Grantee News
Ten Tiny Dances was a popular success in multiple locations around downtown Beaverton in July 2011. Ten diverse performances were repeated on ten small stages throughout the area, to the delight and sometimes surprise of shoppers and pedestrians.
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Liberty High School is one of the recepients of this year’s Washington County Cultural Coalition Grants and their project
Radio Jazz Hour will be performed on Saturday, November 5th at the Walters Cultural Center. If you are able to send this along to other interested parties we would so appreciate it.
This is going to be an amazing show with kids that have worked hard to bring high quality talent to the “White Feather Lounge” aka Walters Cultural Center.
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L.E.S.T.A. – Learn English/Spanish Through the Arts
Cyndi Turtledove, MFA – Artistic Director
365 NE Jackson St. Hillsboro, Or. 97124
(503) 617-6986 cyndi@lesta.net www.lesta.net
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Mon. Oct. 24, 2011
L.E.S.T.A. SEEKS ADDITIONAL BOARD MEMBERS
L.E.S.T.A. – Learn English/Spanish Through the Arts – is seeking additional Board Members forits 2011 – 2012 Project Season, which includes “Theatre as Therapy” as well as Bilingual Mus-ical Theatre. LESTA is a Non-Profit Corporation, EIN #11 – 3799 479, which has received grants from the HACC – Hillsboro Arts & Culture Council, CC of WC –the Cultural Coalition ofWashington County and Umpqua Bank.
With children’s summer camps and year-round Family classes, LESTA’s mission is to bring Hispanics, Anglos and all ethnic groups together through the use of Bilingual Musical Theatre classes and shows which teach Spanish and English to all ages. It provides scholarships to low income families in less served areas of Washington County. Having created more than 25 successful Bilingual Musical plays with children and adults since 2007, in 2011 LESTA conducted projects at the Walters Cultural Arts Center, the Hillsboro Grange and in December will do it’s Second Annual CHRISTMAS PASTORELA at the Hart Theatre.
Board Member Application Forms are due by Nov. 20. Non-board Volunteers are also needed in the areas of fund raising, publicity and website assistance. Board meets 4 times per year, 4-6 pm on a Sunday in January, April, July and October. People interested in community service and the furtherance of tolerance, understanding and cooperation between Hispanic and non-Hispanic communities in our culturally diverse area, are invited to apply. More Latino members are especially needed at this time, but being bilingual is not a requirement.
For more information and to receive an Application, contact Artistic Director, Cyndi Turtledove, at (503) 617-6986, cyndi@lesta.net and visit the website www.lesta.net
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| The Beaverton Civic Theatre’s Kids ExpresspresentsShiny Things The Beaverton Civic Theatre is pleased to introduce Kids Express, a youth performance troupe! Join us at their debut performance on Wednesday, July 13th at the City of Beaverton’s Picnic In the Park.SHINY THINGS |
Date: Wednesday, July 13th Time: 7pm Location: Schiffler Park, Beaverton, OR 97005 Admission is Free! Canned Food Donations will be accepted for the Sunshine Pantry. Bring a blanket or chair and join for us theatre in the park. To learn more about the Beaverton Civic Theatre’s Kids Express programming please contact Jackie L Culver at 503-646-8447 or email info@beavertoncivictheatre.org
| Creative Drama For KidsA three week seriesAugust 7, 14, 28 $30 in advance/$45 at the doorAges 8-12 |
Students will work in an ensemble as they build skills in character creation, improvisation, concentration, movement, voice and imagination, all contributing to an overall acting technique.
Location: Beaverton City Library Auditorium
Register onlineor call 503-754-9866
| Beaverton’s Celebration ParadeSaturday, August 27thVolunteers are needed to help assemble the Beaverton Civic Theatre float! And, to participate in the parade!For more information or to volunteer, email info@beavertoncivictheatre.orgPrevious Beaverton Civic Theatre Award Winning Parade Floats2009 First Place Most Comedic – Dancing In the Streets – 80s Prom |
2010 First Place Most Comedic – A Vision of the Future – 70s Peace
Cultural Coalition awards grants
Published: Tuesday, July 05, 2011, 8:30 AM
By The Hillsboro Argus Hillsboro
A reception will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m., July 11, at Jenkins Estate to honor 25 recipients of grants totaling $42,945 from the Cultural Coalition of Washington County. The grants were recently awarded for cultural projects to be conducted between July 2011 and June 2012.
