Donors, Sponsors, & Volunteers

News From the Director

As I write, fifth and sixth graders from across the state are arriving for “Waterworld,” where they will explore the marine environment and their individual creativity in partnership with scientists from the Port Townsend Marine Science Center and artists who have been teaching in an array of programs as part of our 2008 Young Artist Project.

With support from Washington’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Centrum has been providing creative residential learning experiences to elementary, middle school, and high school students for the last 35 years. While these workshops have a lower profile than our big summer festivals, their effect on participants can be even more profound. For example, Kisha Palmer, our new Director of Business Development, moved from Los Angeles to work at Centrum because she took a writing class here when she was 16 that changed her life, exposing her to “a universe of possibilities I never knew existed or could be available to me before.”

Last week I received a note from self identified “parents of a child who just experienced the magic of Centrum.” They write, “Our daughter was ecstatic about her experience. We were particularly impressed with her desire to explore beyond her passion for theater, to experience the other arts. Thanks more than we can say.”

And I echo that thanks, to you and all other Centrum supporters who make such experiences possible.

Summer Performances
April 15th is opening day for donors to get the very best seats at all Centrum summer performances, two weeks in advance of the general public.

Our ticket office awaits your call. They can answer any special questions you have and make arrangements for guests with special access needs. Call: 360.385.3102, x117 or 800.733.3608, weekdays, 9am – 4pm.

If you want personalized service but can’t order between 9 am – 4 pm our online order site is for you!  This year Centrum has joined forces with a new e-ticket provider to produce a greatly improved online ticket buying experience, including seat selection. Simply go, on our website, to your area of your interest (e.g., Jazz, Fiddle, Blues, Singing) then look to the left column and click on Buy Tickets.

Nine Things to Know about the New Fort Worden

1. For the last 4 years Centrum has been a very active participant in the Fort Worden planning process.

2. Centrum’s core business (residential learning) was adopted as the central feature of the Conceptual Plan for Fort Worden, approved in January of 2007 by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission.

3. This plan designated Fort Worden a “center for life-long learning,” with an economy driven by tuition, food, and accommodations business generated and/or supported by all Fort partners, providing residential learning experiences for groups and individuals from around the region, nation, and world.

4. Over the last two years Centrum generated $1.25 million in food and accommodations business for the Park. The approved Conceptual Plan envisions four times that level of food and accommodations business generated by partner organizations at Fort Worden.

5. A special Task Force was called into being by the Washington State Legislature to determine what management structure would have the highest probability of building and sustaining a successful business based on residential learning programs at Fort Worden State Park.

6. The Task Force has determined that an existing or new nonprofit organization would be the organizational structure best suited to achieve the mission, vision, and goals outlined in the approved Conceptual Plan. 

7. At this point in the process it is reasonable to assume that Centrum—merging and significantly expanding upon its existing capacities with those of the current Fort Worden administration and other Fort partners—will be charged with supporting and coordinating program and business activities at the Park.

8. Such a transition would take place over an extended period and be guided by a carefully calibrated benchmarking process to ensure that the new management partnership develops the necessary and appropriate capacities to successfully implement the new vision for Fort Worden, while fulfilling the overarching mission and values of Washington State Parks.

9. The Task Force will make their recommendation to the State Parks Commission in August of 2008. For more details about the overall planning process at Fort Worden, as well as a schedule of opportunities for public input, visit the State Parks website (http://www.parks.wa.gov/fortworden/).

Our Promise
Four years ago Centrum created a document entitled “A Commitment to Change.” The central message in that document was that an organization with a mission of providing transformational experiences for its customers must itself embrace deep change as a core organizational value. Our 2004 Plan for Growth outlined a series of specific growth and change initiatives. With your guidance and extraordinary financial support we have achieved nearly every objective laid out in that plan.

We will not rest on our laurels.

As executive director, it is critical to me is that you continue to be proud of and excited by your ongoing investment in Centrum. Today, the board and staff are working harder and with greater focus than I have ever seen to achieve one result: Excellence. We are refining every system, testing every assumption, and—thanks to your support—utilizing new human and financial resources to ensure that Centrum will provide the richest educational, cultural, and customer experience imaginable. This is our promise to you.

Thank you, as always,

Thatcher Bailey

January Letter from the Director

You have transformed Centrum. Over the last four years your participation and generosity have been responsible for more programs, more participants, more artists-in-residence, more partners, more scholarships, more volunteers, more donors, more sponsors and advertisers, and more free performances and public events. Numbers are one way to demonstrate the efficacy of your generosity. But numbers do not tell the whole story.

Centrum is where you come to be fearless. This is no small thing: Making art demands a particular courage—to take risks, be vulnerable, work harder than you have ever worked, fail more often than you succeed, and maybe let go of the life you have known, for a life you can no longer imagine not living.
Centrum thrives because you are part of a community that completely understands, participates in, and fiercely applauds such courage. Thank you for being fearless.

