Centrum (arts organization)
Centrum, located in Fort Worden State Park near Port Townsend, Washington in Jefferson County is a multidisciplinary nonprofit arts organization that presents workshops and performances in a wide variety of artistic disciplines.
Origin and history
Centrum was founded as a partnership between the Washington State Arts Commission, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. The first executive director was Joseph F. Wheeler. Early program directors included Bill Ransom and Sam Hamill.
In 1973, Centrum was created in partnership with Washington State Parks, the Washington State Arts Commission, and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction as part of the founding of Fort Worden State Park—a park envisioned by the Washington State legislature as Washington’s state park for culture and the arts. Nearly 40 years later, Centrum is Fort Worden’s lead partner in the transformation of Fort Worden State park into the Northwest’s premier center for lifelong learning.
Fort Worden sits at an extraordinary site at the northern entrance to Puget Sound on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Over four-hundred acres of historic buildings and batteries, pristine wetlands and miles of sandy beaches are further enhanced by panoramic views of the Olympic and Cascade Mountains. The Victorian seaport town of Port Townsend is home to the Fort and a vibrant community of 9,000.
From 1902 to 1953, Fort Worden belonged to the U.S. Army and served as Coastal Defense Headquarters for Puget Sound. It had been purchased by the state in 1957 for use as a diagnostic and treatment center for children. After the treatment center closed its doors in 1971, ownership was transferred to the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. Fort Worden State Park opened its gates in 1973.
Working as a consultant for the Washington State Arts Commission, Dr. Joseph Wheeler, Director of Cultural Arts for the Tacoma School District, completed a feasibility study on the development of an arts organization that would be “multi-disciplined, state-wide, and would encourage arts participation” based at the new Fort Worden State Park. Joe left his Tacoma position to become the organization’s first executive director, and Centrum began offering arts programs at the Fort in 1974.
Centrum’s first programs focused on arts and creativity for middle school students and quickly expanded to include artistic workshops for aspiring, pre-professional, and established artists; these workshops remain at the core of Centrum’s programming. Today, workshops, performances, and festivals, as well as artist residencies, are offered year-round. More than 750,000 individuals have participated in Centrum’s array of arts programs at Fort Worden over the last three decades.
The most visible aspect of Centrum’s mission is the annual array of intergenerational festivals and workshops that celebrate and promote the traditional and evolving arts of the Americas and beyond. Current festivals draw participants from throughout the nation, as well as a growing number of international visitors.
Since 1974, nascent, emerging, and established writers, readers, translators, and editors have come to the Port Townsend Writers' Conference to immerse themselves in the writing life. In the park’s inspiring and supportive atmosphere, such literary figures as William Stafford, Ken Kesey, Alice Walker, Richard Hugo, James Welch, Raymond Carver, Sherman Alexie, Rebecca Brown, and thousands of others made breakthroughs in their creative development through the conference as well as related workshops and residencies in fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction. The conference is currently led by acclaimed poet Erin Belieu.
The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes began in 1977 under the direction of Port Townsend doctor Bertram Levy, which grew out of a fiddle festival that Levy had organized during the Fourth of July in the bicentennial year of 1976. Fiddle Tunes continues to be one of the largest gatherings of its kind in the nation. A Centrum pioneer in the model of the week-long, total-immersion workshop, Fiddle Tunes has offered an expansive array of regional fiddle styles from its very beginnings and draws masters and enthusiasts from every corner of the continent. Fiddle Tunes is currently under the artistic direction of Suzy Thompson, acclaimed for performing and teaching a wide variety of fiddle traditions.
The longest continuously-running jazz festival in the state, Jazz Port Townsend first took place in 1976. In addition to public performances by noted artist faculty, the festival offers highly regarded workshops and master classes for aspiring jazz musicians of all ages under the current direction of world-renowned bassist, composer and educator John Clayton. In addition to the mainstage concerts at the Fort’s McCurdy Pavilion, the faculty also gives intimate club performances in venues throughout Port Townsend.
The acoustic guitar-driven blues of the Deep South and the dispersion of its influence worldwide is the focus of a very popular series of workshops and performances by the masters of the country blues tradition, established in 1992. Artistic Director Corey Harris (noted recipient of a MacArthur “genius” Award) currently leads the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival, bringing together musicians from all over the globe. Like Jazz Port Townsend, the Festival culminates in mainstage performances at the Pavilion in addition to club performances throughout the city.
The most recent festival to join the Centrum roster, Voice Works, debuted in 2005 and features “tracks” for those who have never sung a note before, to classes for experienced vocalists. Participants find out what makes their voice unique as they learn how to sing harmony, classic country duets, Western swing, blues, vintage jazz standards, mountain gospel, Appalachian ballads, and other styles.
To further expand on the above festivals, Centrum presents smaller, weekend “intensives” throughout the year. These have included the Choro music of Brazil, Latin jazz, Québécois music, big band, advanced jazz improvisation, and a variety of writing genres. Each session offers amateur and professional artists ways to explore and enhance their creative capacities.
Centrum also offers individual artists the precious resource of time, space and an inspirational environment for self-directed retreats through the Centrum Artists Residency Program. Artists in all disciplines, from composers and choreographers to printmakers and poets, can be found almost every week of the year in residence in the nine cottages and apartments which Centrum manages for that purpose. More than one thousand artists, from as near as Seattle and as far away as China, have been Centrum artists-in-residence since the start of that program in 1980. While in residence, many artists offer public presentations of their work at Fort Worden or in the Port Townsend community.
Centrum's commitment to young people and the arts has been a constant. In addition to youth “tracks” with summer festivals, Centrum has always offered programs geared specifically to middle and high school age students. At its inception in 1973, and in partnership with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Centrum developed a model for bringing dynamic creative arts experiences to Washington State students through its Explorations programs. This programmatic approach has proven its enduring value with other week-long residential educational workshops as well as school-day programs for local students. Professional artist faculty is a core element in these programs that engage young artists in the world of arts and ideas, promote creative risk-taking, and teach best professional practices. Centrum’s range of educational programs offers opportunities both for students who are experiencing the arts for the first time as well as for those who are already deeply committed to an artistic pursuit.
The relationship between Centrum, Fort Worden and the city of Port Townsend are symbiotic. Stories of Centrum’s importance to Port Townsend’s community of artists, residents, students and the hospitality industry abound. Many individuals and businesses cite Centrum as the reason they moved to or stayed in Port Townsend. The impact of Centrum’s programs is a critical part of Port Townsend’s and Jefferson County’s economy, bringing thousands of visitors to sleep, eat and shop while in the vicinity.
Many changes have occurred in the operating environment for Centrum since the start of the 21st century. A new landscape is being shaped following the creation of the new Fort Worden management model and its exciting focus on lifelong learning. As Centrum marked its 40th anniversary in 2013-14, its board and staff is charting a course that builds on considerable assets, challenges and achievements, and looks toward providing programming that promotes creative experiences and changes lives through the arts for many more years.
In August 2013, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission unanimously approved a 50-year co-management plan for Fort Worden and its Lifelong Learning Center. Centrum remains the Fort’s largest presenting partner and supports the new “PDA” and its goal of expanding public use of the campus facilities on site.
Activities
While most programming is intergenerational, Centrum also provides a series of residential learning experiences that serve youth only. About one-third of Centrum workshop participants are 18 years old or younger. Centrum presents such programs as the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Jazz Port Townsend, the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival, and the Port Townsend Writers' Conference.