A new date, a new location, a new event format, and more will set the 14th Annual Viola Awards apart from past years. But somethings haven’t changed, the Viola Awards continue to honor and celebrate Flagstaff’s vibrant creative community. It’s also a pretty fun party.
Creative Flagstaff is excited to announce that nominations for the 14th Annual Viola Awards are now open. The Viola Awards honor excellence in the arts, sciences, and culture in Flagstaff in 2021.
This year has brought changes to both the award categories and the panel selection process. Both of these changes were made as a result of a community meeting on October 20, 2021, and subsequent surveys and conversations with stakeholders.
The 14th Annual Viola Awards took place on Saturday, April 30th at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Flagstaff. See photos from the event on our Facebook page. Click here.
We are honored to recognize Jim Babbitt as our 2022 Legacy Award Recipient.
Creative Flagstaff is honored to recognize Jim Babbitt as the 2022 Legacy Award recipient. Jim passed away in the fall of 2021. During his life, he played an instrumental role in the vibrancy of Flagstaff’s culture. Jim worked humbly to support arts, culture, and science in our community – contributing time and resources to many of our beloved institutions. And literally wrote the history of Flagstaff by authoring three books that examined Flagstaff’s history.
The Viola Awards is an apt place to celebrate his contributions and honor his legacy in Flagstaff. The Babbitt Brothers Foundation has served as the Founding Sponsor of the Viola Awards since its inception, 14 years ago. Jim was modest in his personal recognition and an enthusiastic participant of the event.
The Viola Awards are named after Viola Babbitt, who was an artist and fierce advocate of the arts in Flagstaff, and a relative of Jim Babbitt. In 2008, Jim Babbitt founded a $20,000 endowment to ensure the sustainability of the Viola Awards for the Flagstaff community. We are honored to recognize his legacy. And, we are grateful.
This year we are pleased to recognize 41 finalists.
From the artist:
“Here in Northern Arizona, a small change in moisture can have profound consequences for life: moss-laden Douglas firs thrive in the shade of Walnut Canyon while parched agaves eke by on the rim above. Flagstaff’s regional watersheds are stunningly beautiful and diverse microclimates adapted to dry air punctuated by winter snows and summer monsoons. But the future of our land and water are at risk. Climate change is warming our region, altering precipitation patterns, stressing trees, and increasing demand for groundwater. Wildfires, while necessary for forest health, have grown dramatically more severe, leading to erosion and flooding. Population growth is outpacing Flagstaff’s water supply, prompting the city to purchase a ranch 40 miles away for its water rights. Demand for housing puts open spaces on the outskirts of town at risk of being lost to suburban sprawl. Today, we stand at a watershed moment. Decisions made in the coming years will dramatically affect our community’s future. In 2022, Flagstaff will begin the public process of drafting a 2045 Regional Plan. Will we succeed in prospering economically, while preserving our unique natural resources?
The pieces in this show portray local water-related processes affected by climate change. I incorporate forms and materials gathered from lands at the edge of Flagstaff’s growth boundary, especially those along 89A, which I helped defend against a recent zoning change and have come to know intimately. I use dyes and tannins from tree bark, leaves, and walnut husks; pigments from charcoal, mud, and vintage barbed wire; and wood salvaged from construction sites or wildfires. I capture plant forms using cyanotype chemistry, the same process used to make blueprints in the nineteenth century. To this bright blue foundation I add a second layer of botanical forms using a technique I discovered of making a primitive image by manipulating the wicking properties of certain dyes. Then I build up layers of natural toners, dyes and pigments, along with acrylic paint. These subtle layers reveal themselves gradually with extended viewing, bringing the dimension of time to the two-dimensional surface. I try to create meditative works that beckon you to pause and reflect on the greater mysteries that underlie the natural world and our relationship to it.”
About the Artist
Bryan David Griffith explores profound issues using simple forms and materials in innovative ways. An interdisciplinary artist, he works across multiple media and learns or invents new techniques as needed to convey the concepts in each body of work. Griffith earned a degree in engineering and worked for a leading management consulting firm before he resigned to follow his conscience. He bought an old van to live out of, scraping by as he toured the country to build a new career as an artist. When Griffith’s van broke down in Flagstaff, he fell in love with the town, and then his wife, and never left.
In 2016, Griffith won the Flagstaff Arts Council’s Viola Award and the Phoenix Art Museum’s Artist Grant for his work on wildfire. His work is held in a number of permanent collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Center for Creative Photography, and Fort Wayne Museum of Art. His recent solo exhibitions include the Fresno Art Museum, High Desert Museum, Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, and Griffin Museum of Photography. Griffith is represented by Bentley Gallery in Phoenix.
In 2021 Decker created a custom presidential painting for the National Indian Gaming Associations headquarters. The portrait is of Chairman Ernie Stevens Jr. (and founder Rick Hill.) It is on display on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Also in Washington D.C, a custom original painting of Charles’ has been purchased and installed at the National Congress of American Indians Embassy, located near the White House. Charles visited the Embassy and met with C.E.O Kevin Allis and current staff for the new installation.
Additionally in 2021, Charles Decker unveiled his murals at the Kuttz Barber College and Beauty School in Flagstaff. Decker described the piece as “a multi-cultural mural that symbolizes the diversity within our community” Decker goes on to say “It was a privilege to create something visually inspiring for such a culturally diverse hub in Northern Arizona. The motivation and courage that the college gives to its community and students is outstanding.”
From his website:
Charles Decker is an Apache, an artist, and an enrolled member of the Yavapai-Apache Nation in Middle Verde Arizona near Sedona, where he is receiving wide recognition for his new approach to rendering canvas paintings through oils, acrylics, and mixed media. Decker incorporates celestial art motifs with ancestral symbols and landscapes to fit in with traditional designs of his Native American World. All of these designs are meticulously hand-made into colorful backgrounds with various brilliant and vibrant colors contrasting the foreground and background. These paintings are very unique with their Apache culture infused. Decker incorporates traditional Native symbols within the totality of his modern painting techniques to render a new whole. Charles calls this “transformational art”-taking a specific technique and adapting it into a new form. In this case, he is telling a story of his Native culture using contemporary techniques.
Charles Decker is self-taught, and comes from a family of artists, both on his mother’s and father’s sides. Charles’ male clan name is “Dzl’taddn”” or “Below the mountain”. Charles’ great great grandfather was Henry Irving, a well noted Apache medicine man who was born near Payson, Arizona and later grew up in Fossil Creek west of Payson, Arizona during the mid-1800s to the late 1800s. Henry was known as Deyelleh or “One who dreams”.
Charles is now taking the steps by using his painting techniques to tell of his people’s culture in a pleasing manner using contemporary methods to convey his story of a time and place.
From 2017 to 2020, Charles Decker was the local Native American artist in residence at both the Enchantment Resort and Mii Amo Spa, world class travel destinations located in beautiful Sedona, there you could find him creating his original works. Charles is dedicated towards speaking about the historical, cultural, and factual properties of the Sedona area to guests from all over the world. Decker is gaining global recognition for his works through his genuine participation, knowledge, and cultural connection to Boynton Canyon, where the resort is located. The Dilzhe’e Apache, or “The Hunters” which is the most Western of the Western Apache, have been living in the Sedona territory for over 700 years. Charles’ tribal reservation, the Yavapai-Apache Nation is located less than 20 miles from Boynton Canyon.
Decker was commissioned by the Cliff Castle Casino located in central Arizona and here he created four large cultural paintings depicting cultural and spiritual imagery of the Yavapai-Apache Nation.
Decker, has original paintings of his creation and design that have been installed in the Yavapai-Apache Nation’s tribal administration offices of Chairman John Huey, as well as Vice Chairwoman Tanya Lewis.
The Havasupai Tribal Nation located in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, at a beautiful and globally known area called Havasupai Falls, commissioned Charles for a series of large custom cultural paintings depicting the sacred deities of the Havasupai people, an incredible honor. The paintings were flown into the Canyon by helicopter and are now installed in the Tribal Council Chambers.
Charles Decker, recently completed a large commission for a new hospital built in Surprise, Arizona. The state of the art 60,000 sqft hospital created by Dr. Martin Newman, is designed to lead a new path in the behavioral healthcare industry. The commission is the perfect fit for Decker’s inspirational and culturally motivated works. “My art will help create strength for those who need it the most’ -Decker.
Charles has partnered with local wineries in central Arizona. His works have been commissioned and used as wine labels and he wants to explore this creative area more.
Decker has two large custom canvas paintings hanging on display inside of the Purgatory Ski Resort, located in Durango, Colorado.
“It is a graphic that gathers up the fragments of the past so that the wholeness held in the memory and conscience of our elders can be shared with our young ones and with those who have forgotten the stories of origins, of journeys and union, of the early times when the clans gathered and through enhancement and prayer became one people, became Hopi,”the artists explained. “We blended our voices and vision with those of our ancestors in a new effort to restore our political and cultural sovereignty.”
A brilliant mural painting tradition flourished at the height of the Puebloan civilization in the American Southwest between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries.
For 100 days, from January 1, 2021 through April 10, 2021, Rebekah completed a still life painting a day of a random object in her home that would be given to charity upon completion of the painting. Her intention was to declutter and make space to breathe during what had been a somewhat oppressive year. Simultaneously, she was a participant in the “100 Day Dress Challenge” offered by the Oregon company Wool&, where women from around the world challenge themselves to wear the same merino wool dress for 100 days in a row. These explorations of minimalism and sustainable fashion forever changed her perceptions of what is deemed essential in our modern times.
Over the isolation of the past year, Rebekah found herself thinking deeply about the essential and the non-essential. These ideas of whether one is essential or not became part of our shared lexicon in 2020. While confined inside the 4 walls of her home, she became aware that many of the things, the stuff, that we surround ourselves with are not anywhere near essential and instead have become frozen in sentiment.
