Arts & Mentoring Project brought Pipestone and the surrounding communities its second, summer program for our area’s youth. This year, we used Disney’s MOANA production as the vehicle to provide a classroom to teach kids and students all areas of theater. We partnered with a traveling exhibit that made it’s way to Pipestone called We Are Water. WAW is an interactive exhibit that shares Minnesota’s unique stories of water and its impact on our different communities in Minnesota. This partnership was the perfect fit for MOANA, as MOANA has an undercurrent theme of environmental advocacy and preservation. This theme, as well as identity, self-discovery, breaking boundaries and following your inner voice were the perfect foundation and threads for the students to create a theatrical experience and learn about the arts.
Our summer programming would not be possible without sponsors, donors, loyal community businesses and organizations… but especially without AMP’s dedicated, passionate Executive Director, Reggie Gorter. I commend Reggie for all of her hard work and perseverance in making this summer, theatrical classroom happen. I admire her ability to provide a group of students a fun but disciplined environment to learn about the performing arts, but also usher in a theatrical experience for a live audience. I use the word experience because there is so much more than what takes place between the overture and bows; Reggie recognizes this and ushers an audience through it all. The audiences experienced well performed music, got a taste of the Polynesian culture, and took in the natural elements of the Hiawatha Pageant Park right here in Pipestone.
It was such an honor to be surrounded by such talent and hard working volunteers, interns, students, artists and designers. I naturally approach every project from the perspective of a Graphic Designer and Photographer, so what follows are the pieces I created for marketing. I have also included production photos from a couple of the performances. Though a technical and logistical challenge, the Hiawatha Pageant Park proved to be the perfect setting for this project. The atmosphere and ambience was absolutely stunning.
Mark Thode Photography & Design Blog 