(bright music) - [Narrator] Paint a mural at Woodlawn Elementary School.

Learn about Opera Saratoga's summer season and see a special companion piece to language and landscape, the Art of Frederick Church.

It's all ahead on this episode of AHA.

- [Announcer] Funding for AHA has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT Venture Fund.

Contributors include the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi and The Robison Family Foundation.

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Matt Rogowicz and this is AHA.

A House for Arts, a place for all things creative.

Ramiro Davaro-Comas is a mirrorless and art educator adding color to the walls of area schools.

We stopped by Woodlawn Elementary in Schenectady to see how his work transforms not only the walls of the building, but the lives of the students who walk the halls.

(bright music) - The project and partnership here at Woodlawn started in late 2022, early 2023.

It was one of the first public art projects with the school that Grace and I did with Super Stories.

And we were reached out by Melody, who is the art teacher here, and John, who is the principal.

And they wanted to bring a new visual public project here in the school that had a hands-on component for the students.

- We have this brilliant art teacher, Mrs.

York, and she really has gone above and beyond to give our kids this like art conservatory experience, bringing in artists and residents, having them emulate different artists, whether it's through digital painting, print work, it's amazing.

- I've done murals on my own in the past or working with other teachers and it's a very big undertaking to coordinate the kids and what we're going to paint and getting the supplies.

When I started here at Woodlawn about four years ago, I heard from another district that hired Ramiro and I thought, gosh, it sounds really great.

I'd love to have him here.

So I honestly just reached out and emailed him and asked, you know, if he went to other schools and kind of, you know, what his style was and if we could meet.

So he came here, he walked up and down the halls with me.

You know, I mean, right away I just enjoyed his energy.

And what I really liked is he was very specific and had a good sense of time management.

One of the other pieces of how Ramiro creates murals that I really liked is he's actually using the kids' work.

- And when Melody was talking to me about this too, I was like, we need to make this happen.

- Let's give it a try.

(bright music) - So the process that we have for these particular murals and like this series of work is very centered around the students.

So we usually will have a workshop component.

I come into the school, I ask them a whole bunch of questions and we draw together for the whole day, sometimes for a week.

And we make sure that we in the process, are using the school's color palette, their mascot and kind of other things that the school might want as the theme for that particular mural.

- He might say, okay, just draw me a flower.

Okay, now let's imagine that this is, you know, a flower with a face.

What kind of face does it have?

And you know, what are some words that you might associate with growth and growing?

- And so I draw with them.

They give me a stack of like 300 drawings.

I go home and then I create the mural with their actual illustrations.

And I think it's really, really an important part of the process to show student artwork in a large scale.

Usually students in their artwork, it gets put on like a refrigerator or you know, on a bulletin board, but they don't see their artwork blown up and really respected the way that so much other artwork is respected.

And I think that really, really makes this project unique and the support from the school unique because all of these students for the past four years have been seeing their work on a giant scale.

And it really empowers them to continue to draw and to feel better about themselves and their school.

- We've been doing it for a few years now.

You know, they've gotten to the point where they see Ramiro come in and they know what's going to happen.

And there's a lot of excitement.

I think that we've tried very hard to make sure that all of the students have gotten to experience both ends of the process.

So sometimes you have students that are drawing that don't actually get to end up painting on the wall, but it's their artwork that's physically up there.

And so they can see their work in it.

So they might walk down the hall and say like, oh, that's my mountain.

I made that mountain.

Or that was the word I suggested.

And even if there were, you know, obviously if you have word growth, you might have 25 kids that all use the word growth, but to them they kind of take that piece and they're like, that's my word.

I had that.

You know, and it is a fusion of a lot of different ideas.

And so they can kind of find their ideas in there.

- I believe that in the school we have 19 murals painted.

I think so far it has been really an honor to be, continue to be invited here to the space and to painting with all the students.

The students have felt so happy about it.

They're always so proud.

Every time they see me, they're like, oh, there he is.

There's the painter, there's the artist.

And they get really excited 'cause they know that they're gonna get a chance to paint and to make their school more colorful.

- Something I like about this mural program is that it's teaching kids how to be like, like it's teaching kids how to like use their imagination.