Rebekah developed this series as a way to celebrate the unessential. Things that at one time brought joy might now collect dust. Our lives are fluid and the things we spend our lives with need to be fluid along with us. Over the one hundred days of the series, she stood at her easel in meditation while painting the stuff that no longer served her needs. Memories of experiences with each object whirl around each painting in this series. It is time to pass on the (un)essential in order to continue its story.
Every item she painted she then donated. All 100 6’x6′ oil paintings were then put on display at The HeArt Box in Flagstaff as an exhibition from August – September 2021.
The Forest is a series focused on disappearance. Using the “intimate trauma of Alzheimer’s disease”, to explore the effects of disappearance through a metaphor of arboreal life represented as a thing that grows in the mind, irreversibly absorbing cognitive functions, branching out slowly and steadily over time.
Culling specific paintings he has produced during his time in Arizona—representative of specific memories, friends, and loved ones—and painting over them, completely covering the original works with newly painted forest—an imitation of the way that Alzheimer’s eclipses memories of previous life.
The series features more than 80 reworked paintings along with video installation. This solo exhibition as exhibited at Coconino Center for the Arts in 2021 is the culmination of ten years of work, remade over the last three years into a captivating exhibition on the theme of memory obfuscation. The Forest was first conceived during Ambrose’s visits with his grandmother at her Alzheimer’s memory care rest home. Sitting with her and looking through the lens of the deterioration she was experiencing became a way to look at the nature of disappearance itself. Ambrose was awarded a 2018 Artist Research and Development Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts to support completion of the project.
William Ambrose’s show The Forest is an impeccable reflection of the self and family through the visual art medium of oil paint. His way of painting over his prior paintings lends to the viewer a sense of the reality of impermanence in our daily lives.
The artistic director of Dark Sky Aerial wanted to share her enthusiasm for the project. “This was Dark Sky Aerial’s first foray into dance film, and we chose the stunning backdrop of the Grand Canyon for our dance film. It was the first time Dark Sky Aerial had worked on natural stone features, and also is the first time a dance company has ever created an aerial dance film in the Grand Canyon. This type of innovation took a considerable amount of collaboration with our creative team. We worked with two film production companies- SandCast Media is comprised by local film makers Harlan Taney, Justin Clifton and Blake McCord. This amazing team helped us create the dance film. Firewatch Media, local documentary filmmaker Nick Geib’s company, shot the documentary.
Filming OMEN was a feat all of itself. We had two days of rehearsal in the canyon in which we were tasked with creating the choreography. During this time, our team of 5 aerialists also had to come to terms with the surroundings, or what would be our ‘dance floor’: the 800 ft walls of the Grand Canyon! Getting comfortable suspending from our harnesses on our ropes at this height was not easy, and some members of the company got used to it quicker than others. Together, we created movement for our film that would be shot over a 4 day stretch. These filming days started at 4am and didn’t end until 10pm. We used every possible minute to capture the shot list needed to tell the story of OMEN.
This story is a universal message of surrendering to the unknown, facing and embracing your fears, and relying on one another for support. We wanted to share this message in an art / dance film at this time because so many of us have experienced the unknown due to the pandemic and the subsequent fall out.
So far, the audience members who have seen OMEN have shared an outpouring of support. I have heard feedback that this film touched people who have experienced a difficult time, whether due to the pandemic, or other challenges in life. OMEN deserves to be nominated for a Viola Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts because Dark Sky Aerial continues to demonstrate innovation in its art form, take on projects that challenge the bounds of what is possible with aerial arts, and always aim to do so in a way that connects people to themselves, their humanity and each other.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare has it all: love, comedy of errors, magic, and fairies! The play follows four lovers as they get lost in the forest, are tormented by fairies, and discover their true love. Midsummer had an all-star company of 11 actors, and was directed by renowned Shakespeare director Jim Warren. The play was originally performed in summer 2021 at the Fort Tuthill Pepsi Amphitheater for a live audience and was filmed and edited for digital viewing after. The play was performed in conjunction with Hamlet by William Shakespeare that summer, and was FlagShakes’ return to fully staged live theater after the pandemic. The company saw great audience numbers at the show and patrons raved about returning to live theater, being outside at the amphitheater, and that the play was joyful and fun!
One patron said “I thought this play was hilarious and well-staged. I can appreciate the difficulty of putting on a show during Covid and I thought FlagShakes did a great job with this one. Gustavo who played Puck in particular was a delight. His deliveries were unexpected and very funny. Well done across the board.”
Participating Artists:
The theme of MOVING THROUGH GRIEF revealed itself to the ensemble after weeks of creating improvisatory, theatrical moments in the space. The ensemble then took the moments created and the five stages of grief – seemed to be a predominant theme. The theme seemed to be appropriate in the COVID times. Through abstract storytelling and theatrical image, movement, poetry, and spoken word, this play followed five people as they journey through the grieving process, re-experiencing memories of the past in order to cope with the present. The impact of the theme and abstract storytelling was tremendous. It brought healing to the community.
The production was stunning. The simplicity of the set with a swirling painted floor and series of reflective panels were evocative and profound. The dynamically designed costumes enhanced the theme and metaphor as well as serving the characters. Moments like the red shoes on one character affected the senses. The soundscape was integrated in a dynamic and moving fashion much like another character in the journey. The physical use of sound and movement was a deep thematic metaphor that gave the audience a visceral experience. Technically the production was dynamic and completely integrated in the experience.
“After the cast and crew decided on the theme of loss, “Moving Through Grief” was born. The director’s note explained that once the theme was decided, they began gathering source material on grief — which ranged from poetry, spoken word, academic articles, personal accounts, music and images.” – Emmy Bining (The Lumber Jack)
In January of 2021, iiwaa announced themself to the world with an emotional debut single entitled “Boys Don’t Cry.” The subsequent release of their first EP Dysphoria solidified iiwaa as an artist with capacity for diverse musical expressions and styling.
Their music appears on Serenade, a compilation album dedicated to Queer youth, Executive Produced by Kyle and Gretta Miller of Tow’rs. iiwaa’s offering, “Learning to Love Myself” is a mantric declaration of radical self-love recorded at Flagstaff’s very own Lore Audio.
They have also released music in conjunction with local producer Tsoh Tso (Fang Over Fist Records/An Illustrated Mess) — a titanic hip-hop anthem, “Circadian”. A slew of new music and collaborative efforts are slated for 2022 release.
In just over a year’s time, iiwaa has gone from relative unknown to successful regional act due in large part to their inspired musical performances focused on cultivating space for connection, healing, and joy.
The album had two music videos, both directed by acclaimed filmmaker Deidra Peaches. It was produced entirely by Cecil Tso (of An Illustrated Mess & Cocec). The single(s), and album cover art was helmed by Andy McAlpine who’s worked with a variety of talent from Indie Rap heavyweights such as Ceschi Ramos, to superstars such as Miley Cyrus.
2021 was a notable year for the band. In January, observing a traditional quiet time, Tha ‘Yoties featured online winter “Coyote Stories” from Ed on Facebook and YouTube. In response to the pandemic, the band played patio shows during spring, summer and fall throughout the four corner states; rocking out Flagstaff on Heritage Square for the opening and closing days of the Community Market for International Peace Day, as well as the Flagbrew patio for a Sunday matinee and our annual “Howl-O-Ween” show.
The band’s only indoor show of 2021, was Rumble on the Mountain 7 at the Orpheum Theater on August 7th. Rumble on the Mountain 7, “Welcome to Flagstaff” focused on bringing attention to the disparate number of arrests on Native American people in the city, the vital importance of the Little Colorado River to Hopi, and a cultural understanding of artificial snowmaking on the San Francisco Peaks.
Another project that the band was engaged in 2021 was the recording their 6th studio project, “Xoyote Soldier”. The new album is scheduled for release in May of 2022, and features song tributes to the Navajo, Hopi, and Havasupai Nations, as well as a cry for the Little Colorado River as the title track.
The Xoyote Soldier album was recorded at Frogville Studios in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Tha ‘Yoties also performed during Indian Market and Indigenous Peoples Day. In December, the band released a self produced video from Frogville in tribute to the red & green chili traditions of Nuevo Mexico called “Christmas in New Mexico”. \m/
From The Arizona Daily Sun:
It was the summer of 2010 when Ash Davidson first started writing the story that would one day become Damnation Spring.
For nearly a decade, the Gundersen family and the small logging community they called home lived inside her head. She carried them with her throughout her time at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and back to Flagstaff again, through dozens of dark mornings huddled over the keyboard with a cup of coffee at Tourist Home before heading to her full-time job.
And now they’re about to meet the world. Davidson’s debut, Damnation Spring.
“It’s such a strange and magical experience to realize that these characters have been in my laptop for a decade and suddenly other people are going to know them too,” Davidson said. “It’s wonderful, and it’s also deeply strange.”
Damnation Spring is a sweeping, immersive debut chronicling the deeply human story of a Pacific Northwest logging town reckoning with a threat that could destroy everything they so desperately know and love.
For generations, Rich Gundersen’s family made their livelihood chopping out of the redwood forest along California’s rugged coast. Rich and his wife, Colleen, are raising their own son near a swath of ancient redwoods named Damnation Grove. Rich seizes an opportunity to buy 24-7 Ridge in hopes of a better life for his wife and young son, Chub. The purchase exhausts the money they squirreled away for their growing family, unbeknownst to Colleen. But their family isn’t growing as Colleen has lost pregnancy after pregnancy — as have numerous other women in their community. Colleen has seen the devastation firsthand as a midwife.
