PHOENIX ARTS HERO PROGRAM 2022-2023 SEASON

ARTS HERO PHOENIX

PROMOTING THE ARTS, TOGETHER.

The arts celebrate culture and enrich our lives. A vibrant arts community is a key indicator of a thriving economy. That’s why SRP is proud to support organizations that are committed to unifying our region through creativity, innovation and shared experiences that connect us all.

srpnet.com/arts

Congratulations to the 2022-2023 Arts Heroes! This program was launched in the fall of 2016, with a focus on all the people who make an arts experience happen. It is easy to focus on the lead actor, the baritone soloist or the sculptor who created the piece. While the stars of the show are important, so are all the individuals who work behind the scenes to make that result in the show coming together, the art exhibit being unveiled. These are the unsung heroes who make the arts of the state of Arizona such a vitally important part of our quality of life.

Every season, a committee of community leaders and ON Media staff select nine individuals who represent the mission of this program each season. Thank you to our 2022-2023 Sponsor, SRP! Each month, the chosen Arts Hero is featured in all programs published by ON Media during that month, with a full page article and photo.

Submissions have been robust every year, giving the committee several candidates from which to choose. Please join us in celebrating the 2022-2023 arts heroes you see featured in this program. Congratulations to all of you!

The committee will soon be selecting Arts Heroes again for the upcoming season. Think about someone you know in the community who makes the arts happen. Go to www.onmediaaz.com/artsheroes to submit your nomination for a hero this year.

ROBYN LAMBERT LYNCH PRESIDENT | CEO

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MARVIN SCOTT

Education Through Music

A house is not a home, they say. Marvin Scott makes you wonder about that.

To hear Scott talk about Rosie’s House, a children’s music academy, is to hear familiar notes of pride of ownership, not of a structure but of the youth development mission at the foundation of the downtown Phoenix nonprofit organization. Rosie’s House is his professional home and so much more.

“Through music, we want kids to reach their full personal and creative potential,” Scott says. “The goal is not to push them to become musicians. It’s to give them access so that it brings them joy and helps them grow.”

That’s what music did for Scott when he picked up a saxophone in the fourth grade. He grew with the confidence that comes from meeting the challenge of learning music, performing in front of an audience, and working with others as part of an ensemble.

As program and community engagement director at Rosie’s House, Scott coordinates several moving parts —faculty, families, programming, community partnerships. All of it helps

ensure some 500 students have access to the benefits of music education. Scott first settled into Rosie’s House in 1999 when he began teaching saxophone as a college student. That experience inspired Scott to shift his career focus from music to elementary education.

He began his teaching career in Phoenix area schools, and then taught in Istanbul, Turkey for five years. When he returned to teach in Phoenix, he started to explore a career in school administration. The opportunity to do exactly that surfaced at Rosie’s House three years ago.

Scott is home.

“Kids are cool,” Scott says. “When they get a chance to perform and excel, I love seeing that happen. ... I love being a part of it. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

Nominations at onmediaaz.com

WILLIAM EATON

One String at a Time

William Eaton says his work life is compartmentalized into building guitars and performing. But anyone who has heard Eaton talk about his dedication to the art of guitar making knows there is so much more to that story.

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Empowering the community through arts and culture.

It starts in Nebraska with Eaton picking up a string instrument (ukulele) for the first time at age 7. The performing years began in junior high.

His 51-year commitment to building guitars can’t be told without reference to his deep, abiding love of the desert and fascination with tree ecosystems. That began when he accepted an athletic scholarship for pole vaulting at Arizona State University.

While in college, he seized an opportunity to build a guitar at a Phoenix shop he visited out of curiosity. He was hooked.

“A guitar is very sculptural,” Eaton says. “Because it’s so iconic, if you say, ‘What is a guitar?’ You have a picture in mind. But when you build one and design one, you come to appreciate that every little curve has a reason for why

it’s there, especially if you design from scratch.”

