Tricia Snell loving her work (Copyright Caldera)
September 1, 2009
By Claire Sykes
On Caldera’s yellow bus from Portland two summers ago, she counted the clouds, 512 of them, each one numbering her fears about spending a week at this overnight arts camp in Central Oregon. She knew no one there. Why had she agreed to come? That day on the bus, she decided: The sky would be her guardian.
Since then, that shy, insecure 14-year-old, who gave herself the camp name “IDK” (for “I Don’t Know”), has made many friends at Caldera. Last summer she took over 100 pictures of them, with their faces turned toward the sky as they thought about what inspired them most. Then she collaged them together in the shape of her own profile looking up, and around that wrote her thoughts and feelings.
IDK's photo collage (Copyright Caldera)
IDK's heartfelt words (Copyright Caldera)
IDK, eyes to the skies (Copyright Caldera)
Her first summer at Caldera, the sky had become her source of confidence in a place that did nothing less than forever alter her life. But that’s not unusual here. The organization’s year-round innovative art and environmental programs for underserved Oregon youth, and artist residencies for professional artists, make Caldera “a catalyst for transformation.”
Tricia Snell, executive director, talks about what goes on at Caldera.
Claire Sykes: Is this transformation the reason it’s called Caldera? A caldera is the crater of a volcano, and when it erupts the rock it’s made of metamorphoses.
Tricia Snell: Caldera’s 90 acres flank the shores of Blue Lake, formed in the cinder cone of an extinct volcano. The cross-section of the lake, incredibly deep and blue, is our logo. A caldera also calls up the concept of a caldron of creativity, and at Caldera it’s creativity that transforms people, all within the beautiful confines of this safe haven. When you’re there, you can’t help but feel the magic and spirit of the place.
Summer at Blue Lake (Copyright Caldera)
Cozy Caldera A-Frame (Copyright Caldera)
Caldera Hearth (Copyright Caldera)
CS: What a remarkable setting. What exactly does Caldera do?
TS: We provide long-term, year-round mentoring, through art and environmental experiences, to underserved kids from Portland and Central Oregon. We work with them in their schools, in weekly mentoring sessions, weeklong arts residencies and weekend arts intensives. And about 175 kids attend Caldera’s eight-day overnight summer camp, in three sessions, each year. Then January through March, up to 25 professional artists come from all over the world for month-long residencies. They have to apply and be selected by our panels of their peers, and it’s quite competitive, so it’s an honor to win a Caldera residency.
CS: Who are some of the fortunate ones?
TS: We’ve had sculptor/videographer and Whitney Biennial exhibitor MK Guth, Jarhead writer Anthony Swofford and Reggie Wilson’s Fist & Heel Performance Group. Many emerging artists also get accepted at Caldera, based on their work and its promise, to eventually appear on the cultural landscape.
Portland’s Fever Theatre created “Smiling in the Dark” while in residence at Caldera in 2009. Here Jacob Coleman and Amber Whitehall give a work-in-progress performance at an Open Studio event at Caldera. (Copyright Caldera)
CS: What do the artists and Caldera expect of each other?
TS: There’s a blend of solitude and community with other artists that’s unique to a residency. They have every intention to work in a focused way, without distraction—or obligation to turn out a finished product. They often discover new ways of creating, achieve breakthroughs in their thinking, and form collaborations among themselves, something that’s also true for the kids in our youth program.
CS: What is it about Caldera that allows for such rich, and free, expression?
TS: The land, for sure. But more than that, it’s the people. Together, the kids, teachers, staff and professional artists make up this big bubbling community. Caldera provides a place that challenges a person to grow personally and artistically. People feel safe enough to take risks, even fail, which is sometimes necessary in order to break through onto a new path. We not only support that, we foster it.
CS: How so?
TS: In Caldera’s youth program, for example, the educational staff encourage the kids to try new things, open up and support each other, and learn to trust, creatively and emotionally. Staff seriously listen to them, which they may not get from other adults in their lives. For some kids, Caldera becomes their family.
This was demonstrated to me at summer camp just before I accepted the job, in 2007. At the community circle farewell ceremony, everyone was asked to tell what they would take home with them. One girl said, “I will take back that I was loved here.” I really understood then that the youth program, ultimately, is all about learning to give and receive love.
Caldera students Shay and Jeremy pose in front of Shay’s photographic work, part of Caldera's 2008 "Hello Neighbor" project. (Photo by Julie Keefe. Copyright Caldera)
CS: What’s it like out at Caldera for kids during the summer?
