This is no April Fools Day joke – The Viola Awards are returning to the Orpheum Theater in historic downtown Flagstaff, celebrating 15 years of excellence in Flagstaff’s creative community.
Creative Flagstaff is excited to announce that the 15th Annual Viola Awards will take place on Saturday, April 1, 2023 at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Flagstaff.
A full list of this year’s finalists can be found below. Winners will be announced at the ceremony on April 1, 2023. Get you tickets here.
Meet your 2023 finalists below!
We are honored to recognize Alan Petersen as our 2023 Babbitt Brothers Foundation Viola Legacy Award.
Alan Petersen grew up in San Diego where he attended Southwestern Community College before moving to the South Rim of Grand Canyon to work for the Fred Harvey Company for three years. He came to Flagstaff in 1980 to attend Northern Arizona University.
During the 1980s he worked as a river guide in Grand Canyon. In 1992 he was hired as a faculty member for newly established Coconino Community College where he taught drawing, painting, art history, and courses about the Colorado Plateau. He also served as the Chair of the Fine Arts Department for many years. In 2004 he and his wife Catherine, along with friends and students, created Palette to Palate, one of Flagstaff’s most popular arts events, as a fundraiser for the College’s art department. Alan retired from CCC in 2022. During the summers, he teaches outdoor drawing workshops at Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks.
During the 1990s Alan was active in a number of local planning initiatives that have served to improve Flagstaff’s arts and culture scene. As a member of the Chamber of Commerce’s Arts, Business and Culture Committee, he co-authored with Kate Sibley the white paper, A Cultural Action Plan for Flagstaff in 1986. He later served as a team co-leader for the Flagstaff 20/20 Vision Project. Among many other outcomes, that process led to the establishment of the Artist’s Coalition of Flagstaff, which he served as the first president. At the same time, Alan chaired the Local Arts and Science Agency Task Force, a community task force working with city, county, and citizen’s groups that sought to establish a local arts and science agency for Flagstaff. This led to the creation of Flagstaff Cultural Partners, now Creative Flagstaff, which he served as the first board president. This also saved the Coconino Center for the Arts from being repurposed or demolished.
Since 2005, Alan has served as the Curator of Fine Art at the Museum of Northern Arizona. During his tenure, Alan has curated exhibitions of work by such notable artists as Gunnar Widforss, Joella Jean Mahoney, Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton, Merrill Mahaffey, Bruce Aiken, Ed Mell, Curt Walters, Shonto Begay, Baje Whitethorne, and Tony Foster, among many others. He is currently working on an exhibition about the role that the Fred Harvey Company and Santa Fe Railroad played in promoting tourism in the Southwest during the early twentieth century.
In 2020, Alan published a catalogue raisonné of works by Swedish-American artist Gunnar Widforss that currently lists nearly 1,300 paintings. He is continuing work on a monograph on Widforss’ fascinating life and art. Alan has also published a number of articles on the artist and in 2018 co-curated an exhibition of the artist’s work in Ljungby, Sweden.
Alan’s own paintings have their source in the light, space, and landforms of the Colorado Plateau. He is currently engaged in a major project that involves mapping and drawing the geological sources of uranium found within Grand Canyon. Journeys in Search of Grand Canyon Uranium takes him to often fabulously remote locations in and around the Canyon on foot and by mountain bike.
This year we are pleased to recognize 49 finalists across 11 categories.
So starts a magazine article in December 2022 about the exhibition Baje Whitethorne Sr.: Náátsʼíilid/Rainbow Light and entering the exhibition it’s easy to see why. Baje’s art pulls viewers in with color and energy. Baje is a visual storyteller. Each of his works of art is a glimpse of his rich life, his family, and his homeland. The places are the cliffs and canyons where his Diné family lived for generations and where they will continue to return for centuries to come. They are the places where he sat with his brothers and sisters, listening to their grandmother’s stories. They are his family and friends. They are joy and sorrow; timeless views of humanity and our place in the world.
Baje Whitethorne Sr. grew up near Shonto, northeast of Tuba City, a land of slickrock, piñon and juniper, brilliant light, and quiet. He studied art at Northern Arizona University and by the early 1980s was gaining regional acclaim for his colorful paintings full of life and energy.
His technical prowess shines through in each piece of art, but really stands out when one scans the span of his ability. Watercolors, acrylics, and oils all applied with equal mastery. Landscapes and people each expressing a similar joy. Large-scale abstract paintings and detailed children’s book illustrations. Bronze sculptures that dance and leap. In addition to his paintings, Baje is an accomplished printmaker, sculptor, jeweler, author, and illustrator. He has illustrated eight children’s books, two of which he wrote. Among his popular books are the Native American stories Monster Bird, Monster Slayer, and Sika and the Raven.
As the story goes, Baje decided to try sculpture after another artist who works purely in sculpture told him that it is much more difficult than painting, and basically implied Baje wasn’t as good. Baje took it as a challenge and created a sculpture, quickly earning awards and recognitions for his three-dimensional work just as he has for his two-dimensional work, including the 2005 sculpture award at the Santa Fe Indian Market, and proving that he is a master artist in any medium.
At 72 and recently recovered from a serious bout of Covid and a heart attack , Baje continues to explore new mediums, experimenting with digital art techniques. For the exhibition he wrote short poems for each painting, which are included on the art labels. Here’s the poem that accompanies Edgewater Fan Dancer –
Clan Dances
Mother made these skirts
the sky-colored shirts
multicolored, cut bead handles
beautiful fans to balance
She whirls in
grounded red moccasins
Throughout his long career, Baje has exhibited his work in several European countries and in the United States from San Francisco to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.. In 2019, he was included in the major exhibition “Six Navajo Masters” at the Booth Western Art Museum near Atlanta, Georgia, but the exhibition nominated here, Baje Whitethorne Sr.: Náátsʼíilid/Rainbow Light, stands out as a solo retrospective of his work and likely the pinnacle exhibition of his career. It opened in April 2022 at the Museum of Northern Arizona and represents a stunning and uplifting art experience. Baje has garnered many honors for his art through his career, but never received the Excellence in Visual Art Viola Award. He’s not one to self-promote and sometimes his importance as an artist can be overshadowed by his contributions to the art community. In 2014 Baje was given the 2014 Mayor’s Legacy Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Arts at the annual Viola Awards, a fitting recognition for someone who has spent so much of his time helping other artists.
Baje is a passionate advocate for young artists and for sharing the power of art in his communities. He founded Art of the People, a collective of Indigenous artists who work together to encourage a new generation of artists while sharing Navajo culture through their art. Baje and the artists of Art of the People engage in a public collaborative art-making process. They set up at regional events, such as Rock the Canyon at Shonto, and the Heritage Festival and Palette to Palate here in Flagstaff. At events, each of the artists take turns painting on a single canvas, while the public watches or sometimes helps, layering paint and ideas with ease and synergy as a shared vision emerges.
Baje’s mentored many artists of all ages and after the death of his eldest son, created the Buddy Whitethorne Foundation to further support aspiring Native American artists with financial and tuition support.
In 2019, Baje became the first instructor for the Namingha Institute at Museum of Northern Arizona. The Institute brings students and early career artists to the Museum for intensive workshops with Master artists. Eight students from around the Southwest joined Baje for the inaugural event that included daily discussions and collaborative painting sessions.
“There’s no ‘I’ or ‘you.’ It’s all ‘we’ “ is one of Baje’s common phrases, which is emblazoned high on one wall of the Náátsʼíilid/Rainbow Light exhibition.
Nearby, four blue folding chairs surround a table in the center of the exhibition, inviting visitors to sit, talk, and try some art of their own. They can color their own versions of some of the painting on display, follow Baje’s instructions for drawing a horse, or watch videos of Baje teaching short art lessons and telling stories. Sometimes Baje himself is sitting at one of the seats, welcoming visitors in person and answering questions in his gentle tone, filled with the same warmth and joy as his art.
These blue chairs reference one of the signature elements of Baje’s paintings – a blue metal chair that he recalls from his youth in Shonto, Arizona.