It is paying off. 2008 has the potential to be one of the most remarkable years in Centrum’s 36-year history. Experience Magazine (newly designed this March), a monthly e-newsletter (also launching in March), and our website will provide updated listings and details of specific events, but below I offer a sampling of some of the undertakings you make possible.

Last weekend, six British artists—in residence over the last three weeks—held an “open studio” that extended to the top of Artillery Hill, where 16 artworks played off the colors, textures, and architecture of the gun emplacements.

This weekend high school visual artists from across Washington arrive to participate in the new Young Artist Project, working with and learning from Ryan Horvath and Amy Johnson, part of an extraordinary artist-faculty team who will be in residence throughout 2008.

The first weekend in February, Mike Dowling, Steve James, and Centrum’s Artistic Director for Slide and Steel, Orville Johnson, will be in residence leading a Bottleneck Slide Intensive and performing February 2nd at the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater.

The following week Fort Worden hosts the winter residency for Goddard College Creative Writing MFA, and February 21-24, Eileen Myles—perhaps the United States' best-known "unofficial poet"—will give a special workshop at Centrum about creating new poetry.

The final phase of Fort Worden planning will be complete and ready for Parks Commission approval in June. Centrum will play a pivotal role in developing, supporting, and promoting an increasingly diverse array of year-round creative, learning/teaching, and performance / exhibition opportunities at the Park.

You will be excited to know that in 2009, the extraordinary guitarist Corey Harris will succeed Phil Wiggins as Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival. As emeritus director, Phil will remain a vital presence, and is delighted that Corey will add his unique stamp to this beloved festival.

The School of Rock, a youth program initiated two years ago, has evolved into Roots of Rock, a July intergenerational workshop, featuring the first Queen of Rock, Wanda Jackson.

Partnerships continue to blossom. Centrum is working with Artist Trust to bring more choreographers and dancers to develop and present new work at Fort Worden. In April Centrum is hosting a gathering of Western States Folklorists, under the direction of Jens Lund. In October Seattle Theater Group and Centrum will co-produce a Seattle-based Fiddle Tunes event with the legendary Ralph Stanley.

Donors continue to increase scholarship and fellowships support (up 43% this year over last) so that exceptional students and artists from diverse geographies and backgrounds will enrich the creative communities that gather at Fort Worden.

In 2008 we will lay the groundwork for the renovation of six underutilized buildings into the new education campus at Fort Worden. Celebrating deep community connections to the Park, this capital campaign will solicit and celebrate hands-on volunteer labor and in-kind contributions.

Centrum and Fort Worden are able to expand opportunities at the Park because you are part of a community for whom this place and its programs hold deep and lasting value. Guided by enduring values that embrace both tradition and innovation, Fort Worden thrives on an economy of gratitude. All of us who work here have learned and continue to learn so much through our efforts to serve you.
Thank you.

Thatcher

November Letter from the Director

As we head into the traditional season of gratitude I offer up my personal thanks to you and the expanding universe of individuals whose active engagement with—and deepening support of—Centrum powerfully demonstrate that, indeed, it does take a village.

November 1st marked my fourth anniversary in this job, and with each passing year my appreciation of this most generous community grows more profound.

This weekend, author Pam Houston will cap off a three-day Advanced Manuscript Revision Intensive with a free, public reading in the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater. The following week, mandolin virtuoso Mike Marshall and his band Choro Famoso are leading a three-day master class.

Saturday, November 10, in the Wheeler Theater, they will offer regional audiences an unusual opportunity to hear the “sweet lament” of this Brazilian music. The next week musicians will gather with Fiddle Tunes artistic Director Dirk Powell, Tim Eriksen, and Riley Baugus to explore string band tunes, country songs and shape notes in the southern mountain tradition. Tickets are available for a Wheeler performance by these extraordinary artists on November 17.

January 18-21, the Centrum Young Artist Project kicks off with a master class for gifted high school visual artists from across Washington State. Students will explore the rich territory between drawing and sculpture under the guidance of Amy Johnson and Jeffry Mitchell, two of the core artist faculty who will be in residence to teach and to create their own work throughout 2008. This program is generously supported by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Thank you to the more than 500 individuals and businesses who contributed their time, talent, money, and imagination to make the 2007 Gala a record-breaking evening of philanthropy in support of Centrum artists and programs. The evening grossed $260,000, an 11% increase over last-years record-breaking event.

Highlights of the evening included two opportunities for patrons to raise their paddles in support of scholarships and of the newly establish Russell Jaqua Fund for Artistic Excellence. Adding to challenges offered up by Kristin Manwaring Insurance, Rick and Debbie Zajicek, and Joe and Renate Wheeler, over $76,000 was contributed that night for these critical initiatives.