As an old face returns to town, many of the community members are forced to reckon with the thought that the herbicides used by the logging company aren’t as harmless as promised. As mudslides take out clear-cut hillsides and salmon vanish from creeks, Colleen’s search for answers threatens to unravel not just Rich’s plans for the 24-7, but also their marriage and their town.
What results is a beautifully immersive debut. At more than 400 pages, the epic of a novel swallows you whole, immersing the reader in the lush forests as told from the varying perspectives of Rich, Colleen and Chub. It’s a compassionate portrayal of a family and community clinging to a quickly vanishing way of life as the environmental degradation becomes impossible to ignore.
Davidson’s family lived in the town of Klamath, California where the book is set. They relocated to Flagstaff when she was in middle school. Now, Davidson works as the communications director for the non-profit Grand Canyon Trust. She’s not blind to the juxtaposition of a self-described “tree hugger” penning a novel that so delicately details the struggle between preserving and profiting off the land.
While the struggle does parallel the current climate crisis, Davidson noted that there are no winners and losers in a situation like this. She’s gained respect for those who work on the forest and those who have devoted their lives to preserving it.
“I think we often blame people who work in extractive industries [logging, fracking, coal mining] as if they’re complicit in the environmental damage and therefore deserve any suffering it brings them, but we have to empathize that this is how a family is keeping their lights on and keeping food on the table,” Davidson said.
Interviewing people on both sides of the issue made her reevaluate her own preconceived notions and helped her write the book coming from a place of non-judgment. In one scene, Davidson details a public meeting where a board must decide whether to allow the logging of Damnation Grove. Those in opposition call out the proposal for destroying the ancient redwoods, while those of the community of Klamath speak of how much they value the land beyond something to look at before returning home.
“People who work in industries that can be destructive to the environment often have a great attachment to the outdoors,” Davidson said. “I come in and work in an office every day, but a logger goes out and works in the woods every day and spends their free time there, too. They’re very attached to the woods and they love the woods.”
Davidson took inspiration for this scene from her own time in public meetings on the topics of forest thinning or uranium mining. She dug through newspaper archives detailing public meetings from decades ago similar to that in the book. Much of the language and jargon is directly inspired by those nearly 50-year-old articles. She returned to Klamath for interviews and to get the details of such a specific place right. At first, people hesitated to speak with her as she was an outsider. Then someone recognized her mother in a local diner and she was soon introduced to a logger. They stepped outside and spoke for two hours, leaning against the side of his truck as the rain pounded down around them. The next time she saw him, he brought an old photo album showing his crew cutting the massive redwoods decades before.
Eventually, she mustered up the courage to ask him about the herbicides and he confided that he had been sprayed and how it impacted him.
Two epigraphs mark the start of the novel. One is the quote, “they are not like any trees we know,” from author John Steinbeck. Steinbeck goes on to say no one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood. Davidson found herself enchanted with the redwood, but found herself facing the same problem, struggling to help readers understand their majesty and what it’s like to feel so small to something so big. The Steinbeck quote was the most honest way, she said.
“I hope people will be curious enough to look them up and see for themselves,” she said.
The artistic director of Dark Sky Aerial wanted to share her enthusiasm for the project. “This was Dark Sky Aerial’s first foray into dance film, and we chose the stunning backdrop of the Grand Canyon for our dance film. It was the first time Dark Sky Aerial had worked on natural stone features, and also is the first time a dance company has ever created an aerial dance film in the Grand Canyon. This type of innovation took a considerable amount of collaboration with our creative team. We worked with two film production companies- SandCast Media is comprised by local film makers Harlan Taney, Justin Clifton and Blake McCord. This amazing team helped us create the dance film. Firewatch Media, local documentary filmmaker Nick Geib’s company, shot the documentary.
Filming OMEN was a feat all of itself. We had two days of rehearsal in the canyon in which we were tasked with creating the choreography. During this time, our team of 5 aerialists also had to come to terms with the surroundings, or what would be our ‘dance floor’: the 800 ft walls of the Grand Canyon! Getting comfortable suspending from our harnesses on our ropes at this height was not easy, and some members of the company got used to it quicker than others. Together, we created movement for our film that would be shot over a 4 day stretch. These filming days started at 4am and didn’t end until 10pm. We used every possible minute to capture the shot list needed to tell the story of OMEN.
This story is a universal message of surrendering to the unknown, facing and embracing your fears, and relying on one another for support. We wanted to share this message in an art / dance film at this time because so many of us have experienced the unknown due to the pandemic and the subsequent fall out.
So far, the audience members who have seen OMEN have shared an outpouring of support. I have heard feedback that this film touched people who have experienced a difficult time, whether due to the pandemic, or other challenges in life. OMEN deserves to be nominated for a Viola Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts because Dark Sky Aerial continues to demonstrate innovation in its art form, take on projects that challenge the bounds of what is possible with aerial arts, and always aim to do so in a way that connects people to themselves, their humanity and each other.”
In Deidra’s videos, you get to see people in the context of the landscape, you get to see the stunning turquoise waters of the Little Colorado River, and Grand Falls raging. But there’s a lot that went into these films that you don’t see. To create this collection of ten 1-minute videos:
The result is an astonishingly beautiful, authentic, and moving work of art that records the voices of people whose ancestors have nurtured connections to the Little Colorado River since time immemorial, and who continue to keep those vibrant and vital connections strong to this day. It’s an extraordinary feat of filmmaking, of art, and of storytelling, and a stunning display of Deidra’s incredible talents.
As you’ll see through the films, Deidra is an amazing storyteller. Her ability to showcase the spirit of people and places shines in her work, and her videography and photography amplify voices in Native communities. If you haven’t been on a shoot with Deidra before, it is an amazing production that involves loading and unloading, setting up and taking down. Deidra is constantly manning multiple cameras, microphones, lights, reflectors, and sunshades, swapping batteries, weighting down equipment with sandbags, cooling camera equipment with bags of frozen vegetables when they overheat midway through a shoot, and readjusting things after every gust of wind. Most of the shoots for Lifeways were in remote places, outside, without outlets or windbreaks or shade. On at least one occasion, the interview subject arrived on horseback. And Deidra choreographs all of it with such ease and grace. She makes it look easy when it is not.
Justin Clifton was born and raised in Flagstaff, Arizona, and has dedicated nearly two decades of his career to advocacy film, first as Director of the Telluride Mountainfilm on Tour and now as a filmmaker focused on sharing the stories of everyday heroes. With a natural empathy, Justin’s lens is steadily focused on allowing the characters to tell their own stories. His films have garnered numerous awards and have been widely lauded at film festivals around the world.
Blake & Justin have elevated what it means to tell a compelling, sensitive and emotionally vulnerable story while building a safe and inspiring thread for all audiences to see themselves in their story. Addressing Trans issues is not an easy subject to tackle, but they handle it with a deft hand and a sensitive approach to the process. Reading the comments on the YouTube video shows just how important this film has been to countless lives around the world. They have taken a story formed here in Flagstaff and Northern Arizona and propelled it to a global audience.
About the film:
For Lor Sabourin, climbing is more than a sport; it’s a way of exploring identity and building resilience in the face of adversity. They/Them follows Lor, a trans climber, into the sandstone canyons of northern Arizona, on a journey to piece together one of the hardest and most inspiring routes of their life. By embracing the strength in vulnerability, Lor has found the space to thrive and build a climbing community that others like themself can call home.
Content Warning:
This film includes discussions of eating disorders, body dysphoria, self-harm, sexual assault, and suicide. While we have done our best to explore these topics conscientiously, remember that we are looking through the lens of a single person’s experience. Please take care of yourself as you watch and use the resources provided below to find support if you are struggling with any of these topics.
“Visiting the Anxious Ladies” depicts a variety of distorted self-portraits that feature representations of herself as a sorrowful woman in a red bathing cap. These images are tender and raw; based on a series of photographs taken of herself through the duration of trauma therapy. Derived from frustration in the healing process of anxiety disorder and depression, these photographs ultimately became the references for the paintings. Through this series, she found that not only was her work useful as a coping mechanism for her own healing, but it connected with others experiencing mental illnesses as well. The use of these stylized portraits offers a chance for the audience to place themselves as the main subject. When did they last feel the kind of anxiety demonstrated in the figures’ faces? Comparing themselves to the portraits, how do they feel in that moment? This kind of discourse is fundamental to the reception of mental illnesses.
Dana continues to explore advocacy around mental health and access through her artistic practice and has centered her graduate work around representing the personal stories of those who engage daily with mental illness in an effort to dispel stigmas, and offer opportunities for compassion and connection.
My name is Ember Crowley, I’m twenty years old, I attend Northern Arizona University and am majoring in Independent Filmmaking in the Creative Media and Film Department where I’ve earned several scholarships, including a scholarship from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the director’s workshop scholarship from The Sundance Film Institute, the Bill Close Broadcasting Memorial Scholarship as well as the Janet Schnoor Memorial Scholarship from the Women and Genders studies department. I will be graduating in May 2022 with a degree in independent filmmaking with an emphasis in directing, however, after being accepted into the accelerated Master’s program this August, I’ve already started attending graduate courses for a master’s degree in documentary studies. This year I was invited to speak (via zoom) at several film festivals in Ireland, France and the U.S. about my experiences as a female director and was invited to share on a local podcast, Live at the Theater Basement, hosted by the extraordinary Jamey Hasapis. Born and raised in Flagstaff, Arizona, being nominated for the Viola Awards comes with such honor for me. When I graduated high school a year early to get a jump start on filmmaking and college, it never really occurred to me to attend any other school except NAU. My parents are alumni of NAU as well as my sister and I grew up my entire life just a ten minute walk from campus. Being so close with my family, leaving town at seventeen-years-old to go to another college felt shaky. Now, as I enter my senior year of college, it seems almost impossible that four years have passed. I’ve traveled out of the country several times in my life, however, this May will be the first time I’ve traveled without my family. Backpacking around Iceland felt like the most inspiring place to visit first, so come May, two days after graduation I’ll be on a plane to Reykjavik!