“When I was a boy, my parents and grandparents brought a new card table with six blue metal chairs home from Flagstaff. I was fascinated by how the sun hit the metallic blue. In the summer months, I would put my face against the cool seat of the chairs. Now, I include the chair in my artwork because it reminds me of my boyhood and because it draws people into my artwork as they try to find it.”
Drawing people in is what Baje does, through his art, through his stories, through his presence. And people have been responding to Náátsʼíilid/Rainbow Light. The exhibition was the focus of MNA’s Slow Art Day in April 2022, which invited people to spend time looking closely at art and then share in a thoughtful discussion afterward. Later in April the poet Jodie Hollander led a free ekphrastic writing workshop in the exhibition, which led to several poems inspired by the paintings that were read during a Thirsty Thursday in the summer. Whether writing poems inspired by the paintings, viewing the art lessons and videos, coloring, or creating their own art, each visitor comes away from Náátsʼíilid/Rainbow Light with an appreciation for the light and color of our world – the hozho.
Some art points out the difficulties we all face in the world, the trauma and ennui. Sometimes it brings attention to what is dark and difficult, the problems that need to be faced and fixed. But sometimes we need art to break through the bleakness, like a rainbow after a storm, and show us the beauty of life. Náátsʼíilid/Rainbow Light has done that, just when we needed it most.
* “Art Gallery: Baje Whitethorne Sr”, Cowboys and Indians Magazine, Dec. 21, 2022[/ultimate_modal]
“Things Not Seen was created to take advantage of a media-driven society where visual images can give voice to current topics and issue-driven subjects,” said Debra Edgerton (https://nau.edu/artmuseum/things-not-seen/ ). Visual pieces as well as a musical piece were featured in the exhibition. “An installation titled, “How are you? Are you okay?” was inspired by Edgerton’s interaction with an Instagram friend named Emilie. She used her platform to ask the questions “How are you? Are you okay?” on her story. Edgerton described the answers as “honest and raw.” Below a screen of Emilie’s responses are two journals and pens for people to share how they are doing anonymously. Edgerton also shares the message “You are not alone” on a piece of paper next to the journals. Edgerton said her goal for the exhibition was for anybody struggling with any of these topics to feel they have somewhere to go to and relate to through these pieces.”
https://libraryguides.nau.edu/c.php?g=1259595 (This link provides historical reference for the exhibition)[/ultimate_modal]
Geoffrey’s talents in bronze casting, stonework, carpentry, and welding are truly exceptional in their diversity. Each feature of the pond and wetland was meticulously designed and crafted to be appropriate to the area as well as functional and durable over the long term. Although there was a rudimentary pond and wetland in the space, they were poorly constructed and had deteriorated beyond repair. Geoffrey considered all aspects, from mechanical to aesthetic, of how to create a new pond and wetland that would better serve their ecological, interpretive, and aesthetic purposes. He set to work and, regardless of the particular task or the tools needed to complete it, he did everything with precision, finesse, and a passion for creating something inviting and beautiful for the community.
Geoffrey carved and cast naturalistic bronze bas-reliefs of a red-winged blackbird and a great blue heron, applied a patina to them, and riveted them to boulders he shaped to frame the path to the pond and wetland. After excavating the pond with a backhoe and jackhammering the solid basalt at the bottom to deepen it, he used an excavator to position large, carefully-chosen boulders around the pond’s edge and to build the waterfall. Through the boulders at its base, he carved a channel to direct the flow of the waterfall to attract wildlife with its sound and for maximum aeration of the pond. He shaped the surface of the overall space into swales and slopes to hold stormwater runoff from the parking lot in the wetland and keep it separate from the pond, and a muddy shore to capture tracks of animals coming to the pond for water. Finally, he built a boardwalk with railing to provide a safe place to observe the pond close-up. Geoffrey also installed filters, pumps, and piping to keep the pond water fresh, and tweaked the system until the water stayed clear.
The pond and wetland are emblematic of the culture and spirit of our community, conveying a deep affinity for nature and encouragement of the curious child within all of us. As the first features people see as they approach the Environmental Education Center, they are a compelling invitation to pause, become aware of the surrounding environment, and explore the science behind it. Small signs linked to web pages explain the role both features play in ecology and conservation.
Geoffrey’s work interprets the natural world to visitors, cultivates an interest in science, and promotes conservation on a subliminal level. Because the park is free and open to everyone throughout the year, residents and out-of-town visitors can experience the pond and wetland at any time, based on their individual interests. Birders appear at dawn and dusk, seniors and dog walkers pause by it on their daily rounds, students read by the waterfall, and local families picnic on the boardwalk. International visitors appear now and then, having searched for a local park on their smartphones. The pond and wetland have become rare and treasured amenities for those who live in the surrounding underserved and student neighborhoods, and a consolation to the unsheltered who camp along nearby Sinclair Wash.
Yearly, over 1,200 children and adults will enjoy the pond and wetland as they participate in regular programs and special events at the Willow Bend Center. On-site programs include monthly Science Saturdays, such as the annual greater Flagstaff-wide Sustainable Buildings Tour, as well as workshops for teachers, classes for adults, and field trips for schoolchildren. Geoffrey himself leads wildlife tracking workshops for the Center. The eighty children who enroll in NAU’s two annual summer sessions of Bug Camp will especially appreciate the pond and wetland as places to observe and collect aquatic insects and larvae.
Geoffrey collaborated with the Willow Bend Environmental Education Center, Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of Willow Bend Gardens, Brian Painter head of Northern Arizona University’s Sculpture Department and fellow County Parks staff on a vision for the AWWE project. Based on their contributions, he designed the pond and wetland and worked with the county wildlife planner to obtain Heritage Fund grants for supplies and materials to complete them as well as his related AWWE work. He welcomed help from volunteers, including the Friends of Willow Bend Gardens and the American Conservation Experience, on various aspects of the multi-year AWWE project.
The Outdoor Classroom and the Viewing Platform are two other AWWE features Geoffrey created in collaboration with Willow Bend educators, Friends of Willow Bend Gardens, and Tinkergarten’s Christina Molinaro. Inspired by the Children’s Nature Play Area at the Highlands Center for Natural History, the Outdoor Classroom is a wildlife-themed play space for young children and their parents. Geoffrey cast a naturalistic bronze raccoon, titmouse with a hidden nest of eggs, horned lizard, deer mouse, long-horned pine and Pinacate beetles with hidden larvae, and a roundtail chub—he carved a large stone bowl for the fish—for children to find as they explore the space. For their parents, he built a wooden bench using old-world joinery, and a shelf to hold natural objects such as wood blocks and pine cones for the children to use in creating imaginary habitats and other designs. He also pressed molds of wildlife tracks he made while exploring the area’s forests and wetlands into the classroom’s concrete sidewalk.
For the ADA accessible Viewing Platform, Geoffrey created a wrought iron, ornate railing to keep visitors safe and attached bronze casts he made of wildlife skulls and tracks to it. He pressed more animal tracks into the concrete of the platform itself.
Among Geoffrey’s other artistic contributions to the Habitat Gardens at Willow Bend are the bronze casts of wildlife tracks in the Ponderosa Ramada, the solid limestone bird bath ornamented with mosaic tiles, and the ever-fascinating sundial (also hewn from a block of limestone) with its intricate iron gnomon, cast Roman numerals, and perfect alignment that uses sunlight and shadow to accurately tell the time.
For the path to the playground in Archuleta County Park, Geoffrey designed and welded flip-frames for the Storybook Trail (which is a collaboration with the Flagstaff Literacy Center), created the sculptures Don Quixote and Ascent to Babylon, and made Legacy, a very large mosaic that covers the amphitheater wall.
