When the River Becomes a Cloud

PRESCOTT—On Thursday, June 9th, Prescott School will be having a unique all-school experiential art activity titled, “When the River Becomes a Cloud.” Prescott School’s long-term Artists-in-Residence, Amanda Leigh Evans and Tia Kramer, will choreograph students from Pre-K through grade12, in concert with school staff and teachers, into an embodied river that moves through the school campus.

Wearing a rainbow of monochromatic shirts created for the event, the school community will move through a series of art experiences simulating aspects of the water cycle. The project uses the metaphor of water’s transformation to embody the school’s social-emotional learning and arts curriculum.

This project was created as part of Carnegie Picture Lab’s Rural Art Initiative and supported in part by grants received from the Sherwood Trust and Blue Mountain Community Foundation.

This is a school community event. Visitors must RSVP to the artists. To participate or for more information, contact amanda.leigh.evans@gmail.com or tiakramer@gmail.com.

Amanda Leigh Evans is an artist, educator, and cultivator seeking a deeper understanding of our social and ecological interdependence. She makes clay objects, gardens, books, websites, videos, and sculptures and participates in collaborative systems.

Evans holds an MFA in Art and Social Practice from Portland State University and a BACC in ceramics from Cal State Long Beach. She was raised in the Inland Empire and rural Nevada County, CA, and lives and works in the Pacific Northwest.

From 2016 to 2021, Evans worked as an artist-in-residence at a 120-unit affordable housing apartment complex in East Portland, Oregon. In collaboration with her neighbors, she cultivated The Living School of Art (http://livingschoolart.info), an intergenerational art collective and alternative art school. From 2014 to 2022, she was a core collaborating artist at KSMoCA (www.ksmoca.com), a contemporary art museum inside a public elementary school in Portland. Currently, she is a Visiting Assistant Professor teaching ceramics and social practice at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

http://www.amandaleighevans.com

Tia Kramer is an interdisciplinary art, social choreographer, performer, and educator interested in everyday gestures of human connection. She creates experiences that interrupt the ordinary, engaging participants in embodied poetry and collective imagination.

Recent projects include “For You, and Us,” a series of performances created with and for an audience of one person and devised in collaboration with members of their shared communities. The last of these, “What You Touch You Cannot See: Performance for Phil” was created for her mail carrier, Phil, and unfolded along his mail route with the collaborative participation of 87 residents.

Tia holds an MFA in Art and Social Practice from Portland State University and a Post Bacc in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Originally from Iowa, she is now rooted in Walla Walla, Washington. In 2018 co-founded the Walla Walla Immigrant Rights Coalition’s Colectivo de Arte Social, which initiates bold creative projects like The Listeners Project: Queremos Escucharte (www.tlpww.org), to share unheard stories from the Walla Walla Valley. Tia finds delight in asking questions, gardening, running a 9 (or 10) minute mile and being with her partner, two young kids, and studio dog, Otis.

http://www.tiakramer.com