(upbeat music) - Art Elevated the Governor's Mansion Artist Awards is made possible in part by Zions Bank, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Foundation, the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation, Thomas A. and Lucille B. Horn Foundation, and by the contributions to PBS Utah from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(gentle light music) - Art speaks to us in a language that everyone understands.

It's a connecting point.

(gentle light music) The Artist Series Awards are a way for us to honor artists in the state that are doing amazing things.

But also, it's a way to raise funds to beautify the mansion.

(light airy music) It's a way for us to do both.

And celebrate artists and have an incredible moment here together at the mansion.

(audience clapping) The inspiration for the awards started with Governor Blood during the Great Depression.

His daughter wanted a piano for the mansion, but the governor didn't want to spend taxpayer dollars.

Instead, he held an event, a fundraiser, if you will, and invited artists to perform.

The evening was a success.

And the piano is still here today.

The event has continued with the assistance of the Governor's Mansion Foundation.

They secure funding for the upkeep and beautification of this wonderful public building.

But the event is also a time to celebrate exceptional artists.

To ensure a broad representation of Utah's art, the award nominees are selected by a diverse committee of art collectors and artists from around the state.

And I am so grateful to have the opportunity to select the winners.

(gentle light music) The Governor's Mansion Artist Awards salute Fidalis Buehler, and The Good Company Theatre.

Camille and Alicia Washington's passion for equity in the arts was the impetus in creating The Good Company Theatre, a unique live venue theater in Ogden.

Bringing us progressive, inclusive plays in a small intimate, and non-traditional space.

They're reinventing what theater can be, delivering new voices and perspectives to the stage.

(bright upbeat music) - [Alicia] So this season, (Camille and Alicia laughing) - So this season, you know, it's funny 'cause she does just go, "We're doing this show."

- This one I particularly did.

- Yeah, this one... - There was no choice.

(bright jazz music) I'm Camille Washington, and I am the co-director of Good Company Theatre.

Which is the only black-woman owned theater in the state of Utah.

And I'm Alicia Washington, the founder and co-director of Good Company Theatre.

And we develop and promote high-quality, eclectic theatrical productions forging new relationships between audiences, performance, and spaces in the process.

- Oh my God.

Fremont Junior High is doing Oklahoma by Rodgers & Hammerstein!

- Oh my gosh!

Oh my gosh!

(tape rewinding) - Our season opener for our 21-22 season is called "Fremont Junior High Is Not Doing Oklahoma" by Paul Michael Thompson.

And the reason why it spoke to me is it's a contemporary piece.

It addresses a lot of the issues that the United States is collectively having around race and around gender identity.

And around something that is so part of my identity, which is theater and theater reckoning with these classical musical theater pieces or classical plays.

And should they still be performed?

And if so, why?

- A lot of just really adult ideas about identity representation and inclusion and exclusion in a drama room with a bunch of 14 year olds.

- [Actor] We have the opportunity here to say that we, as the next generation of theater practitioners, will reject overtly problematic works.

Even if they are classics, even if they will bring in audiences, even if they do have a Pulitzer.

We have that ability right now.

Classics are only classics because people keep doing them.

We could create a new classic, something progressive and inclusive that actually speaks to our values.

- Your values.

- Oh, you don't believe in progress?

- Why am I not- - In my experience, I have been very privileged that when I was acting, I would show up to all the auditions.

It became very apparent that I wasn't as seen.

I was only being seen and cast in very specific ways.

And that was annoying.

It made me extremely angry.

And is part of the journey of why I wanted to start a theater company too.

Because the default is white CIS hetero people get these roles - [Actor] Best friend, this musical is racist.

- I don't necessarily think it's any more racist than some of the people in this room.

Than our entire school is.

Than the history courses we take.

Because you're a Trader Joe shopping, tote bag carrying, NPR listening, and perfect produce ordering fake, Chris.

You are.

You're not interested in actually creating social change and progress.

You're interested in being recognized as a good person.

- So much has happened in our country's history.

And so it felt really false for us as a theater company to present something that didn't address what we're all collectively going through, or maybe some people ignoring.

And Paul Michael's show just hit all those notes.

- [Actor] Well, I finally understood what the eighties must have been like.

(audience laughs) And also like why our parents' generation is... - We know that we want an equitable future where everyone's voice is valued.

