Beginning November 4, it’s your time to choose.
10 immersive workshops; a lifetime of inspiration.
Starting Tuesday, November 4, 2014, participants may reserve their spot at any of Centrum’s programs at Fort Worden State Park. Centrum’s inter-generational, immersive workshops bring together aspiring and master artists to foster creativity, find and provide mentorship, and build community unlike any place on Earth.
Explorations (Grades 7-9)
Exploration affirms the gifts that every student offers. Through an immersive, week-long program students are introduced to the world of arts and ideas, creative risk-taking, and personal development. It’s a total learning environment that challenges the mind and body in equal measure.
Each day features four workshop sessions in which students pursue a main artistic discipline, then explore alternative genres in three classes each afternoon. During breaks, participants connect with nature and explore the trails, beaches and historic monuments at Fort Worden State Park. Each evening, Centrum’s faculty artists showcase their artistry, followed by snacks and group activities in the dormitory. The week concludes with a student showcase for friends and family to celebrate and witness the students’ transformation during the week!
YAWP (Your Alternative Writing Program)
Not about branding or marketing or career networking or any of that, Centrum’s YAWP is about community and reading and writing and doing guided freewrites and writing exercises and creating new work and having good food at Port Townsend restaurants and being underneath the April sky and clouds coming apart like old newspapers and being around the firs and sitting under a Madrona tree and daffodils shivering in the wind and baldhip roses starting to bud and deer wandering like tramps and and and and and and and and…
It’s a residency for independent poets and writers. Come one, come all!
Water World (Grades 5-6)
Water World is a dynamic collaboration between Centrum and the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, filled with activities and projects that expand and enhance elementary students’ experience of the marine world through the lenses of both science and art.
In collaboration with artists, scientists, and peers from across the state, students integrate scientific investigations with creative writing, dance, and visual art. The result is a multi-faceted, full immersion learning experience.
Choro: The Sweet Lament of Brazilian Music
Choro is a great way for both jazz and classically oriented musicians to meet on common ground. When joined with its African influences, Choro has an irresistible groove and rhythmic momentum that is uniquely Brazilian. Emerging in Brazil in the middle of the nineteenth century, Choro is a cousin of American jazz, with a sense of improvisation and yearning that is often described as a “sweet lament.”
Voice Works
Singing is compelling, a natural human effort to communicate. It maintains culture, and it makes one feel good. The combination of world-class artists and passionate singers at Voice Works creates a rare community, safe for participants of all levels to join in.
Day and night, Voice Works participants soak up new styles, songs and stories in a wide range of vocal traditions. Through close observation and personal experimentation they learn about breathing, phrasing, dynamics, how to make their voice blend, and what makes each person’s voice unique.
Festival of American Fiddle Tunes
Suzy Thompson, Artistic Director
The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes provides an opportunity to be “in community” with the bearers of world’s leading fiddle traditions. The goals of the gathering are broader than improving one’s skills as a musician, and include discovering global culture through music, learning music in a cultural context, and building lifelong relationships in the fiddle music community.
Fiddle Tunes started in 1977. It’s a week-long, total-immersion workshop with a hallmark of presenting an expansive array of fiddle styles from specific regions of the world. Workshops, classes, band labs, tutorials, dances, concerts, singing, open jams, hat parties – all contribute to participants’ experience.
Port Townsend Writers’ Conference
Erin Belieu, Artistic Director
The Port Townsend Writers’ Conference has been since 1974 at the wild heart of the thriving Pacific Northwest literary scene. With a focus on community and rigorous attention to craft, the conference offers morning workshops, afternoon workshops, residencies, guided freewrites, and a vibrant readings and lectures series presented by vital, contemporary writers.
Whether one is new to writing; seeking an inspirational environment to create new work; looking for advanced post-MFA revision workshops; or simply desires to renew and recharge oneself in a writing retreat, the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference gives one the craft and connections to make breakthroughs in their work.
Jazz Port Townsend
John Clayton, Artistic Director
Whether a journeyman performer, aspiring professional, or an enthusiastic beginner, the weeklong workshop at Jazz Port Townsend is the perfect opportunity for one to meet other excellent musicians, soak up a week of jazz in a seaside paradise, and leave as a better musician.
Master classes are conducted each day by Centrum’s illustrious faculty members who cover topics specific to their chosen instruments. “Faculty Presents” concerts each afternoon give participants a chance to hear performances in an intimate setting. The workshop culminates in a series of “Students Present” concerts in which all participants have an opportunity to perform.
Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival
Unique and compelling, Centrum’s Blues Workshop puts its focus and intention on a narrow band of early blues music, with preservation as the goal while honoring the branches of that core style of music.
The primary core is acoustic pre-war country blues (1920s and 1930s), the African-American cultures it grew from and related traditions. Steeped in the rich music and cultures of rural communities of the Southern USA, this workshop gives attention to styles typified by the different players from various regions (Piedmont, the Mississippi Delta, Hill Country, and Texas), the differences in technique as well as how to get the proper sounds of these styles out of one’s instrument.
The music is the primary focus of the multi-generational in-residence workshop week, but the downhome back-porch vibe of the country blues culture creates a community vibe that lends a family gathering feel to the week.
Ukulele
Marianne Brogan, Artistic Director
The Port Townsend Ukulele Festival and Workshop is intense fun with ukulele instruction and merry music making with some of the finest ukulele instructors and players working today.
To accommodate participant demand, Centrum will offer two Port Townsend Ukulele Festivals in 2015. Week One will run from October 7 – 11, and Week Two will run from October 14 – 18. In order to serve as many people as possible, participants will only be able to attend one of the sessions. Each session will have a different faculty slate, so participants are asked to choose carefully. On March 1, 2015, in the event that there is space available, participants will be able to register for both sessions.
Centrum’s mission is to promote creative experiences that change lives.Through inter-generational immersive workshops, we bring together aspiring and master artists to foster creativity, find and provide mentorship, and build community.
Our public performances are the culmination and celebration of our workshops and programs, where we welcome audiences to share in those creative experiences.
Situated on 434 acres of pristine parkland in Port Townsend at Fort Worden State Park by the Salish Sea, Centrum offers year-round programming for participants from age 4 to 96.
Centrum is supported with grants from the Washington State Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Washington Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction.
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment