16 Terrace Review —

Aurora lights up the northwest..._

by Diana English and
Betty Barton

After a very successful first year,
Aurora Summer Arts School drew
to a close with a final performance
and exhibit last Friday evening at
the R.E.M. Lee Theatre. In the
foyer of the theatre, guests were
intrigued with displays by students
from Al Richardson's Photo 1
course, Kathryn Wertenberger’s
weaving course, Alden Amos’
spinning course, Brian Fairholm’s
computer/electronic music course
and the Emily Carr pre-art college
experience. The feature presenta-
tion was The Co-op Cookie Clan
in Fresh out of the Oven, a jun-
ior/senior theatre arts production,

directed by. Tamanhous Theatre’s '

Teri. Snelgrove. The performance
was a collective creation on
Dreams and Fears, created entirely
by the students. It included music
composed and pre-recorded by the
school’s electronic/computer music
students. The poster art and the
visual exhibition were designed
and co-ordinated by the art stu-
dents. According to summer school
executive director Karen Birkedal,
the only program not represented
was the choir, most of whom had

Wednesday, July 31, 1991

already left town.

The unusual and original per- -

formance by the theatre arts stu-
dents was described by program
instructor Teri Snelgrove as "con-
temporary, non-linear visual the-
atre", In an untraditional move, the
audience was seated at the back of
the stage, viewing the student
actors performing on the front of
the stage. The theatrical form was
called "episodic" by Snelgrove. It
consisted of the actors talking and
acting out their fears, hopes,
dreams and nightmares.

The students, ranging in age from
13 to 16, described the three-week
course as "proovy, groovy", "pure
cool", "different and interesting”.
Some said they would definitely
want to do this again. Others were
not sure.

Snelgrove is originally from
Newfoundland, has worked in
Toronto and now lives in
Vancouver, where she has been
with Tamahnous Theatre for six
years. She has been a professional
actor for 12 years and has spent
ten of those years working with
students. Snelgrove enjoys working
with students, tapping their creativ-
ity, which she says can be stifled
by years of television and movies.

INSECT MASKS of paper mache were one assignment that the

students really got into. Shown here is student Lynne Dube of

Prince Rupert.

WEAVING

Weaving with Kathryn Werten-
berger was offered over the past
two weeks through the Aurora
Summer Arts School. Wertenber-
ger, a weaver for 27 years, and an
author, hails from a town near
Denver, Colorado. She does about
five weaving workshops each year
and has written two books —
Handwoven, Tailermade and Intro-
duction to Multishaft Weaving, &
12..20.

During her stay in Terrace, Wer-
tenberger taught a one-week Be-
ginners Weaving course and one-
week of combined Designing
Handwoven Clothing and Making
Four Look Like More. This refers
to the use of four-harness looms.
Those used belong to Northwest
Community College. The course
covered design, colour, texture and
treadling (weaving sequence with
a purpose).

It began with colour theory and
harmony. Students from Kitimat,
Smithers, Hazelton and Terrace
had to select some magazine art or
photograph that they liked in com-
position and colour. Then each
was passed to the person to their
left to play with colour combina-
tions in weaving samples.

They discussed figure types and

personal colours relating to cloth-
ing. Three hypothetical garment
projects, including illustration and
weaving samples, were designed,
implemented and then critiqued by
fellow students and Wertenberger.
"They were all very good," says
Wertenberger.

Participants in the second weav-

ing course ranged from high begin-

ner to high intermediate. During
the last two days of the five-day
course, Wertenberger had the
students do woven samples on
each of the ten looms following
better concepts of weave struc-
tures." Each student went home at
the end of the week with a note-
book of 10 different swatches from
the ten looms, plus a number of
other sample techniques.

On Thursday, as an extra, the
students received a sewing demon-
stration on clothing construction.