As you can see on the enclosed financial statements, ten months into the year, Centrum is in a healthy position. Although we have fallen short in a couple of revenue lines, we have exceeded expectations in others, and have been very careful with expenses. Cash flow remains strong and we are projecting a solid year-end. The major variable is year-end fundraising success. Donors have already been exceedingly generous this year, giving and pledging $120,000 more from January through October than in all of 2006. Still, as we grow the number and quality of our programs we are seeking additional support: another $40,000 over the next two months. If we can achieve that goal it would be a powerful indication Centrum is providing real value to you and all the other donors who make this place run.

I am very excited to introduce new staff members whose experience and skills will enhance Centrum’s abilities to serve and anticipate your needs and interests in the years ahead. Anne Kearson (Production Director) has worked for the Los Angeles Festival of the Arts, and ACT, the Seattle Rep, and the Fifth Avenue theaters in Seattle. Kim Jons (Sales Manager) comes to us after eight years as an advertising manager at the Peninsula Daily News. Tom Scharf (Development Director) has worked in public relations, marketing, writing, and editing for museums and nonprofits in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

We are poised to sign off on a contract with the same firm that developed business and site plans for the remarkable Presidio project in San Francisco. We hope to have their work completed and documents available for public review and comment by spring of 2008. We have taken a major step forward by selecting Bon Appétit to be the next food provider for the Fort, a food service company known for its culinary expertise, commitment to socially responsible food sourcing and business practices, and strong partnerships with respected conservation organizations.

We will continue to deepen our commitments to change, excellence, and connection. By March we will have completed our own three-year business and communications plans and will send them out for your review and comment. We are working hard to make you feel good about your investment in the future of this amazing place.

You are Centrum. Thank you for that.

 

July 2007 Letter from the Director

As I write, about 150 participants in the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference and the Goddard MFA Writing Program are deep in critique, creation, and conversation with an extraordinary array of poets and prose writers from across North America, who work beyond the bounds of well-behaved American literature. A rigorous and rich schedule of readings and lectures fills mornings, afternoons and evenings all week long. And everyone is basking in the beauty of Fort Worden in July.

Coming Up: It is the mid-point of our summer season; Jazz, Blues, and Chamber Music are still to come. And we are also looking ahead to a richer calendar of fall, winter, and spring workshops and events than ever before. In October we have scheduled an advanced revision workshop for fiction writers with Pam Houston. In November, Mike Marshall will be heading a master class on, “Choro: The Sweet Lament of Brazilian Music.”  Also in November, Dirk Powell will be back at Centrum for “Southern Mountain Traditions: String Band Tunes, Country Songs, and Shape Notes.” And, in January, Orville Johnson, Steve James, and Mike Dowling will be leading a Bottleneck Weekend. Intimate and extraordinary public performances will be part of each of these gatherings.

You can read stories about and interviews with several of the artists involved in these new ventures in the next issue of Experience magazine, which should be arriving in your mailbox at the end of the month.

Fort Planning: If you have been receiving these quarterly letters from me for a while, you know how deeply Centrum has been engaged in planning for the future of Fort Worden as a center for lifelong learning. The last phase of this process is officially underway, with the recent posting of a “Request for Qualifications,” seeking individuals or teams to lead detailed final planning efforts. (For details visit our Fort Worden web section.)  As part of this effort, Centrum, Fort Worden, and the Quimper Foundation have begun convening a series of meaty conversations with Fort partners about how we can work with one another to develop and sustain a “partnership economy” that will promote and support Fort Worden as an internationally significant learning center.

Deepening Our Commitment to Young Artists

In the last issue of Experience I wrote that artists teach us that “embracing change can be the most meaningful way to honor tradition.” This understanding plays out in myriad ways at Centrum. Most recently, we have re-invented our programs for elementary, middle school, and high school students by remembering what has always been most transformative for then: deep interactions with practicing artists who are taking risks with their own work and will push students to think very differently about art making.

Visual artist Martha Worthley, our new manager for youth programs, is working to deepen our commitment to youth by deepening our connections to provocative emerging and established artists across disciplines. She is selecting a core group of artists who will serve as faculty for all 2008 youth programs. These artists will also be given residency opportunities to further their own projects and to interact and collaborate in community with other artists at Fort Worden. By extending their connection to Centrum over an entire season, they will have more chance for creative engagement with the physical site and the local community.

For 35 years Centrum has worked with artists across a spectrum of creative endeavor to inspire and challenge young artists. We are deepening that tradition. Our November 2006 gathering of youth arts leaders from across Washington underscored the critical importance of identifying, working with, serving, and learning from artists whose work recasts and opens up new cultural conversations. Linking our artist-in-residence program with student residential programming will provide an array of new opportunities for learning and creation.

We do not provide arts education; we provide education, community, and creative time for artists—professional, emerging, aspiring, or experimenting. When we talk about Centrum experiences changing lives we are, more often than not, talking about individuals whose decision to be artists were made as the result of their time at Fort Worden.