Eaton turned a Stanford MBA-degree assignment to write a business plan into a concept to create a guitarmaking school. That plan became an incorporated reality in 1975 at the shop where he built his first guitar. Eaton is the longtime director of the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery.

Consistency is another key element of Eaton’s story. This year, the four-time Grammy nominated artist, released another album on the Canyon Records label. He continues to perform live. He continues to build guitars. He’s still pole vaulting.

“I’m obviously biased,” he says, “but I think the process of engaging in art, appreciating art and doing art is one of the most important and healthy activities we can do in trying to understand our place.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

Nominate him or her at onmediaaz.com

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NOLA YERGEN

Teaching Good Design

“Good design is good design,” says Nola Yergen. “And once you know the basics of design – the color theory, balance, all of these different aspects – then putting it into a different format isn’t that difficult.”

The costume designer and assistant professor at Grand Canyon University was talking about her summer renovating cabins at her campground in Tennessee, and her joy in learning to use a nail gun. Learning, you see, is her happy place. She’s very good at it.

Drilling down to the basic components of the art of costuming and wanting to know how and why things work is part of Yergen’s genius as a designer. So is her passion for exploring what history reveals.

“A lot of design has to do with what’s going on socially in a society and understanding the different spheres of society and who would do what and why and how,” Yergen says.

Intellect, creativity, curiosity, and talent combined is how Yergen comes up with concepts like Victorian Wonder Woman. It’s why fiber optics and electroforming

find their way into costume designs. It’s how, time after time, she nails theater directors’ visions and leaves impressions in the steampunk and cosplay scenes. It’s why she and her design partner were 2019 finalists in the World of WearableArt competition.

Yergen doesn’t consider herself a specialist of any design style. That’s a plus when GCU productions at Ethington Theater are as varied as “Hamlet,” which began the 2022-23 season, and “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical,” playing this month.

At GCU, Yergen splits her time between teaching classes, including introduction to theater, and designing costumes. It’s not uncommon, she says, for her work as a teacher and designer to overlap.

“A lot of it is about spreading the love of learning and the love of art,” Yergen said.

Good teaching is good teaching.

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

Nominate him or her at onmediaaz.com

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CAROLYN EYNON

The Joy of Music

Change may be constant, but Carolyn Eynon’s dedication to vocal music is a study of how consistency and a clarity of purpose to deliver a positive, collective experience leads to transformation.

Eynon made her mark on Arizona’s realm of choral music soon after she arrived from Michigan, where she spent 10 years choral directing at high schools. In 1995, she created the Arizona Arts Chorale. In 2007, she founded the Carolyn Eynon Singers, which currently has 22 volunteers. She also shares her voice in a church choir.

“I’m a pianist by profession, too, but when you play piano that’s you and the piano,” Eynon said. “When you’re singing, it’s your body. It’s your brain. It’s your vocal cords. It’s your instrument. I don’t think there’s anyone who would say that the human voice isn’t the most incredibly intimate instrument to make music.”

Her choral group continues Eynon’s commitment to perform works of female composers and her passion

for North American music, particularly program music from early American to present.

“I think North American music is just a unique opportunity to feature so many different composer styles,” Eynon said. “You can do everything from Broadway, to patriotic, to folk, to spirituals. I mean you’ve got it all here in our country. It’s wonderful.”

But change is afoot. After 51 years of continuous work, Eynon will retire when the choir’s 16th season, entitled “A Season of Transformation,” ends in May. A search committee is looking for her replacement and the name of the group she founded will change.

“I’m ready to take a new step in a direction that is undefined for me now,” Eynon said. “I don’t have a plan, and I’m just going to enjoy not having a plan. I’ve never not had a plan.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

Nominate him or her at onmediaaz.com

the community through arts and culture.

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WOODY WILSON

The Soul of Jazz

Leave it to Woody Wilson to create a scene. Live jazz in the Valley is the better for it.

