Play a familiar childhood song for Alzheimers patients who can’t remember their own daughters’ names, and they’ll light up and sing along to every word — music is that powerful. Numerous studies indicate that music lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, and boosts natural opiates.
How does a new artist emerge into the Homer creative community? How does that community shepherd the next generation of talent gently into a career? And, oh yeah, if that artist happens to be the mother of a young child and has started a small business, what do you do?
‘Brouhaha’ opens April 20
It’s a scenario that Alaskans know well. A recipe calls for a specific ingredient, maybe fresh chives, but the grocery store has little to offer in the way of anything chive-related, thus throwing the entire meal into disarray.
As Homer art lovers know, April always brings a special treat: student art shows from kindergarten to high school at Paul Banks Elementary School and Homer Flex School. Paul Banks holds it annual Arts Extravaganza, with not only displays of student art, but a hands-on art table and performances by the Homer Youth String Orchestra and Preludes, the Paul Banks string instrument ensemble. Homer Flex demonstrates that art continues as students mature and prepare to embark on adult life. For its show, the school features photography done in an Artist in the Schools residency by Taz Tally.
Pratt holds Community Conversation tonight
A forbidden love. A bitter rivalry. And love and hate expressed through rhyme. No, it’s not Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Students in Homer High School’s Concert Choir are bringing “West Side Story” to life for the first time in 15 years on the Mariner Theatre stage this weekend.
Bunnell artist-in-residence holds show
Just like a hobbit can take a second breakfast, some people get a second retirement — a closing of a career after previous work. After moving from the Lower 48 and settling in Homer, artists Mary Frische and Tom Collopy this month ended their environmental photography business, Wild North Photography, with a final gallery show at Fireweed Gallery.
In artist residencies sponsored by Bunnell Street Arts Center over the past few years, a clear pattern seems to have evolved:
Marilyn Sigman launches book
Art Shop Gallery
Savanna Bradley is the collections manager at the Pratt Museum in Homer, but she’s been a personal fan and lover of the building and all its artifacts since childhood. To watch her slide out drawers of fragile bones and handle handcrafted fishhooks is to watch a professional care for her many charges, but to hear her talk about the Pratt and all it has to offer is to listen to the perspective of a lifelong lover of history.
Atz Kilcher has been a storyteller for decades. Whether through his music, art or other projects, his preferred method of communicating is through anecdotes, and that didn’t change when he set out to write his first book: “Son of a Midnight Land.”
Brandi Carlile will headline Salmonfest
When musicians or bands who have enjoyed as long and varied a career as the Irish rock group Young Dubliners say they “just love” playing in (insert name of ridiculously small town you’ve never heard of in middle-of-nowhere America) you can usually bet they’re just being nice. When Dubliners frontrunner Keith Roberts says he loves Homer and the state of Alaska, he’s not only telling the truth — he’s speaking to a bit of a personal obsession.
If it seems like Jubilee! is happening a bit early this year, it is.
In modern American music, running counterpoint to overproduced pop there often has been something raw and original to upstage the musical centers of New York, Nashville and Los Angeles. In 1993 a band named after an obscure early 20th century candy took its quirky mix of jazz, blues, klezmer and punk music and not only shattered the conventions of the time, but achieved commercial success.
As any Alaskan knows, the winters are long and cabin fever is highly contagious. At the same time, long winters are the perfect opportunity for people to cure their cabin fever with creativity and community fun.
HCOA holds Salon Series