My latest project is a short documentary about witchcraft. This project will examine the Wicca/Witchcraft community along with discussing common misconceptions people have about witchcraft. Being a direct descendent of Rebecca Nurse, the second woman in history in Salem to be executed as a witch and one of the lead characters in The Crucible, it felt like this was the appropriate time in my life to create a short documentary exploring this history. Though the witch community does not take their practice lightly, they are also inviting and want others to feel accepted in their journey. I’ve interviewed several women already, those who own or work in businesses in Phoenix as well as some who are based in Flagstaff. I will also add archival footage that could reflect the historical aspects of the interviews.
This year, I began my academic studies towards acquiring a master’s degree in documentary studies. I cannot seem to ever say enough about the two professors who have been integral to my development as a screenwriter. Janna Jones, an award winning screenwriter and professor at NAU and Xin Yi, also a professor who teaches advanced screenwriting at NAU, have empowered me to push myself as a screenwriter. As a senior, I’m required to create a capstone project and instead of making another film to use as a capstone, I decided to push my comfort zone and instead write a feature length screenplay. My strengths lie in directing and cinematography, so to use a screenplay as my senior capstone has been an intimidating yet enlightening process, which is due to the empowering female filmmakers in my life. When this newest screenplay is complete, I will begin to distribute it to as many film festivals as possible.
This summer I was invited back to work for a well-known reality TV show where I had previously worked on-set as a production assistant. Additionally, I was invited this fall to attend the Los Angeles Pacific Asian Film Festival in support of the film, “Devotee”, where I worked as Sound Tech and 2nd Assistant Camera directed by Sharmila Ray, who was nominated for Best Female Director. I was with UTV at NAU from my freshman year through junior year where I worked as a manager and director. During the spring of 2021, I completed a short documentary, “Heart’s Manifesto”, which I wrote and directed, supported by an incredible crew and cast, through UTV Studios at NAU. I cannot mention my time in UTV Studios without mentioning my professor and mentor, Bill Carter. He is an award winning filmmaker and author as well as a professor in the Creative Media and Film department at NAU and producer at UTV Studios. He has never failed to promote and support me in every single one of my film endeavors since my first semester as a college student.
So much of my time at NAU has also been spent working at the side of Paul Helford. I’ve worked as his TA for an upper division film class for the last two years now. This summer, in partnership with Paul, I worked for the Andy Harvey Indigenous Youth Media Workshop which brings twenty-five Native American high school students from across the Southwest to NAU during the summer to learn about broadcast media and journalism. Professor Helford has taught film studies at NAU for over thirty years and has been a wealth of knowledge and never ending support for me. After years of working for him as his TA, his assistant for the BREDA workshop and for the Andy Harvey workshop, he offered me a job where I will teach my first college level class about comedic film history. A few months ago I was also hired as assistant director for a PSA about human trafficking and recently finished working as BTS videographer/photographer as well as assistant camera for Boundaryless, which was facilitated by Chad Williamson.
I started working as an intern for Dr. Maria Campbell for The Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival and The Arizona Women’s Film Festival when I was still in high school. This year I became a board member of The Arizona Women’s Film Festival and rose to the position of Executive Assistant for The Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival. There simply aren’t enough words to convey my admiration and respect for Dr. Campbell. She is such an important mentor in my life, however, her influence over the Flagstaff community, environmental issues, her extensive involvement advocating for the empowerment of women and being an ally to women who are victims of domestic violence has paved the way for me to reach towards the kind of advocate I strive to become.
As an evolving filmmaker, I feel I have to offer credit where it is due. With that said, I was so disappointed recently when I learned the news that the FilmBar in Phoenix is going to have to shut its doors due to lack of support during the pandemic. The FilmBar was the very first place to invite me to screen my first completed film there and due to a growing number of followers from people who wanted to see “an Ember film”, FilmBar continued to invite me to screen my films there whenever it was possible. Matthew Robinson, who is a prolific film critic and the person who curated films for the FilmBar, has been one of my greatest advocates for several years. This was worth mentioning because Matthew and the FilmBar were so vital in creating the confidence I needed as a young filmmaker. The first time I ever saw one of my films on a big theater screen was at the FilmBar. It was such an empowering moment that justified my continued pursuit of filmmaking.
My film bio from the time I was 15 years old has grown quite a lot over the years and the films I created over the last six years have won many awards and official selections in festivals nationally as well as internationally. To date, my short documentary, “Heart’s Manifesto”, has gathered many recognitions from Ireland, Singapore, Bhutan, India, Sweden, France and New York. I am mostly proud of the awards gained this year as Best Female Filmmaker, Best Female Student Director and Best Student Film. It took a village to raise “Heart’s Manifesto” and the recognition it has gained was because of an extraordinary collective effort.
Over the years, I’ve been so honored to have been nominated for several film awards, including The Jean Luc Godard Award which was especially important to me because of my love for the film genre, French New Wave.
This year I was nominated for the Golden Galaxy Film Award and the Golden Merlion Film Award.
Again, I am so profoundly honored to have been nominated for an Emerging Artist Award and cannot thank the Flagstaff Art Council enough for this distinguished recognition! See you all in April!
Ember Lou Crowley
*Included is a list of awards/official selections that have been received for this year’s short documentary, ‘Heart’s Manifesto’, completed in the spring/summer of 2021:
Druk International Film Festival/ Bhutan: Award winner for Women Filmmakers
Virgin Springs Cinefest/Calcutta: Silver award winner for Best Student Film
World Film Carnival/ Singapore: Award winner for Women Filmmakers
Royal Society of Television and Motion Picture Awards: Award winner for Women Filmmakers
Gothamite Monthly Film Awards New York: Award winner for Best student film of the month
Paris International Film Awards: Finalist for Best Student Film
Sweden Film Awards: Finalist for Best Woman Filmmaker
Lulea International Film Festival/ Sweden: Finalist for Best Woman Filmmaker
Prestige Film Festival: Official Selection
Auber International Film Festival/ Paris: Official Selection
HER International Feminist Film Festival/Ireland: Official selection
In January of 2021, iiwaa announced themself to the world with an emotional debut single entitled “Boys Don’t Cry.” The subsequent release of their first EP Dysphoria solidified iiwaa as an artist with capacity for diverse musical expressions and styling.
Their music appears on Serenade, a compilation album dedicated to Queer youth, Executive Produced by Kyle and Gretta Miller of Tow’rs. iiwaa’s offering, “Learning to Love Myself” is a mantric declaration of radical self-love recorded at Flagstaff’s very own Lore Audio.
They have also released music in conjunction with local producer Tsoh Tso (Fang Over Fist Records/An Illustrated Mess) — a titanic hip-hop anthem, “Circadian”. A slew of new music and collaborative efforts are slated for 2022 release.
In just over a year’s time, iiwaa has gone from relative unknown to successful regional act due in large part to their inspired musical performances focused on cultivating space for connection, healing, and joy.
Many of Tyrrell’s works have been inspired by the community and love that is present within the Flagstaff area. It’s common to see him processing fiber/weaving in public spaces and functions. He engages and educates his audience about his medium, culture, and way of life. As an avid supporter of the Flagstaff arts-scene, he’s always one to look out for.
In MOCAF’s Creative of the month show, Tyrrell’s installation was a crowd favorite that brought together the audience with its intimate and vulnerable message. His use of using archaic mediums to talk about present day problems and conversations.
Devotion. This is word that so perfectly describes Diane’s life’s work. Her students are the primary focus of her life, and it shows in the highly successful results her students achieve each year. She is a teacher who is completely devoted to the gentle, nurturing, patient guidance and instruction of the students who are lucky enough to be in her classes. No child is ever left behind in her classroom, no matter what difficulties may be encountered with the individual. And she works tirelessly to encourage and guide her students in the skills of critical thinking, following their individual curiosities, and exploring ideas through art and science.
Diane brings her passion for the arts and sciences and a lifetime of experience as a careful observer of the natural world to her students. Her students learn in turn to observe and record their observations of the natural world. Children become poets in her class, finding their voices and creating word images and powerful pictures for their readers. Her students become artists, authors, botanists, biologists, and geologists by applying classroom learning to the real-world. And they learn history through art and music, coming to appreciate the connection between the physical world and human experience.
Diane spent five summers in San Francisco working as a teacher-mentor in the San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score program for teachers from several states across the nation. This institute was designed with the primary goal of teaching teachers the methods for integrating music into the classroom learning process. She naturally brought all this learning experience back to her classroom and without exception has continued to do so since that time. It is hard to imagine a finer example of teaching to provide students with the most well-rounded education possible, designed to integrate music through all areas of learning and applying the diversity of information required at the third-grade level and beyond.
She “feels” her students deeply and strives to provide them with an understanding of personal boundaries and presents beautiful modeling of behaviors that will bring them to their maximum achievement in learning and interacting with their fellow students. Her compassion for each student’s personal problems, sufferings and struggles with the varied learning difficulties that inevitable arise during the school year are well known to all that know her. And the fact that she is so frequently visited by her former students, often from classes decades before, is testament to the love and esteem in which they hold her, and the value they gained from having been in her classes and guided by her so long ago.
She also has mentored and continues to mentor countless NAU students and first-year teachers on their way to their chosen teaching professions. In fact, she has long been well known by students in the NAU education department as The Teacher to work with in the various levels of student teaching.