The Executive Producer of the Ravenscroft Jazz Series is a self-described arts and culture entrepreneur. For the last 15 years, Wilson has made live jazz in the Valley a focus of his seemingly boundless creative energy. He founded a jazz series at the Tempe Center for the Arts while writing the newspaper comic strips “Judge Parker” and “Rex Morgan, MD.”

“We’re in business to promote the art form,” Wilson says of jazz. “There’s a lot of live music (in the Valley) and most of it is jazz. I’d like to think we contribute to the scene.”

The scene at the new, intimate Ravenscroft Hall venue that opened in Scottsdale carries some of the heart and soul behind Wilson’s Lakeshore Music series, which took place for most of its 14 years at the Tempe Center for the Arts. Lakeshore Music merged with Ravenscroft Jazz in 2022 in a move that ensures the Valley will continue to experience the artistry of some of the

best jazz performers in the world.

Wilson arrived in Arizona in 1980 and found work at the Phoenix Gazette, where he wrote concert reviews among other things. He left newspaper writing to start the “Showtime West” trade publication that he later sold to Dillard’s Box Office. His dream of writing comic strips came true in 1991 when he succeeded Nick Dallis.

But jazz is the vehicle Wilson uses to enrich people lives. He used it in a cultural exchange program for Cuban and American musicians. Locally, it’s at the center of the scene he wants to create for Valley music lovers wanting a chill concert experience.

“The significance (of creating a jazz scene) is people have a great time,” Wilson says. “It’s just a lovely evening out on the town. … It’s a pretty hip thing.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community? Nominate him or her at onmediaaz.com

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MAUREEN WATSON

The Wonder of Kids

Maureen Watson loves that what you see is what you get with kids.

“They’re just so … there,” she says. “They’re so honest. They haven’t yet learned to put on airs or to paint personas. They’re just real.”

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As the longtime Executive and Artistic Director of Greasepaint, Watson’s joy is watching young children learn skills that will serve them for a lifetime and older kids become “incredibly aware of the power of arts” with their focus on telling stories that matter.

“I listen to the kids,” Watson says. “I think of myself as working there for them. They’re the reason we exist.”

Watson, who is Greasepaint’s only full-time employee, is proud of Greasepaint’s role in the local youth theater scene.

“We have an incredible amount of talent in this Valley,” Watson says. “It’s kind of mind numbing. I sometimes wonder if there is something in the water. I can’t think of a better place to grow up if you’re a theater kid.”

The number of Greasepaint alumni with recent career milestone moments speaks to its success. They include Casey Likes on Broadway in “Almost Famous;” Betty Weinberger, national tour choreographer for “SIX: The Musical;” Ethan Drew in “Camp Hideout,” and Asher Angel in the upcoming movie “Shazam!”. Watson’s daughter, Johnna, appeared in the November premier of Netflix’s “Wednesday.”

Watson came to Arizona after working in New York for a few years. Her first stint at Greasepaint was Artistic Director for a few years beginning in 2003. She has had her current role since 2010.

“I trained as an actor and I still get on stage, usually once a year. It’s what I love to do. But running Greasepaint, the thing is you never know what you’re going to be doing from day to day. The job is never boring. Never.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

Nominate him or her at onmediaaz.com

Empowering the community through arts and culture.

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DAREN BRUBAKER

Many Hats

True statement: Daren Brubaker wears many hats. He’s a self-taught artist, a high school teacher and a swim coach, accomplishing great things in each field.

But what’s true about Brubaker may leave the wrong impression. He’s not an artist one moment and a coach or teacher at Brophy College Preparatory the next. He’s everything at once, at all times.

“I consider myself a tentmaker,” Brubaker says. “The coaching, the teaching of the arts at Brophy helps with financial needs regarding my artwork.”

That mixed-media artwork activates his life purpose. His art shows are always service projects. “I’m a firm believer in using your talents to help others,” he says.