Perhaps the most wonderful aspect of Geoffrey’s work is the way it captivates children and gentles busy and distracted adults, coaxing them to slow down and delight in the natural world. The pond and wetland have become the most admired of Geoffrey’s many works of art at Archuleta County Park, all of which he initiated and completed as labors of love for the community. His creation of the pond and wetland are yet another example of how Geoffrey goes far beyond the requirements of his role as Natural Resource Supervisor for the Coconino County Parks and Recreation Department.[/ultimate_modal]
In the main gallery of Coconino Center for the Arts, Shawn’s exhibit had widespread community impact in drawing numerous visitors. Tours of the exhibit were conducted by Shawn for several classes of students from Northern Arizona University and the Flagstaff Arts & Leadership Academy. In particular, my students were blown away by the messages behind the sculptures and exposed to a connection between social justice and sculpture that many had never considered before. Shawn’s installations were exquisite — the way the pollen was collected and then used to define exquisite drawings of cottonwooed leaves juxtaposed with organically decomposing oak forms that hung above. 1,785 water bottles miraculously collected, found and borrowed, and then formed in such a way that their presence individualized each specific migrant trying to reach a more promising human and familial existance. As serious as the subject of the exhibit was, it was equally as beautiful for its symmetry, its colors and its original uses of natural materials. On a conceptual level, the statements made about the impacts of colonialism in the Arizona region were powerful. Each installation spoke for itself, in its own discreet way, regarding how the dominant white culture in the Southwest has harmed immigrants, indigenous people and the environment. I know Shawn has received the award before, but I believe this exhibit is his penultimate work and deserves recognition.
Artist Shawn Skabelund wrote of the exhibition:
“After installing my exhibit, Virga: The Hunt for Water, in the fall of 2013, I immediately began to prepare Beneath the Sierra sin Agua. The world continued to be turned upside down by unprecedented catastrophic wildfires and flooding, but little did we know that there would also be the rise of an authoritarian figure in this country, a global pandemic, and a war in Eastern Europe.
How fast things happen and change.
Beneath the Sierra sin Agua is my attempt to make sense of these things as I work alone in my studio. The last course I taught at Northern Arizona University in 2011 was a place-based, site-specific installation class titled Ecological & Cultural Genocide in Arizona. This exhibition builds on what I shared with my students that semester.
Each installation reflects my collaboration with this place called Arizona. Together they explore its history, cultures and landscapes, allowing me to deepen my understanding of where I live, its destiny and how it is still being manifested.“[/ultimate_modal]
After being postponed several seasons due to the pandemic, FlagShakes was thrilled to finally bring this powerful story to life in 2022. Featuring a stellar cast of five and directed by Bray Lawrence, the play ran May 5 through 15 at the Coconino Center for the Arts. In addition to the play itself, FlagShakes brought in Ricardo Guthrie from Northern Arizona University to lead a post-show talk back to discuss race, loss, and the importance of producing this play. The play created much discussion within the community and was regarded as powerful and poignant.[/ultimate_modal]
In 2022 Rulon performed a very funny female role (“Lucille Rubin”) in the Theatrikos production of The Cemetery Club. The performance tackles subjects of death, morality and living on after those loved are no longer there. Rulon’s performance was acclaimed in the Daily Sun.
Dr. Rulon has been a professor of French at NAU for the last 9 years and has always been extremely involved in public humanities that serve the entire Flagstaff community. Various recognitions by students, glowing peer reviews, his selection as a departmental “Exemplary Performer” all demonstrate his professional dedication. He has taught and designed new courses at all levels and covering a wide variety of genres and topics, including Francophone cinema and literature and French Theatre. His teaching frequently crosses disciplines: most noteworthy are his cinema classes (CINE/LAN, cross-listed in Comparative Cultural Studies) and his First-Year Seminars on such engaging topics as “Rage Against the Machines”. Dr. Rulon taught a course on Francophone Caribbean Theater that offered students the opportunity to perform in “La Tempête”, a “Black Theater” adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, which he directed in two public productions: https://youtu.be/VJ2XvJedj70 (one held in Ardrey Auditorium).
His important involvement in both the NAU campus and Flagstaff community includes his roles as Faculty Senator, as Chair of the Senate’s Council on Learning and ad hoc Committee on Diversity, Coordinator of the International Film Series, and creator of a popular community theater event called the “Global Cabaret” (performances held twice a year at Firecreek Coffee in Flagstaff; now being held at Liminal Flagstaff). In 2016, he received the LQBTQIA Commission Faculty Award, an honor bestowed upon him by students and colleagues. One faculty reviewer notes: “He never turns down—and actively seeks out—opportunities to be involved in all aspects of our entire, multilingual and multicultural department and beyond.”[/ultimate_modal]
This show brought together an invigorating and imaginative cast of performers from every corner of Flagstaff’s creative community to create a one-of-a-kind robotic, apocalyptic, sultry, and sensational experience. Android Dre hosted an incredible circus of robots that captured an unbelievable array of whimsy and talent, from spoken-word poetry, to alluring belly dancers, to aerialists delicately balancing one another on and through a rotating metal cube, to hypnotic poi, to the neon cityscape and live-painter framing the stage, singers, musicians, drag queens -nearly naked and painted silver, the list goes on. One nomination wrote “Robot Apocalypse brought tears to my eyes, joy in my veins and love in my heart!”
Photo by Jake Bacon[/ultimate_modal]
The musical was performed three times to sell out crowds, from July 29th to the 31st, reaching just under 500 enthusiastic people. It was presented at the Museum of Northern Arizona in association with FAME flagstaff. Hardy Girls, the Musical was created and composed by Sara Bendel Ryan who has been in many musical and theatrical productions in her life. The musical is a spin-off of “The Harvey Girls” – those young women who moved out west in the early 1900s for adventure and an opportunity to work at a Fred Harvey establishment. Sara was inspired to write the musical after visiting La Posada with her husband Keith (also a musician) and began to write the script soon after. Not only did Sara write the script and the score – musical and choral – she produced, directed, and promoted the show, hired all the actors and musicians, and created the sets and playbill art herself. It is without hesitation that I nominate Sara Bendel Ryan for this award, not only because of the examples mentioned above, but also due to her lifetime of service to bringing arts to Flagstaff and her passion for creating art every day of her life.[/ultimate_modal]
In 2022 Craig released and performed A Dream We Dreamed One Afternoon Long Ago. Craig performed these arragements at the 15th Annual Jerry Garcia Bash at the Orpheum Theater, which honored what would have been Jerry Garica’s 80th birthday.[/ultimate_modal]
FCB’s membership has grown to approximately 75 musicians of all abilities and backgrounds from across the region. The FCB serves its musicians by providing a fun, inclusive, and welcoming environment for performers of all ages. They also collaborate with other local organizations to serve the community with unique and educational musical experiences. During the summer season the FCB also hosts a free Junior Band for approximately 50 middle school band students from the region.
In 2022, FCB celebrated its 30th season with a series of outstanding performances directed by Tim McKay. Performances included service events such as the Memorial Day Ceremony at Citizens Cemetery, as well as several performances in Heritage Square, and a collaborative July 4th weekend concert with Master Chorale of Flagstaff at Ft Tuthill Military Museum. To celebrate their 30th season in 2022, the FCB released a professionally recorded album which includes a new work “Fanfare 360” composed by Alex Skelton, a high school senior and member of the community band.[/ultimate_modal]
On Sunday, November 13th, the Master Chorale presented two concerts at Coconino Center for the Arts: “Safe Harbor: Songs of Refuge and Home.” This concert shared stories of human journeys in collaboration with the opening of Coconino Center of the Arts exhibition “25 Million Stitches: One Stitch, One Refugee.” Music on the program built a bridge with cultural and current events in Syria, Ukraine, East Africa, and the United States. Texts sung in Ukrainian, Arabic, Swahili, Italian, and English invited attendees to cherish the gifts to be free and loved by neighbors, to help others find refuge and home. Musical collaborators included Aimee Fincher (piano) and Owen Davis (darbuka, crotales, chimes, percussion), who accompanied a procession of singers and audience through the exhibition gallery to the theatre, invoking refugees’ journeys through movement.[/ultimate_modal]
A graduate of Coconino High School, S.E. began playing blues in high school bands. He developed proficiency by playing in local and state clubs. He later joined Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste (original drummer for the New Orleans band, The Meters) for a 3-year stint playing New Orleans funk, blues, and zydeco. After that, he joined the Elvin Bishop band, touring nationally and internationally for 17 years. This band was named Band of the Year in 2015 by the American Blues Foundation in Memphis.