Her own education focused on the disciplines of art and science, which admirably prepared her to bring a diverse background of experience and learning to her students. She is wise in her understanding and skill in working to integrate all subjects in an ecosystem of learning, showing her students how to navigate the various experiences they encounter in the classroom (and that they will encounter in life going forward) in a thoughtful and balanced manner. And she has continued to take numerous professional development courses through the years to keep her skills current and evolving.
Observing Diane in the classroom is a pure experience of the Art of Teaching, with the primary goal never wavering from doing whatever is needed to enhance everyone’s understanding of the myriad topics they must cover during the year, of growing in their understanding of themselves, and of their ability to interact with other students in the classroom and in the world at large.
Diane comes from a family of teachers. Her father, Robert Dawson, was a well-loved elementary school teacher at Sechrist Elementary, who also was a local leader of forays into the back country for adults and kids alike. Environmental education was his passion, which led to the origins of Camp Colton and into the lives of his own children, adults, and decades of students. Her mother taught elementary school in Flagstaff, and her brother has taught 5th grade in Santa Fe, New Mexico for many years.
Diane has been a devoted trail runner for decades and has hiked perhaps every known trail in the Grand Canyon, beginning at the age of 8 with her father. Her father mentored her in a deep appreciation of the Grand Canyon, of nature in general and of native American traditions. And over time she has continued to exemplify the important characteristics of physical and mental strength in her life and in the classroom, as well as wisdom in understanding and navigating the vagaries and many layers of life in general.
Diane was born to do this work, and she is following the lead of her destiny with a truly exemplary heartful and caring commitment to excellence.
During her music career, she has been a member of many orchestras including the Aspen Festival Orchestra, the Lansing Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, the Tucson Symphony. She retired in 2019 after 25 years as Concertmaster of the Arizona Opera Orchestra, based in Phoenix and Tucson. She has been Concertmaster of the Flagstaff Symphony since 1985 and joined the orchestra in 1976. In addition to her orchestral work, she has performed many chamber music programs with NAU colleagues and her husband, Frank Scott, who is Emeritus Professor of Piano at NAU.
Dr. Scott regularly presents master classes, workshops, and clinics across the country, especially with advanced students in the Suzuki method. Summer workshops include the Hawaii Suzuki Institute, the NAU Suzuki Institute, the Anchorage Alaska Suzuki Institute, the Fairbanks Alaska Suzuki Institute, the Black Hills South Dakota Advanced String Camp, the Oregon Suzuki Institute, the Stanford Advanced String Camp, the Southern California Suzuki Institute, and the Curry Summer Music Camp at NAU.
She has been actively involved in national string teaching organizations, including the Suzuki Association of the Americas and the American String Teachers Association, serving as President of the Arizona ASTA from 1990 to 1992 and presently serves on the board of the Arizona Suzuki Association. As a Violin Teacher Trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas, Dr. Scott has provided Suzuki teacher training for many NAU college students in the Undergraduate Suzuki Certificate program and the MM degree in Suzuki Pedagogy. Many NAU grads are now teaching in schools in nearly every city across Arizona and programs in different states in the USA. Several former graduate students have remained in Flagstaff to teach at Northland Preparatory School, Pine Forest School, Marshall School, teach lessons and play in the Flagstaff Symphony. She has always been motivated by the motto, which she told to every incoming NAU violin student: “We teach, and we play, and we play, and we teach. If you are prepared to teach with the knowledge, skills and materials needed, you will be successful and most likely will love it.”
Dr. Scott was awarded the Northern Arizona University Distinguished Faculty Award in 1992, membership in Phi Kappa Phi in 1996 and the Arizona American String Teacher Association Outstanding Studio Teacher Award in 2011. She served as the Director of the School of Music at NAU from 2002 to 2006.
As an Arts Educator for 6-12th grades at FALA, Rena Hamilton strives to not only introduce techniques and materials to our aspiring young artists but to also to use art as a vehicle and voice to awareness of local and global social issues, raise funds, and create change.
FALA students and teachers are passionate about connecting and collaborating with community and larger society and making positive impacts through our actions, including our art creations.
Examples include partnering with:
Amazingly through Covid stay-at-home teaching and learning Mrs. Hamilton’s students were creating artworks for the public while isolated including:
Additionally, Rena Hamilton strives to teach by example to her students that a life in the arts is possible and fulfilling. With FALA’s National Art Honor Society, Mrs. Hamilton hosts a holiday Winter Art Market featuring 40 community and student artists selling their creations to the public giving students a real-life opportunity to put on an arts event and to showcase their work to the public while gaining marketing, exhibiting, and selling experience.
In the spirit of teaching by example a life in the arts, Rena has maintained an active home studio and exhibition pursuits. Rena has exhibited throughout the U.S. and has work included in private collections in the United States, Australia, and Canada. This spring 2022, Rena has works on display in two exhibitions running concurrently with the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) annual convention in Sacramento, California.
Rena Hamilton also founded the Flagstaff Potters’ Guild in 2011 for area potters to share resources and information while building community and promoting our work. The Potters’ Guild connects to community with a goal of bringing handmade to the hearts, hands, and cupboards of NoAz and beyond and also occasionally fund raises for other community organizations by selling handmade works such as “Pots for Paws” raising funds for Paw Placement of Northern Arizona and volunteering as a group to take pledge call donations for our local Public Radio, KNAU.
Rena says “I strive to create work that resonates with a range of human emotions and our place in the natural world. Taking deep satisfaction in functional beauty, my work is rooted in utility with ever-increasing explorations in color, pattern, and scale. As a maker, it brings me much delight to create pieces that are used in moments of celebration and daily rituals; whether it’s a gathering of closest friends and family sharing good food and drink or a quiet contemplative moment alone with a morning cup of coffee. I hope my pottery brings joy, beauty, and a touch of grounding in a busy, sometimes chaotic, sometimes isolated, world”.
His performance credentials include collaborations with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Chamber Orchestra, the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Opera Metropolitiana C.A., Ballet de Caracas, Fundacion Teresa Carreno Opera Company, and the Orquesta Sinfonica Municipal of Caracas, Venezuela (principal timpanist), the Savannah Symphony, the Tallahassee Symphony (principal percussionist), the Phoenix Symphony, the Flagstaff Festival of the Arts Orchestra (principal percussionist), the Flagstaff Symphony Summer Ensemble, the Wagner Ring Cycle Orchestra-Arizona Opera (principal percussionist), the Symphony of the West Valley, and the Colorado Philharmonic. He performed as principal timpanist of the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra for twenty-five years (1991-2016) and for twelve years as principal percussionist with the “Music in the Mountains” Festival Orchestra in Durango/ Purgatory, Colorado (2003-2015).
Dr. Hemphill has performed in Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and a number of European cities. Through various venues, he has performed with a variety of jazz and entertainment artists including Freddie Hubbard, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Shirley McLaine, Roger Williams, New York Voices, Buddy DeFranco, Al Martino, Trini Lopez, Jim Bailey, among numerous musical and operatic stage productions. Other collaborations include the Animas Music Festival, the Western Arts Music Festival, the Theurer/Hemphill Trumpet & Percussion Duo, the Arizona Repertory Singers, performances at the International Trumpet Guild Conference and the International Clarinet Society Conference, and as a founding member of the Atlanta Percussion Trio (Young Audiences, Inc.). He has served as a clinician, adjudicator, or conductor in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. In 1994, 2004, and 2009, Dr. Hemphill served as an adjudicator for the Percussive Arts Society International Composition Competition.
He has recorded on the Telarc, Grenadilla, Orion, Mercury Golden Imports, Toshiba EMI, Albuzerxque, and Carl Fischer Publishing labels. Dr. Hemphill is a past president and vice-president of the Arizona chapter of the Percussive Arts Society, a past president of the Wyoming chapter of the Percussive Arts Society, and is Associate Producer/Director (with Mark Yancich) of The Art of Timpani instructional video series, including “Changing and Tuning Plastic Timpani Heads,” “Tucking Calfskin Timpani Heads” (with Cloyd Duff), and “Sewing Felt Timpani Sticks.”
Professional interests in world music and cultures have led Dr. Hemphill to visitations and research in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Trinidad and a number of other Caribbean islands, several countries of the Far East (listed previously), Italy, Sicily, France, England, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. He has published articles in Percussive Notes, Percussive News, Rhythm! Scene, The PAS Educators’ Companion, The Instrumentalist, The International Association of Jazz Educators Journal, Arizona Music News (AMEA), and a number of state-wide educational newsletters in Georgia and Arizona. He has presented/performed at the National Music Educators National Conference (MENC), the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), the College Music Society National Conference, the American Orff-Schulwerk Association National Conference (AOSA), MENC Northwest, Society of Composers National Conference, the Aspen Music Festival and School, Arizona PAS, the Mark Yancich Timpani Seminar, and frequently at AMEA In-Service Conferences (Arizona). He contributed materials to the publication of A Dictionary for the Modern Percussionist and Drummer by James A. Strain, published by Rowman & Littlefield, and he contributed testing materials for the eminent pedagogical textbook Teaching Percussion by Gary D. Cook, the enhanced third edition, published by Cengage Learning. For twenty years, he served on the faculty for the annual Atlanta Percussion Seminar at Emory University 1990-2010 and for four years he served on the faculty of the annual Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Percussion Seminar (2013-2016). For several years, he served as chair of the orchestra committee (and ex-officio voting member of the Board of Directors) for the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra and as an ex-officio member of the Arizona Music Educators Association Board of Directors, responsible for Multi-Cultural Awareness.