Does that mean that we get rid of classics like Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma that maybe perpetuate ideas that are racist or misogynist?

Or do we try to do those classics in a way that is ethical and the best way that we could possibly do them and increase representation within them?

This play doesn't give an answer to that.

This play asks questions and then hopes that its audience will continue the conversation on the ride home.

(jaunty music) - Hi, just got ♪ really excited.

(Alicia laughing) - [Patron] I will be signing up for this.

- [Alicia] Thank you so much for coming.

- [Patron] Yeah, of course.

- [Alicia} I'm so excited.

- Welcome back.

How was dinner?

- [Camille] So, Alicia's role from the beginning has been to be her.

Which is to be warm and engaging, and be in the community, and do a level of person-to-person outreach that is necessary in Ogden to build a business.

- We wanted a theater company to be as familiar as like your favorite coffee shop or as your favorite restaurant.

That you want to see a face you recognize or that you've made that connection with.

It was like, oh, I just saw her doing this in the community that I'm gonna go see what she's up to at her business.

That was crucial and is still crucial to our growth.

And just how we see ourselves in this community.

(everyone laughing) - Enjoy it now.

Enjoy it now.

Camille comes with a sense of being business savvy that has really allowed us to continue to operate.

She has an incredible eye for any aesthetic, from costumes to lighting to set design in general.

And she comes with that arts administrative background that really helped establish a lot of our identity today.

And our branding today.

- We know the land is not theirs to belong to.

And so did Rogers and Hammerstein, but it's all a part of this bigger problem, you know?

- [Actress] So what are you saying?

You wanna do a pre-show announcement where we apologize to any American Indian folks in the state?

- [Actor] We can stick an insert in the brochure like when we have to apologize for understudies going on.

(actor laughing) - I've talked with Miss H and brought my concerns.

And the best solution I can come up with is to cancel our spring production of Oklahoma altogether.

- [Stage Hand] 30 minutes to places.

- [Everyone] Thank you.

- Part of what we're trying to do is to have or allow audiences to rethink their relationship to theatrical performance.

Because this theater is different.

It's run by two women, two black women.

Our perspectives shape the season.

The space shapes how we can choose shows.

We don't have a lot of money.

So that also shapes how we can do shows.

And we're really considering the total experience of an audience because of the intimacy of the space.

- Are you a boy or a girl?

(pensive music) You look like both, and you sound like both, and I've never really met anyone like you - For now.

Kinda both.

(pensive music) (slow funky music) - I've seen the arts work here and work here for years.

And there's been professional theater companies before.

And there's been just this idea of what Ogden has been or could be that really kept me locked into this community.

- We've created our own opportunity in the ways that we're always forced to create space for ourselves in a place like Utah, in the arts.

More broadly, in the performing arts.

Yeah, I think that that is part of what makes us really unique.

- Mmhmm.

And the other thing is that it's us as people.

We're engaging with where we're from in a way that not a lot of people like us would.

And I certainly tried to get away, keeps pulling me back.

I think that audiences, when allowed, are very sophisticated here and can engage with content outside of kind of a prescribed norm.

And we give them that opportunity.

(soulful music) In Ogden.

(intriguing music) - This is one of my favorite paintings by Fidalis Buehler a painter, animator, and educator.

I am drawn to the authenticity and almost childlike innocence of his work.

But he also grapples with the themes of identity and personal history.

His art reflects his European-American and Pacific Islander roots.

- None of us ever thought that we'd ever approach art making as a career choice.

I found a lot of pleasure in just drawing as a way to escape any of the awkwardness that it was for me moving from place to place.

I just never really fit in because I was constantly moving.

And I didn't have a stable group of friends either.

So drawing was a great escape for me.

From the Solomon Islands to Wisconsin, to Hawaii, American Samoa.

Brief stints back in Fiji and the Solomon Islands again.

Saipan, Guam, back to Hawaii.

Yeah, we've traveled quite a bit.

My mom's from the Gilbert Islands, and my father's from Wisconsin.

When I think about my upbringing, you know, it was so difficult to feel like I had to embrace one or the other.

But I also realized that I never truly was one or the other.

And being in the Pacific Islands when I lived in Samoa, I was considered Pallagi.

I was considered white.

And then, being here in Utah, I'm considered someone of color.

