We’ve got a fabulously talented crop of counselors who will join us this summer. We’re still collecting their bios but wanted to make sure you had a chance to get to know our staff – who will, in turn, get to know your campers! Several of them are returning counselors, so you or your camper may note some familiar names in this batch of bios. All in all, these guys and gals are the hardest working folks at camp, so we’re thrilled to share them with you.

Jaclyn Bovee

Jaclyn is a student at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She loves arts and crafts, theater, dance, and all sorts of self-expression. Throughout high school she was very active in theater, and she directed “Wonder of the World” by David Lindsey-Abaire her senior year. Recently, her artistic pursuits have been more focused on the fine arts.

She has studied drawing and photography at Carleton and hopes to delve into the worlds of printmaking and ceramics in the coming year. Jaclyn is a founding member of the Do-It-Yourself Art Club, which is a student organization that promotes creative collaboration and learning. She also loves traveling, reading, journaling, and being outdoors.

Hannah Edlen

Hannah Edlen is returning to SFAC for her second year as a counselor. Originally from Illionis, Hannah happened across the SFAC website when desperately looking for interesting jobs outside of the Midwest last summer. She succeeded. Hannah is currently studying Music Education at Illinois State University in Normal, IL. She is a clarinetist and bass-clarinet enthusiast. Hannah will earn her Bachelor’s in Music Education, and hopes to go on to graduate school to study performance. Her aspirations are to teach clarinet at the collegiate level. Hannah is a musician by choice but is always interested in broadening her horizons!

Hannah Hutton

Hannah is a recent graduate of Dickinson College with a major in sociology and a concentration in International Development. She is originally from Sitka and is a SFAC alum. She has dabbled in several different art forms including music, creative writing, and documentary and looks forward to dabbling a bit more this summer!

Max Karler

Max Karler completed a Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Music Education at the University of Puget Sound this spring. In Fall 2007 Max was elected President of the Collegiate Washington Music Educator’s Association of the University of Puget Sound and is currently still holding this position. In addition, Max is a member of Phi Mu Alpha, the men’s music fraternity. He has served as the warden for three years and is currently serving as the Director of Musical Activities. In addition to performing on trombone, Max has appeared as guest conductor of the UPS Wind Ensemble and Brass Ensemble. After graduation he plans on attending the Master of Arts in Teaching program at the University of Puget Sound.

Andrew Krahn

Andrew Krahn is a musician and student who has just completed his third year at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where he is currently studying music therapy. Andrew plays saxophone and keyboards with the Boston-based funk-rock band the Effective Dose, as well as composes electronic music, which he performs solo. This is his second year at SFAC.

Ben Leddick

Ben Leddick is an improvising actor living in Los Angeles, CA. His performing home is at IO West and recently he has begun training with the Upright Citizens Brigade.

Kirsten McNally

Kirsten currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island where she attends Rhode Island School of Design. Although her training is in photography, she likes to work in many other media. Recently her work has been in video, exploring the line between the still image versus the moving image. She has taught classes at Providence community art organization CityArts, and hopes to continue teaching in a community arts setting when she graduates in 2010. She has never been to Alaska and is excited to run around outside.

Allison Miles

Allison is about to start her senior year of nursing school at Montana State University. Originally from Tacoma, WA, she has played the clarinet since she was eight and has also played the tuba for four years. She has played in concert bands, in various ensembles including the Tacoma Youth Symphony, and has also taught music lessons. This is her second year as a counselor, and she can’t wait to get back to Sitka. She’ll be the counselor you see out running in her free time.

Megan Ostermick

Megan is currently a sophomore at the University of Puget Sound majoring in psychology with minors in music and environmental studies. She is a clarinetist and has been playing for nine years, the last two at the university, where she takes private lessons and plays with the Wind Ensemble. She grew up in Talkeetna, AK, was a counselor at SFAC last year, and was a camper for three years during high school.

Elysia Petras

Elysia is 21 years old and entering her senior year at Bard College in New York state, and this will be her second year at SFAC. She studies Spanish and Latin American and Iberian Studies at Bard with a minor in Studio Arts. In her free time Elysia goes to Yoga and Juijistu lessons. She is very excited for camp!

Maya Scheer, Head Counselor

Maya Scheer was born and raised on a houseboat in Portland, Oregon and graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in psychology. She has always had a passion for the arts and outdoors. Her lifelong passions include everything from sea kayaking, rafting, and hiking to drawing and dancing. For the past few years Maya has traveled throughout Central and South America and lived in Costa Rica where she worked as a photographer.