Dr. Hemphill is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Kappa Phi, Kappa Kappa Psi (Honorary), and has served as Province Governor for Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He has served or currently serves on the national Percussive Arts Society University Pedagogy Committee, the PAS Composition Competition Committee, and he began serving as the Professional Adviser to the inaugural PAS University Committee in 2003. Dr. Hemphill served as lead developer and presenter for the 2010 PAS College Pedagogy Committee Mentoring Day seminar (Indianapolis, IN), created for pre-tenure collegiate percussion instructors and graduate percussion students, and served as chair of the PAS University Pedagogy Committee’s subcommittee national project “PAS Teaching Analysis for the University Percussion Instructor” which paired emerging university percussion faculty and doctoral students with renowned percussion pedagogues through video lesson analyses and commentary. He has served as chair of percussion studies for the NAU Curry Summer Music Camp program since 1992. At Northern Arizona University, Dr. Hemphill focuses his teaching in applied percussion studies, percussion ensemble, music education percussion techniques courses, pedagogy and literature in percussion, and drum set techniques and pedagogy. In addition, his curriculum interests include business of music, contemporary music literature, contemporary music ensemble, jazz pedagogy, and graduate seminars in percussion and 20th century music. Hemphill’s primary teachers included John H. Beck, Gary Werdesheim, James Peterscak, Charles Budesheim, James Massie Johnson, George Clasgens, and Bill Clark (St. Louis Symphony), with ancillary studies with Leigh Howard Stevens, Cloyd Duff, Ted Moore, and Mark Yancich. A member of the Vic Firth Education Team, Hemphill also endorses Sabian cymbals.
COMMUNITY AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
As Professor of Percussion at Northern Arizona University since 1991, Steve Hemphill serves as the faculty advisor for the NAU Percussion Society, whose mission includes supporting and promoting the continued growth, development, and visibility of percussion and percussion education on the campus of Northern Arizona University, bringing countless guest artists to the Flagstaff campus and community. Hemphill has a strong history of community engagement as a 25-year member of the Flagstaff Symphony (principal timpanist), and as a member of the Flagstaff Festival of the Arts Orchestra, the Arizona Opera Wagner Ring Cycle Orchestra (principal percussionist), along with the development of Percussion Discovery Saturdays, a multi-year youth education program through the NAU Community Music & Dance Academy (Prep School), and 29 years as a percussion educator for the NAU Curry Summer Music Camps. Hemphill is a seasoned musician and educator who has served on international committees (the University Pedagogy & Composition Competition committees) for the Percussive Arts Society, a leading global organization in percussion education and performance, as well as hosting several Arizona state chapter Percussive Arts Society “Days of Percussion” Festivals on the NAU campus.
His commitment to diverse cultural understanding and world music research led him to serve as an orchestral and operatic timpanist in Caracas, Venezuela, for multiple years, along with numerous investigative travels in the Far East, Europe, the Caribbean, and South America, including two stints in Brazil (studying Brazilian percussion) and two in Trinidad and Tobago (studying steel pan performance). His students are continuously encouraged to experience world-wide percussion studies and performance through the NAU Panorama Steel Band and through his original compositions for Brazilian street samba (for pandeiros, caxixi, and rebolo) in his percussion ensemble curriculum—both are performance components of the forthcoming April 22, 2022 concert of the NAU Percussion Ensemble—along with performance opportunities in West African drumming and Latin American/Afro-Cuban ensembles. He has shared a total of seven original compositions and six arrangements for percussion ensemble with his students. Former students of Hemphill have established flourishing careers in public school music education, military music and non-music professions, college/university positions (Columbia College Chicago, New England Conservatory, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, University of Texas-Austin, North Carolina Wesleyan College, Weber State University, Chandler-Gilbert Community College), performers of world and contemporary music, as restauranteurs, and many other community professions.
Retiring from NAU in June 2022, after 31 years on the faculty of the Kitt School of Music, Hemphill envisions further educational activity even though a rare neurological condition prevents him from performance prospects.
PROJECT FOCUS – STEEL PAN
Throughout the 1990’s Hemphill self-purchased several steel pans in order to start a steel band in the NAU percussion studio. At the same time, he was able to purchase a few instruments through NAU and he began producing 42 musical arrangements for steel band performances.
Continuing today, the NAU Panorama Steel Band has performed on many NAU Percussion Ensemble concerts and has provided entertainment for many on-campus events including a NAU president’s inauguration, alumni events, Center for International Education events, Honors Program award ceremonies, conferences, Campus Ministries, dining services, Ardrey renovation gala, Panorama on the Patio – 1899 Bar & Grill, among other events. In the Flagstaff community, the ensemble has performed for the Forest Highlands Golf Club, Continental Golf Club, McLaughlin Orthodontics, Dallas Real Estate, and a number of private parties. The ensemble can perform as a quintet or expand to twelve/thirteen members, with four lead pans, three double seconds, two cello pans, electric bass, drums, and one or two percussionists.
The NAU Panorama Steel Band also serves as the fund-raising arm of the NAU Percussion Society for which Hemphill serves as the faculty advisor. This club is recognized and registered by the ASNAU, the institution’s student government. With a mission …to support and promote the continued growth, development, and visibility of percussion and percussion education on the campus of Northern Arizona University, the society advocates for percussion in all appropriate forums, thereby cultivating a growing and more sophisticated, well-informed audience and more refined, scholarly artists.
While a primary purpose of the steel band is to raise funds for bringing guest artists in the percussion field to the NAU campus and Flagstaff community, a secondary purpose is to provide students with performance experiences which parallel a working (gigging) ensemble found throughout today’s society, serving in the entertainment field. The repertoire of this group is popular and engaging—blending the relaxing sounds of Caribbean and American pop with dynamic influences of calypso, soca, jazz, reggae, and soul—focusing on well-known music correlated with commercial applications; Bob Marley, Jimmy Buffett, Van Morrison, Harry Belafonte, The Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Antonio Carlos Jobim, etc. While the majority of the ensemble’s membership is derived from music majors in the percussion studio, non-music majors are involved as well and are welcome as full members or substitute performers, depending upon available space and instrument need.
Select Past Community Performances – NAU Panorama Steel Band
The Art Loft Collective is “accomplishing something I haven’t seen successfully done in Flagstaff — they’re holding an art space for their resident artists while also collaborating to create artistic opportunities for kids and promoting the work of local artists. I’m excited with the work they’re doing, hosting different artists every first Friday while continuing to create a wonderful studio space.”
“First Fridays unlock the nooks and crannies, demystify the creaky beautiful second and third floors of the town’s old brick buildings. The recently opened Art Loft Collective occupies the top floor above The Artists Gallery and FLG Terroir. A plant-dotted atrium overlooking the local wine bar is the first indication that you’ve almost arrived at the studio space and dream-come-true of local artist Ashley Matelski…The space has been full to the brim with visitors every First Friday since Art Loft opened. Urdang, Jacoby and Matelski hope to offer more adult classes and workshops in the future as well.” -Svea Conrad (AZ Daily Sun)
Ashley Matelski was interviewed and said, “the hardest thing about being an artist is putting yourself out there and having a safe space where there are people to see your art and someone to facilitate that,” Matelski said. “I had one artist approach me and say, ‘I don’t know if I’m good enough,’ and I said, ‘Yes of course you are.’ I want a space where anybody feels welcome and open to show.” -Svea Conrad (AZ Daily Sun)
Other pieces on the concert program were:
Tickets to the Family Pops Concert were accessibly priced, and entry for children 12 & under was free. An original Peter and the Wolf coloring book commissioned for this performance and paid for by FSO was distributed to all children in the audience along with a box of crayons.
Attendance at the concert exceeded expectations, and by all measures the event was a rousing success thanks to strong support from the Arizona Community Foundation and several local businesses. This performance was part of FSO’s continuing commitment to music education and outreach in our community, which includes the annual free 4th of July concert, the Link Up program in collaboration with Carnegie Hall, and the symphony’s “side-by-side” concerts featuring local string students who rehearse and perform alongside FSO’s professional musicians.
Following an 18-month period of no live orchestra performances due to COVID-19 restrictions, this collaboration reminded those in attendance of the power of laughing, crying, cheering, and “con-spiring” (literally “breathing together”) to some of our favorite music – an important step towards repairing the damage to our community wrought by the pandemic.
Participating Artists:
Kyle and Gretta dreamed up the idea for this album, Serenade, alongside the wonderful organization ‘Beloved Arise’. This groundbreaking album offers LGBTQ+ youth of faith something they’ve never had – songs of their own. Serenade is a 10-song collaborative album and is dedicated to celebrating and empowering LGBTQIA+ youth. This unique compilation album brings together an eclectic group of 10 different musicians. Kyle and Gretta selected the artists, casted vision for the project, produced the songs, and recorded and mixed most of the songs at their local studio right here in Flagstaff, AZ.
Also, Jay Mercado (artist name ‘iiwaa’) was one of the artists on the album and they are a 2Spirit Flagstaff local. iiwaa is Piipaash and Quechan and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community and their song ‘Learning to Love Myself’ was an amazing addition to the album (produced by Kyle Miller, Saxophone by Flagstaff local, Ryan Wheless).
Serenade’s tracks are not just songs; they are anthems of a movement to raise awareness for young people around the world who continue to face severe, life-threatening oppression. The Trevor Project estimates that at least one LGBTQ+ youth attempts suicide every 45 seconds. Many of these youth experience religious condemnation and pressure from family and faith leaders to “change” who they are. This album hopes to encourage and uplift the LGBTQIA+ community, especially youth, by celebrating the beauty of queer faith through song.
“Serenade is art in action,” says Dr. Jun Young, founder of Beloved Arise, the first national organization dedicated to fighting for the lives of queer youth of faith. “Our hope is that every queer kid around the world hears this music and feels seen, known, and loved.”
Most of the artists of Serenade are part of the LGBTQ+ community and see this album as a heartfelt gift to queer youth – something they wish would have existed when they were younger. Also featured is 19-year-old, Mel Rottman, who earned their spot on the album by winning a song-writing contest open to queer youth of faith. Their song ‘Tethered’ is a love song God sings to queer youth and ends with “Welcome home, my child. I love who you are.”
