Ramshackle Cabaret: Pushing the Boundaries of Local Art

Artchange is excited to partner with the Ramshackle Cabaret.

This year the 5th annual event, “Cabinet of Curiosities” debuts March 17th and 18th at the Centennial Hall in Sitka from 9-11 PM. The doors open at 7:30 for snacks, drinks, art viewing, and curious entertainment.The Ramshackle Cabaret’s mission is to empower women and support the reproductive health of our community members. The event both fits Artchange's mission and inspires participants, who breathe fire, perform burlesque and use comedy, to get audiences laughing and to raise funds for Planned Parenthood. General admission tickets available at Old Harbor Books and the VIP tickets can be purchased at the Sitka Hotel bar. 

Hillary Seeland, one of the show's producers explains, "The Ramshackle Cabaret goal is to continue to grow and flourish. We are a passionate and dedicated group of professionals who volunteer all our time, materials, blood, sweat, and tears to both entertain our community and to push the boundaries of local art. We aim to ask people to critically think about the world around us and to spend an evening immersed in entertainment and social change.“

Check out a short video from "Behind the Scenes of the Ramshackle Cabaret"

Sitka Tells Tales and the Ramshackle Cabaret

Fork in the Road

A good crowd for live local storytelling and some fine  tales, involving lessons in tolerance and understanding, relocations and close calls with large animals (a moose).

Lakota HardenPhoto by James Poulson

Shannon times the tellers. Photo by James Poulson.

Ramshackle Cabaret

We're excited to partner with the annual Ramshackle Cabaret. 
Rehearsals have started. The event is on March 17th and 18th and proceeds go to women's health. More to come on this and why we want to help make it happen. 

2017 Artchange at Work

2017:
Here are some updates on what we're up to:

•  LIVE STORYTELLING
We're lining up tellers for a live storytelling event on February 9th in Sitka called "Fork in the Road."  Join us if you are in town! This is an ongoing series, called "Stika Tells Tales."

Larkspur Cafe. Thursday, February 9th, 7-8:30 PM. Hosted by Artchange Inc. and Island Institute

• TRACING ROOTS SCREENINGS AND BROADCASTS
Delores Churchill and Ellen Frankenstein are off to Vancouver Island in March to show Tracing Roots and participate in  Pieces, a two day celebration of fiber and weaving.  The film is also a nominee for an award from Royal Anthropological Institute and will screen at a the RAI Film Festival in Bristol. 
Public television broadcasts continue. The latest statistics for January-March airings: 1251 broadcasts  in 38 states with 72.7% coverage in the U.S.  That is a potential audience of  211 million people in 83 million households. 

• A NEW PROJECT
We're developing a new project called "99835," a documentary film set in one place, with three stories, shot over a year, 

• A COLLABORATION TO CELEBRATE
 “Driving on Rain in Sitka, is a newly completed short film about switching to electric vehicles in a town with hydroelectric power.  

Can an electric vehicle make it up a mountain? Find out and meet a teen learning to drive on a EV and get her tuba and dog in the car. Funded and created with Renewable Energy Alaska Project, Sitka Conservation Society and the Sustainable Southeast Partnership.

• UPRIVERS DOCUMENTARY: EDITING AND MORE PROGRESS
Check out the new trailer for Uprivers.  Uprivers is a documentary about two watersheds and the communities that depend on them in the face of a mining boom presently underway in British Columbia. It is the stories of two rivers; a wild river that has been deeply wounded, and another river, at risk of the same fate. Zach Desmond and Matthew Jackson are directing the film. We need more funds to finish it and get it out for use! Click here to learn more.

At work on Uprivers

•  LAST MAN FISHING
With a new grant from the Patagonia Foundation, JD Schulyer will continue work on his feature length film, Last Man Fishing, about small scale fishermen from Maine to Alaska, in time of consolidation of fishing fleets and the waning health of the ocean. This is the story of the remaining fishermen and the ways they are working with consumers, policy makers and community leaders to enhance the health of and well-being of players up and down the seafood chain.  See the trailer. Donations welcome. 

•  NEW TOOLS
We excited to be updating our gear!  Thanks to a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation for helping us update the technology that helps us collaborate, tell stories and generate conversation.  

Heritage, Human Rights, Land and Water

We posted this on Facebook a few days ago:

"We stand with the Standing Rock Sioux! #NoDAPL 
Posting about Tracing Roots film screenings has been on hiatus, with attention going to Standing Rock and the elections of 2016. As we paused, there are close to 900 broadcasts of Tracing Roots via the World Channel to public broadcasting stations across the country happening.

We hope each viewer will connect Delores' story to Standing Rock and the struggle to protect human rights, land and water and heritage.

Delores with students at Western Washington University. 

The World Channel describes the collection they curated to air on public television for Native American Heritage Month with the following words:

"Native American Heritage Month is celebrated in recognition of the contributions of Native Americans in the establishment and growth of the United States. Our Voices: Native American Nations shares Native stories of culture, experience and identity by both individuals and communities. WORLD Channel presents a slate of diverse programming that represents the past, present and future for Native Americans in the country, on and off the reservation. The over 30 provocative films, including WORLD's series America ReFramed and Doc World, engage viewers by looking at life in-depth" #NativeInspired" #NewDayFilms New Day Films

Words are powerful and times are tense.  Let;s together respect and protect the land and lives of Native Americans and others in this country.