Grants were distributed through a competitive process to address goals of the Washington County Cultural Plan in amounts ranging from $500 to $3990.
The number of 2011-12 grant recipients remained the same as the previous year, and the total amount distributed was down slightly, from $46,792 in 2010-11. Funding for the grant program comes from the Oregon Cultural Trust, which distributes money to the coalition annually for re-distribution to support community cultural programs. This year’s awards bring the total benefit to the county over the past seven years to $224,597.
The CCWC was appointed in February 2005 by the Washington County Board of Commissioners to administer and distribute funds from the Oregon Cultural Trust. Washington County is home to 100 heritage, humanities and arts nonprofits. The list and more information about the Cultural Trust can be found at www.culturaltrust.org.
Willowbrook summer arts camp receives Tualatin’s Community Enhancement Award
Published: Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 3:00 PM Updated: Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 3:05 PM
TUALATIN — Space wasn’t an issue at the first Willowbrook summer arts camp in 1982. The 20 or so kids who attended found plenty of room to roam around Tualatin’s historic Sweek House and the large lot surrounding it.The arrangement lasted only 10 years, as Willowbrook outgrew the house and moved to Browns Ferry Park. Today, the six-week arts camp’s enrollment regularly tops 1,700.”It’s been quite amazing,” said Althea Pratt-Broome, who founded the program. “I never expected it to grow beyond this,” she said of the Sweek House, where she has lived since 1955.
With the program entering its 30th year, Willowbrook has become a Tualatin fixture, attracting participants from around the world. The program was honored last week with the city’s second-ever Community Enhancement Award. The first was given last fall to Tualatin’s Lumiere Players theater company.
What: A six-week summer arts camp offering theater, music, crafts and other activities
When: June 27 through Aug. 5
Where: Browns Ferry Park, 5855 S.W. Nyberg Lane, Tualatin
Phone: 503-691-6132
The honor was as much in recognition of Willowbrook’s founder as it was for the program itself, said Richard Hager, a member of the Tualatin Arts Advisory Committee, which chooses the award winners.
“Althea’s been so dedicated to this program for so long,” Hager said.
Pratt-Broome, 89, smiles sheepishly about the honor.
“I was very surprised my name was on it,” she said.
Pratt-Broome founded Willowbrook after she “retired” — she uses the term loosely — from running a separate arts program in Southern California. In Tualatin, she hosted children in her own home, her own backyard, for the first decade, as Willowbrook continued to thrive.
By 1992, Willowbrook had grown too big for Sweek House and the 3 1/2-acre lot it sits on, bringing in as many as 250 children in a day. The program moved to Browns Ferry Park – at that time little more than an undeveloped empty field and an unused barn.
“It was all lumpy and bumpy, and the kids just had a ball,” Pratt-Broome said.
Willowbrook continued to expand at the park in east Tualatin, where it remains. Pratt-Broome retired a few years ago, and today the program is primarily run by her daughter and son-in-law, Rebecca Pratt and Richard Hall.
Things look quite a bit different from when Willowbrook first moved to Browns Ferry Park. A paved entrance connects to pathways through the rest of the 28-acre space nestled against the Tualatin River. Before kids arrive, Willowbrook sets up some 50 tents and multiple stages on four acres of the park.
“It’s like setting up a city in a park,” Hall said.
Willowbrook offers arts activities of all kinds, including theater, music, dancing, ceramics, crafts and nature studies. More than 175 staff members help put the program on each year, plus other volunteers.
The program hasn’t been without challenges, Pratt said. The 1996 flood wiped out much of Willowbrook’s equipment and supplies, before a Herculean community effort raised thousands of dollars to put it back on its feet, Pratt said. The recent economic downturn has hit enrollment in the past couple of years, she said.
Willowbrook’s organization has allowed it to evolve into a self-sustaining program, according to Pratt. While many former campers have gone on to notable careers in the arts, others have returned to as staff members and teachers, she said. An apprentice program allows older students to help while they’re still campers.
Pratt said she often hears from Willowbrook alumni who credit the program’s influence, even if they only attended a year or two.
Hager, the parks committee member, got to know Willowbrook when his daughter attended years ago. The decision to nominate Willowbrook and Pratt-Broome for an award was an easy one, he said.
“It’s a special place,” Hager said. “It’s a chance for the kids to spread their wings, to look at their options.”
