2016–2017 Lecture Series and Performing Arts Series On Sale

Sun Valley Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the lineup for the 2016–2017 Lecture Series and Performing Arts Series. Every year, these highly-anticipated performances, presentations and lectures bring noted thought leaders, authors, artists and musicians to the Wood River Valley.

“This year’s Lecture Series highlights individuals who are responding to contemporary issues through their work and leadership,” said Katelyn Foley, The Center’s Director of Education and Humanities. “The series opens by introducing a truly groundbreaking artist—Miranda July—and then teases out important perspectives from our BIG IDEA projects on technology and contemplation.”

The 2016–2017 Performing Arts Series features an eclectic variety of performers. From as far away as India and Italy to a Twin Falls native who now calls Nashville home, The Center has invited engaging, compelling artists—and even a fun, laugh-out-loud performer—to the valley. “For the very first time, we’ve asked an award-winning cabaret performer to visit the valley this September,” said Kristine Bretall, The Center’s Director of Performing Arts. “The Center has never hosted someone quite like Sharron Matthews—she’s funny, irreverent and heartfelt. She’ll work with Wood River Middle School students on singing and, through her ‘Cabaret for Kids’ program, she’ll share how confidence can be gained through performance. Every performer on this season’s lineup will be working with students in local schools as part of The Center’s commitment to arts education.”

Tickets for the Lecture Series and the Performing Arts Series will first be made available to members of The Center. On Friday, August 5, series tickets will be on sale to members only; on Friday, August 19, individual tickets will be on sale to members only. On Friday August 26, any remaining tickets will be on sale to the general public. For information about Sun Valley Center for the Arts membership, visit http://sunvalleycenter.org/get-involved/membership/.

2016–2017 LECTURE SERIES

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Miranda July in conversation with Marcia Franklin
Thu, Sep 22, 2016
Church of the Big Wood, Ketchum, 6:30pm

Miranda July is a filmmaker, artist, and writer. Her videos, performances, and web-based projects have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and two Whitney Biennials. July wrote, directed and starred in her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and four prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, including the Camera d’Or. Miranda July’s most recent film is The Future (2011), which she wrote, directed and stars in. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, Harper’s, and The New Yorker, and her novel The First Bad Man (2015) became an immediate New York Times bestseller. Her artwork is in the collection of The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and was presented in the 2009 Venice Biennale, in Union Square in New York, and at MOCA in Los Angeles. David Byrne says, “Miranda July’s is a beautiful, odd, original voice—seductive, sometimes erotic, and a little creepy, too.”

Marcia Franklin is the host and producer of Dialogue, a discussion program on Idaho Public Television. Franklin’s programs have won numerous awards, including a George Foster Peabody Award, an ABA Silver Gavel Award and several regional Emmy awards.

P.W. Singer
Thu, Feb 9, 2017
Church of the Big Wood, Ketchum, 6:30pm

P.W. Singer is the author of multiple award-winning books, and is a contributing editor at Popular Science. Described in the Wall Street Journal as “the premier futurist in the national security environment,” Dr. Singer is considered one of the world’s leading experts on changes in 21st-century warfare. Singer’s book Wired for War examined the implications of robotics and other new technologies for war, politics, ethics and law in the 21st century. Described as “awesome” by Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, Wired for War made the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list in its first week of release. Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War (2015) is Singer’s debut novel. It melds nonfiction-style research on emerging trends and technology with a fictional exploration of the future of war at sea, on land, in the air, space and cyberspace.

Part of The Center’s BIG IDEA project Rayguns, Robots, Drones.

Arianna Huffington
Fri, May 26, 2017
in partnership with Sun Valley Wellness Festival
Sun Valley Pavilion, Sun Valley, 6:30pm
Individual tickets will ONLY be available through the Sun Valley Wellness Festival starting Oct 1, 2016

Lecture Series and Sun Valley Wellness Festival keynote speaker Arianna Huffington is the co-founder, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, and author of 15 books. In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. In 2012, the site won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She has been named to Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. Her 15th book, The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time, on the science, history and mystery of sleep, was published in April 2016 and became an instant New York Times bestseller.

