We saw our first snowstorm today as the endless rainstorms in Denver morphed into beautiful white flakes. Somehow in all our traveling during these primarily winter months, it's taken 53 days to see snow. I guess we were lucky enough to escape any sort of terrible winter weather!
Check out the snow capped mountains! SO cool!
We left the Denver RV park this morning and convened at Water Course Foods to have a brainstorming session in preparation for our meeting with Anthony Radich of Westaf. Westaf (an acronym for Western States Arts Federation) is a non-profit supported by the NEA that is "dedicated to the creative advancement and preservation of the arts." Westaf serves thirteen states in the western region and has a variety of programs and grants that help artists and arts institutions thrive. Check out their website to see all of the unique and creative offerings they have.
Stephan discovered Westaf during our initial searches via an interview with Anthony on Barry's Arts Blog. In this interview (which was a round table with some Western states art agencies) Anthony talked a lot about the tides of change in the structure of the theatre model and mentioned that the challenges of the 501 (c )(3) were present long before the financial recession. Naturally our interests were peaked and after contacting him, Anthony graciously agreed to meet with us.
This was, undoubtedly, an incredible and inspiring meeting. We met Anthony at the Westaf offices and walked to a coffee house around the corner. Anthony shared the history of Westaf and he articulated, in greater detail, many of the points he mentioned in the Barry's Blog interview. He validated a lot of our concerns and showed enthusiasm for our ideas, challenging us to think deeper about a more self-supportive and income-earning theatre. He also offered some advice and collectively we came up with a few ideas for creating a more community-based business-aware theatre company.
Thanks Anthony for the insight, the enthusiasm, and for the tea!
After the interview, we fueled up, retreated to the warmth of the RVs and hit the road. We have a few days of traveling ahead of us to get to Missoula, Montana, where we have a meeting with Missoula Children's Theatre on Monday. We will be doing our very best to avoid the snow and brutal winds! Wish us luck!
Looks like somebody got a haircut! :) Hope you had safe travels.
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