Company Profile
Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival
Company Overview
The Festival's mission is to provide highly qualified guest artists who offer multidisciplinary study and performance opportunities that increase both personal growth and arts appreciation to all participants. Our philosophy is to enrich the lives of all with whom we associate—through study and performances—by engaging their spirit, intellect and energy in an empowering way.
The Festival gives people who are enthusiastic about the fine arts an outlet to release their passions. We offer classes and workshops at various ability levels, so beginners will find plenty to do. Given the multi-disciplinary nature of our course offerings, a participant with one main area of study has the opportunity to branch out and the explore other arts: a violinist can take ballroom dance before their orchestra rehearsals, or a painter can play in a steel drum band after spending all day in watercolor classes.
Think of the Festival as summer camp for adults. You get to make new friends, hone your artistic talents, and just plain have fun. There are concerts nearly every day, so keeping busy is not a problem. The Festival takes place in Fairbanks, which often has beautiful weather at that time of year, so you can enjoy some extremely long days, and maybe take a weekend trip to Denali to see nature at its best.
If spending your whole days for two weeks with the Festival is not a possibility due to work or travel commitments, you may be pleased to see the number of evening classes and one-day mini workshops available.
Company History
Jo Ryman Scott, Fairbanks, and Edward Madden, Boston, founded the Festival in April 1980 with the one-week Jazz Festival '80. It was funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (proposal written by Theodore DeCorso, Professor of Music, UAF; Jean Mackin and Jo Scott) and a Guarantorship from the Kiwanis Club of Fairbanks.
After that Festival, classical musicians asked to be included. In 1981, Scott and Madden successfully produced Jazz to Classics, the first two-week summer Festival.
In 1982, the name was changed to the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival because dance, opera, theatre, musical theatre and visual arts enthusiasts asked that those areas of study be added. Since that time, many disciplines have been added to the Festival, based on requests from registrants.
The Festival had been a dream of Jo's since about 1958 — her inspiration being Mary Hale of Anchorage who had founded a Festival there in the late 1950s. Jo established the Festival's nonprofit corporation in 1979 when she was 50 years old.
The original purpose of the Festival was to provide study opportunities for local people who gave their time to be in performing arts groups. Now that the Festival is becoming recognized nationally, people from literally all over the world are coming as registrants or attendees to Festival events.
In August of 2009, Jo retired at age 80 after successfully producing thirty seasons of the Festival. Over the years, hundreds of volunteers have contributed their time to help her produce the Festival, and Jo's husband, Dick Scott, provided office space and equipment. Terese Kaptur was selected as director by the Festival Board to continue the work of the Festival beginning in September of 2009.
The Festival continues to evolve as the needs of the community change, but will always strive to foster collaboration in the arts and provide the opportunities for instruction, artistic expression, and relationship forging that have touched the lives of thousands throughout its history.