their passion to go above and beyond our expectations were beyond our wildest imagination.
The 2014 High School Camp after the Rock Band's outdoor concert
When High School Camp rolled around, we were showed up. Though our most loyal camper spent his eleventh year at camp this summer, every year, it seems as though our campers come back larger and more eager to learn than ever. Rock Band class, for example, never seemed to end. Smokestack and the rock band room in Whitmore was almost always occupied by practicing students - after lunch, during rec time, before in-dorm. What cumulated from our rockers' tireless efforts was the first annual outdoor Rock Band concert. By the end of the session, the professional-looking final performances reflected the passion, motivation, and hard work of our students.
To quote the Program Manager Rhiannon Guevin, every year the quality of work that our students produce amazes us. The special thing about the Fine Arts Camp is that this improvement in standard has nothing to do with the idea that the camp is attracting more niche talented students; the camp, in fact, is collectively evolving into place that nurtures, motivates, and pushes its students. It is not that more experienced students are coming to camp, but that passionate faculty are coming, who are encouraging our students to learn and reach for more in the short amount of time they spend here.
Elementary, Middle, and High School Camp may be over, but SFAC's summer session is still well underway. For the next two weeks, Musical Theater Camp, the Native Jazz Workshop, the Dee Daniels Workshop, the Historic Restoration Project, and the Sitka Fellows Program will all be housed on campus. There is certainly a very different energy in our buildings, but the feeling is nonetheless powerful and inspirational.
We still have a lot of events coming up. For the month of July, the Native Jazz and Dee Daniels Workshops will have their final performances, including a collaborative performance on Saturday with both the Native Jazz Trio and Dee Daniels. The final performances for our Musical Theater Camp will be on July 25 and July 26th. This year, they will be putting on the show, Children of Eden. Last but not least, to wrap up Sitka Fest, Pamyua, a self-described tribal funk and world music band, will be performing in the Odess Theater on August 1st.
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Sitka Fellows Program
 | | Last year's Sitka fellows enjoy the sunset at the end of a hike |
This week, the Sitka Fellows Program returns for the third year. Staying in the upper halls of Whitmore, which previously housed the older girls of the Fine Arts Camp, the fellows contribute to the richness of the SFAC campus with their diverse talent and vision.
For those who are unfamiliar, the Sitka Fellows Program is a seven-week residency that provides six young, promising ideologists the opportunity to remove themselves from the distractions of every day life and focus on individual projects. Fellows from around the nation spend a little less than two months on the coast of scenic southeast Alaska, developing and realizing new, ambitious projects that will contribute to the world at large.
This year's fellows are Bene Rohlmann, MJ Robinson, Cathryn Klusmeier, Solomon Endlich, Rachel Baxter, and Richard Aufrichtig-all working on diverse projects that range from printmaking to astrophysics. Bene Rohlmann, a German illustrator, will spend his time working on a solo exhibition on illustrated toys. MJ Robinson, a visual artist and writer, intends to produce a graphic novel that explores the themes of loneliness, friendship, and the quiet pains of growing up. Cathryn Klusmeier, a nonfiction writer, plans to write a piece on personal narrative on the pervasive power of a place. Solomon Endlich is an astrophysicist who will be developing theoretical techniques that enable economical descriptions of astrophysical bodies. Rachel Baxter hopes to create a body of print and mixed media work that is specific to and reminiscent of Sitka. Last but not least, Richard Aufrichtig, a multi-disciplinary artist, will immerse himself in a series of improvisational sessions that birth compositions inspired by the Tarot of Marseilles.
Although each fellow comes to Sitka with strong and varying projects, the program is designed to encourage exchange of ideas. While fellows work autonomously during the day, all six will gather for dinner each night and convene at a decompression meal every Sunday.
"There's this really crazy exchange of information. You're interacting with people that you wouldn't necessarily encounter otherwise, and their perspectives were so fresh," Ben Seretan, a program veteran and this year's facilitator, notes. Last year, Ben spent his time in Sitka refining the working definition of Long Music, a form of music that emphasizes sustained tones and meditation.
For Ben, the program was special because of simultaneous focus on the individual and the community. During the day, the lack of distractions on the SFAC Campus allow the fellows to be solitary in work, something that is not readily possible in the "real world." "You can walk on a fresh trail and be alone with your thoughts, and your work lingers with you throughout your day," Ben reminisces.
Beyond individuality and solitude, however, fellows are also encouraged to share their projects with the community. Every Tuesday, each fellow will be featured in the Morning Interview on Raven Radio, followed by a public workshop on Wednesday, which enables the fellows to engage with the Sitka community at large. In addition, the fellows will also be introduced to the community at the Sitka Symposium Dinner Cruise on Friday, July 25th, where they will give short presentations about their work. At the end of the program, each fellow will present his or her project in an Open Studio date.
"The goal of the program is to enable: to find people who need time and space to develop something very daring and to give them the opportunity to do so," Ben says. "As we look into the future-if we keep this program going for a decade-I can see fellows forming a rich and connected community, and that's what's really exciting for me; longevity of the program outside of the SFAC campus, and outside of Sitka."
Next week's Tuesday morning interview and Wednesday workshop will feature fellow Richard Aufrichtig. The Sitka Symposium Dinner Cruise, which includes dinner, is from 6pm to 9pm on Friday, July 25th. Tickets for the cruise are $50 and available at Old Harbor Books. For more information, visit sitkafellows.org
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Thank you for your ongoing support, Sitka Fine Arts Camp Staff www.fineartscamp.org 907-747-3085
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