In Flagstaff, S.E. Willis has played an important role in providing platforms for blues musicians and educating audiences on blues form. In 1984, he joined Delta blues artist, Tommy Dukes, in launching Monday Night Blues, a weekly blues jam at the Weatherford Hotel that continued until 1992. He has also joined efforts with Flagstaff writers to form unique collaborations that feature original music and storytelling. As early as 1999, he began working with members of NAU’s Creative Writing program for performances featured during the Northern Arizona Book Festival and for other occasions. He branched out into collaborations for radio as a guest host for Sunnyside Radio’s Words and Notes, working with Flagstaff writers and Creative Writing students to produce several 2-hour programs that ran from 2019 – 2021 (the files for these programs are large but are available on thumb drive). In the summer of 2021, he, along with writer Ann Cummins, created a performance for Theatrikos Theater’s Live from the Theater Basement series (link provided).
Willis has been a permanent resident of Flagstaff since 2020. He plays regularly at Charly’s in the Weatherford Hotel and has been a featured player in regional music clubs for the last two years.
In 2022, S.E. won the Northern Arizona International Blues Challenge and reached the semi-finals nationally in Memphis in January, 2023. He was the headliner for the Flagstaff Music Festival in Heritage Square on September 10, 2022. This festival, the first in what promises to be an annual event, celebrates local musicians. He has been working with Dr. Bob Sellani, former president of the Northern Arizona Blues Alliance, in ongoing efforts to promote blues in northern Arizona; he regularly joins the Saturday Blues jam in Belmont.[/ultimate_modal]
VanSamuel Diggs is a supporter/promoter of musicians. A self-taught DJ, VanSamuel has advocated for events that promote education around the music scene. Curating, through Sunrize Soundz (an LLC he founded), not only The MOUNTAIN JAM: a competition to highlight local aspiring DJs, thus, creating an opportunity for learning, exposure, and growth for other artists- but many similar opportunities that have placed budding performers in an ever-moving local spotlight.
Additionally, VanSamuel, through his work at the Orpheum theater, successfully coordinated two events that extended the Wednesday Community Market. Through these events, VanSamuel brought a free live-painting, dj’d event to connect our local community with the Orpheum Theater and the arts. His second Community Market After Dark brought about an incredibly positive response to September’s Suicide Prevention month and raised over $400 for the WeCare NAZ foundation. More importantly, the light/passion VanSamuel holds for the arts is beyond inspiring. Persevering through any/all obstacles thrown at him- VanSamuel maintains an incredible drive to create and push his work to the next level. VanSamuel has made it clear that he intends on combining philanthropy work with his creative pursuits; moreover, this kind of character, intentionality, and love of the musical arts is what will take VanSamuel Diggs far as a creator, but not before breathing new life into Flagstaff’s music scene.
VanSamuel is most proud of his collaboration with Gold’n Brown & Southside Community Associate to program a Junteeth celebration at the Murdoch Center.[/ultimate_modal]
Reviews: “Surreal, madcap, and brilliant all at once, Andie Francis’s creative universe is lit like fireworks. Music and meaning collide, redouble, and dissolve in poems where “great lights give. And great lights light. And great lights light upon.” Welcome to a pyrotechnics of sound and sense, a wonder of imagination, reality, and myth. Francis reminds us that while the world is strange and inexplicable, the world of poetry offers us ways to resist and also to act. As she writes, “Here, hold out for more.”
–Jane Miller, May 2022
“Andie Francis’s A Fresh Start Will Put You on Your Way is a book of beginnings in the same way every life is a life of beginnings—each of us is each of us from one day to the next, but each instant of time is new, and in its combination of events unrepeatable. Here, narratives build from poem to poem, but no single narrative consumes the book, and at the end of the book, with the remarkable long poem, “A Genesis,” Francis collapses all narratives to their single beginning. This is a book capacious enough to withstand the collapse “in and to existence.”
–Shane McCrae[/ultimate_modal]
Vankat’s technically perfect, emotionally eye-catching repeat photographs demonstrate his lifelong commitment to scientific precision and his multi-decadal interest in Flagstaff and the San Francisco Peaks. To achieve precision, Vankat often returned to a possible photopoint multiple times to make sure he had found the exact spot where the historical image was made. Arizona Daily Sun reporter Sean Golightly called the pairings “eerily precise” and said “More than a balm for simple curiosity, the work reveals a history invisible to the current-day Flagstaffian and offers insights for the construction of our future.” Peter Z. Fulé, Regents’ Professor of Forestry, Northern Arizona University noted that John’s “Faithfully documented repeat photographs provide the context that helps us understand our beautiful and challenged mountain landscape.”
While Vankat’s modern-day repeat photographs outstandingly display how our landscapes have been altered over the past 150 years, he also succinctly explains how each image demonstrates history, along with the effects of overgrazing, past logging practices, fire suppression, and human population growth on ecosystems on and around the San Francisco Peaks. As this region’s population has exploded in the past two decades, most newcomers do not understand modern forestry practices and some are confused, if not annoyed, to see logging and burning on national forest lands surrounding Flagstaff. This book prevents a potentially catastrophic loss of memory in our community and creates hope that we will steward the land more wisely now and in the future. As philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Vankat’s book will affect the public’s views and understanding, as well as facilitate ecologically sound decision making in Flagstaff, Coconino County, and national forest lands in the region.
Moreover, Vankat’s detailed recording of locations of photopoints will both encourage and enable future repeat photographs. Therefore, his research displayed in this book will be valuable far into the future, presumably as long as humans live in this area.
In addition to engaging the public and decision makers throughout the pages of his book, John has also created an absorbing PowerPoint presentation in which he takes viewers on a trip through time around the San Francisco Peaks and Flagstaff. As with his book, John presents and discusses his pairings of historical and modern-day photos to intrigue and educate people about changes in our beloved landscapes from the mid-19thcentury to today.[/ultimate_modal]
In these compelling, multi-generational profiles, collected by a former teacher with profound admiration and respect of Navajo culture, women share about their lives, joys and sorrows in their own words. Stunning color portraits taken in settings that reflect their lives add depth and richness.[/ultimate_modal]
Peter Friederici is an award-winning author and freelance journalist who writes about climate change, science, nature, and the environment from his home in Flagstaff, Arizona. He is the author of several books, director of the Master’s in Sustainable Communities Program at NAU for six years, and teaches science communication at NAU. He has lived in Flagstaff since 1997.
Beyond Climate Breakdown is an important new book published in October 2022 by MIT Press as part of their “One Planet” series (https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543934/beyond-climate-breakdown/). Friederici argues in the book that to address the prospect of climate breakdown, we must empower ourselves to acknowledge and repair the deep causes of the climate crisis that we tend to ignore. He argues that it’s essential that we create new stories or resurrect very old stories. These different stories will allow us to change the dominant worldview that has led humanity to where we are today, on the brink of the breakdown of the planet’s systems that sustain human life and the lives of others on our planet.
Friederici argues that we need better stories if we’re to make sense of our place in the world when it comes to the breakdown of the climate. This book explains how this can be achieved with chapters on prediction, metaphor, narrative, tragedy, as well as comedy and complexity. Friederici suggests weaving new adaptive tales and attitudes that hold the collective spotlight on diversity and the persistence of life rather than capitalism; the natural world rather than economy as the highest and best value; and, care for the planet’s inhabitants and systems rather that shallow self-interest.
Beyond Climate Action is one of ten books listed by Orion Magazine staff as the best books of the fall 2022 (https://orionmagazine.org/article/book-recommendations-orion-staff-reading-list/). The book was list by Corporate Knights Magazine (which focuses on climate change and sustainable economy) in “Four Solution-packed Books About Climate Change You Need to Read This Fall” (https://www.corporateknights.com/category-culture/top-books-on-climate-change2022/?fbclid=IwAR2ElPq6S8PyysZyu3M_qLhckkF7GWGTriaaGx9geAmxbJKo1COf0Ltg_cc).
