PLEASE NOTE:

THIS POST REFERS TO 2007 SESSIONS. CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT YEAR INFORMATION.

Grades 9-12

• February 16-21, 2007 (filled)

Delve deep. Immerse yourself in the artistic life. Whether your passion is writing, acting, visual art, multimedia performance, or all of the above, come to Centrum to challenge yourself and share your passion with peers from all across the state.

Live for a week with the arts in a way not possible in the daily school routine. Work with exceptional artists to take your art and creative spirit to new levels of excellence. Workshop days are intense, and there is also plenty of space for reflection and thought. Evening faculty presentations, craft discussions, informal gatherings, and great conversations all give new dimension to your art.

Clock hours: 30
Tuition $60.00 (Out of state: $325)
Room & Board:  $280.00
Financial aid is available.

Telling Your Story
Writing with Kathleen Alcalá

Stories
are all around us, waiting for a storyteller to discover them. We will
examine some of the stories that you already know, both big and small,
and look at the elements they have in common. We will then learn how to
change and refine them so that they become new stories, your own
stories. At the same time, we will examine the techniques of the
storyteller to see what makes a story compelling, exciting, and
memorable. This workshop will involve group storytelling and exercises,
as well as individual writing.

Kathleen Alcalá is one
the nation’s premier writers of magic realism. Bilingual from
childhood, she describes herself as a translator–not necessarily from
one language to another, but between worlds, times, cultures, and
contexts. Alcalá is the author of four books: Mrs. Vargas And The Dead Naturalist, Spirits Of The Ordinary, The Flower In The Skull, and Treasures In Heaven.Her awards include the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, the
Governor’s Writers Award, and the Western States Book Award for
Fiction, and most recently, the Washington State Book Award. She is
also co-founder of and contributing editor to The Raven Chronicles and is Writer-in-Residence for the Richard Hugo House in Seattle. more

Slash, Burn, and Rip:  The Metaphorical Language of Materials
Visual art with Susie J. Lee
We
will engage in an intensive exploration of materials. Whether it is
burned, dripped, ripped, smashed, melted, fused, pushed, or broken, the
active transformation of materials creates potent metaphors for
artistic expression. Through playfulness, experimentation, and a streak
of boldness, students will create an artwork inspired by a specific
material of their choice.  In the process, they will begin to develop a
material language that expresses emotion and stories in an engaging and
powerful way.

Susie Jungune Lee was born in  Hershey,
Pennsylvania and grew up in Grand Forks, North Dakota. She was awarded
a Bachelors of Science in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale
University and a Masters in Education at Columbia University. In 2006,
she received her MFA at the University of Washington. She is a current
member of the SOIL cooperative and resides in Seattle. Lee is
represented by Lawrimore Project. One of the Pacific Northwest’s most
talked-about artists, Lee was named Best Emerging Artist 2006 by the Seattle Weekly. more

Performance Poetry
Poetry with Anis Mojgani
This
class will explore the vitality of poetry as an oratory form. You’ll
work on both the craft and the delivery, learning how important the
balance is between the two. As a writer and performer you will use your
thoughts, experiences, and observations to honestly connect with your
audience simply by having the courage to present yourself in a
vulnerable way, and how beauty comes from such places of vulnerability.

Anis Mojgani is
the 2006 and 2005 National Poetry Slam Individual Champion, one of only
two people to win the competition consecutively. A sixth season Def
Poet for HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, he has shared the stage with
such performers as Jill Scott, Beau Sia, DMX, Sage Francis and Buddy
Wakefield. Anis is also the 2006 Seattle Grand Slam Champion, a subject
of the documentary, Slam Planet: War of the Words(www.slamchannel.com). A visual and performing artist, he graduated
from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in comic books
and (99.3% of) an MFA in performing arts. Mojgani has written and
published four books of poetry and produced the spoken word album aeroplane.
He currently lives in  Portland, Oregon, in an art gallery called couch
(www.couchstuff.com) that he and his friends run together.  more

Seeing Place
Visual art with Ellen Sollod
In
this workshop, we’ll create, through a variety of media, an expression
of the sights, sounds, smells and textures of  Fort  Worden. We will
experience the challenge of making artwork that reflects our own
sensibilities while capturing the essence of the park. We’ll use
photographs, sketches, sound recordings and more to begin. Through
individual and collaborative experimentation, we will use a range of
two and three-dimensional media to explore the history, landscape, and
culture of the park. Students can expect to learn about alternative
photographic processes and artist book forms as well as thinking in
sequence and with a cinematic mind.

Ellen Sollod engages
in an extensive process of inquiry and discovery for each project.
Social, political, historical and environmental considerations inform
her approach. Through a wide range of materials selected in response to
the conceptual idea and the environment, she often reveals the hidden
history of a site or works with elements such as light, shadow, and
wind in the final execution. Sollod’s work has been recognized by the
US Department of Transportation with a 2004 Design Excellence Award for
her collaboration on the Olympia Gateway Corridor. Other notable
projects include From the Laws of Man to the Laws of Nature in Olympia,
Washington; Bella Figura and The Throne Room, located at Harborview
Medical Center in Seattle; and In the Grove at Morrill Meadows Park in
Kent, Washington. more

Improvisational Theater
Theater with K. Brian Neel
Face
your fears, fry an egg on your belly, and take over the world.
Improvisation is making it up as you go–acting without a script. Learn
the verbal and physical techniques that will give you the power to
stand and deliver. Working together, we’ll discover that everything is
justified, that there are no bad ideas. We’ll make bold statements get
to the heart of ‘who, what, where,’ this class will go as far as you
take it–from games to forms to long forms. It is the ultimate
self-expression. It is life itself.

K. Brian Neel has
been creating a bold and unique style of physical theater for over
twenty years. From his published writing to his award-winning stage
directing to his dynamic multiple-character solo shows, Brian
captivates and inspires. He began his career in America’s premiere
experimental improvisational ensemble, King’s Elephant Theatre, and
became Artistic Foreman of the internationally renowned Seattle Mime
Theatre. He has performed and taught all over North America–including
Alaska, Alabama, California, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana,
Mississippi, New Mexico, South Dakota, Washington D.C., and Wyoming–as
well as in Australia, Edinburgh and Hong Kong. more