Jack Straw Productions, the only nonprofit audio arts center in the Northwest, has awarded residencies in the 2008 Artist Support Program (ASP) and 2008-09 New Media Gallery Program to 23 artists spanning multiple disciplines and genres.  For the 2008 cycle, we received nearly 100 applications for these two programs. The primary goal of Jack Straw Artist Residency Programs is to support audio as a vital medium in the arts. Our Residency Programs offer established and emerging artists opportunities to explore the creative use of sound in a professional atmosphere through residencies in our recording studios and participation in our various presentation programs.  Artists for Artist Support and New Media Gallery programs are selected by an interdisciplinary peer panel. Selected artists are listed below.

2008 Jack Straw Artist Support Program

Up to eight artists/teams are awarded 20 hours of free recording and production time with an engineer in our studio; an additional 12 artists/teams receive matching awards. The opportunity to work in a large professional recording studio with experienced sound engineers is a boon to many artists who may not otherwise be able to afford to produce work in this setting. The Artist Support Program is open to artists of all disciplines whose project proposals include sound as a major component. Selected projects are presented to the public at our Artist Showcase/Meet the Artist events and Composer Spotlight series.  Artists/Teams selected for the 2008 Artist Support Program are:

Barbie Danielle DeCarlo (Bellevue, WA), executive producer, will present various live performances of traditional music for the KBCS radio program "The Old Country."

Gus Denhard (Seattle) and Munir Beken (Los Angeles) will record duets for European lute and ud (a Turkish lute) that span from the 12^th to the 18^th century entitled, Music for Ud and Lute: The First 600 Years.

Sound artist Susie Kozawa (Seattle) and visual artist Erin Shie Palmer (Seattle) will record letters written by Asian American immigrants for a permanent sound and sculpture installation for the new Wing Luke Asian Museum.

Greg Sinibaldi (Seattle), composer and saxophonist, will record Mobiles, a multi-movement new music composition for 12 musicians, inspired by the mobile sculptures created by artist Alexander Calder.

Bill Smith a.k.a. William O. Smith (Seattle), composer and clarinetist, will record a jazz opera about a love triangle involving astronauts, with libretto written by Peter Monaghan.

Curtis Taylor (Seattle), director, will record music featuring the Compline Choir of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle and sound design for Church Weather (working title), a short film that completes a trilogy on the theme of song as visual narrative.

Pianist Tiffany Li-Chin Lin (Seattle) and percussionist Paul Kikuchi (Seattle) will record new music for prepared piano and percussion.

Srivani Jade (Kirkland, WA), composer and Indian classical singer, will record original songs featuring a range of styles and instrumentation representing different regions of India.

Eric Barber (Seattle), composer and saxophonist, will record new music for saxophone ensemble.

Robert Blatt (Seattle), composer and guitarist, will record new and music improvised with his group, Unused Lexical Variable, a trio of two guitars and double bass.

Samantha Boshnak (Seattle), composer and trumpeter, will record jazz compositions with her group, Reptet, a modern jazz sextet.

Amanda Cole (Australia/New Zealand), singer, will record rarely performed 19^th and 20^th century art songs by Portuguese composers, with an introduction to Portuguese pronunciation and classical music.

Skiff Feldspar (Seattle), composer and guitarist, will record a CD of new music compositions, some with an avant jazz/rock flavor, with his electro-acoustic trio, Goat.

Amber Flame (Seattle), author, arranger and performer, will record Last of the RedHot Mamas, which explores African American mixed race and bi-cultural experiences with spoken word and new arrangements of blues and jazz standards.

Beth Fleenor (Seattle), composer and clarinetist, will record a CD of disjunctive, raucous new music and structured improvisations with her trio Figeater.

Robert Gallup (Seatte), sound artist, will create a structural soundscape of the Alaskan Way Viaduct using environmental sounds near the waterfront and sound recorded directly from the structure of the viaduct.

Dale Speicher (Seattle), percussionist, will record compositions for solo percussion by Robert Ashley, Morton Feldman, Charles Lipp, Iannis Xenakis, and Seattle composer Tom Baker.

Brian Cobb (Seattle), composer, will record Campfire Songs, a song cycle representing one night on the pioneer trail, featuring poems by Walt Whitman, Hamlin Garland, Mary Austin, John Haines, and David Wagoner.

Chérie Hughes (Seattle), singer, and Roberto Limón (Mexico), guitarist, will record The Divian of Moses-Ibn-EzraI, Opus 207, a song cycle for voice and guitar set to poetry by 12^th century philosopher Rabbi Moses ben Jacob ibn Ezra, and composed by Jewish Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Jessica Raymond (Seattle), singer-songwriter, will record contemporary folk music, based heavily in the old-time and bluegrass genres with references to Gypsy jazz and indie rock.

For list of panelists and their bios, please click here.




2008-09 Jack Straw New Media Gallery Program

The Jack Straw New Gallery is one of the world's only exhibition spaces focused primarily on sound art. Artists from various disciplines can present installation works in which sound is an integral or exclusive element, and the program enables artists to experiment with sound and to develop new skills and ideas in a supportive setting. Up to three artists/teams are selected to receive 20 hours of free studio time with an engineer to realize the sound component of their project, and to exhibit their completed project in our gallery in 2009 for 8-12 weeks. Gallery exhibitions include an opening reception, artist talk/workshop/performance, and other events.  Artists selected for the 2008-2009 New Media Gallery Program are:

Joel S. Kollin (Seattle), new media artist, will create an interactive light and sound installation entitled, Vriti, a Sanskrit word that refers to the oscillations of the mind, which can lead to separation from Reality, Nature, and God. This site specific installation will involve spatial interactivity involving sensors and programmed multi-colored lights, as well as abstract sounds in the form of sine waves.

Poet Melanie Noel (Seattle) and musician/composer Gust Burns (Seattle) will create an interactive room installation entitled, Winter Conversation, which will consist of two turntables, multiple acetate dubplates, and felt-covered walls, floor, and ceiling. Visitors to the gallery will be able to play the records, which will not be labeled, so that at any one time there might be multiple combinations of poetry and piano.

Brent Watanabe (Seattle), animator/video artist, will create an audio-visual installation featuring Flash-based animation and sound. The exhibition will center on a pair of computer controlled cartoon birds. The two birds will call back and forth to each other in fits and spurts, searching for one another without ever meeting. The goal is to create an environment that is a cross between a gigantic, ever-changing drawing, a runaway video game on the fritz, and an experimental film — complete with surround sound.

For list of panelists and their bios, please click here. For more information on the current exibition, please click here.