SPY HOP ANNOUNCES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The Board of Trustees is excited and proud to announce the selection of the Spy Hop’s new Executive Director, Kasandra VerBrugghen. The search committee included Trustee and Advisory Board members Missy Greis, Meredith Lavitt, David Cumming, Sue Ulbrich, Bryan Clifton, and Lewis Francis. The committee conducted a national search during the spring and confirmed their selection with a unanimous vote at the Board of Trustee meeting on May 11th. In accepting the position Kasandra stated, “I am honored by the offer and position. Spy Hop is a dynamic and inspiring organization affecting powerful change in the lives of thousands of youth in our community. I look forward to building upon the strong foundation that Rick, our board, and our talented staff have laid over the past decade.” Kasandra currently serves as Spy Hop’s Managing Director and was previously the Executive Director of Seattle’s Austin Foundation. Kasandra will be taking over the Executive Director position after the conclusion of the current programming year on September 1, 2010. Rick Wray, Spy Hop’s co-founder and Executive Director of eleven years, will continue to be involved with Spy Hop in a part-time capacity as the organization’s Founding Director. Rick responded to the committee’s decision by saying, “I think they made the perfect choice. I’m one hundred percent behind Kasandra as my successor. Kasandra had deep leadership experience before coming to Utah and Spy Hop, and she has spent the last two years running the day-to-day operations of the organization. I’m confident that Spy Hop will continue to flourish under her direction.” According to Board Chair Lewis Francis, “Kasandra was the obvious choice, given her demonstrated expertise and dedication to the organization, which fact was only confirmed through the recruitment process and her comparison to other candidates for the position. Spy Hop looks forward to a seamless transition and to its continued success under Kasandra’s direction.” |
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SPY HOP 2010 ANNUAL BENEFIT – TURN ON. TUNE IN. EMPOWER. SUCCESS!
By Larissa Trout, Development Director
What a community! What a night! Spy Hop’s 2010 Annual Benefit proved to be yet another feather to place in Spy Hop’s ever growing cap of success. With overwhelming support from the business and local community, Spy Hop welcomed over 200 guests for its annual fundraising event held at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center on April 28th.
For the cocktail hour, Spy Hop invited its guests to turn on, tune in, and join us for an evening of the "Spy Hop Experience." A visual and aural art experience was produced by the students as a demonstration of what Spy Hop is about. The visual art installation, with digital projectors and screens donated by TV Specialists, was displayed on stage and proved to be an interesting, stimulating, and creative look into the imaginative brains of some of Spy Hop’s talented youth. To add to the festivities Spy Hop served food and beverage donated by Salt Lake City’s finest restaurants including Em’s Restaurant, Oasis Café, The Tin Angel Café, Café Trio, Frida Bistro, Diva’s Cupcakes, Carlucci’s Bakery, Sages Cafe & Cali’s Market, Harmons Grocery, Whole Foods, Mercer’s Wine Ice Cream, Red Rock Brewing Company, and Vine Lore, Inc.
Guests took their seats in the theater for the live auction and were immediately wowed by Spy Hop’s first-ever LIVE MOVIE! Thirty-three Spy Hop students took the stage to produce a live movie, resulting in a dazzling display of student talent and a memorable tour of Spy Hop’s programs. It was an impressive and jam-packed five-minute showcase of what can be created with inventive camera shots, cardboard, and spray paint!
Introducing the evening, Radio West Host Doug Fabrizio took to the stage to offer up his profound words on the power of storytelling and the relevance of digital media in our lives. Throughout the live auction, Spy Hop students continued to be a memorable part of the festivities. Apprenticeship students spoke firsthand about the life changing experiences Spy Hop has brought them; documentary students articulated the value of having a safe haven and a sense of belonging and community through their involvement with Spy Hop; and the Loud & Clear Youth Radio students took the stage with Joel Brown, local musician and Spy Hop alumni. Joel amazed the audience with his soulful sounds. Spy Hop’s Pitchnic film students pitched their films live, impressing the audience with their stage presence, words, and creative ideas. In response, the audience showed Spy Hop tremendous financial support to the tune of $86,535! Spy Hop’s Musicology Band, Idyll Rigamarole closed the evening with an original song performed as a heartfelt thank you to our generous supporters.