The book was one of Yale Climate Connections “12 Titles for Your Holiday Gift List” (https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/12/12-titles-for-climate-activists-and-academics-on-your-holiday-gift-list/); and one of The Next Big Idea Club’s October 2022 nominees (https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/next-big-idea-clubs-october-2022-nominees/35795/). In addition, the book and author were featured in the Chicago Reader (https://chicagoreader.com/columns-opinion/on-culture/hey-its-getting-warm-in-here/)
Friederici has held three Flagstaff community events thus far related to this book, and more are planned in 2023. Events in 2022 included a book signing on First Friday, November 4 at Brightside Bookshop, as well as a reading and discussion as part of the Climate Solutions Series sponsored by the local Citizen’s Climate Lobby on November 16 (https://www.facebook.com/events/6498602490155233/?ref=newsfeed). In early February he was featured in the Cline Library event Beyond Climate Breakdown: A Winter Evening of Stories on a Warming Planet, which featured Peter in conversation with NAU Humanities Professor Gioia Woods, as well as personal stories from three NAU students.
It is clear that Beyond Climate Breakdown has had an impact throughout the United States with interest and recommendations from Yale Climate Connections, Orion Magazine, and The Next Big Idea Club. This book provides a new way of understanding climate breakdown and provides varied ideas of how humanity can achieve the “radical hope” that’s needed to turn the course in a manner that is more hopeful and effective. This affirmation of our collective agency is what the world needs now more than ever.
From the nominations:
“It is clear from reading the book that Friederici has vast proficiency and a firm hold on the technical aspects of climate change science, as well as philosophy, political science, politics, psychology, and climate change denial. The book covers a wide swath of information on subjects as widespread and different as the economy, mental health, the closure of the Navajo Generating Station, hope, tragedy, Greek drama, and the great importance of the terms we use to describe our ideas.”
“Peter has written an important and thought provoking book that is grounded in his knowledge of the Colorado Plateau. “Beyond Climate Breakdown” is well written and accessible. It draws from a wide variety of sources and is highly relevant to our local culture. It makes connections between what we see and feel here in Flagstaff and the earth as a whole. “Beyond Climate Breakdown” is one of ten books listed by Orion Magazine staff as the best books of the fall 2022. The book was listed by Corporate Knights Magazine (which focuses on climate change and sustainable economy) in “Four Solution-packed Books About Climate Change You Need to Read This Fall”. The book was one of Yale Climate Connections “12 Titles for Your Holiday Gift List”; and one of The Next Big Idea Club’s October 2022 nominees. In addition, the book and author were featured in the Chicago Reader.”
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Audio Offering Season 5 centered around “Emotions, Space and Music”. Each episode focused in on an emotion and featured an interview with a special guest. Episodes in Season 5 included “Bliss” with DJ LRY, “Fear” with Parker, “Anger” with Deidra Peaches and “Love” with Dapper Dre.[/ultimate_modal]
Photographer Tad Nichols (1911–2000) first ran the Colorado River through Glen Canyon in 1950, experiencing a labyrinthine world of twisting slot canyons, flowing streams, magnificent amphitheaters, and naked red rock. For the next 13 years until the Glen Canyon Dam was completed and Lake Powell began to fill in 1963, Nichols journeyed through what is often called “America’s lost national park.”
Kish was given Nichols’ 4×5 film camera a few years ago by Nichols’ friend and printer, Richard Jackson. In the film, she returns to Glen Canyon to expose what she finds.[/ultimate_modal]
Laurel has featured underrepresented cultures and people in and around Flagstaff in her storytelling to give voices to those that have not been heard. In 2022 she featured Dapper Dre Adauto, Hopi Quechan silversmith Jonah Hill, children’s book author Monica Brown, and flight nurse Jenn Killeen. In 2021 she highlighted the stories of shelter director Ross Schaefer, photographer and animal rescuer Jake Bacon, grief support advocates Anna and Mike LaBenz, LGBTQ activists Dylan Wilder Quinn and Jennie Pearl, anti bullying Coach Marty Heilman, elite athlete Tommy ‘Rivs’ Puzzy, Navajo nurse Marquerita McDonald, and Hopi artist Duane Koyawena – all from Flagstaff.
2 Lives has been featured on Apple Podcasts “we’re loving” and Spotify’s best episodes of 2021. The show has had more than 150,000listeners. And in 2022 the show was a finalist for the International Women’s Podcast Awards in two categories. Laurel has won national awards for her reporting and writing including a national Edward R. Murrow award for her coverage of Arizona’s deadliest wildfire and a PRNDI award for her first podcast “Earth + Bone.” She’s also collaborated on several multi-award winning projects including “Tracing the Migrant Journey.” She can be heard on NPR, the Fronteras Desk, Code Switch, Here & Now, Science Friday, Marketplace, National Native News, and the BBC.
Through podcasting Laurel has taken the four minute feature to the next level with insightful interviews, strong narrative storytelling skills, and seamless sound design – skills she’s honed over the last two decades.
She’s known for her inclusion of marginalized voices and for collaborating with honor, respect, and empathy. 2 Lives has included people from Hopi, Navajo, Filipina, African heritage, mixed race, LGBTQ, neurodivergent, and disabled communities.[/ultimate_modal]
Star Stuff ranks among the most popular astronomy podcasts include: #8 on Goodpods, #18 on Podbay, #15 on Feedspot, #17 on Backtrack, and #19 on Chartable.
The standout qualities of Star Stuff are the guest speakers, accessible format, and a focus on popular culture aspects of science. Since launching in January 2022, guest speakers have come from a wide variety of backgrounds and professions such as Grand Canyon “Dark Sky Ranger” Rader Lane and Dr. Donald Johanson, the Lucy Discoverer. The infectiously curious nature of the co-hosts, Lowell’s Cody Half-Moon and Hailey Osborn, really demonstrates that science is for everyone.
This is Lowell’s first podcast and branching into the medium makes the content accessible to more people. The podcast is available for free through any podcast playing program. And the content is designed to be understandable to people with any level of science knowledge.
Star Stuff is continuing in 2023 with Season 2, now available on YouTube.[/ultimate_modal]
This 14-minute short film is resonating with whole new audiences beyond the book. It is being used to talk about stigma and stereotyping in schools, including FUSD; for training and education of service professionals; and to spur conversations about homelessness in public forums.
The film represents a joint community effort. The voices of characters in the film are local people experiencing homelessness, drawn largely from residents at Flagstaff Shelter Services, and the film was produced and funded for free distribution by the NARBHA Institute. Directed by Daniel Cowen and written by local resident Cathy Small, the film has an accompanying website (themaninthedogparkfilm.org), with viewing guides, question banks and other resources for discussion and action created to initiate community dialogue.
The issue of homelessness in our communities brings difficult yet necessary conversations; the Man in the Dog Park Film uses storytelling as a potent reminder that behind the so-called “issues” are people. We may not solve the problems leading to homelessness, but we hope in our documentary to point us more clearly to our shared humanity.[/ultimate_modal]
The mural was a celebration of the Rotary of Flagstaff’s centennial year. Dedicated in the spring of 2022, it brings bright flowers and color to the wall with a message of community action and collaboration. This mural symbolically celebrates volunteerism and its impact – direct and indirect — on peacebuilding and making the world a better place.
We had a great deal of community engagement in the “helping hands” department – financially AND literally. In the upward pathway, defined by two white diagonal lines, there are myriad handprints. Except for the large ones at the bottom, all these handprints come from real people: Rotarians, artists, downtown workers, tourists, and myriad pedestrians who wandered by during the painting of the mural.
This project is perfectly aligned with the City of Flagstaff’s current plan for beautifying downtown with more artwork, with special focus on alleys, the “Alley Activation” initiative. Our mural ties in elements of the Arizona state flag, aspects of our beautiful environs (mountains, trees, wind, and flowers), along with a pathway to a peace sign. The site is the rear exterior wall of the Peace Surplus Building (coincidence? perhaps not).
This lively, multi-colored mural (58 hand-mixed colors, to be precise) was primarily designed and directed by local artist, Lindsey DeStefano, who has successfully worked on murals in and around northern Arizona. Our mural encompasses most of the usable wall space, measuring 20 ft. by 31 ft., with an area of 620 sq. ft.