- I like how it like represents our school and like it represents like the people as like a whole.

- It makes me feel excited, it makes me feel calm and it makes me feel happy at the same time.

- Something else I like about this mural is that it's like expressing to kids that like, you could like do anything that you want to do.

If you put your heart to it, then you could do it.

- It's something different that they get to do than what they're doing with me.

You know, we have a curriculum that we follow, pre-K through fifth.

And so sometimes the work I'm doing with 'em is very different than what Ramiro brings in.

And so it's getting a different perspective on a different way of making art or experiencing art, which is really important for them to have that opportunity.

- Art is, it's a critical part of education.

And for, I think back to my experiences too as a student, if it wasn't for our art program, our music, our fine arts programs to sports and things like that, that are always on the chopping block, I wouldn't be here as a principal and being back in schools.

A lot of my friends growing up too, they wouldn't have graduated if it wasn't for people like Mrs.

York, Mrs.

Phelps, Mrs.

Longie, Ms.

Jacobelis, that are in our, you know, fine arts program and giving them these opportunities to have success in a different way.

It's not, you know, I wasn't the best math student, that's why I majored in history and social studies.

But I loved art and I loved music and it gave me a reason to come to school every day.

- Well I think it's so important to fund the arts, whether it's music, visual or anything that students can do that is different from their day to day and that allows them to express themselves and be creative is really, really important.

I always see so much joy and so much pride when students are painting these murals.

They always walk by and they said, I painted that, I painted that.

And it's something that, you know, you start giving them an opportunity to create their environment around themselves and they do it and they do it well.

They behave really well, they paint well and it just fosters a sense of, yeah, of pride, you know, and of I can do this and if I can do this here in a somewhat small scale in my school community, what can I do outside?

You know, and how can I grow up to be someone who continues to give back to my community and make my world a better world?

(bright music) - Rehearsals are well underway for Opera Saratoga's Summer Season.

Jade Warrick spoke with their executive director, Amanda Robie, to learn what's in store for their 65th Anniversary Festival Season.

- Hey Amanda, welcome to A House for Arts.

- Hey Jade, thank you for having me.

- Yeah, super excited to talk about your Summer Season at Opera Saratoga.

So tell us about it.

What's going on this summer?

- Well, it's a really exciting summer for us 'cause it's actually our 65th anniversary season, if you can believe it.

We've been around for 65 years.

We started off as the Lake George Opera Festival up in Lake George.

And then through the seasons and years we have moved down to Saratoga Springs and we're celebrating our 65th anniversary season.

So that's really exciting for us.

A six week festival.

Lots of performances throughout that six weeks, up and coming singers who are getting their stage time and really making a name for themselves here before they go and make a name for themselves everywhere.

So there's a lot of really exciting things to look forward to with our season.

- Oh, that's amazing.

Does anything particularly excite you for this season coming up?

- Yeah, you know, for me, I am a singer myself, so I just, I love inviting these singers who are at this crux of their career, getting ready to really try to launch themselves and they get to open up and experience these moments on our stages and with our community.

That is really, really exciting.

That being said, some of the exciting performances we have going on this year I wanna highlight are, we're doing our first collaboration with other opera companies in the state of New York, including Glimmerglass, the Siegel Festival and Finger Lakes Opera.

Those three and Opera Saratoga are working together on Happy End, a Kurt Weill opera that is not well known and not done very often, but a gem of a piece.

And we're doing it and we're touring it around the state to really try to open up opera to people who might not be in Saratoga Springs specifically, or in Cooperstown wear Glimmerglass is.

And things like that.

So that's one really exciting thing.

The other one for me is we're doing a workshop of a new opera called Drift.

And it's by the first ever female composer and librettist team who will be doing a full production of Drift next year.

So we're trying to kind of lay the scene now, have everybody come and hear it and kind of hear what they're looking forward to so that then next year we can look forward to that full production and what that's going to be.

- That's awesome.

And how are you bringing folks from outside the Saratoga to Opera Saratoga?

Do you have any like strategies for that?

- Yeah, that's a great question.

You know, it's always a strategic thing to look into to try to find people and get them out of their comfort zones.

