Quartz Mountain Magnetism

For some people, Quartz Mountain magnetism is so intense, it pulls them back again and again – even if it means driving over 3,500 miles in one month.

Evan Beasley loves Quartz Mountain so much, he sometimes makes up to three round trips each fall from his home in Denver to serve as the documentary photographer for the Oklahoma Fall Arts Institute.

Evan was an Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute photography student in 2007, where he studied with New York documentary photography Steve Simon. Evan also served as a counselor and documentary photographer for the 2012 and 2013 Summer Arts Institutes.

When he's not at Quartz Mountain, Evan works at Mike's Camera in Boulder, Colorado, where he is a photo lab technician. He's also a freelance photographer and spends a lot of his free time skateboarding. 

What keeps Evan coming back to Quartz Mountain, even when it means putting thousands of miles on his Honda Civic? 

"I still use photography techniques that I learned as an OSAI student almost every day," Evan says. "OSAI changed my views on how you can succeed in the world as an artist. I like to continue to support OAI and help get the word out to high school students that this program is available."

You can learn more about Evan and check out his photography work here. Have you returned to Quartz Mountain after attending the Fall or Summer Arts Institute? What brought you back? Please share your story in the comments section below!

Award-Winning Documentarian Lauren Greenfield Visits OSAI

by Catherine Roberts, OSAI PR Counselor

OSAI guest artist Lauren Greenfield is a major photographer and filmmaker, whose work primarily deals with the effects popular culture and media have on individuals in American society. She is best known for her recent documentary The Queen of Versailles, about Jackie and David Siegel, owners of timeshare company Westgate Resorts, and their doomed attempt to build the largest single family home in America. The film has won many awards, including the Sundance Film Festival's U.S. Directing Award.

Greenfield has worked extensively through photography and documentary film on the culture and cult of beauty and femininity, including a documentary about an eating disorder treatment clinic. She showed many of these photos and clips of films during a Friday night presentation in the Performing Arts Center. 

On Saturday morning, Greenfield screened her 30-minute film Beauty CULTure, which was featured in an eponymous exhibition at The Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. She spent the rest of the morning with the OSAI film and photography students, answering questions and discussing her work. 

Greenfield told students that one of the goals of her filmmaking is to reveal "how we are all complicit in promoting the culture we all live with.” She explained that the extreme characters she profiles also serve to reveal some of the ways each of us engage in less dramatic versions of the same behaviors.  

She recommended that students take advantage of the opportunities afforded by participating in OSAI, calling it “something that can kind of lift you over the next 10 years.” She challenged them not to rely on a particular company or position, but instead to “build your own community of support.”

Greenfield's work has earned her an astounding amount of honors and grants, including the designation by American Photo magazine as one of "The 25 Most Important Photographers Now." It is a huge honor to have her at OSAI this year. 

Students Learn Ballroom Dance at OSAI

by Victoria Harrell, OSAI PR Counselor

Each year, the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute offers an extracurricular class that every student attends during the first week. These classes give the students more opportunities to meet people from other disciplines, while loosening everyone up for their classes and other activities.  Students at Quartz Mountain this year are taking ballroom dance, taught by returning instructors Alee Reed and Rainer Trubere.

In one session, the lead dancers stand in a circle, facing their partners, who have formed a circle inside the circle of lead dancers. The students dance through a given set of steps and then switch partners, the outer circle rotating counterclockwise. As the class progresses, the students' moods visibly brighten as they get comfortable with the variety of dances and new partners.

Ballroom dance is a valuable class for every student, whether they are experienced dancers or just starting out.  Not only does this class give the students more confidence in their classes and in interactions with each other, but it will also give them confidence and skills that will be valuable later in life. Students can now boldly go out on to any dance floor and just maybe show the other dancers a thing or two.

Creative Writing, Acting and Ballroom Dancing Instructors Give Evening Presentations

by Catherine Roberts, OSAI PR Counselor

Students had a chance to get in on the action for the Wednesday evening faculty presentation and showcase. Presenting were creative writing instructor Sherwin Bitsui and acting instructor A. Dean Irby. 