“This album expresses such a rich tapestry of sounds – from folk to R&B, pop to gospel,” says Kyle Miller. “But what really stands out is the message of hope that resounds through the music.”
Ballet Folklórico de Colores contributes to Flagstaff’s quality of life by:
Some of our big performances during 2021 include: a performance presented by MOCAF and Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival, the Co-Vids: An Arts in Flagstaff Series, Museum of Northern Arizona’s Celebraciones de la Gente, a collaboration with NAU Wind Symphony’s Escenas concert, a performance of Huapango, and The Nutcracker in Modern Barefeet with Canyone Movement Company.
“BFdC has provided students with an opportunity to explore their creativity, express their culture, and engage with others in a unique and meaningful way”. – Principal Mark Culbertson, Puente de Hózhó
Threaded Together offers free and low-cost sewing and textile arts programming around our community. They have been holding weekly sewing classes for teens on probation, and have partnered with Boys and Girls club to offer free after-school sewing classes. They also created the Sewing and Textile Employment Pathways (STEP) program, which offers paid vocational training to low-to-moderate income residents and trains skilled workers for local businesses.
All community members are encouraged to join Threaded Together to build skills and express themselves. They offer free open studio hours for adults on Wednesdays and for teens on Thursdays. In addition, their classroom holds workshops for learners of all ages and skill levels, offered with sliding scale pricing.
At the start of the pandemic, instead of holding a grand opening party as planned, Threaded Together stepped up to fill the manufacturing gap and provided vital PPE to frontline staff and community members. They also provided employment at a time when many businesses were forced to close. Their staff, contractors, and volunteers have so far made over 25,000 reusable masks and hospital gowns, which were distributed around Flagstaff and to medical facilities on nearby reservations. They have been featured in the news through Arizona Daily Sun, AZ Central, The Lumberjack, Flagstaff Live, MSN News, and NAZ Today.
Tynkertopia’s mission is to serve as a STEAM Community Center to empower all residents of Flagstaff and Northern Arizona to cultivate skills, strategies, and confidence as independent, lifelong learners and to expand creativity, inquiry skills, and STEM/STEAM skills and knowledge by inviting curiosity, inspiring wonder, encouraging playfulness, and celebrating unique solutions.
As a safe, welcoming, and inclusive space for students, teachers, parents, artists, crafters, inventors, makers, and tynkerers of any age, Tynkertopia welcomes community collaborations in which partners work together to share expertise, resources, and responsibility for achieving mutual goals. The organizations’ vision is to build a “stronger future for Flagstaff youth and families by offering community-based STEAM learning opportunities.”
Children and youth of all ages enjoy going to Tynkertopia to build, create, explore, discover, tynker, and have fun learning about science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM). Tynkertopia’s motto is Think with your Hands • Learn by Doing!
Tynkertopia offers FREE admission to all. Funding comes exclusively from donations and grants. The organization is dedicated to serving children and youth living in poverty and those un- or under-represented in STEAM fields. Tynkertopia partners with the US Department of Agriculture and St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance to offer a free meal to every child between 1- and 18-years of age who visits Tynkertopia. Growing minds require good nutrition, so Tynkertopia is proud to provide nutritious meals to all who wish them.
Tynkertopia hosts fieldtrips from area public, private, charter, and homeschools in which students engage in hands-on learning that deepened their understanding of the science and engineering concepts they were learning in school. They also host science-based birthday parties for children who love Tynkertopia and want to celebrate their birthdays in Tynkertopia’s colorful, engaging space.
Tynkertopia also offers a Junior Internship program that gives middle and high school students a rare opportunity to gain work experience while providing help to younger children engaged in creating, building, coding, tynkering, and more.
Tynkertopia’s exponential growth and success since opening its doors in August 2018 indicates that Tynkertopia is filling an important need in Flagstaff. As each month passes, more and more families discover Tynkertopia. Before its temporary COVID closure, Tynkertopia hosted over 10,500 visitors. During this closure, they quickly adjusted their learning model: instead of having children and youth come to them, they delivered STEAM learning opportunities to Flagstaff children and youth.
Tynkertopia created STEAM Kits and delivered them each Friday at area schools, domestic violence shelters, the Coconino Center for the Arts, and Flagstaff Public Libraries. Each of the 16,000 STEAM Kit contained a STEAM Challenge, all the materials needed for the challenge, guidance on how to solve the challenge in English and Spanish, a list of books and hands-on materials on the topic that could be checked out of the library, and a Tynkertopia sticker and flyer.
Tynkertopia also created and distributed many STEAM Kits during the Flagstaff Festival of Science. Tynkertopia was honored to partner with many Flagstaff arts, science, and educational organizations to reach as wide an audience as possible during the COVID pandemic.
Tynkertopia reopened on August 14, 2021 at its new location within Siler Homes, one of the largest public housing communities in Flagstaff, reaffirming its mission to serve children and youth living in poverty and/or un- or under-represented in STEAM fields. The former and current Flagstaff Mayors, City Council, and City Manager recognized the importance of having a free STEAM Community Center in Flagstaff.
Hence, the City of Flagstaff invited Tynkertopia to use the 1,800 sq. ft. building formerly known as the Siler Homes Activity Center to provide STEAM learning opportunities to children and youth living in this neighborhood and the greater Flagstaff area.
Tynkertopia is currently open six days per week to serve drop-in visitors, those registered for a wide array of classes, field trips, birthday parties, and a myriad of special events. Siler Homes residents are frequent visitors, as are new families who have discovered Tynkertopia since its COVID closure, and numerous families who were frequent visitors at its old location.
Tynkertopia founder, Dr. Alice Christie, describes Tynkertopia as a natural culmination of her more than 50 years teaching in both K-12 and university environments. She actualized her vision of a hands-on community learning space when she created Tynkertopia in the hope of empowering participants to cultivate skills, strategies, and confidence as independent, lifelong learners. Many believe that Dr. Christie is one of the strongest contributors for youth development in Flagstaff because of the positive impact Tynkertopia has had on our community.
Tynkertopia has been warmly embraced by the Flagstaff community. The following unsolicited comments are from parents who frequent Tynkertopia and speak of their gratitude for Tynkertopia and what they consider to be benefits of Tynkertopia to the Flagstaff community:
The Lasting Indigenous Family Enrichment (LIFE) program that Carrie manages has allowed so many opportunities for people who would never meet to participate in a wide variety of activities. One of the most impressive activities was partnering with the Museum of Northern Arizona to build a traditional Pueblo style bread oven at the Colten Gardens. I feel very strongly in emphasizing that Carrie always includes people of all cultures to participate in the programs she designs for community. Everyone is welcome and everyone has opportunities to learn about themselves. For example, at the bread oven build, one learned about the importance of physical wellness required to gather the elements necessary to build an oven. Also, we were taught the cultural significance in the value of all hands-on deck helping to build something that could be shared by all.
Other types of activities that Carrie has created for community include teaching about Indigenous gardening, the Indigenous viewpoint on the importance of running for wellness, celebration of life through Indigenous dance, the acknowledgement of Indigenous sovereignty through Indigenous food preparation. Carrie has committed hours of research on how to share physical, mental, and spiritual wellness with community through the activities she’s created for community. She has been fortunate to collaborate and to bring to Flagstaff many Indigenous people who are skilled in their cultural knowledge and are willing to share with the general public. Her emphasis on following through each level of preparation for an event is a true gift. For example, Carrie gathers information about cultural stories, artistic designs, or methods of gathering traditional components and she makes sure that the value in each part is taught by an elder or a skilled artisan. Carrie has a notable respectful and harmonious style of strategizing to impact and advance the culture and community of Flagstaff. Many times, Carrie has been acknowledged and thanked publicly by local Native community members at Indigenous events, but I think it’s important that the City of Flagstaff publicly acknowledge and award Carrie Dallas for her advocacy and empowerment of all people and all cultures.”
Carrie Dallas wanted to personally mention that “culture is an element of life that can make it pleasurable. The parts of Culture I associate with include tribal connections to Indigenous music, dance, movement, art, attire, food, beliefs, values, positive practices/rituals, health, wellness, gratitude, respect and honor. Culture is a blessing to our lives, in so many ways. I have witnessed youth’s cultural learning impact their confidence, health and wellbeing, times over. I’ve heard heartfelt words of remembrance, of a cultural practice that has been lost and brought back. Culture connects us. It brings us together to share time and space. There are so many reasons why I continue teaching and sharing Native American culture. It is a lifeway and a destiny I love.”
Bacon founded the Tiny Library Project. He drove around the US to collect old English phone booths and restored them to place in Flagstaff. These phone booths hold books for community members to borrow and read. In May 2021, the phone boxes transformed into books and The Library Project Food Drive. This drive allowed Flagstaff community members to donate unopened cereal boxes to be stacked into one of the phone booths for people to take when needed.
“He’s a man who’s built his entire life on four tenets: family, community, humanity and kindness. From the Tiny Library Project to the Best Life Ever Foundation and community advocacy, Bacon refuses to simply be a bystander. He greets every person he encounters like an old friend and everyone seems to know him, even those he’s never met”. -Bree Burkitt (AZ Daily Sun)
Speak for the Peaks is an art initiative, organized to address the ongoing destruction of a sacred mountain known as the San Francisco Peaks. The peaks are core to a hydrology system existing across the Colorado Plateau. Snowbowl, since its official inceptions, has largely dedicated itself to desecrating this sacred site. Most notably, Snowbowl and the City of Flagstaff entered an agreement to funnel the city’s reclaimed sewage onto the mountain to create fake snow. Within the past year, Snowbowl has submitted plans for developed expansion that would yield an even greater impact while contesting it would be done so in a fashion that was honorable to surrounding tribes. SFTP is a response among many (throughout the 8 decades that Snowbowl has existed) directly addressing and opposing the desecration and commodification of a sacred site. Hence, SFTP. Hence the need to turn inward and to unite and revitalize the collective expressions of Indigenous people who hold this mountain and her many relatives as sacred.