Part of The Center’s BIG IDEA project Contemplative Practice.

Season Sponsors
The 2016–2017 Lecture Series is sponsored in part by Jennifer and Peter Roberts, with generous support from Richard Carr and Jeanne Meyers. Free Student Humanities Club tickets are provided through the generous support of Robin Leavitt and Terry Friedlander for lecture series, performing arts events and play readings.

2016–2017 PERFORMING ARTS SERIES

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A cabaret evening with Sharron Matthews*
Fri, Sep 16, 2016
NexStage Theater, Ketchum, 7pm

Sharron Matthews is an award-winning cabaret performer. Her performance of “Full Dark” was named by broadwayworld.com as Best Cabaret Performance of 2015, and she’s won “Best of the Fest” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Her performances include storytelling and mash-up pop songs—think Shirley Bassey meets Madonna. She has created a “Cabaret for Kids” for the Young People’s Theatre of Toronto and will bring her experience as an actor, performer, and singer to students while she is in the valley.

Korby Lenker*
Fri, Dec 9, 2016
Sun Valley Opera House, 7pm

Growing up in Twin Falls as the son of a mortician, Korby Lenker is a singer, songwriter, author, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. Lenker began work on a new album, Thousand Springs, in early 2016 and spent weeks traveling and recording outdoors in various locations in southern Idaho. He then spent the early summer laying more tracks with some of his favorite musicians around the country. Lenker’s visit is part of the BIG IDEA project Idaho Stories; while here, he will be working with students at Wood River High School.

Part of The Center’s BIG IDEA project Idaho Stories.

International Guitar Night*
Tue, Feb 14, 2017
Sun Valley Opera House, 7pm

International Guitar Night (IGN) is North America’s premier mobile guitar festival. Since its inception, IGN has brought together the world’s foremost acoustic guitarist composers to perform their latest original compositions and exchange musical ideas in a public concert setting. Each tour, IGN founder Brian Gore invites a new cast of guitar luminaries to join him for these special evenings. For the January/February 2017 North American tour, Brian will be joined by three incredibly dynamic musicians: Italy’s innovative contemporary guitarist Luca Stricagnoli; brilliant young Brazilian composer/performer Chrystian Dozza; and India’s ground-breaking slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya.

Las Cafeteras*
Fri, Apr 7, 2017
Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater, Hailey, 7pm

In 2005, rooted in community and tradition, a group of students learning Son Jarocho music became known as “Los Cafeteros,” named after the Eastside Cafe community center in East Los Angeles that they helped found. They soon changed their name to Las Cafeteras to honor the feminine spirit of the group. Over the years, Las Cafeteras has developed a genre-bending sound and electric live performance with the purpose of sharing the hidden stories of migrant life in Los Angeles. Las Cafeteras were inspired not only by Mexican music, but by rock, reggae, hip-hop and Motown. Through music, Las Cafeteras is trying to help build “a world where many worlds fit.” While in the Wood River Valley, Las Cafeteras will spend four days visiting over 2,000 students with musical performances, sharing their music and their message of inclusivity.

Season Sponsors
The 2016–2017 Performing Arts Series is sponsored by Wood River Inn.

* Every performer in the 2016–2017 Performing Arts Series will be performing in local schools as a part of The Center’s ongoing commitment to arts education. Artist Residencies are supported by Gayle Marie with additional funds for International Guitar Night and Las Cafeteras provided by the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF).

TICKETS

Tickets for The Center’s Lecture Series and Performing Arts Series will go on sale on the following dates:

Friday, August 5, 10am: Series tickets on sale to members only
Friday, August 19, 10am: Individual tickets on sale to members only
Friday, August 26, 10am: Any remaining tickets on sale to the general public

Tickets can be purchased online, by calling 208.726.9491, or at The Center box office at 191 Fifth Street East in Ketchum.