A resounding Thank You to everyone involved in creating such a wonderful evening. Our tremendous success was the direct result of everyone’s hard work, support, attendance, and of course, financial generosity.
For photos and more information, please visit www.spyhop.org/benefit
The evening could not have been a success without the generous support of our sponsors, including:
Zions Bank,
Utah Film Commission,
Jones Waldo,
XMission,
Redirect Community,
Kevin & Donna Gruneich Family Foundation,
Beehive Insurance, Salt Lake City Weekly, KCPW 88.3FM, KRCL 90.9FM, Q Salt Lake, & SLUG Magazine
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT :: LIZ TANNER
As Loud and Clear wraps up its seventh season of being on air, we celebrate Liz Tanner, a former Loud and Clear student and current peer mentor.
Liz became a member of the Loud and Clear crew during the 2008-2009 season and it became evident that Loud and Clear was going to have quite an effect on her. She took the opportunity to be on the radio to amplify her voice and used it to tell her story. During her time as a student, Liz was also expecting a baby, and it was from her experience as an expectant mother that she would later create waves in the community. It became clear to her that she would need to put her baby up for adoption, and she chose to write a radio commentary about having baby Breck and later giving him up for adoption. Her unique and profound description of the process undoubtedly evokes emotions in audiences of all kinds. “Giving Up, but Not Giving In” was later chosen by Spy Hop staff as Best Personal Narrative in the Best Of 2009 screening.
—Spotlight by Shannalee Otanez
WRITE-SHOOT-RIDE :: NOW IN ITS 10TH YEAR
Since 2000, the Spy Hop program Write-Shoot-Ride has been offering students a chance to get out of the city and explore Utah. The two-month summer program features a week-long road trip through various parts of the state. This summer the participants of Write-Shoot-Ride are in for an even greater treat. They will be teaming up with one of Spy Hop Records' own talented young artists and hitting the open road to film a music video. As if that wasn’t enough, they will also be producing a behind-the-scenes look at what went into the making of the video. Documentary Instructor Frank Feldman, the mastermind behind the project, says, “I put a lot of thought into how to improve an already successful program and I am super excited to get a group of students out filming a music video in Utah's scenic mountain landscape.” The final projects will be screened to the public on August 18th, at the Tower Theater. — By Matt Mateus
SUPPORTER CORNER :: ANNUAL GIVING & MORE
Spy Hop Productions genuinely appreciates the breadth of support the community continues to provide for our innovative digital arts programming offered to youth across the Wasatch Front. Spy Hop extends our deepest thanks to the many individuals, foundations, and corporations who have contributed to our success. This year, Spy Hop’s Annual Giving Campaign generated $16,885 from individual contributions, and most recently, $86,535 was given through our Annual Benefit – Turn On. Tune In. Empower. The support Spy Hop receives through individual, foundation, and corporate contributions in these tough economic times delivers the message that we are highly valued in our community as the place where youth are empowered to share their stories in a digital medium they truly enjoy. We thank you for your continued support.
Since our last publication, Spy Hop is pleased to report that a new funding relationship has been secured between the Department of Workforce Services’ Safe Passages Program and Spy Hop’s own Multimedia Apprenticeship Program.
Additionally, Spy Hop extends its thanks to a number of new and continued funders including GE Money, National Endowment for the Arts, B.W. Bastian Foundation, JEPS Foundation, Willard L. Eccles Foundation, Richard K. & Shirley S. Hemingway Foundation, Stephen G. & Susan E. Denkers Foundation, Sorenson Legacy Foundation, and the Education Reform Foundation.