One of our main initiatives this year is really trying to get newcomers who might not think that opera is their thing to come and just try it out.

So we actually are doing a newcomer ticket initiative where you can get a ticket to any of our main stage performances, which include Happy End, and then our two other main stage productions, which are My Fair Lady and the Elixir of Love for $25.

So similar to a movie, take it similar to going and grabbing a cheap bite out.

We're really hoping that by making it more accessible to more people, they'll wanna try it out and just see what it's all about.

- What surprises most first time audiences, you know?

'Cause again, sometimes people may still think operas like in the movies, oh a manacle, you know, all that.

So like what is something that surprises first time audiences now that you're doing this cool, like, I don't know, this like ticket offer for first time goers?

- Yeah, you know what I think people really realize when they're in our theater is that, first of all, it's a musical theater experience.

So if you've been to see a musical at Proctors, or if you've been to see musicals in general, opera is just another musical theater experience.

But the cool thing that people really tend to recognize is the sheer volume of people's voices who are trained opera singers.

Because musical theater typically has people in mics, but for opera, you are not mic'd and that's specific.

You are trained specifically to be able to sing so that you are not mic'd.

And so I think one of the most surprising things people say is, wow, I didn't know that that sound could come out of that person.

Especially doing performances at Universal Preservation Hall.

It's such a unique venue with beautiful acoustics that every seat you can really hear everything really well and you're also right up in the magic.

So you're close enough to see everything as if it's in high definition, but you're also hearing it live and seeing it live.

And so it's a really impressive thing to behold.

- Yeah, and have you seen audience's reactions to that before?

- Oh yeah.

Seen and heard.

You know, that's the coolest part about my job is I kind of know what's happening because I've been there throughout the whole thing.

So I like to stand in the back and I'm watching the action go on stage, but then more importantly, I'm listening and watching all of the reactions of all of our audience and the wonder that's on their face or the laughter that comes at an unexpected time that they just can't hold it in.

Or the fact that the opera itself might be an Italian and we have Supertitles so that you can see what's going on.

But a lot of people end up not really using them because they're able to follow the story and they don't wanna miss the action on stage.

- Oh, that's so cool.

- Yeah.

- So what do you hope people say about this summer season?

If you were to just have like the perfect summer season, which I know you will.

What do you hope people feel leaving this summer?

- My hope is always that people feel welcome when they come to Opera Saratoga.

We truly are a community organization.

We want everybody to feel that Opera Saratoga is a place that they can be, they can enjoy live arts.

I really hope that they say this was amazing.

I can't wait for next season.

That's what I hope they say.

- I love that.

Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Amanda.

We appreciate you.

We love Opera Saratoga, and thank you.

- Thank you so much.

(bright music) ♪ The flowers, the linen, the crystal I see ♪ ♪ Were carefully chosen for people like me ♪ ♪ The silver agleam and the candles aglow ♪ ♪ Your favorite songs on request ♪ ♪ Each colorful touch in the finest of taste ♪ ♪ And notice how subtly the tables are spaced ♪ ♪ The music is muted, the lighting is low ♪ ♪ No wonder I feel so depressed ♪ ♪ Charming, romantic, the perfect café ♪ ♪ Then as if it isn't bad enough, a violin starts to play ♪ ♪ Candles and wine, tables for two ♪ ♪ But where are you, dear friend ♪ ♪ Couples go past me, I see how they look ♪ ♪ So discreetly sympathetic ♪ ♪ When they see the rose and the book ♪ ♪ I make believe nothing is wrong ♪ ♪ How long can I pretend ♪ ♪ Please make it right, don't break my heart ♪ ♪ Don't let it end, dear friend ♪ ♪ I make believe nothing is wrong ♪ ♪ How long can I pretend ♪ ♪ Please make it right, don't break my heart ♪ ♪ Don't let it end, dear friend ♪ - And now a special preview.

Next Wednesday at 7:30 PM, we will be airing our new documentary by WMHT producer Catherine Rafferty called Language in Landscape, the Art of Frederick Church.

Here's a special companion piece of that documentary featuring artist Ellen Harvey.