And so the challenge has always been, you know, where am I?

What am I supposed to identify as?

I began to just make works about being a wanderer.

Someone who never really had a place in anything.

And that's how I viewed the stray dog.

I viewed that animal that just kind of moves from one place to the other.

Not necessarily seeking a home but just knowing that there's always gonna be a difference.

And that's been a big thing for me.

(cell phone ringing) - Um.

I think I found the um- - Gimme a second.

Let me get my pen first before I forget.

So you said you found the connection between Kattamoa - Yeah, we, yeah, we we've been working on that, and then there's another family somewhere that's been working on the genealogy as well.

Trying to find their connection to Budapest.

- What's the uh, what's the name of their family line that connects to Kattamoa?

- It's Kattamoa Abweiah.

- Abweiah.

In our family history, European whalers came to the islands and took young girls.

And in our family history, we have European blood at a very early 18, you know, in the 1800s because of some of those experiences.

And so I wonder about that.

I wonder how that carries over.

The piece of that experience is in me, not only because I heard it but because I carry that bloodline.

(door rattling) It seems like the tie-in is real, and the emotions are real.

When I think about other indigenous cultures that experience trauma, they're experiencing it through a very metaphysical way.

The arts are a strong solution to overcoming those things.

I wonder if part of the world's problem where we deal with mental illness is because of our lack of funding the arts.

Not giving to the thing that will have actually resolved a lot of our issues.

I feel like my personal struggles in life have been resolved through simply putting pen to paper.

If it wasn't drawing, it was writing.

If it wasn't writing, it was playing the guitar, watching a film, participating in some type of awkward dance ceremony.

(laughs) But all these experiences are embedded in the arts in some type of cultural format.

And I think for me, tapping into that has been what has allowed me to make this thing sustainable.

I was worried at one point that maybe using that would actually put a lot of pressure and weight on my shoulders to like relive experiences or possibly channel into childhood trauma that I didn't know about.

And the opposite has happened.

Actually paying attention to those things has helped me to rethink what I really went through and to process that information a little bit more clearer.

(rhythmic music) (footsteps scuffing pavement) (students chatting) Oh, there's so many layers to teaching that I think I enjoy.

I think one of the things I like to do is break the parameters or expectation that students kind of create for themselves.

These false walls that we kind of put up and these false expectations or ideas about what is possible, what isn't possible.

The other objective is to learn to iterate or to move incrementally, from something that's essentially the origin of their work to something more profound or nuanced.

And by iterating, by moving incrementally they learn to develop their craft.

The language of each medium will speak to them in a different way.

And maybe in terms of immediacy, in terms of its organic nature and the way it spreads on the surface, all those types of things have meaning, and how it means to the individual can only happen as they pursue it over a period of time.

- [Student] Just looking at the two together, I think the colors are similar in the kind of designs and composition.

- [Fidalis] Yeah, I love all the mark-making that's contained within that space.

Good.

Anything else?

I remember my first experience in my undergraduate program at University of Hawaii was a professor handing me keys to the studio and saying, "Hey, you can work in there as long as you want.

And you have access after hours."

That was just, you know that changed my life.

And I think I wanna be part of changing lives and offering hope and opportunity for people who want to pursue this degree.

(electric pencil sharpener whirring) (pencils scrapping canvas) (contemplative music) Professor Ida Wong, she taught me how to draw observational drawings and did a really good job of it to the degree that I actually would go to classes outside of my normal class time.

And I would practice drawing from other models.

And she approached me actually during the middle of one of the classes and says, "You know, you're not gonna draw like this forever."

I was like, what are you talking about?

She says, "Well, you gotta draw the way you draw.

You gotta come up with your own thing.

It's about getting to the thing that actually will be sustainable and will drive you for the rest of your life.

You've gotta figure that out on your own."

And yeah, kicked the legs right out from underneath me.

And I was like, starting from scratch.

That was a turning point because it actually got me to start thinking about what things really, what did I really gravitate towards?

But I began to see where the drawing actually resonated with music chants, dance ritual.

And I began to kind of bring that into the work.

I love thinking that everything that you do, everything from the moment that you were conceived to the point that you are here in this moment, putting that mark on the canvas, you are striking a mark into the basement of time.

Harnessing the information, ideas, and the feelings of people that have come before me and trying to put everything onto the page.