Bitsui is the author of two books, Flood Song and Shapeshift. He is from White Cone, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation and is the recipient of an American Book Award. 

Bitsui included his students in his presentation by expanding the performance space to include the bridge to the Performing Arts Center. The students stood at intervals along the bridge, reading their own original poetry as the audience crossed. 

Another writer, Allison Hedge Coke, whom he called a mentor and collaborator, performed with him. Taking turns reading from their respective works, the poets placed their two pieces in dialogue with one another. 

After reading, the pair took questions from the students, including one about how they know when a poem is finished. Both indicated there isn’t really a way to know for sure, that "a poem is never finished, only abandoned." Coke mentioned that she even changed lines from her work as she was reading that evening. 

Dean Irby has numerous acting and directing credits to his name, including a role in a Broadway show as well as several years serving as an acting coach on The Cosby Show. He spoke about his career, and then asked for volunteers from the audience to demonstrate a basic acting exercise.

He gave each volunteer a “script” consisting of two words: “Yes,” and “No.” The challenge was to come up with a reason to switch from saying the first word to the second and back again.

On Thursday evening, the ballroom dance instructors were on display. Alee Reed and Rainer Trubere first screened the documentary film Mad Hot Ballroom, about the American Ballroom Theater’s Dancing Classrooms program, in which both have been involved. The pair then took questions from students and gave a brief demonstration of "The Hustle." This year at Quartz Mountain, students are participating in ballroom dance classes in between sessions of their primary discipline.

OSAI Faculty Presentations Continue

by Catherine Roberts, OSAI PR Counselor

Evening faculty presentations continue at Quartz Mountain. The second and third evening programs were filled with insights from ballet instructor Brian Reeder, film instructors Elisabeth Haviland James and Revere La Noue, drawing/painting instructors Jose and Cynthia Rodriguez, and orchestra conductor Scott Parkman.

Brian Reeder and one of his students. 

Brain Reeder’s distinguished performance background includes dancing for New York City Ballet, William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt and American Ballet Theatre. He has been a choreographer since 2002, and currently serves as a teacher and choreographer for The Manhattan Youth Ballet and as adjunct faculty at Vassar College.

His OSAI students assisted with his presentation, demonstrating the basic barre warm-up exercises that dancers use to prepare for center-floor combinations and choreography. 

Film instructors Elisabeth Haviland James and Revere La Noue are a couple who met during the production of their first collaboration, a documentary about former Florida State head football coach Bobby Bowden. James and La Noue both have extensive experience in documentary filmmaking, with work appearing in various venues across six continents. The pair emphasized the importance of artists also being skilled at business. 

Cynthia Rodriguez explains one of her pieces. 

Drawing and painting instructors José and Cynthia Rodriguez, also a married couple, displayed many of their works for students and described their respective paths to becoming professional artists. José was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and traveled across Asia and Europe with his family as a young child. He spent many years as a tenured professor of printmaking at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque before leaving academia to concentrate on studio production. Cynthia grew up in Western Oklahoma, and has taught all ages in Oklahoma in New Mexico. Her works can be found in private collections in many countries.

Scott Parkman discusses his career. 

Orchestra conductor Scott Parkman also briefly described his career, including one of his proudest achievements, founding American Century Music, a non-profit organization dedicated to performing the works of 20^th Century American composers. He gave students an overview of some of the notable names, works and ideas behind that period in American music and culture. 

The OSAI Orchestra will perform this weekend with the Chorus June 22 at 7pm, at the Performing Arts Center. The concert is free and open to the public. 

Students Expand Horizons at Quartz Mountain

by Victoria Harrell, OSAI PR Counselor

Here at Quartz Mountain, things often start in the wee hours of the morning.  As soon as the sun begins to peek over the horizon, you can see small groups of students and staff going on hikes up the mountains, walking to Pilates class, or dragging their instruments across campus to get a jump on the day's rehearsal.

