Tag: ofn practicum

OFN Practicum: Final Reflection

Practicum Learning Objectives:

1) To place arts and culture activities, projects, and communities on the map for Oregon in partnership with OFN

2) To actively engage the RACM platform (PlaceStories.com), gaining hands-on experience with the use of this digital tool and reflecting on the potential it holds for arts and culture work.

3) To assist OFN and its partners in documenting and promoting the variety of artists, programs, and communities it serves across Oregon.

The first point was the main purpose of this practicum. As I explained in my weekly posts and evaluation, the posting process took longer than expected. Maya and I spent a bulk of our time researching artists and building a foundation of information for the next practicum students. Thus, we were only able to post 4 stories all together to the RACM, but they were high quality posts that will serve as good examples for future students. Emily and Riki agreed that it would be better for us to post a small number of quality stories then to rush in posting mediocre stories. This meant that we spent a lot of time editing our postcards and didn’t get to post them till the last 2 weeks. However, these stories represent the OFN and rural artists, so it was important to post our best possible work. Furthermore, I don’t know if it would have been possible to post more based on the time constraints of having to balance multiple people’s schedules. This is why I suggested on my evaluation that the practicum should just be 1-3 students at max in order to insure efficiency.

The 2nd objective connects to the first. As just mentioned, we were not able to really use the RACM platform till the last few weeks of the practicum, however I wrote in my log that the platform was extremely easy to use and very interactive. We have also created practicum guidelines for future students that describes a step by step process on how to post to Placestories.com for the RACM. Hopefully, over time the types of artists and media represented on the RACM will grow. This platform is a great transmedia tool for representing local and national rural artists. I’m excited to see how the map advances.

The last objective was the underlying point of the practicum. Everything we posted on the RACM had to also represent the OFN with the goal of enticing people to learn more about the OFN. This was why we had to edit our postcards to sound more promotional and personal rather than informational and formal. We want these stories to catch people’s attention and direct them to the OFN website. This was an interesting challenge, since I had to figure out how to write a promotional piece based on limited information. However, I think the stories turned out well and will hopefully bring more people to the OFN!

Overall, I really enjoyed working the OFN! Emily was a great supervisor and was very open to us leading the practicum as well as discussing challenges and solutions. It was somewhat difficult to get Riki involved with the project, but I do feel she should edit the postcards before they are posted. Hopefully, the work Maya and I did will be a good foundation for streamlining this practicum in the future.

 

OFN Practicum: Week 10 Log!

We reached the final week! Emily, Maya and I met for a last meeting on Monday. We celebrated that are postcards are finally up on the Place Stories map! We discussed how easy it was to use Place Stories and the differences we found in posting a postcard versus a video. We compared the postcards and realized the taglines were somewhat different. They have now been adjusted to be more similar. We decided that all postcards should use the Classic layout. Maya will be emailing Nathan about the inventories we edited for Box 47 & 60. I will be adding the rural artists from the 2012 TAAP awardees to the possible artist list. And I will typing up the practicum guidelines Maya and I discussed. Lastly, Emily is hoping to post about the project in the OFN’s April newsletter. Maya and I could write something, although we thought Savannah might be a better fit. Emily should be contacting Savannah about this.

Maya and I met after Monday’s meeting and discussed the final guidelines. The basic steps are 1) Do Research 2) Write a Draft 3) Get Postcard Edited 4) Post to Place Stories and 5) Contact Artist. We decided to move contacting the artist to the end since getting the artist’s approval can slow the process down and these artists have already released their materials to the OFN in the past. Thus, we decided that we should just inform artists and check if they would like anything edited after we’ve posted about them. I typed up the guidelines today and I tried to make them as understandable as possible. They include a lot of resource information that is either in the Dropbox for the Rural Arts & Culture Map with the OFN or online. I’ve tried to compile all information a practicum student would need into that Dropbox. Hopefully the next practicum student will be able to move through the process more quickly and post more to the map! The guidelines also include suggestions for the future of this practicum since there are only so many artists living a rural area associated with the OFN.