And that, to me, is a beautiful thing.

Everything that you are is there.

(light airy music) (guests talking) (light airy music) (audience clapping) - Our first awardee, Fidalis Buehler, is a fine art painter, animator, and educator.

His artwork can be described as a quest to know thyself.

Encouraging his students to search their own personal stories, to harness the nuances of their own identities.

We are honored to have him here tonight to accept the Governor's Mansion Artist Award.

(audience clapping) - There's an artist named Enrique Chagoya.

And Enrique Chagoya says when he's in Mexico, he's considered an American.

And when he's in the United States, he's considered Latino.

And that rung true with me.

Wherever I went, I was slightly different.

I was slightly the other.

And I imagine there's many of you who've had a moment where you felt like you're slightly the other.

Well, those nuances are what generated the idea behind making art.

And that's what I encourage as I teach at Brigham Young University is to look for the things that make you unique so that you can share it with others.

We need unique voices.

We need voices that will help others understand the millions of different ideas and perspectives that are out there.

And in closing, again, thank you so much for this opportunity and this award.

I look forward to hopefully representing future Pacific Islanders who are interested in doing the same thing, achieving their goals.

And maybe this is the first step in that.

Thank you.

(audience clapping) - Our next honorees, sisters Alicia and Camille Washington, were born in Ogden, raised in Layton, and educated at Weber State University and the University of Utah.

The two crafted a mission statement and launched Good Company Theatre in 2012.

And have worked in tandem every day since.

Because Good Company is a small organization, they also work the box office, sell concessions, paint the sets, manage the props, and take care of any and every other necessary task.

They are known and loved for fostering an environment of acceptance, creativity, and individuality.

They provide a dynamic and essential voice to Utah's arts community.

And we are honored to have them here tonight to accept the Governor's Mansion Artist Award.

Please join me in welcoming Alicia and Camille.

(audience clapping) (upbeat music) - Nothing that we do has been done just us in isolation.

There are so many people who make Good Company Theatre what it is.

Everyone who has been on stage, hung a light, twiddled some knobs for our soundboard, and showed up and just supported what we do in the audience.

It really matters to have a community.

Theater is nothing without all of us.

There's no on-stage if there's no backstage.

And there's no backstage if there's no audience.

I appreciate everyone here and who has supported us.

And I thank you all.

Thank you.

(audience clapping) - Since we can't magically transport all of you to Good Company Theatre tonight, we thought it would be nice to bring a little Good Company Theatre to you with a medley of songs and a monologue from three shows that we've done over the years.

We begin in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

The setting for the 2006 musical "Caroline, or Change" by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori.

It's 1963, and beleaguered maid Caroline, played by DeeDee Darby Duffin, squabbles with her more upbeat friend, Dottie, played by Alicia Washington, as they wait for the bus after work.

♪ For you got yourself divorced ♪ ♪ For I told ya I was goin' to night school ♪ ♪ For all that you wasn't hateful ♪ ♪ Now you got all grim and gospel ♪ ♪ Sorry, you is sick and shamed ♪ ♪ Sorry you drinkin' misery tea ♪ ♪ Sorry, your life ain't what it should be ♪ ♪ Don't see why you think it proper to take it out on me ♪ ♪ Seein' as how you ain't neva seen ♪ ♪ The inside of a church ♪ I don't think you got perspective ♪ ♪ To know what the gospel is ♪ Dottie Moffet ♪ High and mighty ♪ Go to college ♪ Every night ♪ Leastest thing that ♪ They could teach you ♪ Is not to talk on what you's wholly, ♪ ♪ Completely, abysmally, ♪ Ignorant of (audience laughing) (audience clapping) - Wow.

I don't think it ever sounded that good when Thomas and Jenny were here 120 years ago.

That was incredible.

Thank you so much for sharing your gifts with us, sharing your gifts with the state of Utah and the world.

Please just enjoy this place.

It's meant to be enjoyed.

It's not our home.

It's yours.

Thank you for making it possible.

God bless you.

Have a wonderful night.

(light orchestral music) - Art Elevated, the Governor's Mansion Artist Awards, is made possible in part by Zions Bank, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Foundation, the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation, Thomas A. and Lucille B. Horn Foundation, and by the contributions to PBS Utah from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(light airy music)