Ardea Thurston-Shaine

Ardea is a senior at Oberlin College majoring in studio art. She also sings in a Renaissance choir and plays the viola. For the past semester she has been on leave and has traveled through Eastern Europe, basing herself in Budapest, Hungary, where she has been studying Hungarian fiddle and classical violin. After graduation Ardea hopes to become a freelance illustrator and maybe get an MFA. This will be her eighth summer at camp.

John Wheatley

John came from small-town Kentucky to big-city Chicago to be a famous rock’n’roll star. Instead of rock stardom though, John found jubilation in performing for school assemblies, community centers, and birthday parties. John is an active musician in Chicago and beyond and can often transcend fame whenever he plays songs to children or adults alike. John currently works with pre-K and elementary students in art and music and is eager to share more of an adult exchange with teenagers as a counselor for the Sitka Fine Arts Camp.

Michael Woods, Director of Residential Life

Michael Woods directs the instrumental music program at Central Kitsap High School in Silverdale, WA. He teaches, jazz band, orchestra, two concert bands, a percussion ensemble, and a competitive marching band program. He also directs the Bremerton Symphony Youth Orchestra. In 2008, he was voted Music Educator of the Year for the Olympic Peninsula by his peers. He has been working at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp since 2002.

Ric Sluiter was originally slated to teach our Photoshop and Digital Arts classes, but he won’t be able to join us after all this summer. Instead, we welcome Scott Fassett, from Oregon, to our faculty. Meet Scott!

Scott Fassett is a visual development artist working in the animation industry. He graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 1994 with a BFA in Illustration. From there, he worked at the prestigious Walt Disney Feature Animation Studio in Burbank, California, where he continued his on-the-job education learning the meticulous craft of background painting. During his six years at the studio he painted backgrounds for such films as Hercules, Tarzan, and Treasure Planet. Inspired by the landscapes of the great Southwest, Scott and his wife Shelly decided to move to Arizona. While living in Sedona, he freelanced for Disney Toon Studio, contributing background art to such classics as Winnie the Pooh, Bambi II and Tinkerbell. After four years of the “dry heat,” Scott was ready for something a little different– Portland Oregon, where he now calls home. For the past three years Scott has been developing the visual style for Jack and Ben, an animated feature film from Laika Entertainment in Portland, Oregon. Scott is now exploring 3-D environment design and matte painting for visual effects. Digital photography is also a passionate hobby, which he pursues at every opportunity.

Here is an example of Scott’s work:

 

Ricardo Zayas will teach dance at our high school camp this summer. Originally from Brooklyn, Ricardo studied on scholarship at the schools of Dance and Theater of Harlem and the San Francisco Ballet. In 2005, he graduated with honors from Fordham University. He joined the Alley II Company in his senior year and has also danced with Complexions Contemporary Ballet and Shen Wei Dance Arts. He was recently on Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” list for 2009. This is Ricardo’s fourth season with LINES Ballet.

Meet Alex da Silva, who will teach our video documentary classes this summer. If you were at the high school camp last year, you’ll remember the film “Paper or Plastic,” scored by our own Marco D’Ambrosio. That film was Alex’s latest project!

Alex da Silva was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. After spending a few years in Europe he went back to Brazil where he received his B.A. in communication and a master’s degree in film. He has been working in the film industry since 1989 as a producer, cinematographer and director in commercials and non-commercial projects shot in Brazil, the United States, Argentina, and Mexico. He co-directed and shot the documentary “Runners High” which tells the story of inner city teenagers who transform themselves both physically and mentally by training to run the Los Angeles Marathon. The film premiered in 2006 at the San Francisco International Film Festival and has gone on to play at festivals world-wide and has won numerous awards. Alex’s most recent project is “Paper or Plastic” (2008) and is a feature length documentary following contestants as they get ready for the 2007 National Grocery Bagging competition in Las Vegas.

Meet Brad Liening, who will teach our writing classes this summer.

Brad Liening is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he won a Hopwood Award for poetry, and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he studied under such well-known poets as Cole Swensen, Robert Hass, Dean Young, and D.A. Powell. He currently teaches writing and literature to college students in the Twin Cities, and before that he taught reading and writing to middle and high school students in California. When he’s not teaching writing or reading lots and lots of books, he has been known to wait tables and make a mean cappuccino. His poetry has appeared in a bunch of journals and magazines, including Mustachioed, the Sonora Review, and Forklift, and a chapbook of poems, Ker-Thunk, was published by H_NGM_N B__KS. He’d like to get a pet but isn’t quite sure if he’s a dog- or a cat-person.