OFN Practicum: Week 8 Log

This week Maya was out of town, so just Emily and I met. Emily did a more detailed edit of our first postcards and sent them to Riki for a final check. We spent most of the meeting editing, but we did discuss the plans for the last few weeks of the practicum. Since we haven’t posted our postcards yet, we think we may only finish 2 postcards this term. The priority is make sure the practicum is set up for the next person. We discussed creating official guidelines to be completed by week 10. However, we can’t finish the guidelines till we have experienced posting on Place Stories. We also discussed creating a list of potential artists (both TAAP and non TAAP) for future practicum students. Lastly, we decided that we should adjust the inventories for the artists boxes to include information for this project. These documents will allow the next to practicum to run more efficiently and hopefully generate more postcards rather than research.

I emailed Nathan and got his permission to adjust the inventories. I plan to go to Special Collections next week and look through Box 47 to check my notes before adjusting the inventory. I will also use that time to finalize my list of possible artists. I finished my draft of my 2nd postcard and sent it to Emily and Riki. I was going to post my 1st postcard this week, but Riki didn’t edit it in time. Hopefully that will happen next week. I plan to meet with Maya next week to discuss the inventories, guidelines and artist lists. This process has been somewhat slow moving especially for writing and editing. I think Maya and I should discuss a timeline for the guidelines that would work best for generating postcards including time needed for research, writing, editing and posting.

OFN Practicum: Week 7 Log

Emily, Maya and I met on Monday and we discussed our first postcards. Riki looked over them and suggested we edit the tone of the postcards to be more promotional and personal, instead of informational. If the idea of the map is to promote Oregon rural artists and the Oregon Folklife Network, we want the postcards to be a starting off point for more exploration. I had not thought of the postcards like this prior to this meeting, so I had to edit my postcard. I had written my postcard as more of a summary about an artist than a story with a hook. I’m still not sure if my edited postcard fits the tone Riki suggested, but I made an attempt. The revision of the 1st postcard is now posted and I’ve sent it to Emily and Riki to look over.

I also began work on my 2nd postcard this week. I called Tina and I got her permission to post about her on the map. I also told her I would email her the postcard once it is written. I started to write the postcard, but I decided not to finish it till I better understood the style OFN wanted me to use. Hopefully I will be able to finish it in week 8. Emily, Maya and I have agreed that we may not get to post 3 full postcards, but that posting the best model for future practicums is more important. We discussed the guidelines Maya and I wrote and Emily suggested that we write an official document as a resource for the next practicum. Emily also suggested that we make a list of possible artists (including non TAAP artists) for the rural map to be included in the document. I plan to email Nathan and see if we can add a rural category to the inventory. This will help us and future practicum students in the research process. Our hope is to lay the groundwork this term so that the process can be more streamlined in the future.

OFN Practicum: Postcard 1

Link to Postcard

Alex Llumiquinga Perez

Andean Instrument Maker

Otter Rock, OR

“It was just a hobby when I started… I never thought I’d do this as a career.”

Alex is a master artist of crafting and playing Andean folk instruments. Growing up in Ecuador, Alex was surrounded by music and remembers his grandfather plucking leaves from trees and using them as instruments. He received his first flute at the age of 11 and his first charango (ten-stringed guitar) at the age of 12. Traditionally made from armadillo shells, Alex fondly recalls that his first charango had a panther carved into it.

Through performance, Alex immediately fell in love with Andean folk music. He formed a 5 piece band called Chayag and landed his first professional music performance at the age of 17. The band soon started spreading his love for Latin American folk music by touring the world. As he grew older, he became interested in learning how to craft Andean instruments himself, like the charango, bamboo flutes and river cane flutes. Over the last decade, Alex has developed his instrument-making techniques and now owns his own workshop. He loves teaching instrument-making skills to children, but when it comes to his own children, Alex says “I’m waiting for them to tell me they want to learn.”

Alex Llumiguinga Perez earned Oregon’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program award in 2012. For more information about traditional arts in Oregon, visit the Oregon Folklife Network at ofn.uoregon.edu.

Oregon Folklife Network:

Making a meaningful difference in Oregon communities by empowering our tradition-keepers to pass on their skills and knowledge.

For more information about the artist and his craft, visit www.andeanmusic.org