We wish to give special thanks to the painter Mary Ann Peters, a former student, teacher, and artist-in-residence at Centrum, and the newest member of the Centrum advisory board, for working closely with Martha on this program. Several years ago, Mary Ann, along with writer Matthew Stadler and Anne Focke—one of the nation’s greatest advocates for individual artists—proposed an initiative for Centrum that looked a lot like what is emerging for 2008. Embracing change can be the most meaningful way to honor tradition.

Centrum’s programs for Washington State youth are supported through generous funding from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with monies secured by the ongoing advocacy of our legislative delegation. Kudos to Terry Bergeson and Gayle Pauley at OSPI and to Lynn Kessler, Jim Hargrove, and Kevin Van der Wege in the Washington State Legislature.

April 2007 Letter from the Director

As I write, 82 fifth-graders are exploring marine life and artistic expression as part of “Waterworld,” one of Centrum’s most popular youth programs. Presented with the Port Townsend Marine Science Center and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, this program—attracting teams of young artists and scientists from distant reaches of the state—speaks eloquently to the Fort’s mission of creativity and discovery.

As always, creativity and discovery are underlying themes in the next issue of Experience. Available in May, the next issue explores different ways that cultural traditions are revitalized through artistic innovation and transformation.  Details about summer performances are also included. Advance ticket sales for Centrum donors begin April 16. Review our website to plan your summer entertainment.

Record-Breaking Generosity

Over the last three years, Centrum’s overall revenues have grown from $1.80 million to $2.45 million, an increase of 36%. Revenue projections for 2007 are pinned at about $2.7 million. We have diversified earned revenue streams generating an increase of $450,000 or 44% from 2003.

While public sector contributions have declined by 2%, private sector giving is up 64%. Over the last 12 months Centrum donors have provided a record-breaking $1,145,819 in contributed support. Thirty-four individuals and institutions—giving $5,000 or more—accounted for almost 80% of that total. The other 979 donors gave an average gift of $235. The fifteen members of the Centrum board contributed a total of $141,000.

This is amazing generosity. The students, artists, audiences, and staff applaud you!!!

Help Us Plan for Growth

"Fort Worden has a precious legacy and there is now the chance to build on that legacy in ways that serve those whose lives have already been changed by experiences at the park, and to open up that opportunity for learning and transformation to millions more. We must imagine what we do on an entirely different scale. We must understand that our commitment to change is a commitment to changing the way people live on this earth. Our vision must be audacious, for the opportunities before us are extraordinary and the challenges daunting."

This is the last paragraph of our draft Plan for Growth. We would love your input on the whole document. I hope you will comment with  ideas, concerns, and questions. This whole endeavor is about listening to, learning from, and engaging  members of the myriad communities that gather at Centrum and Fort Worden. Thank you for taking the time to read...

Download plan_for_growth_07.doc

January 2007 Letter from the Director

Dear Friends of Centrum,

First off, I want to thank you for helping make 2006 one of the most successful years in Centrum’s history. There are many ways of measuring success: Artistic quality and customer satisfaction are soft measures, but they are what drive financial success. Workshop enrollments, ticket sales, volunteer and donor engagement, are the easiest to quantify. Across the board, these clocked in with twenty-plus percent improvements over 2005.

My greatest pleasure comes in knowing that every quarter this letter goes out to more and more people. Centrum is all about your connection and support. We talk constantly about how the organization thrives when it gets out of the way of itself. That means it thrives when we—as a staff—welcome, engage, listen, learn from, change as a result of, and thank you as often and in as many ways as we can.

Getting out of the way of ourselves has helped us embrace and celebrate change as our fundamental organizational value. And a major change is in the offing. On January 11, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission approved a new and inspiring vision for Fort Worden State Park. Building on the long and beloved traditions of the communities that have gathered at this magical place for the last 35 years, we will create a learning center for the future, dedicated to creativity and discovery, integration and collaboration, hospitality, stewardship, and play.

The new park will be run as an integrated partnership, and the planning process foreshadowed this commitment to an amazing degree. Washington State Parks sought out Centrum’s participation in the preparation of this plan. Centrum was at the table from the beginning, and there is no sentence in the final document that does not speak to a richer set of possibilities for you and other participants, audience members, and fans.

This plan recognizes and embraces the fact that Centrum’s success (and the success of any partner institution at Fort Worden) is completely dependent upon the success of Fort Worden. In the new plan, there is no “we” and “they”.  It is all We. Understanding what that change really means in terms of what is possible ten years down the road (and what is necessary ten months down the road) is what we are figuring out right now. By the spring of 2008, we must have a complete business plan featuring a new management structure for the Fort (most likely some version or combination of a public development authority and nonprofit foundation) that will guide and be guided by all resident partners.

Meanwhile, Centrum begins its 35th year of programming.

Cordivae Press—a consortium of thirty northwest printmakers is our newest resident partner. They have launched operations in Centrum’s print studio. To celebrate this collaboration, we are mounting an exhibition of 70 prints selected from the Centrum archives this spring in Building 204. A Centrum Circle donors’ reception is scheduled for April.