This highly-collaborative project was a financial and work alliance of multiple parties, including:
* Rotary Club of Flagstaff
* Artist Lindsey DeStefano (LDV Chameleon Mural and Mixed Media Artists)
* Peace Surplus (Lola’s Kids, LLC)
* City of Flagstaff, including the Beautification & Public Art Commission
* Rotary District 5495 (AZ state-level Rotary organization)
* Rotary International (parent organization of Rotary in Chicago)
* The Home Depot
* Private donors
Rotary Club of Flagstaff’s “Volunteerism: A Pathway to Peace” was designed to honor and celebrate — in a lasting way — the tremendous community value of volunteering and peacebuilding, while adding to the beauty and cultural draw of Flagstaff for many years to come.[/ultimate_modal]
Cecil Tso, aka Tsoh Tso is a Hip-Hop producer, and DJ who’s been active since 2012. In 2016, he, and friends established Fang Over Fist Records which has gone on to release music independently, while also creating a live outlet for Hip-Hop in Northern Arizona. Tso is most notably known for his work with An Illustrated Mess, CoCec, and Tre Orona, but has also done soundtrack, and film work.[/ultimate_modal]
On Sunday, November 13th, the Master Chorale presented two concerts at Coconino Center for the Arts: “Safe Harbor: Songs of Refuge and Home.” This concert shared stories of human journeys in collaboration with the opening of Coconino Center of the Arts exhibition “25 Million Stitches: One Stitch, One Refugee.” 25 Million Stitches: One Stitch, One Refugee was a collaborative project initiated by Kim Sohn, who solicited embroidered works from all over the world, with each stitch representing one refugee. Participants were based in 36 countries and every state in America. The resulting installation were dozens of hanging panels of diverse textiles, illustrating the 25 million people the United Nations estimated were refugees when the project began in 2019. The exhibition was the nexus of several diverse programs during its run.
The Safe Harbor Concert, directed by Dr. Tim. Westerhaus, was held on November 13th 2022 with a start in the gallery and transitioned into the auditorium of the Coconino Center for the Arts invoking refugees’ journeys through movement. The concert showcased the diverse linguistic talents of the chorus. Music on the program built a bridge with cultural and current events in Syria, Ukraine, East Africa, and the United States. Texts sung in Ukrainian, Arabic, Swahili, Italian, and English invited attendees to cherish the gifts to be free and loved by neighbors, to help others find refuge and home.[/ultimate_modal]
regional performers from Arizona and narrated by Flagstaff local, Dapper Dre. The
event took place on October 29th, 2022 at NAU’s Prochnow Auditorium. The inaugural performance featured a variety of aerial apparatuses and was created as a celebration of all things weird and spooky.
Maggie Fishell and Liz Gehret were the creative directors behind Frightful Fête and worked in close collaboration with Momentum Aerial, a local, women-owned aerial arts school, and Sun Entertainment, NAU’s student entertainment production company. Maggie and Liz are both aerial instructors at Momentum and have been teaching, performing, and creating art through movement for over 8 years.[/ultimate_modal]
As an artist, Debra Edgerton’s work encompasses several realms of social practice, engaging social identities and narrative in her own media, while simultaneously extending social practice methods to classroom, gallery, and community spaces. Debra deftly applies her curiosity and creative practice to move between these domains, causing overlaps that focus attention on student leadership, cross-disciplinary effort, and new levels of artistic achievement and expression for all involved. The exhibition “Things Not Seen: Art and Healing through Narratives of Hope, Grief, Loss, and Struggles for Self-Acceptance” was conceptualized by Debra, an Assistant Professor in the School of Art at Northern Arizona University. The student-driven exhibition focused on the threat that mental health issues related to trauma, grief, isolation, and death can pose. In the wake of the pandemic, mental health awareness has become increasingly important and prevalent. Individuals have suffered from loneliness, stress, isolation, and loss during this time of upheaval. Edgerton posed this topic as an art assignment for her students, believing that student artists have the powerful ability to comment on distressing and painful topics in order to spread awareness. As she knew this subject would be a difficult one to handle, she allowed any student who felt uncomfortable with the topic to either opt out or find different ways to enter the project in safe ways. The exhibition included works from thirty-two student artists as well as four faculty members at the Clara Lovett Museum, thirty-eight student artists at the Beasley Gallery and twenty-five student artists at the Community Murdoch Center. Since these topics can be difficult to address, Edgerton sought to provide students with a platform in which they could feel both seen and heard. The goal was to not only bring awareness to the issue but to also create a conversation where students could speak up about mental health issues that they may be experiencing instead of remaining silent.
“Things Not Seen was created to take advantage of a media-driven society where visual images can give voice to current topics and issue-driven subjects,” said Debra Edgerton (https://nau.edu/artmuseum/things-not-seen/ ). Visual artwork, music interpretation and collaboration, and written narratives were featured in the exhibition. “An installation titled, “How are you? Are you okay?” was inspired by Edgerton’s interaction with an Instagram friend named Emilie. She used her platform to ask the questions “How are you? Are you okay?” on her story. Edgerton described the answers as “honest and raw.” Below a screen of Emilie’s responses are journals and pens for people to share how they are doing anonymously. Edgerton said her goal for the exhibition was for anybody struggling with any of these topics to feel they have somewhere to go to and relate to through these pieces. Edgerton stated the shared message is “You are not alone.”[/ultimate_modal]
Janeece has primarily taught at Flagstaff Arts & Leadership Academy for the past 21 years, as a high school art educator, and service-learning coordinator. Her arts program was intentional in collaborating with many non-profits and community organizations here in Flagstaff as well as One New Education where she is a board member and in on the Arizona border with Mexico.
At FALA Janeece designed, Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) class as part of her doctoral research studies. The students researched food insecurity after the pandemic and then worked to design and build the little food pantry (LFP) just off the interstate, at the Church of the Resurrection. Janeece’s educational philosophy is that democratic and social justice are key components to education, teaching students to learn by doing.
Personal Statement: Our students are the future, and we must empower them with the tools to transform our world. Young people need to see their education as relevant & meaningful to their lives and the in the lives of others as their greatest responsibility.
At NAU Janeece wanted the NAU Art Ed students to do more community engagement with the arts. Therefore the students in the course Children’s’ Art Programing implemented month long art education workshops around Flagstaff at the Boys & Girls Club, FUSD FACTS, and free Saturday art workshops at Coconino Center for the Arts. As the organizer of these workshops Henes said: “the workshops are meant to help her students “to get that confidence, to execute a lesson, to build rapport with kids.”[/ultimate_modal]
Once an educator one is always an educator. Mary continues to volunteer for DeMiguel Elementary school as well as works for Northern Arizona University through a NASA Space Grant Program designed to encourage, teach and inform students in Northern Arizona on the fun, excitement and science of our solar system. The NASA Space Grant is a nationwide program, that not only works with college students but provides outreach to outlying communities. Mary provides outreach throughout Northern Arizona including and not limited to the Navajo and Hopi Reservations.
Besides meeting the needs of our local youth, Mary also works with other professional educators in Northern Arizona. Mary currently mentors’ teachers, not only in instructional practices but in some of the daily educational tasks such as cutting, copying, and preparing all the hands-on materials necessary to be an effective STEM educator. While working for FUSD Mary spent three years working with the Arizona Career Ladder Program encouraging, advidsing and guiding teachers to become better professionals.
Today in 2023 Mary continues to work with local youth and schools, works for the Flagstaff Public Library, provides NASA Space Grant programs throughout Northern Arizona and is a role model to all educators.[/ultimate_modal]
Sonja is currently the band and theater director at Northland Preparatory Academy. During the pandemic Sonja coordinated an online portal for student learning and made herself invaluable in student successes.
In 2022 Sonja’s band students at NPA won first prize at Coconino Center for the Arts Youth Arts Battle of the Bands.
In Sonja’s words. “I live in two worlds of art. My day job as a band and theatre director in a public school and my second job as an artist and maker. Sometimes the two worlds collide and the art I make is for the stage play I am directing.”[/ultimate_modal]
As a creative artist, Dana is highly skilled and versatile in her craft, working in both digital and fine art mediums. Her most recent project, “Trauma and the Time Traveler,” is a poignant and thought-provoking exploration of mental health that is both accessible and creative. Through this work, Dana specifically disseminates the complicated relationship between parents and their children, exploring intergenerational trauma in the form of non-linear storytelling and illustration. In her graphic novel, Dana references the issue of “reverse-culture shock” when discussing the process of healing family trauma. This idea has the power to change lives and can really shed a light on the uncomfortable feelings that come with stepping back into a world when you have changed. Additionally, Dana showcases how trauma is manifested in unexpected ways throughout this novel. Moreover, her illustrations that accompany her story demonstrate her vulnerability and honesty, making this novel so unique.