Meet Caroline Rocher, who will teach ballet classes at our high school camp this summer.

Caroline Rocher began her training at the Conservatoire de Montpellier in France with Madame Claparède and later studied at the Rudra Béjart Lausanne School in Switzerland. In 1996 she moved to Paris to join the legendary Crazy Horse Cabaret as a soloist dancer. Then she went to NY in 1998 to study at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. After being a part of the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Dancing through barriers ensemble, she was then invited to join the Company in 1999, and was promptly promoted to principal dancer the following year. She performed leading roles in The Prodigal Son, Agon, Fancy Free,  Concerto Barocco, Serenade, Apollo, The Four Temperaments, Creole Giselle, Dwight Rhoden’s Twist, Glen Tetley’s Sphinx and Michael Smuin’s Saint-Louis Woman. In May of 2000, Caroline performed George Balanchine’s Slaughter on Tenth Avenue with New York City Ballet principal dancer Damian Woetzel at the New York State Theater as a part of NYCB/Dance Theater of Harlem collaboration. In October of 2000, she danced with Vladimir Malakhov at The Carrier Transition for Dancers Gala.  She also took part in “Le Gala des Etoiles du 21ième siècle” in Paris in 2004, and moved to Munich, Germany to join the Bayerisches Staatsballett where she danced the classics like Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadère, Raymonda, Giselle, Roméo et Juliette and works by John Neumier (Kameliendame), William Forsythe (Limb’s theorem), Jacopo Godani (Elemental) and Hans Van Manen (Fünf Tango, Black Cake). Then, in 2006 she danced with the Lyon Opéra Ballet in France, where she performed William Forsythe’s Steptext and Jiri Kylian’s Sechs Tänze. In 2007, Caroline moved back to the States and joined Alonzo King Lines Ballet. This is her second season with the company.

 

Meet Claudia Alvarez, who will teach painting at our high school session this summer.

Claudia received her MFA from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and her BFA from the University of California, Davis. Her work has been exhibited in the United States, Switzerland, and Mexico. Recent exhibitions include Museo de Arto Contemporaneo de Yucatan, Merida, Mexico, and El Museo Latino in Omaha, NE. Her work has appeared in New American Paintings, NY Arts Magazine, Review Magazine, Ceramics Monthly, and Confrontational Ceramics.

Meet Miami’s Teo Castellanos, who will join our theater faculty this summer:

Teo is an actor, writer, and director. He received his B.F.A. in theater from Florida Atlantic University, where he studied under full scholarship with four-time Tony Award-winner Zoe Caldwell. He is the author of NE 2nd Avenue, a one-man show based on Miami characters, commissioned by Miami Light Project. NE 2nd Avenue won the prestigious Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Scotland) in 2003.

He is artistic director of Teo Castellanos D-Projects, a contemporary dance-theater company whose original work fuses world cultures, religion, and music, examining social issues through performance. The company has toured South America and China and is currently touring the U.S. with its latest work, “Scratch & Burn.”

Teo has lectured and taught workshops at colleges and universities and in communities throughout the United States and the Virgin Islands. He is currently the executive producer of Miami Project Hip Hop (MPH), an annual event produced by Miami Light Project that honors hip hop roots and aesthetics. He is the recipient of the 2005 State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship.

We can’t wait for you to meet him!

Lindsey White will be teaching photography classes this summer. She’s new to the Sitka Fine Arts Camp faculty. Here is a recent photo she sent us:

Lindsey is an Oklahoma native who is living and working in San Francisco, CA. She’s an interdisciplinary artist whose work in photography, video, and sculpture explores the simple magic of everyday life. She has exhibited her work in San Francisco at Jack Hanley Gallery, Southern Exposure, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, Headlands Center for the Arts, and in Berlin at the Deadpan Exchange II Festival. She is currently the Artist in Residence and 2008-2009 Fellowship Resident at the Kala Institute for the Arts in Berkeley, CA. She teaches photography at the California College of the Arts and Modesto Junior College. She earned her BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art and her MFA from California College of the Arts.

This week we’re proud to bring you the latest on our 2009 faculty. Meet Javier Barboza, who will be teaching animation this summer.

Javier Barboza lives and works in Los Angeles. He graduated from the California Institute of the Arts’ Character Animation program. His films have been showcased in national film festivals, including Nickelodeon’s NickToons Network Animation Festival. He also won the 2007 Diversity Award. Javier currently teaches animation classes for elementary, middle, and high school classes in the Los Angeles area and is working on independent animation film projects.