The selection and framing of these prints is the first phase of the new Fort Worden Museum project in which art and historic artifacts that have been produced at or used at the Fort are placed on display in sites all over the campus. The prints from this exhibition will be placed in Officer’s Row houses with interpretative panels explaining this history of printmaking at Centrum.

More good news on the visual arts front: I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel with Park Manager Kate Burke and members of the Fort Worden Advisory Committee to select what I am sure will turn out to be a beloved public art work in Port Townsend. Funded by the Washington State Arts Commission’s Art in Public Places Program and the Friends of Fort Worden, Gayle Bard—renowned for her exquisite landscape paintings—has been commissioned to create a large work depicting the park lands. The piece will hang prominently on the entry wall in the Fort Worden Commons.  What we didn’t know when we made the selection is that years ago Gayle had been an artist-in-residence at Centrum, and it was during that residency that she was inspired to focus on landscape painting.

The Goddard MFA in writing program gathers on February 8 for the first of two eight-day sessions in 2007. This program has grown far faster than planned, with enrollments doubling over the last year. Goddard is expecting to reach capacity enrollment within the next two years.

Our High School Arts Master Classes for gifted students from around Washington begins February 16. Workshops include Improvisational Theater with K. Brian Neel; Seeing Place with Ellen Sollod; Performance Poetry with Anis Mojgani; Slash, Burn, and Rip:  The Metaphorical Language of Materials with Susie J. Lee; and Telling Your Story with Kathleen Alcalá.

Our January Art of Teaching Workshop was cancelled because of icy roads. We are working to reschedule it in October to coincide/collaborate with the State Arts Commission’s gathering of artists and teachers involved in its statewide arts education consortium program.

You will soon be receiving the third issue of Experience, which will highlight summer learning opportunities. We have a great season lined up. It kicks off with a concert by the Seattle Men’s  Chorus on June 10. The Slide and Steel Festival returns, featuring Hannes Coetzee, from South Africa, who plays slide guitar with a spoon held in his mouth. VoiceWorks is back after a year’s hiatus, with the Birmingham Sunlights from Alabama, six men singing four-part a capella gospel music. The Port Townsend Country Blues Festival will highlight guitarist Cheick Hamala Diabate, from Mali.

In addition to Trio Solisti, Chamber Music’s director Helen Callus will bring composer Paul Moravec, a 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner. NEA Jazz Master Gerald Wilson will be on the jazz faculty and leading the All-Star big band.  Irish fiddler Liz Carroll and Swedish fiddle ace Paul Dahlin, both National Heritage Fellows, will be featured at Fiddle Tunes, playing with personal family members. And Eileen Myles, cult figure to a generation of post-punk writers, will be a special guest at the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference.

A record number of artists-in-residence are creating new work in the recently renovated “Suds” houses and “Fourplex” apartments. The last three of the nine units are being transformed by an army of community volunteers. Rick and Debbie Zajicek gathered a team to complete their fourth renovation for Centrum. Anne Schneider, Leah Hammer and friends have nearly completed their redecoration and the team of Windermere Port Townsend Agents of Good Roots with their family and friends, are also hard at work transforming once depressing accommodations into a gracious retreat. Artists who stay in this housing are deeply appreciative and artists who visited in the old days are particularly moved. Centrum volunteers are amazing!

Thank you for all you do to make Centrum happen,
Thatcher Bailey

October 2006 Letter from the Director

Dear Friends of Centrum,

As I write, we are in preparation for the first of three fall master classes—a weekend for 20 mandolin and bass players to study with Edgar Meyer, Mike Marshall and John Clayton.

Next month, Dirk Powell and the Foghorn String Band will be in residence for a three-day intensive for 25 musicians, and novelist Dorothy Allison will work with 12 dedicated writers. November is also the first gathering of the Youth Leadership Board, a colloquium on the future of youth programming at Centrum.

These intimate learning experiences are a new direction for off-season programming at Centrum and are part of the reason that overall workshop attendance is up so significantly over 2006. This year, over 2,100 students of all ages and backgrounds and from all over the country—and from even farther shores—will have gathered at Fort Worden for a Centrum learning experience. We will exceed last year’s paid and scholarship tuitions figures by some 17%. (Ticket sales will also be up about 18% over 2006.)

Over the last three years, we have made large and small changes to Centrum offerings. We have taken and continue to take risks with new artistic leadership and direction.  We are so grateful to the communities around Centrum who are guiding and supporting these changes. (Contributions are also up by 7% over 2006.) It is your vision and generosity that we celebrate. Thank you!

Speaking of change, Centrum is truly at an historic juncture. As I write, a broad public is reviewing two possible options for the future of Fort Worden State Park.

