UW Summer Arts Festival debut

Tools for Transformation

Staging an arts festival on the University of Washington campus is ambitious enough, but the developers of the annual UW Summer Arts Festival, while planning the inaugural year’s events, are already thinking about Year Two.

John Zorn, right, is saxophonist for the jazz group Masada, who will perform at the first UW Summer Arts Festival along with the Kronos Quartet, below, and UW faculty and students. The festival poster, left, was created by Judy Anderson, who is on the design faculty in the School of Art

The theme for the first festival, to be held July 18-22, is quartets. It will involve faculty and students from the UW arts community in dance, drama, music and the visual arts, as well as top-drawer national artists. As projected, each year’s festival will be built around its own theme. Discussions already are under way with community arts organizations that are enthusiastic about participating in future festivals.

“We have some magnificent artists and terrific educational units at the UW,” says Hannah Wiley, professor of dance and program director of the festival. “We knew that if the arts worked together, we could can make a bigger splash. The festival will trumpet the successes of the arts units on campus. We need to remind people that the faculty and students are major resources. Many of our students stay in the region and have become the backbone of the arts community.”

The festival has received an initial $300,000 allocation from the UW’s Tools for Transformation fund and support from the dean’s discretionary fund in the College of Arts and Sciences.

One of the organizers’ goals is to use the festival to launch a drive for an arts endowment, a fund that could support not just the festival but a variety of other arts initiatives, including visiting artists, programs in the schools and technology. Another goal is to establish more links between artists from the various cooperating units. “We intend to nurture real collaboration,” Wiley says, “which will include joint courses and presentations involving faculty from a number of disciplines in the months leading up to the festival.”

The festival organizers view this as a formative period, in which the first three to five years will be spent in concentrated activity to generate additional support and interest for the festival and for the arts units at the UW.

Organizers are expecting between 5,000 and 10,000 people to attend at least one festival event. In addition to public performances and exhibits, there will be lectures, discussions and courses for both community members and students, providing an in-depth look at the artists and their work. Also, a variety of educational opportunities will be available to elementary and high school students and their teachers.

“We expect some of the works presented in the festival will be challenging,” Wiley says, “and that people will welcome the educational opportunities that are part of the festival. Also, we believe it is vital to integrate the arts into the fabric of our educational system and into the lives of our citizens.”

Risa Morgan, the festival’s executive manager, emphasizes that artists will have an opportunity to perform in a “respectful venue. This festival isn’t so much about crafts or food. It is about offering unique experiences for the audience and the artists.”

“No matter how much time people spend at the festival,” Wiley says, “they should have a substantive experience. They can come for a day, a portion of a day or several days, and see many different things. Over time, as the festival grows, we envision people coming from all over, not just Seattle, but from across the country and even from Europe. We will have impromptu performances in the Quad and around campus and be partnering with other arts organizations in the community.”

“We think this is the right idea at the right time,” says Wiley.

Headliners in the first UW Summer Arts Festival include the innovative Kronos Quartet and the provocative group Masada, featuring John Zorn.

More information about the program is available on the festival Web site: http://www.summerartsfest.org/. ¶

Bob Roseth, News & Information