Finally, Dana’s dedication to the topics around the relationship between intergenerational trauma and healing has showcased itself in a variety of publications, including the Arizona Daily Sun and FlagLive, providing evidence that Dana is not only an accomplished artist, but also a valuable asset to the community. It would be an honor to see her recognized with a Viola Award for her outstanding work.
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“The ability of Micaela Merryman, to break creative barriers with her art stems from sibling rivalry. Competing with three sisters, Micaela was driven to push her writing to the edges of imagination and possibility. As a result of a no-limits mentality and pure motivation, Micaela is successfully traversing her NAU career studying literature, creative writing, and film”(foundationnau.org)
Her indigenous roots are showcased in many of her poems, her poem 34°54’15’’ N 111°47’30’’ W seeks to point out the oftentimes crude facade of natural spaces that have been turned into mere tourist attractions. The poem has a strong visual component as the stanzas are spread across the page and a dotted line connects the first stanza to the last. The poem expounds upon the pain that losing one’s native land brings, and how a location so sacred can turn into a mere attraction for those who have no cultural connection to it. This then trivializes the space and the lives of those who were lost trying to defend it.
Micaela appears to be only at the start of her creative journey with much more to come.[/ultimate_modal]
Cree gathers much of her inspiration from her indigenous roots. A deep connection to nature and a reverence for ancient wisdom are themes that are readily apparent in her work. She gravitates towards all facets of art making and is constantly seeking to delve into new forms of expression. Filmmaking has been a recent endeavor for Cree and one that she feels a deep connection towards. She states that the film was an accidental experience she fell upon, but now she plans to move forward in that field, hoping to fuse all of her artistic endeavors together to create more films. Her short film “Trip” seeks to convey the notion that the need for art is intrinsic. Everyone is fundamentally artistic, and everyone contains the power to create something powerful and make a change, no matter how ridiculous the journey looks. She then emphasizes the power that all artists contain, the gift of being eccentric. All costumes worn in the film, the prop design, script, music, and partial editing of the final cut were created by Cree personally, all of which aligns with the transfixing, colorful, and other-worldly nature of her collective works. Cree was also involved in Robot Apocalypse, a show which included a variety of acts such as burlesque, several styles of dance, aerial as well as pole performances, and much more. All acts were aligned with the futuristic, otherworldly theme of the event. Robot Apocalypse was a significant event as the Flagstaff drag scene asserted itself beyond its niche and inserted itself as a premier attraction of Flag nightlife. Cree immediately after debuting became a powerhouse queen on the scene and established herself as a talented performance artist. She regularly performs as a drag queen in various places downtown, and has plans to create a big project later this year: a solo art exhibition, with drag artists, vendors, and local Flagstaff musical artists.[/ultimate_modal]
FCB’s membership has grown to approximately 75 musicians of all abilities and backgrounds from across the region. Backgrounds of band members include public school teachers, scientists, engineers, stay-at-home-parents, retirees, and aspiring professional musicians. Member ages range from teenager to octogenarian.
The FCB serves its musicians by providing a fun, inclusive, and welcoming environment for performers of all ages. They also collaborate with other local organizations to serve the community with unique and educational musical experiences. During the summer season the FCB also hosts a free Junior Band for approximately 50 middle school band students from the region.
In 2022, FCB celebrated its 30th season with a series of outstanding performances directed by Tim McKay. Performances included service events such as the Memorial Day Ceremony at Citizens Cemetery, as well as several performances in Heritage Square, and a collaborative July 4th weekend concert with Master Chorale of Flagstaff at Ft Tuthill Military Museum. The FCB has also had the honor of performing at local events such as National Night Out, First Art Walk, and the Coconino County Fair.
During the shorter winter season, ensembles made up of band members could be found at neighborhood celebrations, senior centers, rehab hospitals and churches of every denomination across the area. To celebrate their 30th season in 2022, the FCB released a professionally recorded album which includes a new work “Fanfare 360” composed by Alex Skelton, a high school senior and member of the community band.[/ultimate_modal]
The Murdoch Center houses the Southside Community Association, which serves the historically demographically diverse Southside of Flagstaff. The Murdoch Center is an inter-generational and multicultural center reflecting the different cultures represented in the southside. The Murdoch Center offers a large meeting hall for clubs, organizations, city/neighborhood meetings, as well as private parties. Events include film screenings, Sunday dinners, book clubs, and guest speaker events.
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All sales and donations go directly into keeping the space up and running. They encourage people to pay for their services when they are able to, so that those in our communities who can’t pay are collectively supported. Their programs include live music, art exhibitions, winter clothing drives, poetry slams, Narcan training, and much more. Additional services include free art supplies and multimedia equipment to use in their space, free harm reduction kits, cafe volunteer positions with free barista training, and free and donation-only evening events which include workshops, performances, celebrations, movie screenings, community services, arts & culture gatherings, and more.
Liminal was conceived while confronting the harsh reality that our society is fundamentally driven by profit. Under the rhetorical facade of ‘freedom’ is the right of the owning-class to exploit working-class labor and to protect their private wealth. This is compounded by a long history of white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, and settler colonialism which continues to disproportionately suppress the human rights of various marginalized communities.
Part of their story reads, “Contrary to the conventional principles of starting a ‘successful business’, we felt adamant about making a community space that would be exploratory and unfixed, rather than something predetermined and straightforward. We felt inspired to build a space that was flexible, experimental, multifaceted, creative and community-run. Something that was necessarily difficult to define or categorize. Something that would exist and evolve in-between the margins of things that are more familiar to us. A space that was ‘Liminal’.”[/ultimate_modal]
Their mission states:
“Native Americans for Community Action Inc has provided over 50 years of services to the Native American peoples of Flagstaff and Coconino County both on and off reservation. Since 1971, our agency also provides other services to Native and non-Native communities such as: capacity building in Native American communities by assisting future political and community leaders, fighting stereotypes of Native American individuals and organizations, and by advocating as a knowledge base on Indigenous issues to governments and other non-Native organizations. Since 1991 NACA has been offering a variety of health and human services to urban Native Americans, low-income, and other underserved families as well as those who experience health and socio-economic disparities at rates disproportionate to the general population. Our core program is the Family Health Center which provides services to Native Americans and, more recently, non-Native Americans. Health Promotion programs include health related prevention programs such as: Tobacco Education, Diabetes Prevention, Health Promotion, and Chronic Disease Prevention.”[/ultimate_modal]
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Connection AZ’s mission is to provide community-led programs, events, and projects to foster awareness and understanding of cultures and the humanities in order to create a more informed, compassionate, and interconnected community.
Audra works tirelessly through Culture Connection AZ for Flagstaff’s creative community. Many of the programs and events at Culture Connection AZ focus on providing space for marginalized artists, including monthly events during First Friday ArtWalk. Over one hundred artists have participated in these events, including artists of color, LGBTQIA+ artists, and artists with disabilities.
Other programs at Culture Connection AZ include “Culture Kitchen”, “Fun With A Local”, and language exchanges. Culture Connection AZ also offers co-working space and space for meetings and classes at their location in the Historic Ice House in downtown Flagstaff.[/ultimate_modal]
Dillon is the President of Spectrum at CCC, which is CCC’s LGBTQ Alliance Club. To add to that, Dillion uses their platform as a drag performer to promote LGBTQ activism during the shows. Thier mission statement is to educate and advocate.[/ultimate_modal]
Westheimer switched gears from ceramics to earning an MA in Applied Cultural Anthropology at NAU with museum studies coursework from the University of Arizona. She also worked in Interpretation at Wupatki National Monument and, at the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA), worked in Education, Anthropology Collections and as a member of the curatorial staff of the Native American Craftsman Exhibitions. Her thesis explored the origins of MNA’s first Native American Craftsman Exhibition.