As a sacred summit, this mountain nourishes the various life ways that are intricate, biotic and a repeating of seasonal ecological breathing that is as patterned and diverse as the more than 200 songs that reside within one ceremony (among just one of many tribes).
Advocacy for this mountain has thus far been organized through the participation of various artists across the region and this continent who center their relationship to this mountain through shared teachings, catharsis, and reminders. Additionally, many of our participating artists have been rewarded with cash prizes to help them out during these difficult times as their welfare is the welfare of the mountain, and their expressions are the nexus of initiating the mass shifts in consciousness. Artists have engendered a cognizant return to the fundamentals of Indigenous personhood as we jointly encounter the pandemic resulting from climate crises, centuries of colonization, and geopolitical narratives that seek to erase Indigenous health—including mostly notably, our relationship to land.
The initiative provides support for the artists who participate in each of its four phases. From the phase one prompt, “How does the mountain’s current welfare reflect our/your own well-being?” artists submitted paintings conveying the beauty of the land juxtaposed with signs of development, digital illustrations personifying the mountain as a nurturing mother. Each artists’ creativity is the limit for how they answer the prompt, with visual art, written and performed song, poetry, choreographed dance, short film or video essay and 3D art accepted as well as other forms of media such as a podcast, TikTok video, Twitter essay, Instagram story, protest sign, skate video and more.
As non-profits from a broad spectrum of focus areas know, APS is committed to ensuring that the communities across Arizona are vibrant and diverse. One of the ways APS fulfills that commitment is through robust philanthropic efforts that support a variety of causes including the arts, culture and arts/science education.
Organizations focused on arts, culture and arts/science education in the greater Flagstaff area have benefitted from APS’s generosity – not only in 2021, but for decades preceding last year. Although this inaugural award is focused on 2021 efforts, it to be noted that consistency and longevity are key hallmarks of APS’ philanthropic efforts. Creative Flagstaff, Museum of Northern Arizona, Lowell Observatory, The Arboretum, Theatrikos, Flagstaff Symphony, Flagstaff Festival of Science, Flagstaff Friends of Traditional Music, STEM City, Flagstaff Dark Skies are just some of the many organizations that have benefitted from APS’ recognition of the value of arts and culture to Flagstaff residents and visitors.
Throughout the turbulent times faced by organizations since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, APS has continued to demonstrate that it understands the challenges our non-profits have faced. Their flexibility allowed multiple grantees to refocus their 2021 and 2020 funding to other needs, including general operations, in an effort to ensure their viability.
APS is more than deserving of this award because of the multi-faceted approach it takes to philanthropy. In addition to the cash contributions APS makes each year through the APS Foundation and the APS Community Impact Grants, the organization:
Please note that APS makes investments such as these throughout the 11 counties it serves in Arizona. To provide the full picture of APS’ philanthropy, we have included information for 2021, as well as the five previous years.
While their donations might not be the largest across the arts and cultural sector in any given year, APS always shows up for our non-profits across Flagstaff and northern Arizona – be it arts, culture and education or economic development, social services, the environment, first responders or any of a multitude of other focus areas.
In 2021, Dark Sky Brewing reached out to the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition to let the members know that Dark Sky Brewing had created a special IPA to support the Coalition during Celebration of the Night. Throughout the month of October, a portion of the sales from the brewery’s Circadian Rhythm – a full-bodied beer with strong notes of citrus and juice – would be going to the Coalition in support of Flagstaff’s famous dark skies.
“For us, this collaboration just makes sense,” said the brewery’s Event Coordinator Miguel Sotelo. “We chose the beer ‘Circadian Rhythm’ because of its bright and powerful flavors. Like the members of our beautiful community, we are thrilled at the opportunity to support the bright and powerful people that directly protect, educate and support Flagstaff as the First International Dark Sky City.”
In addition, Dark Sky Brewing supported Flagstaff’s dark skies by hosting an event marking the 20th anniversary of Flagstaff’s designation as the First International Dark Sky City on Oct. 24, complete with telescope viewing on the brewery’s outside patio. Again, the brewery pledged support through sales and also recruited Pizzicletta to join in and offer a portion of its sales for that night, too!
Because of the fabulous local support, the evening turned into a classic Flagstaff celebration – in honor of conservation of our dark skies natural resource; acknowledgment of community values; opportunities for learning and discovery; and, fellowship among locals and visitors, scientists and college students.
Fueled by the enthusiasm, creativity and generosity of the Dark Sky Brewing team, the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition’s fundraising campaign for 2022 has begun; the year’s dark skies public programming is developing into the most extraordinary and far-reaching yet; and, the example has been set for how local small businesses can embrace and participate in efforts that benefit us all.
The Flinn Foundation’s support of MNA over the past year has included significant financial investment, resources (such as webinars) for cultural institutions navigating the pandemic, and free access to top consultants regarding financial planning, strategic thinking, and audience evaluation through the phases of the pandemic and preparation for whatever the “new normal” may be.
In June of 2021, Flinn awarded MNA an unrestricted grant of $100,000 to support the institution’s response to the pandemic. The impact of this investment cannot be understated, as it enabled MNA to retain staff, continue public programming (online and in-person in Covid-sensitive ways), and created a buffer so that staff could move from a reactive state of crisis response towards thinking strategically about next steps for MNA. This investment will have a ripple effect for years to come, as it not only helped ensure MNA’s survival, but also gave organizational leaders room to breathe and carefully consider how to address the challenges of the pandemic and the future of the institution.
This 2021 grant followed similar support in 2020 where the Flinn Foundation generously agreed to convert a project specific grant of $100,000 to unrestricted operating support. This was especially helpful at the outset of the pandemic when cultural organizations, like much of the rest of the world, were facing a completely unknown and unpredictable future.
The Flinn Foundation values communication and transparency with grantees, and throughout the pandemic, has asked for input about MNA’s needs. It is notable that the 2021 grant was unrestricted; Flinn recognizes that nonprofits themselves are in the best position to determine how funds ought to be used. These unrestricted funds have been critical in allowing MNA to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances of the pandemic, which often change from one day to the next.
In addition, over the past year the Flinn Foundation has provided a series of webinars and individual consulting sessions with nonprofit management consulting firm TDC. This access to specialist consultants assisted arts and cultural organizations with responding to the pandemic and planning for the future, and was available for free to Flinn grantees. This provided MNA invaluable access to these experts and has informed MNA’s strategic and financial planning processes, both underway now.
MNA is one of the oldest cultural institutions in Flagstaff, and the Flinn Foundation’s support will not only advance MNA’s vision of the future, but also the broader cultural sector in northern Arizona. MNA seeks to cultivate partnerships across the region, collaborating with artists and other institutions to advance the cultural sector far beyond the walls of the museum. It is our honor and pleasure to nominate the Flinn Foundation for the 2022 Viola Award in Philanthropy. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions.
His unflagging devotion to FMT was evidenced when he personally purchased a building for the group, allowing them to continue building sets when the organization was no longer able to use Sinagua MS to build and store their builds. The building also became their costume storage space when the garage FMT previously used in town was no longer available. FMT also uses the space for rehearsals, and is able to keep production costs lower as a result, all due to Randy’s passion and love for local theatre.
In 2020, the group did not perform due to COVID-19 regulations, however Beaumont continues to design sets for potential future shows, and will be ready to go once FMT is able to continue live theater production. One community member noted “Randy has been an active volunteer and member of Flagstaff Music Theatre (formally FLOC) since it began in 1996. He works tirelessly to create innovative and beautiful sets for all of our productions. He has also had a performing role in nearly every production we have had. He has selflessly provided a rehearsal venue, and costume/set warehouse for us to use. He has generously contributed creatively, financially, and been an active member of our board for decades.”
His commitment to Flagstaff Music Theater and their productions confirms his mission to further art and theatre in the Flagstaff community. Beaumont’s philanthropy to the art community in both labor and charity allows our small town to continue supporting the arts. His impact on the cIty of Flagstaff has been consistent since the 90’s, establishing him as a long-time supporter of both local theatre and the Flagstaff community.
the generosity of our Founding Sponsor, the Babbitt Brothers Foundation, our Title Sponsor, Northern Arizona University, as well as other community members and sponsors.
The 14th Annual Viola Awards will take place on Saturday, April 30, 2022. There are several different sponsorship levels with varying benefits.
The Viola Awards have had a meteoric rise to fame in Flagstaff, due mostly to the creative community’s embrace of the event. It was clear from the first annual event on March 5, 2009, that something special was happening. Throughout the 10+ years, elegant dress… fancy flamboyant costumes… Martanne’s Breakfast Palace table on fire… the ground-shaking roar of the crowd when Craig Bowie was announced as Arts Education winner in 2010… Circus Bacchus’ naughty naked video interview as nominees in 2013… the aerial dancers from Flagstaff Aerial Arts hanging off the beam at High Country Conference Center in 2015… Dark Sky Aerial’s feature performance in 2017… the Viola Awards recognize and celebrate talent, contributions and excellence in arts, science, and culture, and do it with style.
What has always been prevalent is the love and support shown by those in attendance for the nominees and award winners. In addition to the artistic giants who have impacted Flagstaff over the years and taken home awards, elected officials at the local, County and State level have attended the event every year. Most importantly though, winners are exalted, nominees are celebrated, and everyone revels in the power of the arts.
Relive the memories and past Viola Awards events below.