- My artwork has dealt with landscape in a number of ways for about 25 years now, which is actually hilarious when you think about it because when I was a kid, I hated landscapes.

They were like my least favorite thing when I went to a museum, I'd just be like, oh, where are the naked people?

Where are the dragons?

Where's the exciting stuff?

And particularly loathed Turner as a child because I just found him so dull.

And now of course I love him.

And I think that Church is somebody who, as a child, I also would've thought wasn't that exciting 'cause there aren't any people, there aren't any stories.

But I think as I started working with landscape, I started to realize that it's actually this incredibly fascinating vein to mine.

It all started with my sort of brief career as a criminal when I started painting little oval landscapes in oils over graffiti sites in New York City in an attempt to, call attention to the fact that there was a lot, there was a huge crackdown at the time.

Giuliani was incarcerating a lot of graffiti artists.

And I thought it would be interesting to see what would happen if a white woman started painting delightful tiny landscapes as graffiti.

Before that, I had never painted a single landscape in my whole life.

I was a terrible landscape painter, zero talent.

And so I was just copying all these things.

And I remember Roberta Smith wrote about it and she said, you know, she's copying all these Hudson River Valley landscape paintings.

But in fact, I was doing all European ones.

But that was the first time I started to really think about the Hudson Valley School of Painting and looking at it.

I feel very, very lucky to have been asked to make a project here at Olana.

I'd come here a number of times and I came up because my friend Jean Shim had made a beautiful piece here a couple of years ago.

I met Mark the curator here, and he mentioned that there had once maybe been a summer house.

There's a mention on this old plan of a summer house, but there's no evidence photographic or otherwise, one way or the other that it ever actually existed.

It might just have been something that Church was planning to build.

And I said, oh, you should have me build you a summer house.

I would like to build a structure that celebrates this love of this place and the fact that now it belongs to everyone, it belongs to the public.

We can all come here for free.

I mean, what an incredible gift.

I wanted people to be teleported into a different place.

And because it's summer, I wanted to teleport people into winter.

And Church had made these remarkable paintings.

He'd gone to Newfoundland to study icebergs.

And I thought, oh, I'll take that painting as my inspiration for the inside.

A lot of tourists or landscape painters of Church's era would've used, which is this thing called a Claude Glass or Claude Mirror, which is this tiny sort of handheld black convex mirror that reflects a really large view and separates out the planes and makes it really, really hyper saturated.

I thought, so it'd be lovely to make, you know, a house made entirely out of mirrors where people can frame their own views and everyone can be their, you can be your own artist, you can own Olana, you can be like, that's a particularly good bit.

I love that bit.

You know, you could have that.

There are two other sort of Easter eggs hidden in there.

One is Church'd painting, The Aurora Borealis, which is in The Smithsonian, which he painted to celebrate the end of the Civil War.

And there's also a little protest, the whole bunch of little protest signs.

But I love this idea of Church's icebergs, protesting near their own destruction.

I think that Church, if he were alive today, would be greatly saddened by what we are doing to the planet.

I mean, in his own time, he was devastated by the clear cutting of the forests of the Hudson Valley.

And I think he felt a profound sense of stewardship.

I've spent the last five years painting this project called The Disappointed Tourist, for which I've been painting places sent in by the public in response to the question, is there some place you would like to visit or revisit that no longer exists?

And that is sort of the inverse of Olana.

It's like what would have happened if Olana had disappeared?

So these are all places that have communities and people who were mourning their losses.

And you think all that energy, all that emotion, if we can only harvest it, we could make something extraordinary happen.

And I think Olana is an example of what happens when you do harness that kind of energy and that kind of love.

I think that as an artist in a way, your job, if you can be said to have a job, is to create conversation.

To create spaces or experiences that seduce people into having a new thought or new appreciation for something.

(bright music) - Be sure to tune in next Wednesday at 7:30 PM to see the complete documentary, Language in Landscape, The Art of Frederick Church.

And thank you for joining me on this episode of AHA.

I'm Matt Rogowicz.

Thanks for watching.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Funding for AHA has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT Venture Fund.

Contributors include the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi and The Robison Family Foundation.