Wednesday morning, in front of the long, familiar bridge that leads to the Performing Arts Center, the modern dance and photography classes met for a collaborative project.  Modern dance instructor Daniel Squire and photography faculty Troy Word, Konrad Eek, and Ben Long joined their students to take advantage of the unique opportunity for multidisciplinary experiences that OSAI can offer.    

In what must have seemed a very odd request, modern dance students were asked to bring haz-mat suits with them to Quartz Mountain, which will be used in their final performance, but also came in handy in this early morning project. 

At the end of one of the many trails that spring from the OSAI campus, the modern dance students slipped on the white, hooded suits. As the sun came up, the natural lighting changed constantly, giving the photography students endless inspiration. 

 In the first set of pictures, Squire gave the dancers a sequence of hand motions to perform while walking in a row along the trail, setting up a scene for the photographers.  Meanwhile, Word instructed his students on placement, having them imagine they are paparazzi who need to get shots of celebrities walking down the red carpet. 

For the next set of pictures, the photography students broke out into groups with the dancers. Some groups ventured up the mountain, while others chose to stay along the trail, each letting the dancers use one another to create different forms and positions as they posed.    

One of the most exciting things to witness at Quartz Mountain is students stepping out of their comfort zones. They try new things and take advantage of opportunities to be creative. While the two disciplines collaborate, you can see students’ minds working. Each student gives input, coming up with completely different concepts than what any of them had previously imagined. The creativity that OSAI cultivates is the “magic of the mountains” at its finest.

An Afternoon with OSAI Photography Students

by Catherine Roberts, OSAI PR Counselor

Fashion and celebrity photographer and filmmaker Troy Word has photographed some of the world's most important leaders and celebrities, including (to name a few) Barack Obama, George W. Bush, King Abdullah of Jordan, Matt Damon, Dolly Parton, John Stewart and Heidi Klum.

On day two of his OSAI photography class, Troy had his students work with somewhat less auspicious subjects: hard-boiled eggs.

Each student was given an egg and was told to use light to express an emotion. No drawing faces on the eggs—the one tool the students were given was light. Some used the professional lighting equipment inside the photo pavilion, while some chose to use the natural light of the outdoors.

The theory? Troy says that eggs aren’t so different from people—lighting has a similar effect on both when it comes to conveying emotion and mood. 

As camp progresses, students will move into taking portraits, using many of the same techniques they used on the eggs.  If you’d like to see the students’ work on display, visit the Art Gallery during ONSTAGE Weekend. The Gallery Opening Ceremony takes place at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 29 in the Amphitheater at the Quartz Mountain Arts & Conference Center. If you can’t make it out to Quartz Mountain, catch the Tour de Quartz exhibition when it comes to a museum or gallery near you. The Tour de Quartz is comprised of one piece of artwork from each of the 2013 OSAI drawing/painting and photography students, and the exhibition schedule will be posted on our website soon.

Daniel Squire and Troy Word Give Evening Presentations

by Catherine Roberts, OSAI PR Counselor

Every evening at Quartz Mountain, students attend lectures, performances and demonstrations by faculty and students. This year, the evening presentations debuted with returning faculty member Daniel Squire, modern dance instructor, and Troy Word, photography instructor.

Daniel Squire, formerly a featured dancer for Merce Cunningham, performed with modern dance accompanist Indigo Street. The two read a transcript of a dialogue between them, with Daniel reading Indigo’s part and Indigo reading Daniel’s part. This dialogue revealed both artists’ career paths and artistic interests.

During their reading, a video of several dancers was projected on a large screen. Daniel later explained that this footage was taken of one of his latest projects, a modern dance performance he curated in conjunction with an exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Dancing Around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp.

Photography instructor Troy Word followed with a presentation detailing his career as a noted fashion photographer. An alumnus of OSAI who was inspired by his Quartz Mountain photo instructors David Fitzgerald and Richard Avedon, Word cited OSAI as the inciting event that ultimately led to his successful career. His subjects have included dozens of notable names from Matt Damon to Barack Obama.

An Afternoon with Acting Students

by Catherine Roberts, OSAI PR Counselor

Students’ days at Quartz Mountain are packed with activities, and with upwards of five hours of class per day, they have plenty of time to explore different areas of their discipline.