TS: They’re making art all over the site. They might be photographing across the lake, dancing hip-hop in our arts center, African drumming on the forest stage, sitting under a tree writing, or drawing, painting, or creating fiber art in our studios. Susan Fischer, our fiber artist, teaches them how to make clothing and beautiful healing quilts and scarves with natural dyes, using lichen and other plants found on the land. Our resident photographer, Julie Keefe teaches that art form.
Caldera student Alisha keeps a close eye on her African drumming teacher Caton, during Caldera’s 2007 Celebration of the Drum. (Photo by Julie Keefe. Copyright Caldera)
Caldera artists work with Antonio and Ashley, student Apprentices in film, to help demystify a Panasonic DVX video camera. (Photo by Julie Keefe. Copyright Caldera)
CS: The same kids come to Caldera in the summer year after year, don’t they?
TS: Most of them, yes, from middle school and into college even. At summer camp this year, ten of our college-age kids returned to Caldera as junior advocates/mentors.
Our kids start out in the sixth grade with what we call Discovery, sampling all the artistic genres. Then, in time, they choose one art form and go into Immersion with it. If they’re serious, they Apprentice with one of our resident artists. By their junior and senior years in high school, they become skilled in their chosen art focus and their ability to express their voice and world perspective. This summer, the high schoolers did memoir-like photographic installations about their relationship with the Caldera community. IDK’s collage was the result of that work.
CS: What could kids receive from Caldera that they’re not getting yet?
TS: It would be great if we had more services for parents and caregivers—family-day arts workshops, events promoting communication and positive behavior, and support for applying for and entering college—but we don’t yet have the staff.
CS: What about the artists’ residency program?
TS: We’d love to give modest stipends and support for travel expenses. And once we expand our overnight accommodations, offer more residency slots. Right now, we can invite only about 15 percent of applicants.
CS: It sounds like funding is one of Caldera’s biggest challenges.
TS: It is. It’s a fight to make our budget each year. We need to broaden our funder base, be less dependent on our founder Dan Weiden, and start building an endowment. This takes people of real commitment who will help us with significant contributions.
CS: Meanwhile, do you have any new programs in the works?
TS: Yes! There’s the Innovation Program, where we’ll be hosting five-day symposiums out at Caldera. The first will be in August 2010, called “The Future of Learning.” We’ll bring people from a variety of disciplines together to look at how kids are learning and how that suits their future needs, given the way the world is changing so quickly, and come up with a new model of learning for the future. The symposium after that will focus on the environment, based on Paul Hawken’s book, Blessed Unrest. These are projects related to our mission, but also relevant to the world.
CS: What about making the Caldera site available to other groups and interests?
TS: We do want Caldera as a place others can come to, to hold meetings, problem-solve, find new paths. Caldera could become, as Dan Wieden puts it, “Camp David for the rest of us.” We’ve had requests from neuroscientists at OHSU [Oregon Health Sciences University] and the board of Ecotrust. But we don’t have the overnight accommodations. We do, though, rent to a variety of smaller groups, and conduct “curated residencies,” those outside of our winter juried residencies, like for Pacific Northwest College of Art and, soon, Oregon Ballet Theater.
CS: People have received, and will continue to receive, so much from Caldera. How has working with this organization touched your life?
TS: The aspect of Caldera as a family community has meant a lot to me. Caldera also embraces the three main passions of my life—the arts, education and the environment. And Dan is a very ambitious and creative, big-idea-thinking guy. It’s been an amazing opportunity to work with him.
Perhaps most exciting for me, though, is that I’ve been given permission to trust my instincts and operate on an emotional level, more than I have with any other job. And there are so many ways Caldera can continue to be shaped. It’s my job to listen deeply to the whole organism of Caldera, and see what it’s trying to become, then shepherd it in that natural direction. At the same time, I personally am shaped and shepherded, and the whole process is profoundly reciprocal. And transformational. Not always easy, but that’s ultimately what Caldera is all about—positive, joyful transformation.
Caldera students explore the land and lakes of Central Oregon both in their art, and in hikes and canoe trips. (Photo by Julie Keefe. Copyright Caldera)
© by Claire Sykes. All rights reserved.
Caldera is a truly magical place – Tricia and everyone involved with Caldera brings a passion and love for all they do that is unrivaled.
When you hear the kids talk about how transforming Caldera is, it goes right to your core. Most of them acknowledge that they wouldn’t make it through high school, let alone be accepted into college if it wasn’t for the influence and support they receive from this amazing organization. I would strongly urge anyone intrigued by this article to learn more about what they do – it will leave a lasting impact on your life, and your heart.
Tricia Snell sent the link to this article to many of her far-away family members, including me. The article does a great job of explaining Caldera. But even more important is the way it captures Tricia’s passion for her work. Thanks for the “visit” with Tricia and her Caldera family.