During Westheimer’s decades-long employment at Flagstaff Public Library she held various positions. While working at the Library, Westheimer spearheaded a citizen effort to create Flagstaff’s first and so far only local historic residential district to preserve a historic neighborhood. She also embarked on the Townsite Oral History Project to collect personal experiences and history of the historic west side. She currently gives history walking tours of the Townsite neighborhood.
In 2013 Westheimer led the founding of the nonprofit, tax-exempt membership organization Flagstaff Townsite Historic Properties Community Land Trust, aka Townsite CLT & TCLT (www.townsiteclt.org). Townsite CLT is using the land trust homeownership model to address the community need for affordable housing which also keeps historic buildings in use–the best way to preserve them. Townsite CLT homes increase the proportion of owner-occupancy, and so improves the greater neighborhood.
So far Townsite CLT has sold 5 houses. This year it is preserving its 6th house, a 1920s cottage donated by a member of a Flagstaff legacy family, Helene Babbitt, in remembrance of her husband Jim, by moving it to a lot in west Flagstaff.
Westheimer’s preservation work is inspired and informed by the work of Jim Babbitt, Henry Taylor, Sam Green, Charlie Hoffman and many others who have embraced and preserved our fascinating and unique community history.
Accordingly, Westheimer is honored to be a finalist for this prestigious award on the shoulders of Flagstaff citizens past and present.[/ultimate_modal]
A nominator of Owen’s community work here in Flagstaff wrote, “Owen’s contributions to Flagstaff’s creative community are almost too many to count. From his
work with the Interference Series, to playing with Flagstaff Community Band, if there’s an interesting thing happening in town, Owen is likely tied to it”. Owen’s impact on the community is expressed by his multiplicity of activities and jobs. Through his work in these various organizations he is able to reach hundreds of Flagstaff families on a daily basis all through the prism of music and creativity. Many times in the arts sector, there are people in background that bring events to life, Owen is one of those forces in Flagstaff making things happen. It should be noted that almost none of his projects are solo ventures and this is another part of Owen’s impact – his work thrives in collaboration.
Some recent highlights of this work include:
Owen is a 3-time Viola Award Finalist in 4 different categories: Community Impact: Individual 2019, Excellence in Education 2021, and Excellence in Collaboration 2022, and Excellence in Performance 2022.[/ultimate_modal]
In 2022, ACF of Flagstaff awarded $96,730 to arts focused nonprofits through their Pickard Arts & Culture and Music Education Funds for Flagstaff. With the help of this funding, 21 organizations are providing cultural experiences and education to the residents of our community.[/ultimate_modal]
In 2022, Desert Financial Credit Union sponsored many events in town, including the First Friday ArtWalk, and Flagstaff Oktoberfest. Additionally, they held a teacher appreciation lunch at W.F. Killip Elementary School. Grants were awarded to local non-profits Tynkertopia & Lowell Observatory totaling $25,000, and the Flagstaff Family Food Center was given a $50,000 Random Act of Kindness match for their stuff the bus event. To address the shortage in health care workers in the region, the credit union established an endowment with Northern Arizona Healthcare Foundation and awarded $3,000 in scholarships for hospital staff. Desert Financial Foundation also awarded $15,000 to Coconino Community College Foundation for career and technical education scholarships. Through 2022 Desert Financial provided over $250,000 in sponsorships, grants, and other philanthropic giving.[/ultimate_modal]
In 2019, MNA initiated the Colton Meadows project to conserve 89 acres on the north side of Highway 180. This land was owned by MNA and was originally purchased to support the museum financially; hence, the board of trustees felt a fiduciary responsibility to make good on this investment, but was loathe to sell this pristine land for development. Troy conceived and spearheaded the effort to raise $3 million from private donors in order to place the majority of this land in conservation easements, thus meeting the dual goals of conserving the land in perpetuity and utilizing the property to provide financial stability for MNA. These funds have now been invested in the MNA General Endowment, where they will be utilized to sustain MNA over the long term. Troy was responsible for raising the vast majority of this $3 million, a legacy that will benefit MNA for years to come.
When the pandemic hit, Troy focused both his personal philanthropy and, and as Chairman of the Development Committee, his fundraising talent on helping MNA survive the early stages of Covid. He engaged fellow Trustees and longtime MNA donors through personal outreach and kept them updated on the importance of supporting MNA through the pandemic so that the museum would survive and continue to share the magic of the Colorado Plateau with future generations of visitors.
As Troy concludes his term as board chair, we at MNA are honored to nominate him for the Viola Award in Philanthropy. Troy embodies the true spirit of philanthropy, as his generosity includes not only financial investment but also the invaluable gifts of countless hours of volunteered time and sharing his passion for the institution with all who cross his path.[/ultimate_modal]
The group meets at a local restaurant and randomly draws three members to present their non-profit. The non-profit must be local to Northern Arizona, have a local chapter where the money is to be used, and have been established for a minimum of two years. After hearing from the three non-profits the group votes. Checks or online donations are made directly to the organization with the most votes. The member who presented the winning non-profit will return at the next meeting to present how the funds were used.[/ultimate_modal]
Creative Flagstaff invited the community to submit a nomination for the 15th Annual Viola Awards. The award categories, descriptions, and criteria are listed below.
Honors a locally based artist, group of artists, curator, or organization for the production of an excellent work or exhibition of visual art, produced in the greater Flagstaff area and exhibited in the Flagstaff area in 2022. This can be for a single work of art, public art, or for an exhibition of several works of art.
Criteria:
Honors a locally based performing artist, or organization for a performing arts production, performed in 2022 in the greater Flagstaff area. Recognition could be for a director of a theatrical production, an organization for presentation of a performance, or an actor, dancer, or other performer. Panel may award more than one award for different disciplines.
Criteria:
Honors a locally based writer, film maker, podcaster, or other storyteller or group of storytellers for the production of an excellent work produced and presented in 2022 in the greater Flagstaff area. This could be for a film, live reading of written works, recorded presentation, book, short story, essay, poem or a series of stories, essays or poems, or podcast. Panel may award more than one award for different disciplines.
Criteria:
Honors a locally based musician, group of musicians, or organization for the presentation of live performed or recorded music in 2022 in the greater Flagstaff area.
Criteria:
Honors a collaborative effort completed in 2022 or that had significant achievement in 2022 which brought together different disciplines, mediums, organizations, or businesses to produce or support a project of outstanding achievement in arts, science, and/or culture in greater Flagstaff.
Criteria:
Honors an arts, science, or humanities educator or group of educators that nourished outstanding student achievement and engagement within the school environment and beyond between 2019 and 2022. Since 2021, category is expanded beyond arts and sciences disciplines. Panel may award more than one award for different disciplines.
Criteria:
Honors a locally based emerging or student artist in any genre (visual, performing, music, literature, film, etc.). The recipient of this award shall be relatively new to their field or a student in the field, with three to five years of professional experience.
Criteria:
Honors a locally based individual, organization, and/or collaborative effort for their contribution within 2022 to the advancement of Flagstaff as a culturally engaged, equitable, artistic, creative and curious community. Panel may award more than one award for organizations and/or individuals.
Criteria:
Honors a philanthropist, foundation, government entity, sponsor, underwriter, or fundraising activity or event for meaningful contribution to Flagstaff’s cultural and creative sectors in 2022. Investment can be for profit or nonprofit, support one creative practitioner/organization or more broadly support the efforts of many.
Criteria:
Honors a lifetime contribution to the advancement of Flagstaff as a culturally engaged, equitable, artistic, creative and curious community. Past winners of the Legacy Award have significant achievements in the arts and sciences, both in Flagstaff and beyond.
Beginning in 2022, the award stretches beyond arts or sciences to more broadly represent Flagstaff’s cultural sector. Legacy honorees are selected by the Creative Flagstaff Board of Directors.
the generosity of our Founding Sponsor, the Babbitt Brothers Foundation, our University Sponsor, Northern Arizona University, as well as other community members and sponsors.
The 15th Annual Viola Awards will take place on Saturday, April 1, 2021. 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.