Acting students receive instruction and individualized attention from two instructors—A. Dean Irby and Rena Cook.  Irby has acted on Broadway, and his television credits include The Cosby Show, Another World, and numerous television commercials. He also served as acting coach for several television shows, including four years with The Cosby Show.  Cook is professor of voice at the University of Oklahoma, and she also serves as voice coach at OSAI.

During the early afternoon of the first full day of class, acting students work on voice. Cook instructs the students to draw a picture of their voices—first, as they are now, and second, as they want their voice to be.

She has them write a poem, addressed to their voices.

A few of the lines:

“You are small, you are sweet, you are mine.”

“I didn’t ask for much but wholesomeness.”

She asks them to read the poems aloud once, then again, this time, in between posing as a group.

“Don’t apologize,” she instructs. “Speak the words as if Shakespeare wrote them.”

“In you, warm comfort and cold temper abound.”

“Make some noise that’s truly profound.”

“You could be so smooth and round, and I wish you would.”

“Open up, show some weakness—at least try.”

The classroom buzzes with energy as the last poem concludes, and Rena prompts them to reflect on the exercise. Several say it’s helpful to articulate the differences between their voices in the present and the ideal. One poem focused on creating vulnerability, and Rena encourages all the students to “find power without effort” in their voices.

Acting instructor A. Dean Irby takes over, and has the students form a circle and lay down on the ground. He leads them in guided meditation. 

Though the room is calm now, it’s still buzzing with as much energy as when the students were discussing their poems. Dean slowly brings them out of meditation and has them begin to repeat a line from their audition monologues—a significant line “that describes who that character is.”

“I won’t survive if you run away from me.”

“But what was a girl to do?”

“And yet for this he’s supposed to go to heaven.”

For the first week of camp, the acting students will workshop the monologues they used to audition for Quartz Mountain. The audition required one humorous and one dramatic monologue; students have chosen one to workshop with Dean and the class.

Irby hasn’t decided yet what the students will do for their presentation during ONSTAGE Weekend. He’s waiting to see how the class evolves and if a theme or motif presents itself.  If you’d like to see the acting students showcase their work, please join us on Saturday, June 29^th at 2:30 p.m. at the Robert M. Kerr Performing Arts Center at Quartz Mountain. Click here for the full performance schedule. Please keep in mind that classes are taught at a collegiate level, and some performances may be inappropriate for children under age 14. 

Spotlight on Safety at Quartz Mountain

by Catherine Roberts, OSAI PR Counselor

On the first evening of the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, about 350 students, faculty and staff—that’s the entire Quartz Mountain family—made an easy trip underground for an all-camp tornado drill.

A mechanical room under the Robert M. Kerr Performing Arts Center (PAC) boasts foot-thick concrete walls and plenty of space for keeping safe during an emergency.

“It’s a great safe location here should there ever be the need to use it,” said Julie Cohen, OAI President & CEO.

“Safety is a priority at the Arts Institute,” she explained, “and we have detailed plans in place. Because of the recent severe weather in Oklahoma, we wanted to make sure that our plan to take everyone to the PAC underground shelter would be successful.”

And so it was. From the seating in the PAC, all drill participants made it into the shelter in under nine minutes.

“Everyone did a great job,” Cohen said. “Everyone stayed quiet, and the students showed they took the drill seriously by being on their best behavior.”

During the week before students arrive, OSAI counselors receive training in safety procedures for both fire and severe weather emergencies. With these measures in place, the students have peace of mind and the freedom to focus all their energy on immersing themselves in their art. 

Staff, students and faculty head underground for an all-camp tornado drill. 

OSAI 2013 is in Full Swing!

by Catherine Roberts, OSAI PR Counselor

The 2013 Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute begins! Students have arrived and are already hard at work at the mountain.

Shortly after arrival, this year’s group of students met the staff and faculty and had time to get acquainted with their colleagues.

Staff members who have been here for a week readying the facilities are excited to see students already flourishing. With a full schedule of evening faculty showcases planned for the week, students will have every opportunity to immerse themselves in their own disciplines as well as to learn from the others.