Since I came on as director nearly three years ago, I have been engaged in informal and formal conversation with Fort Worden Manager, Kate Burke, and a host of staff, commissioners, advisors, consultants, and constituents who are involved in the long-term planning process for the Park. The outcome of this process will have profound implications for Centrum.

As you know, Centrum and Fort Worden came into existence through a partnership between the Washington State Park and Recreation Commission and the Washington State Arts Commission. There was a deep vision and great excitement about a magnificent state park that would also be an international “Center for Creativity.” In the 34 years since that paperwork was signed much of the promise of that partnership has been fulfilled.

Very few state parks in the country offer such glorious natural and built environments. Miles of sand beach, breathtaking vistas of the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, serene wetlands, dense forests, and turn-of-the-century military architecture—replete with severe yet enticing concrete bunkers and gun emplacements—occupy 440 end-of-the-road acres that have provided decades of retreat, renewal, and discovery for the millions of visitors who have passed through the park gates since 1973.

And a profound part of the experience of retreat, renewal, and discovery has been provided by the artists, students, audience members, donor, and volunteers who have built Centrum into an internationally significant gathering place for creative endeavor.

The partnership between Fort Worden and Centrum is unique among all state parks in Washington and under Kate Burke’s leadership we have the opportunity to take this partnership a whole new level.

If everything is so great, you might ask, “Why does anything have to change?”

All of the people involved in the planning process are in agreement on the answers to this question.  First, although Fort Worden is well funded relative to other state parks in Washington, the demand for ongoing and deferred maintenance outpaces available public resources. Every year the to-do list grows longer while the funding stays relatively flat. Status quo means continued deterioration of the facilities at Fort Worden. (Because the Park is owned and operated by a governmental agency it is very difficult to attract significant private investment or philanthropy.)

The second reason is that Kate Burke needs—and Fort Worden needs—clarity about business development at the Park. Over the years, in addition to serving as a learning center, Fort Worden has developed as an affordable conference center used by a range of outside groups: kayakers, football teams, family reunions, and professional and religious groups. Both the education economy and the conference economy have grown, but they are different economies with different needs and audiences. In terms of operations and capital improvements Fort Worden is increasingly in the position of competing against itself.

We are at the point where the public needs to make a choice about which one of these economies will be the driver at Fort Worden. In the end there will still be a mix. A lifelong learning center will also attract outside conferences and family reunions. A vacation retreat and conference center will still have some level of cultural programming. (And the campgrounds will continue to be some of the busiest in the state.)

The reality is that either option requires Centrum to take a significant leap in what we do and how we do it. The learning center option might seem “easiest” for us. But this option requires that we really step up and become a much bigger player at the Fort with a far greater financial responsibility.

I have been at the table since the beginning of this process and understand the risks and rewards of either option. But it is not for me or anyone else at that table to decide. It is up to you and the thousands of other individuals whose deep connection to and passion about this place will be the guiding force.

The difference for Centrum is very significant. Centrum’s—and the Washington State Arts Commission’s—founding vision, our current plan for growth, and 34 years of residential learning, creation, and performance are very much in sync with the vision of a lifelong learning center. Centrum would be part of a consortium of other organizations devoted to providing residential learning, and be managed by a nonprofit foundation or public development authority that would integrate marketing, fundraising, and business services for all partners. Centrum would rededicate itself to cultivating new audiences and donors to significantly increase revenues available for operations and capital improvements at the Fort.

Centrum would evolve very differently if Fort Worden were to commit to developing its capacities and facilities as a vacation and conference center. We could still be active users of the performance venues and we could still provide off-season programming at the Fort. But this option—financed significantly by private investment—would shift facility priority—especially in high season—away from nonprofit arts programming.

If you have not already, please let your views be know, as soon as possible.

On behalf of all of us at Centrum and Fort Worden, thank you.

Thank you so much,
Thatcher Bailey

July 2006 Letter from the Director

Dear Friends of Centrum,   

As I write, Centrum is in the second day of the new Slide and Steel Guitar workshop, featuring masters of country, sacred steel, bluegrass, and blues traditions in residence for a week with sixty musicians from around the country. Yesterday we ended the largest Fiddle Tunes gathering in Centrum history under the new and soulful leadership of artistic director Dirk Powell.

During the prior week the Chamber Music workshop enrollment was up 54% from 2005. In addition to the regular weekend concerts there were five free evening events—master classes, multimedia presentations, and performances—to introduce a larger public to some of what students come back for year after year. The week before Chamber Music the Centrum School of Rock doubled its enrollment, with a rigorous introduction into the history and fundamentals of the genre under the artistic direction of blues and rock keyboard legend Daryl Davis.

Summer is in full swing at Fort Worden.

The longer I am in this job and the more people I meet who are connected to what happens at Centum, the more strongly I feel the obligation to deliver on our programmatic goals. Just saying thank you is not enough for all of you who give so much of your time, energy, and money to keep Centrum vital. The most profound way to express gratitude is to ensure that we develop and promote artistic programs that are
1.    one of the top three of their kind in the country
2.    the best of their kind in the northwest;
3.    distinct in their identity and mission;
4.    attractive to an expanding and culturally diverse participant and audience base; and
5.    economically robust.