Kathryn Wertenberger feels it's
imperative for Aurora to offer a
beginners’ course in weaving annu-
ally, "There needs to be a building
of basic weavers," she says. Many
of this year’s students would like
to see a more advanced course
offered next year so that they can
build on their knowledge from this
year’s courses,

DRESS REHEARSAL for last Friday night's performance of Fresh out of the Oven demonstrated
"contemporary, non-linear visual theatre", according to instructor Teri Snelgrove.

PRE-ART COLLEGE EXPERIENCE

A number of the Aurora courses
have been highlighted in previous
issues of the Terrace Review, As
our final tribute to the first year of
the Aurora Summer Arts School
and organizers who gave so much
to see it finally come to fruition,
we would like to focus on four
more of Aurora’s first-year
courses.

Seventy hours of pre-art college
experience consisted of hands-on
experience in drawing, three di-

_ mensional materials, creative pro-

cess and colour. Judith O’ Keefe,
program director for Emily Carr

- outreach programs was in Terrace

prior to commencement of Aurora
Summer Arts School to network
with the community and the
School to determine the focus of
the course to be offered through
Emily Carr.

Judith O’Keefe describes the
final course as “Art Access, a
process passage. It’s a sampling of
the first semester of first year at
Emily Carr, It’s remedial, gives
the students an opportunity to see

the complexity of Emily Carr
courses and realize the commit-
ment required for full-time enrol-
ment. It also assists them towards
building a portfolio."

The two-week course involved
four instructors and seven students,
although O’Keefe says the course
could comfortably accommodate
12 students. The students came to
the course with varied interests and
ambitions, from Terrace, Prince
Rupert, looking for answers and
comraderie, says O’Keefe.

She says of the instructors,
"They’re a great group of instruc-
tors and most are practising pro-
fessionals.” Marcus Bocott, an
instructor from lLangara and
Douglas Colleges, taught drawing
and the elements of mark making.
Rick Cuff, a graphic designer and
teacher of senior level design at
Emily Carr, taught colour. Carole
Itter, also a senior level design
instructor at Emily Carr, shared
techniques on working with three-
dimensional materials. Itter’s most

recent work is now a major instal-—

lation at the Vancouver Art Gal-

lery. Valerie Pugh taught creative
processes, the art of finding the
medium to express your language
or message.

Judith O’Keefe, working with
Aurora and Northwest Community
College, hopes they can make the
Emily Carr course "a community

event’? and have instructors do

public community presentations.
"This is a resource that should be
used," says O'Keefe. "I sense
some accreditation wish here.
People are demanding part-time
learning and contact with different
people." ;

Last Year, Emily Carr ran a 70
hour pilot project,at Douglas Col-
lege in professional development
for artists, The course
encompassed goal setting, time
management, business practises
and marketing.

With the shifts in the delivery of
advanced education in communities
throughout the province, Emily
Carr College’s program director
has asked to have input into future
courses here.

HANDWOVEN, TAILORMADE author Kathryn Wertenberger oversees her weaving students’
assignment of doing woven samples on each of ten looms provided for the course.

COMPUTER/
ELECTRONIC MUSIC

Earlier this month, music lovers
of all ages came together at North-
west Community College to learn
the new technology of music and
computers. Brian Fairholm, a
music instructor and developer of
music software, came up from
Vancouver for two weeks to show
students different programs on the

Macintosh computer.

Mr. Fairholm is author of the
book Classroom Music Technol-
ogy. The program was designed to
enable students to compose and
create their own music, and was
sponsored by Aurora. Terry
Anderson of School District #88,
organized the event and says that it
proved very popular, Aurora hopes
to be able to offer this program
again next year. He remarks that

they had a wide diversity of stu-

dents attending the course. They

were from age twelve and up.
Their experience ranged from none
to experienced music teachers.
Ginny Lowrie, a well-known music
teacher in the Terrace area,
attended the course and her
response was most favourable, "It
is wonderful to see programs like

this being offered in the North-
west."

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