Follow our blog over the next two weeks as we take you inside classrooms, along to evening performances, and all over the mountain for two weeks of learning and fun.

Students gathered in the Performing Arts Center for faculty introductions

Meet the Dance Faculty!

Calling all dancers! The dance faculty for the 2013 Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute has been announced.  Daniel Squire, the 2012 OSAI modern dance instructor, will return for another fantastic summer.  Ballet students can look forward to studying with Brian Reeder, former New York City ballet dancer.

Dance auditions take place at Tulsa Ballet on January 27 and at Oklahoma City Ballet on March 2.  Apply online and schedule your audition now at WWW.OAIQUARTZ.ORG.  Dancers with backgrounds in ballet and modern dance are encouraged to apply for both disciplines.

Daniel Squre, Modern Dance
.

Daniel Squire was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire. He studied dance at White Lodge & Rambert, acting at The Barrow Group and the Atlantic Theater Company, and Acting Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He has performed with the West Riding Sinfonia, Royal Military School of Music, Michael Clark, Matthew Hawkins, Ian Spink, Merce Cunningham, Kimberly Bartosik, Magnetic Laboratorium, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, and John Kelly, among others. He has performed at venues including Wellholme Park, Royal Festival Hall, Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, Glyndebourne Opera House, Brixton Academy, Riverside Studios, Palais Garnier, Théâtre de la Ville, Staatsoper am Gärtnerplatz, Roundhouse, Barbican, Tate Modern, Edinburgh's Festival Theatre, the Kennedy Center, New York State Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, City Center, and Rose Theater. Squire has appeared with Radiohead, John Paul Jones, Sigur Rós, Sonic Youth, Alan Opie, Robert Tear, and Michael Chance. Squire lives in New York City, where he stages the work of Merce Cunningham and works as a dancer, teacher, videographer, filmmaker, editor, and actor.

Brian Reeder, Ballet

Born in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, Brian Reeder began his dance training with Marcia Dale Weary at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. He had the privilege of a dance career that saw him mainly at three widely respected dance companies: New York City Ballet (1986–1990), William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt (1990–1993) and American Ballet Theatre (1994–2003). During his time with these companies, questing gigs and international dance festivals, he danced numerous ballets and featured roles in the works of past and present dance masters.  As a choreographer, beginning in 2002, he has created or re-staged his ballets on American Ballet Theatre, ABT Studio Co., and many more. His work has been produced three times for the "Works and Process" series at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC. He has been involved with ABT's Summer Intensives for several years, teaching for its college program and five-week NYC program; and he acted as the coordinating director for Dance Bermuda, ABT's International Summer Intensive. Brian is also on faculty as a teacher and the current resident choreographer for The Manhattan Youth Ballet.

2013 OSAI Orchestra Conductor -- Meet Scott Parkman!

Scott Parkman, photo by Chris Macke

The Oklahoma Arts Institute is thrilled to announce that the 2013 OSAI orchestra conductor will be Scott Parkman from Boston, Massachusetts!  A conductor of remarkable versatility and exemplary musicianship, Scott Parkman is widely recognized for his engaging style and welcoming rapport with audiences. Critically acclaimed for his interpretation of the standard repertoire, Mr. Parkman is gaining recognition for his innovative enterprise and efforts to examine and perform the hundreds of works by 20th century American classical composers - music that is generally underrepresented on today's concert programs.

Mr. Parkman is the founding Artistic and Executive Director of American Century Music (ACM) an organization dedicated to performing the works of 20th century American composers. Launched in 2010, ACM is uniquely designed to work with a wide array of musicians and institutions, presenting repertoire ranging from solo instrument to full orchestra.

Mr. Parkman also has command over a large breadth of the traditional repertoire. During his tenure as Assistant Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (2003-2008), he led the orchestra in over 150 performances, including major works by Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner. He also performed works by Adams, Eisler, Reich and Rouse on the SLSO contemporary chamber music series at St. Louis's Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. As Music Director of the highly regarded Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra during the same period, Mr. Parkman performed Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with internationally-acclaimed soprano, Christine Brewer, and premiered several new compositions, including Fêtes and Fireworks by American composer Robert Pound, and his own work, Toward.

