Winter 2012-2013 edition - Bainbridge Island Arts & Humanities ...

ARTS & HUMANITIES COUNCIL
From the Director
Dear Friends,
Think for a moment about
what you treasure most
about living on Bainbridge
Island. There’s so much to choose from – our
stately forests and calming waters, our excellent
schools, the strong sense of community so many
of us feel. And for many of us, the depth and
quality of island arts and culture attracted us
here, keeps us here, and even draws us back.
Are we just lucky? No. Bainbridge Island is a
community self-defined by high quality arts and
cultural organizations, with literally hundreds
of visual artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians,
actors, and fabulous artisans in our midst.
This vibrant culture did not just happen. You
helped create it and continue to support it by
patronizing the island’s galleries, performing
arts, and cultural offerings.
Until a couple of years ago, the Arts & Humanities
Council provided stability in the center of this
community circle. As the recipient of strong
government funding, we regranted significant
amounts of money to local organizations and
artists. We managed an award-winning Arts in
Education program, providing artist residencies
in the schools tightly tied to the curriculum. We
nurtured organizations as a fiscal sponsor on
many different levels, and through a multitude
of collaborations.
Yes things have changed. But not that much.
The Arts & Humanities Council remains the hub,
the incubator, a clearinghouse that provides
connections, intersections, and bridges among
artists, life-long learners, cultural organizations,
and local stakeholders as far ranging as PTOs to
tourists to local businesses and government. Our
Arts in Education program is stronger than ever.
I am optimistic.
In my long career as an arts administrator I’ve
seen many ups and downs. The challenges we
face today are more extreme than normal, but
experience tells me one thing. As long as our
community values creativity, excellence, and
mutual support, arts and culture will remain
vibrant on Bainbridge Island.
Thank you for your support, and enjoy
the holidays!
Barbara Sacerdote
Executive Director
2 CURRENTS WINTER 2012-2013
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND ARTS & HUMANITIES COUNCIL
Editor’s Note: Inside Out
I got to know the cultural community on Bainbridge when I wrote about
the arts awhile back for one of our local newspapers. My job gave me
access to locals whose accomplishments – bestselling novels, iconic films,
large-scale public artworks – left me star struck.
Over time, though, my crushes abated as I realized that even well-known
artistic professionals around here continually and willingly negotiate the space between
passionate creativity and regular old real life. Nobody I talked to was sequestered in an
attic. No one was being hospitalized for “exhaustion” or melting down à la Greta Garbo’s
ballerina in Grand Hotel. (“I want to be alone!”)
On the contrary, they took care of their kids, grocery shopped, voted, went to the
gym, and generally engaged in the same pedestrian pursuits we all do. It’s just that
somewhere in there they managed to produce transcendent works of art.
So I started asking nosy questions that were as much about the process of integrating
life and art as about the art itself. I’d ask who cooked dinner at their house, how working
around their children’s schedules affected their output, and whether making art ever
felt like a chore. I’d ask them to tell me – please – how they weighed their domestic and
financial responsibilities against the creative things they felt they must do lest their
heads explode.
Their answers were grounded, funny, and relatable. Often they said, “I dunno. How do
you do it?”
In other words, although the integration of “life” and “art” is never seamless, it is
unavoidable, rendering the distinction borderline pointless. Sure, many yearned for more
time and space to get into their heads and create. But most also believed that operating
in a social vacuum wouldn’t work because their art was too intertwined with the world
outside their heads.
Kristin Tollefson explores this idea as she reports on the first international teaching artists’
conference in Oslo, Norway. As a visual artist, Kristin’s extreme talent thrives within the
context of all the other facets of her life: teaching, arts administration, motherhood, and
a commitment to environmental and social change. In Oslo, teaching artists from every
discipline and locale demonstrated the ways in which, working from the inside out, they
are literally changing the world.
Kristin’s perspective is energizing, especially when we look back to Bainbridge at the
amount of creativity we’ll be able to take in this season, moving from the holidays into
the introspective days of winter. Whether your passion leads you inward or outward, I
know you’ll discover something wonderful. t vel molupti aceptatem. Itatur andandestis
dolorem voluptate. — Lindsay Masters
ARTS & HUMANITIES COUNCIL BOARD AND STAFF
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Juliet LeDorze, President
Mike Lewars, Immediate Past-President
Andrea Mann, VP of Development
Sandy Rich, VP of Governance
THE STAFF: Barbara Sacerdote, MFA, CFRE, Executive Director
Lindsay Latimore Masters, Communications Manager
Julie Marie Duke, Development Program Coordinator
ARTS & HUMANITIES COUNCIL MISSION:
To create an environment on Bainbridge Island in which the arts and humanities flourish.
CURRENTS PUBLICATION STAFF
Ted Cozine, Treasurer
Claire Younker Moe, Secretary
Kate Anderson
Susan Arens
Patricia Bell
Christine Davis
Chad Haight
Joe Levan
Fritz Levy
Doug Nathan
Kate Ruffing
Amy Weber
Tina Yentzer
LINDSAY LATImoRE mASTERS, Currents Editor | 206.842.7901 | currents@bainbridgeartshumanities.org (contact for calendar and spotlight pages)
JEANETTE ALExANDER, Currents Designer | 206.842.6368 | jalexgd@sounddsl.com (contact for submittal questions regarding design/production)
JULIET ScHLESSER, Advertising Sales | 206.780.5335 | julietjs5@gmail.com (contact for display advertising reservations and ad specs)
Currents is a publication of the bainbridge Island Arts & Humanities council. 13,000 copies are published 3-4 times per year, mailed free
to all b.I. postal patrons, and placed at many local venues.
ON THE COVER: Clockwise from left: Writer Cat Rambo will lead a field's End workshop this winter; courtesy photo. Wire work by students of the
Mosaic Home Education Partnership on bainbridge; Kristin Tollefson photo. The 2012 Ovation! Musical Theatre bainbridge production of My Fair Lady;
Keith brofsky photo.