Under the name D. Roy, Brubaker’s exhibitions have raised money for several causes near and far. The “Dreaming of a Cheeseburger” exhibition supported an effort to feed the homeless in Phoenix. It featured hand-made signs he purchased from homeless people soliciting help on the streets.

“Dreaming of a Well” raised money to build water wells for indigenous people in rural Guatemala. Other exhibitions supported causes ranging from Oak Flat in Pinal County to helping a friend from his swim circle run supplies of necessities to Kyiv, Ukraine, last year. His next show on April 29 will raise funds for a school in Peru.

Brubaker, who comes from a family of educators and has received “Coach of the Year” honors, likes the opportunities for discussion and goodwill that come from selling his works of abstract expressionism.

“They purchase a piece of me knowing they are helping somebody or helping a group of people,” Brubaker says. “It’s definitely a conversation starter when they hang it up in their home or their office. … It’s kind of something that people can look at and say, ‘Hey, I did something by showing up and caring.’ ”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

Nominate him or her at onmediaaz.com

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PASHA YAMOTAHARI

The Power of Imagination

By the time Pasha Yamotahari reached journalism school at ASU in 2006, he had earned credentials in film studies and had a well-developed talent for storytelling, a gift nurtured during a childhood lived so much in his imagination.

Becoming a reporter was never a plan for Yamotahari, Associate Producing Director at Phoenix Theatre Company since 2009. Digging for facts provides structure for Yamotahari’s creative interests. Understanding the who, what, when, where, why and how of theater pieces helps preserve legacy and do justice, he says.

“Somebody came up with the idea at some point, put a lot of effort in it,” Yamotahari says. “If we negate knowing where that came from, that’s disrespectful to the authenticity of the original author, the original concept.”

Knowing where others are coming from is important to Yamotahari, who has been an immigrant in three countries, picking up five languages along the way.

Yamotahari’s first foray into authentic

storytelling came during childhood when he created stories with Legos and Smurf characters based on photographs of things he’d seen in real life. His annual gig as Director of Ollivander’s Wand Shop Experience in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios Japan shows how far he and technology have come since his Lego days.

Long hospital stays were also part of his childhood, an experience he takes to work as Artistic Director of Partners That Heal. Actors skilled in improvisation help patients, families and hospital workers through tough times.

“I know what it feels like to be in the bed,” Yamotahari says. “I know what it’s like to sit in the chair next to the bed.

… Baseline is there’s a human being in there that’s scared, and so let’s bring a little theater. And theater is imagination within contextual things.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

Nominate him or her at onmediaaz.com

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CATHY WEISS

Lights, Camera, Action!

Cathy Weiss’ drama teacher at Camelback High School had her pegged from the start.

Weiss was good at acting, good enough to compete for a coveted lead role in a school production. But, much to her surprise, Weiss didn’t get the part. Instead, the drama teacher named Weiss student director and, again much to her surprise, it was a good call.

“She was darn right,” says Weiss, the Chief Executive Officer of the Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts. “I was really good at it. I was a master at blocking and helping people learn how to memorize and all kinds of stuff.”

Weiss’ natural skills in managing and coaching have served her well throughout her professional life. After studying theater and business in college, she enjoyed a successful career in the luxury hospitality industry, helping hotels worldwide provide excellent service to customers.

When the allure of itinerant living in beautiful places gave way to a desire for roots in a community, Wickenburg was the spot. Weiss dug in.

In 1997, Weiss, then General Manager at Rancho de los Caballeros, and others felt what was missing in Wickenburg was a place for arts and culture. Webb Center, with its full schedule of performances and programs like Camp Imagination, a phenomenal summer program for school-age children, is now a community and economic development asset.

Weiss was a key leader in raising money to build, furnish and equip the Webb Center, was a founding board member and has been its director for 20 years.

“The Webb Center really isn’t about me,” Weiss said. “More than any story I’ve ever heard, it’s about a community that came together to build a performing arts center.”

Yes. But guess who sat in the director’s chair?

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

Nominate him or her at onmediaaz.com