As an international guest conductor Mr. Parkman has led the New Zealand Symphony, Hong Kong New Art Camerata, and the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra. In the United States his engagements include the Minnesota Orchestra, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Lubbock, and Oakland East Bay Symphonies, Oakland Ballet, and the Sacramento and Palo Alto Philharmonic Orchestras.

You can learn more about Scott Parkman at his website, http://www.scottparkman.com/index.php.

Raise Money for OAI while you Shop!

Did you know you can raise money for the Oklahoma Arts Institute just by shopping online? More than 1,300 top retailers, including Amazon, Toys ‘R’ Us, Best Buy, Apple, Gap and more will donate a percentage of your purchase to the Oklahoma Arts Institute. Just go to GoodShop.com, designate us as the cause you support, and then click through to your favorite store. You pay nothing extra - and you can even save money! GoodShop lists thousands of money-saving coupons and free shipping offers. Or, add GoodShop’s toolbar to your browser and your purchases will count even if you forget to go to GoodShop first! Please spread the word, and happy shopping!

Toy Quartz Mountain?

OFAI photography faculty member Ben Long snapped this picture of Quartz Mountain during the last Fall Arts Institute weekend. It looks like a model version of the resort, but it's not! Not only that, there's no post-production or doctoring of the image. Ben explains:

The photo was created with a special type of lens called a tilt/shift. You can tilt and slide different parts of the lens to either correct perspective, or throw depth of field way out of whack.

When we see something with really shallow depth of field, we immediately assume it's small, because when you look at something up close, you don't see a lot of depth of field. So, by compressing the DOF to a thin slice across the middle, our brain interprets the resulting image as a miniature.

 I just climbed up behind the amphitheater with that lens. There's no post-production on that image. You can also shoot video through it, which is cool.

Quartz Mountain Converts

Fair warning to our friends who hail from the coasts – we’re going to have a little bit of fun with you. ;)

As you probably know, every summer and fall artists from across the U.S. and beyond teach at Quartz Mountain. Most have never been to Oklahoma before, and almost none have been to Quartz. All are usually a bit apprehensive at the idea of teaching at an arts camp in the middle of nowhere in a state known more for its football programs than for its arts scene.

Each faculty member arrives with different expectations; some are thrilled at the prospect of spending time in a beautiful setting thirty miles away from the nearest drive-through, but for others, Quartz Mountain is just a little too “natural.” The staff often gets quizzed about exactly what types of bugs, reptiles, and animals might be lurking around the lodge.

My favorite faculty members are always the ones who undergo a complete evolution at Quartz Mountain – the ones who arrive fearful of the fauna, desperate for a Starbucks, and uttering “in New York…” every other sentence. But give them two weeks in southwest Oklahoma, and they are extolling the deliciousness of chicken friend steak, proudly sporting a new piece of western wear, and asking when they can come back and teach again. And then, they utter our favorite phrase – “Why doesn’t my state have something like this?”

Certainly, we wish every state had an Oklahoma Arts Institute. While there are similar programs in other states, there’s nothing like OSAI anywhere in the world. So while we wish we weren’t quite so unique – every artist deserves to participate in a program like ours -- we do feel gratified when our faculty recognize just how special our programs, location, and of course, our students, truly are.

We’ve said it before, but it’s impossible to experience Quartz Mountain without leaving a little bit of your heart behind. Until we can gather at Quartz again, under those modest hills we call mountains, please keep in touch.

Meet Bobby

Today, we'll meet the third in our trio of new Oklahoma Arts Institute staff members.  Bobby Lee recently joined our permanent staff as the Public Relations & Programs Specialist.