Your continued and growing generosity is our best barometer of how well we are achieving these goals. We are stewards of your generosity and that is no small responsibility. You give us the resources, courage, and mandate to take risks and make hard choices.

Enclosed is a listing of all of you who supported Centrum in 2005. In one year the list has expanded from four to six pages. So many of you have stepped up to help with and be part of what is happening here. It is inspiring to be in service to a community providing such resource and passion to “promote creative experiences that change lives.”

In great appreciation,
Thatcher Bailey

April 2006 Letter from the Director

Dear Friends of Centrum,

This quarterly update comes at a wonderfully busy time at Centrum. As I write, 72 fifth-graders from across Washington are registering for “Waterworld,” a weeklong, hands-on exploration of the myriad intersections between the natural world and the creative life.  We run this program in collaboration with the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.

The fifth-graders arrive as high school writers travel home after devoting five days to the power of the written and spoken word.  In part an examination of craft, the high school gathering also challenged students to think beyond self-expression and engage contemporary life in all its cultural and economic complexities.

In two weeks we are bringing Light Motion Dance Company to the Fort to lead an Integrated Dance workshop for physically disabled and non-disabled dancers, May 4-7. This is followed by the Northwest Big Band Workshop (and free concert on May 19). On May 23 and 24 we are co-hosting—along with the Washington State Arts Commission, DASH (Disability Awareness Starts Here) Port Townsend, VSA Arts of Washington and Massachusetts, and the Port Townsend Arts Commission—a free disability access training for arts administrators and arts facilities managers around Washington.

Then the season really kicks in.  As a generous member of the Centrum community, you are receiving this information in advance of the general public. Sue Cook, our Box Office Manager, is standing by to take your ticket orders. It is going to be a great summer with five national Heritage Award winners coming to teach and perform and there are many don’t-miss events scheduled. I urge you in particular to hear the masters of sacred steel, country, Hawaiian, old-time, and bluegrass traditions at the “Slide & Steel” celebration, July 15, at McCurdy Pavilion.

On April 1, 250 old and new friends gathered to celebrate Centrum founder Joseph F. Wheeler at an extraordinary “Founder’s Choice Concert” featuring pianist William “Skip” Doppmann. Skip led the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival from 1975 to 1998.  The event was a celebration of both men’s deep commitment to Centrum’s long legacy of artistic excellence.

It was also an afternoon about the future. Renate and Joe Wheeler announced a $100,000 estate gift they have pledged to Centrum, and for the first time we published a list of individuals, couples, and families who have made similar bequests. These Centrum Visionaries are making legacy gifts in honor of traditions that have added richness to their lives and in support of new opportunities for generations to come.

And, speaking of generations to come, six nights later I gathered with the aforementioned young writers to listen to readings by artist faculty. Anis Mojgani, the 2005 Individual National Poetry Slam Champion, was last up. Before he had uttered two lines, this Portland-based performance poet owned the room. It was twenty minutes of grace and exuberance, passion and control, quiet and power that passed in what felt like no time at all. I found myself holding my breath not wanting to miss how Anis was breathing such life into his work.

In the forthcoming premiere issue of Experience: Centrum’s Magazine for the Creative Life, our new artistic director for Fiddle Tunes, Dirk Powell writes, “My ideal message to others is not ‘Listen to this story to learn about me,’ but ‘Listen to this story to learn about yourself.’” That’s what Anis was saying with his poetry and I could tell that every student in the room heard him and will not soon forget the experience.

I leap from Chamber Music, to Slam Poetry, to Fiddle Tunes because that’s what we do at Centrum and because what Dirk has to say about creative and cultural traditions resonates so deeply with our mission:

Young people are ready to make traditional art forms their own in the truest sense. They understand the value of creative expression and it’s up to the preceding generations to give them the means through which they can share their stories with the world. Many of them have been bombarded with heavily branded advertising on an unprecedented scale since before they could walk, and many are rejecting this attempted manipulation of their lives. I think it’s essential to be there for them.

In this spirit, we are extremely pleased to announce that our two first choices to be mentors for the Centrum Youth Leadership Board have enthusiastically accepted our invitations. Pramila Jayapal is an activist and writer, and founder of Hate Free Zone Campaign of Washington, a grassroots nonprofit organization that was created in response to the 9/11 backlash against immigrant communities of color. For the past ten years, she has been actively involved in international and domestic social justice issues, particularly with women's and children's issues. In 1995, she was awarded a two-year fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs to live in villages and towns across India and write about her perspectives on modern Indian society in the context of development and social justice.

