Seattle Blog Previews

DANCE

On Wednesday, April 9th, representatives of TeenTix partner organizations, supporters, and other friends gathered at the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at Benaroya Hall for the First Annual TeenTix Partner Meet-Up. The Meet-Up closed with a half-hour-long panel where members of The New Guard, TeenTix's Teen Arts Leadership Society, talked about their experiences as avid arts-goers, and answered questions from the audience.

Our panelists jotted down their thoughts after the panel, and we provide them here for anyone who is interested in a glimpse into the world of an arts-going teen. Enjoy! Our panelists:

The Arts & Culture Coalition of Pierce County and the City of Tacoma are working with us in hopes of bringing TeenTix to The 253! The most important part of this feasibility study is hearing from YOU. We want to know if/how the arts fit into your life now, and if/how that could change if TeenTix was introduced to your home turf.

If you're a teen that lives in Pierce County, please take this survey that'll ask about your arts-going habits, hopes, and desires!

Looking to step up your media skills this Spring? You've come to the very specific, totally right place. Reel Grrls is offering TWO short classes in April that YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT.

Bellevue Arts Museum and the Teen Arts Council are pleased to present an exhibition showcasing young artists in the Puget Sound area. Local artists under the age of 20 may apply to have their artwork featured in the 20 Under 20 Exhibition, which will be on view in BAM's Community Education Gallery from June 3 to October 9.

This exhibition is designed to feature youth ages 13 – 19 as emerging artists, and is juried by the Teen Arts Council in collaboration with Bellevue Arts Museum curators. This exhibition is an exciting opportunity to display work in a public and professional space, and will showcase a range of artistic media highlighting some of the best talent of the next generation of artists and craftspeople.

Are you a musician? Obsessed with musical theatre? Think you have what it takes to compose an original, winning song? THIS IS FOR YOU.

DANCE

Roméo et Juliette

EMP’s Youth Advisory Board (YAB) is hosting Oh Snap!, a photography contest highlighting live performances in the Seattle music scene.

A maximum of eight winners will be selected to have their photographs displayed in Soundboard Alley at EMP, a youth-designed and curated section of the museum. Those selected will also win tickets and passes to events hosted by EMP partners Vera Project, The Crocodile, and Youth in Focus. The winners will be chosen by the Youth Advisory Board.

Youth Voice, Youth Choice is a new Participatory Budgeting (PB) Initiative from the City of Seattle. Focusing on engaging people who have historically not been involved in government, PB is a democratic process where community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget.

Youth Voice, Youth Choice involves four steps. First, community members will come up with ideas for public projects they would like to see in their communities. Second, youth volunteers will turn those ideas into concrete proposals with support from the Department of Neighborhoods and City staff. Third, Seattle youth will vote for the projects they would like to see implemented in their communities. Fourth, the winning projects will be funded and implemented by the City of Seattle and other local agencies.

Spring has almost sprung, and our partners' education programs are in full swing! Check out these opportunities below and make the most of the season.

Henry Teen Collective @ Henry Art Gallery February 25 through May 12 Thursdays, 3:30–5:00 PM

Big, super happy, exciting news: TeenTix just added FOUR new partner organizations to our list! Wowza, this list is growing fast--give a warm welcome to our newest additions: Hugo House, Moisture Festival, West of Lenin, and Mirror Stage!

Very exciting news is on the horizon--TeenTix is working with a group of incredible folks to build a mobile app so you can have your pass/our calendar wherever you go!

The thing is--we can't do it without your feedback. Fill out this survey and enter to win ~prizes~: tickets to Brooklyn Bridge @ SCT, Unexpected Productions, and a couple of framed SEATTLE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE and SEATTLE OF THE DEAD old-movie-themed posters. The survey closes on February 3rd, so fill it out TODAY! The sooner we have your help, the more time our team has to work on it and make it the best app of your life. #trill

Is this real life, or are we dreaming? *pinch* OH YEAH NO IT'S REAL. Teatro ZinZanni is now a TeenTix partner! (Our 60th, at that!)

Please join TeenTix in welcoming foundry10 into our growing list of FRENZ (aka Community Partners)! Foundry10 is a not-for-profit educational organization. They see learning as an opportunity to be curious and explore both inside of classrooms and beyond. Their work includes running programs, collaborating with teachers and industry partners, and conducting scientific research, all to build an expanded and accessible understanding of what it means to learn.

Always offering some sort of awesome, student-led free or extremely low-cost opportunities ($1 a class, what!)–especially in the areas of dance (from hip-hop to ballet) the performing arts, and music-making–they're most active in the fringes of Seattle. For instance, check out what they have going on in the next few weeks in Tacoma and Edmonds!