Bobby is a lifelong resident of Oklahoma City with many years of experience in PR and multimedia production. He is also a visual artist, best known for his figurative woodcuts and linoleum cut prints. Before joining OAI, Bobby managed exhibitions and other operations for JRB Art at The Elms.  Bobby spent two summers at Quartz Mountain as an OSAI counselor and two autumns as an OFAI participant. Soon thereafter, he began designing promotional materials for OAI on a freelance basis. Barricaded in their Oklahoma City office, Bobby refused to leave, and OAI had no choice but to add him to their permanent staff. Bobby has a BA in philosophy with a minor in political science from the University of Central Oklahoma. Among other things, he enjoys playing musical instruments, making movies, reading the news, gardening, and chasing various animals around his backyard. Bobby is an Eagle Scout and can tie knots faster than you can.

Bash the Trash: Composing over Decomposing

“Don’t throw that out, I can use it!”

If you’re like me, you have trouble throwing anything away. Boxes, bottles, rubber bands, scraps of wood, you name it: each item is a friend, sharing fond memories of projects gone by and filling us with inspiration of all the things it could someday become. Unfortunately, these companions can sometimes pile up and outstay their welcome, like a slumber party that never ends. TV shows like Hoarders have brought attention to the more extreme examples of this affliction, and have motivated myself and others to thin out our treasures, pare down our dreams, and send them to the landfill.

But for the next week, we can hoard with impunity, knowing that all of our junk will be put to good use in the very near future. “Bash the Trash,” taught by renowned composer and educator John Bertles, will show us how to transform the world’s rubbish into beautiful music.  John will teach us how we can use the science of sound and sustainability to design and craft increasingly complex instruments out of the things we were so smart to keep, and then, of course, write and perform with our new instruments!  

The class is next week at Quartz Mountain, during the second week of our Fall Arts Institute. Learn more and register here: http://oaiquartz.org/programs/falldesc.cfm

Here’s a video from John’s website:

Meet Chantry

The Oklahoma Arts Institute recently added three new members to the permanent staff.  We've already met Michelle Moseley, Development Specialist and Grantwriter, and today, we're meeting Chantry Banks, Office Manager and Executive Assistant.

Chantry Banks has served OAI as an OSAI acting liaison and counselor coordinator, and he is excited to join the permanent staff. A native of Hammon, Oklahoma, he received his bachelor of arts degree in acting from Southwestern Oklahoma State University and attended the graduate program at The University of Central Florida in Orlando. Chantry’s first role was that of Tom Turkey in Tom Turkey’s Thanksgiving in second grade. He has worked with Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Orlando Repertory Theatre, City of Maples Repertory Theatre, and Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park. Chantry also has a successful sewing business, creating quilted handbags and hemming clothes for his niece and nephew. An avid gardener, Chantry had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year.

Welcome, Chantry!  Next week, we'll meet Bobby Lee, PR and Programs Specialist.

I'm a Lifer

I’m an Oklahoma Arts Institute lifer.  You might be one, too.  For many of us, Quartz Mountain has played a part in almost every stage of our lives.  I attended the Summer Institute as an orchestra student for three years, spent one year as an OSAI counselor, and I’m now in my eighth year as a member of the permanent staff.  I’ve spent twelve summers at Quartz Mountain, meaning I’ve had a longer relationship with the Oklahoma Arts Institute than I’ve had with almost anything or anyone.

But I’m certainly not the only lifer.  My fellow staff member, Stephanie Currey, spent five years as an OSAI student and recently celebrated her tenth anniversary on the permanent staff.  Our President and CEO, Julie Cohen, is the first OSAI alum to lead the organization.  Our Board of Directors includes OSAI alums and parents of alums.  Then there are OSAI section faculty Virginia Sircy and Michael Murray, who have served so much time with OAI they should probably be released for good behavior – 25 years and counting.

Every year, we meet OSAI alumni whose own children are now attending the summer program.  We see summer alums return and take Fall Arts Institute workshops, and fall alums who become OSAI counselors.  And let’s not forget the couples who were bitten by the Quartz Mountain “Love Bug,” like former counselors Ben and Sara Collins, who fell in love at Quartz and later married there.

What role has Quartz Mountain played in your life?  How many OAI programs have you attended?  Share your story in the comments section below.