Recently, Spy Hop has been given the distinguished honor of being a semifinalist for the Coming Up Taller Award given by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. This award recognizes Spy Hop Productions as one of the top arts and humanities-based programs in the country!
—by Larissa Trout, Development Director
Learn more about investing in youth media education »
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TECH CORNER :: PITCH-NIC DOCUMENTARY GOES OLD SCHOOL WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY
This year’s Pitch-Nic Documentary students have entered the world of HD filmmaking with Spy Hop’s purchase of a Canon EOS 7D. Canon’s line of video-enabled DSLR cameras has energized a segment of the filmmaking world that had been waiting for high quality, affordable images that rival those from much more expensive systems.
The video art pieces at this year’s Annual Benefit were all shot on the 7D and highlight the camera’s abilities right out of the box. Other early tests have produced equally stunning results. (Anyone unfamiliar with the 7D should check out examples available online at sites like Vimeo.)
By design the 7D is a photographer’s camera—its ergonomics are unfriendly to the videographer—and brings with it a host of filmmaking challenges. Some of the camera’s limitations include the use of a heavily compressed video codec (namely, H.264) and a lack of professional microphone inputs. But when weighed against its price and the overall quality of the image, the camera’s shortcomings seem small by comparison.
Ironically the 7D’s limitations as a video camera will push this year’s documentary students to shoot more deliberately and with more care. Stronger planning and greater collaboration between the two teams will be required in order to pull off a typical documentary shoot.
The 7D pushes filmmakers into a world that most documentary and low-budget filmmakers abandoned with the advent of videotape and affordable video cameras. The 7D’s workflow harkens to a past when cameras captured the image only and a separate recorder captured the audio.
It’s back to basics for this year’s Pitch-Nic Documentary class. Personally, I cannot wait to see the results.
—By Frank Feldman
iDEA (Interactive Digital Education Academy)
Spy Hop's teacher professional development program, the Interactive Digital Education Academy (iDEA), is wrapping up a successful year of partnerships with school districts throughout Utah. The iDEA program partnered with Salt Lake City School District (SLCSD) in the second year of an initiative to integrate digital media instruction into core content and partnered with a new cohort of Ogden City School district teachers. In addition, the iDEA program trained Washington County School District and Canyon Rim charter school teachers over the course of the 2009-10 school year. We have been impressed by teacher and student efforts to engage in 21st Century learning strategies to enhance teaching and learning. Media projects were incorporated in language arts, math, science, and social studies, resulting in products that demonstrate student learning across the curriculum.
We look forward to new partnerships with schools and districts in the 2010-11 school year, and are excited about the impact of iDEA on teaching and learning. —By Stacy Ringo
Read more about the iDEA program »
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STAFF UPDATES
Spy Hop welcomes Ethan Pullan as the new Media Lab Manager. Ethan is a former Spy Hop student and current peer mentor. We are very pleased to have him join the Spy Hop team! To contact Ethan, email him at ethan@spyhop.org.
Visit Staff & Board page »
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RECENT AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS
FILM FESTIVALS: The Antagonist has been accepted into the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival!
Visit Spy Hop Awards page »
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UPCOMING PROGRAMS & EVENTS
JUNE
Jun 3: Loud & Clear End of Year Show
Jun 14: Summer Classes Begin
Jun 18: Multimedia Apprenticeship Application Deadline
Jun 23: Spy Hop on The Green: A Night of Art Inspired Mini-Golf
Jun 25: Write-Shoot-Ride Application Deadline
Jun 30: Multimedia Apprenticeship Assessment
JULY
Jul 6: Write-Shoot-Ride Begins
Jul 21: Spy Hop Records End of Year Show
AUGUST
Aug 18: REEL Stories + Write-Shoot-Ride Screening
Aug 20-21: Loud & Clear Youth In Radio Training
SEPTEMBER
Sep 7: Loud & Clear Begins
Sep 9: Spy Hop Best Of Awards Ceremony
Upcoming Classes »
Upcoming Events »
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