Washington County Museum will create digital photography archive
Published: Friday, March 11, 2011, 2:16 PM Updated: Friday, March 11,2011, 3:18 Pm
The Washington County Museum is launching a project this month to develop an online digital archive of historical images. Working with the Pacific University Library, the museum plans to put 6,000 photographs — collected from the museum, the university and local libraries — online this year. The museum will catalog and index “heritage and cultural materials” so that museum and library users can find items within the collection easier.
“Think of it as a Library of Congress catalog for local history,” Executive Director Sam Shogren wrote in a news release.
The museum has spent two years working to develop the project, which is underwritten by $107,000 in federal grant funds from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. As part of the project, the museum has hired a project manager. Lindsey Prescott will work at the museum and the university with volunteers to digitize the collections.
The museum is still working on its other big project. Last month, the museum’s collections manager reorganized the museum. Heather Bouchey increased the museum’s storage capacity from 900 square feet to 2,500 square feet. That will allow the museum to bring more of its collections out of storage. Bouchey and a group of volunteers found several interesting items, such as a Magneto Switchboard from 1888 built by Forest Grove resident Samuel Grant Hughes as well as a portable 1940s radio.
For more historical Washington County news, check out the museum’s website.
– Casey Parks, Twitter: @HlsboroReporter
Willowbrook arts camp recognized for 30 years of enhancing kids’ lives
BY ANGELA WEBBER, from The Times Newspaper
The Times, Mar 18, 2011
SUMMER FARE — One of the plays presented by Willowbrood students was “Beauty and the Beast.”
Rebecca Pratt and her mother have boxes and boxes of mementos from the past 30 years of Willowbrook arts camp, but they don’t really need them. Pratt and Athlea Pratt-Broome remember the names and faces of the students who have come to the camp year after year enjoying Pratt-Broome’s unique style of running a summer camp.
This week, the city of Tualatin gave back, awarding Pratt-Broom and the Willowbrook crew with the city’s second Community Enhancement Award, presented by the Tualatin Arts Advisory Committee.
Willowbrook began with 25 students at Pratt-Broome’s home, the historic Sweek House in downtown Tualatin. Students learned Shakespeare, writing, painting, nature, ceramics and more. Pratt-Broome’s philosophy was that students should be permitted to choose what they did, so they were allowed to freely roam between the different stations at the camp, sampling all of the different arts or focusing on just a few.
“We too often pigeon-hole people,” Pratt-Broome said. “You shouldn’t do that to children.”
Her philosophy worked – Willowbrook hosted 1,800 students at its peak summer. Students from around the world come every summer, and new ones keep on coming.
The camp quickly outgrew Sweek House and moved to Brown’s Ferry Park shortly after the city acquired the property. In the early days of camp at the park, Willowbrook used military tents and had to bring in drinking water from a different park for students every day.
Pratt has started collecting files of Willowbrook alums and their success stories. Kaitlin Olson, a star on the FX network’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” has said in interviews that she fell in love with acting on a Willowbrook stage. And countless professional and hobbyist actors, directors, writers and artists who went to Willowbrook as students, send their kids back to the camp each year.
For more information about Willowbrook Arts Camp, visit willowbrookartscamp.org.
Hazelbrook Middle School February, 2011
A classroom visit, performance and music education assembly by the artists was made possible by a Community Cultural Participation grant awarded to Hazelbrook Middle School by the Washington County Cultural Coalition and Oregon Cultural Trust.
Front Row: Concert Pianist Michael Allen Harrison, Violinist Aaron Meyer
Back Row: Melissa Davis, Director of Bands, Shelley Bigelow, Director of Orchestras & Choirs, Hazelbrook Music Students: Nick Steele, Stephanie Melton, Mia De Haan, Colleen Frainey, Stephanie Hughes, McKenzie Lester, Myranda Johnson, and Chloe Craft.
The grand piano rental was provided by the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus! Stephanie Hughes, who is a Hazelbrook Middle School advanced jazz and concert band member, was honored with a P.T. Barnum Award for her community service and work in raising funds to support music. She was given a monetary award to be used towards future community service to support music education. Her family chose to provide the grand piano rental for Michael Allen Harrison’s visit so he would have the appropriate instrument to play while he was at the school. This also helped the school to afford the event and reserved the Oregon Cultural Trust grant funds for paying more professional musicians to visit Hazelbrook in the future.
Hazelbrook Middle School
Hazelbrook Middle School