As all you old school TeenTixers know, Pacific Northwest Ballet's wildly popular Nutcracker ballet is the only PNB show all year that is not TeenTix eligible. However, because they love us so much, PNB always puts aside a little stash of TeenTix tickets for one Nutcracker performance each year. It is an amazing, annual tradition that draws teens from far and wide. You won't want to miss it.

And this year, there's a new Nutcracker in town. PNB’s production of George Balanchine's Nutcracker features all new sets and costumes designed by children’s author and illustrator Ian Falconer (Olivia the Pig). This year's TeenTix-able Nutcracker show is Sunday, December 27th, 2015 at 5:30 PM.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to go to Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Emergence. The program featured four contrasting pieces, each of which were incredibly unique, and brought a different tonality to the theater.

To begin the program, the curtain opened up to a piece titled Sum Stravinsky choreographed by Kiyon Gaines, that made its world premiere in 2012. I found it to be an excellent way to introduce the program. It is exactly what one imagines when they think of ballet–while the following pieces were extraordinarily unique and contemporary. The set and costumes are composed of shades of blue, and have a sort of delicacy to them. The dancers movements feel newly classic and youthful. I got a sense of innocence and nostalgia watching this piece.

It's in YOUR power to ensure that life-changing arts experiences remain within reach for all teens! Donate to TeenTix before December 31st.

Tis' the season for giving, and when you give to TeenTix you can start the new year knowing that you did your part to keep safe, enriching, empowering, inspiring arts experiences accessible to ALL young people.

The exhibit Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art at the Seattle Art Museum features artists many have heard of, but not always the style or subject we’re used to. The 71-piece collection from the National Gallery of Art, most of which were donated by siblings Ailsa and Paul Mellon, is comprised of works that were meant to be shown indoors, in domestic spaces. Most of these paintings were done in the 1860s and 70s, but were never shown in salons. Many were meant as gifts from the painter to a friend or fellow Impressionist, so the exact date they were made is unclear. All the Impressionists you’ve heard of are in the show: Manet, Renoir, Monet, Boudin, Cézanne, Bonnard, with a few Post-Impressionists like Gauguin and Van Gogh thrown in for good measure. Being a huge fan of Impressionism, I loved all of the paintings, but three stood out. The first I noticed was Eugene Boudin’s “Coast of Brittany”. Made in 1870, most likely in France, the oil-on-canvas painting drew my attention because of the lighting. It is dark on the foreground over the water with moody clouds, but the light drastically changes toward the center of the painting, which portrays the far-off coast. The town on the hillside is beautiful, with not more than two or three brushstrokes making up each house, but it is still obvious that is a quaint little French-countryside town. The next piece that I fell in love with was a little country scene by Alfred Sisley, called, plainly, “Meadow”. The scene depicts workers bending over, picking a nondescript grain, with other beautifully checkered fields behind them. I was drawn to this painting because it is so bright and cheery. I was also impressed with how the viewer can tell what the workers were doing, even though they are very simply done. The clouds are fluffy cotton balls on a sky of bright blue.

"Meadow" by Alfred Sisley. Photo by Harper M.

TeenTix’s The New Guard: Teen Arts Leadership Society is holding inaugural elections for its ~Leadership Board~, expanding beyond the singular role of President, held by Coco Allred of Skyline High School.

Joining Coco will be the newly-formed roles of Vice President, Secretary/Historian, Finance/Philanthropy Chair, Events Chair, and Peer Engagement Chair.

The Teeny Awards are TeenTix’s teen choice awards for regional arts and cultural organizations and events. This year, we decided to honor a real-life teen, nominated by their peers! Here are the youth advocates nominated this year:

WALKER CAPLAN Walker Caplan is thrilled to be nominated alongside so many inspiring teens by such an amazing, far-reaching youth arts access program. She is the founder and producer of 14/48: HS (The World’s Quickest Student Theater Festival), which brings teens of diverse experiences together to create powerful and relevant theater in a supportive, risk-encouraging environment. Over the last year 14/48: HS brought together students from 18 different public and private schools in the Seattle area and was lauded as a stand-out event by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture. Walker serves on Seattle Children’s Theatre’s Teen Advisory Group as well as having volunteered there throughout high school. Her writing has been recognized by The Adroit Journal, Polyphony H.S., Scholastic Arts and Writing, Young Playwrights Inc., and Blank Theatre. She is a YoungArts 2015 winner in writing, and her original plays have been performed in New York and Seattle. She volunteers as an editor for Young Playwrights for Change and Polyphony H.S., and edits and teaches prose writing at Winter Tangerine Review. When she’s not advocating for the arts, Walker may be found acting with Seattle Musical Theatre, STAGEright Theatre, Seattle Public Theatre, YATC, and Lungfish Productions among others. She’s inspired by the vibrancy and inclusion of the Seattle arts community.