Rick Wray

Rick Wray was born in Salt Lake City, Utah.  His university education took him to Seattle and the University of Washington where he received Bachelor Degrees with honors in Political and Environmental Science.  Following graduation in 1993, Rick took his passion for documentary photography and foreign culture on the road, spending much of his time in South America and Central Asia.  Exposure to diverse world cultures opened his eyes to the possibility of a synthesis of culture and academia, combining progressive philosophy with his traditional educational background.

Back in Utah in 1996, Rick brought his vision to fruition when he co-founded Higher Ground Learning (HGL), a creative tutoring/mentoring center focused on creating customized learning models based on students’ individual learning needs.  From 1996-1999, Rick served as the Executive Co-Director at HGL.  Realizing the dynamic nature of digital multimedia and its enormous untapped potential after designing and teaching nearly 25 media workshops in digital photography, filmmaking, and animation while at Higher Ground Learning, Rick passed on the reins of HGL and co-founded Utah’s only not-for-profit youth media center, Spy Hop Productions, in late 1999.  Promoting visual and media literacy as the literacy of the 21st century, Rick along with co-founder Erik Dodd, collaborated for Spy Hop’s first media project with 12 high school students to produce the 30-minute documentary, the Hour Glass Project, documenting the turn of the millennium through teenage eyes.

Five years later, Spy Hop Productions has swelled to 25 full and part-time media mentors and its programming has involved over 10,000 young people ages five to nineteen.  Through compelling audio, video, and web-based productions, the visions and voices of the students that Rick and his staff have worked with have reached global audiences exceeding 25 million.  Rick Wray continues to serve as an Executive Director of Spy Hop Productions and in 2003 received the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Service to the Arts Award.  When Rick Wray is not exploring new ways to utilize digital media has an art form, a communication tool, or an educational medium, he spends his time traveling and in the outdoors honing his own documentary projects.