Daryl Davis, rock and blues vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist, and composer has been a performer at the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival and is artistic director for the 2006 Centrum School of Rock. He has played with Chuck Berry, the Jordanaires, Muddy Waters’ Legendary Blues Band, The Coasters, and Bo Diddley, to name a few. Daryl is also an author, whose book Klan-Destin Relationships, chronicles his quest to meet with Ku Klux Klan members and convince them to rescind their beliefs.

The Youth Leadership Board will gather over Veterans’ Day weekend to define, conceive, generate, and promote programs that attract and serve the best young artists and critical thinkers in Washington State. Daryl writes, “As adults, we often quash the dreams of children because our own innovative and risk taking days are behind us. Youth are unafraid to take on new adventures and risks.  They will teach us.”

In a focused effort to extend our programming season and build on deeply rooted Centrum traditions, we are offering two additional fall programs.  Acclaimed cross-genre musical master Edgar Meyer, Mike Marshall, and John Clayton will be leading a master class workshop October 5-7, ending with an intimate concert in the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater.  Beloved novelist Dorothy Allison will also be offering a master class, October 20-22.  Her public reading will be sponsored by the Pride Foundation.

The Fort Worden planning process has shifted into high gear. In March, members of the Fort Worden Planning Advisory Group met for the first time to help shape the planning process. Last week a remarkable team of architects, engineers, artists, financial analysts, and hospitality planners were selected to help gather public input and analyze existing and possible configurations of cultural and recreational programs and businesses at the Fort.

Two firms represented on this consulting team have been involved with successful projects in the Port Townsend area. ARC Architects is finishing restoration of Port Townsend City Hall and SvR Design worked on the successful F Street improvement project. Two team members have past Centrum connections: Barbara Swift, landscape architect, taught a youth creativity workshop in 1987, and artist Ellen Sollod has twice been an artist-in-residence.

This team was the unanimous choice of the interviewers, consisting of Jean Dunbar, George Randels, and Rodger Schmitt of the Fort Worden Advisory Committee; historic preservationist Dave Hansen; Fort Worden Manager Kate Burke; Washington State Parks Planner Peter Herzog; and me. The particular expertise the consulting team will bring to the process impressed all of us, but it was the enthusiasm with which they spoke about Fort Worden that convinced us that they understand how beloved a place this is and that they will respect its history, its environment, and the community that cares so deeply about it.

Continuing along this theme of revitalization and caring community, we celebrated the renovation of another of our “Suds” units. Cindy and Ken McBride led a team to take on the last (and undoubtedly most challenging) of the five houses we rent from Fort Worden to house Centrum artists and performers. The transformation was spectacular. Sadly, Cindy took no “before” pictures; I think the place was just too depressing. But those of us who remember what it looked like were stunned by what had been done and by the resourcefulness, generosity, and good taste of the volunteer team.  The last three apartments in the “Four-plex” will undergo a makeover next fall/winter to complete the re-do of all nine housing units by Centrum volunteers.

I continue to be amazed by the volunteers who make Centrum work. We have been so lucky to be guided by our Disability Access Committee and the entire DASH organization as we adjust what we do and how we do it to be more welcoming to people with disabilities. DASH recently led an all-day ADA training for its board and Centrum and Park staff at Fort Worden Chapel. On April 19, Kate Burke and I are participating in DASH’s Assume-a-Disability event at Fort Worden. The next night DASH and Centrum are co-sponsoring the Poetic Justice Theatre Ensemble Disability Performance at the USO, 7-9 pm.

Jamie Parker and Emily Mandelbaum helped us shop for a whole new assisted listening system for our performances and workshops. We are setting up a new information center for our public performances at which the listening devices will be available along with specially trained volunteers who can help individuals with various special needs.

Planning for the 2006 Centrum Gala is well underway under the wonderful leadership of Bickie Steffan and Jean Marzan. “An Evening in Paradise” will feature an array of tropical surprises and delights as well as a performance you will not want to miss by our new auctioneer Laura Michalek. Many thanks go to thirty members of the Gala Host Committee who have agreed to fill tables with friends and supporters and to twenty-five committee chairs who will work with 100 volunteers to make the evening happen. Call Mary Hilts at Centrum, ext. 116 if you would like to join the Gala team.

Speaking of volunteering, the annual Centrum volunteer orientation is scheduled for Tuesday, April 25 in Building 204 upstairs from 5:30 to 6:30pm. This is your chance to sip some wine, enjoy some hors d’oeuvres, get a preview of the summer season, meet old and new friends, and sign up to be part of the action.  Also mark your calendar for the RE/MAX Benefit Golf Tournament on June 3 at the Discovery Bay Golf Course. Under the generous leadership of Dick and Nancy Stelow, they will have prizes for pros and duffers alike.

I am finishing this letter just in time to walk over and welcome the fifth-graders, who by now have finished their dinner and are gathering with buzzing expectation in the USO Building. I wish you could be here to feel the energy in the room. Please know how grateful I am - we all are - for the support you offer that makes such gatherings possible.

Thank you so much,
Thatcher Bailey