Caldera hosts Community Arts Day

Caldera drew a diversified crowd to their last summer event held at Blue Lake on Saturday, September 30. Styled as a community arts day, events embraced the arts at all levels, from nature hikes through print making, with dream boat building thrown in for good measure. The event was free and open to the public.

Caldera is a nonprofit arts education organization whose facility at Blue Lake is a dynamic asset to the area. Caldera's stated mission is "to foster creativity among underserved youth and adults." Programs organized by Caldera are offered in schools and community centers throughout Oregon and at Caldera's Blue Lake facility which can be found by taking the Suttle Lake exit off the Santiam highway.

Linda K. Johnson, a development specialist for Caldera, planned the events of the day.

"This is a day when Caldera opens its doors and invites the people from the Central Oregon community to experience the land and take some workshops, hike on the rim and see the results of the (B&B Complex) fire," she said. "It is a once a year event. It gives people a sense of what we do here."

The day's event was preparatory to the striking of the tepees which occurs each fall on October 1. The tepees are erected during May and remain up through the summer to be used for the summer "art intensive" program. This program allows children to stay in the tepees at Caldera during the 10-day intensive Caldera program, having what Johnson calls "a pure outdoor experience."

Shari Eiesland and her family came from Portland especially to be a part of the taking down of the tepees.

She explained that she, her husband and children have been to several events at Caldera over the last four years and have never had the opportunity to take down the tepees. Eiesland remarked that she felt striking the tepees would be a great way for her family to end their activities of the summer.

One of the major draws of the day was the hike around the rim of the Blue Lake caldera. It was led by one of Caldera's founders, Cassie Wieden, who knows the area intimately and spoke in detail about Caldera's 90 acres, both pre- and post-fire. The guided hike was 1.5 miles in length around the rim of Blue Lake's crater and through a portion of the 2003 B&B Complex burn.

Jack Cleveland participated in the hike around the rim of the caldera as he had the previous year.

"It was amazing to see the new growth," he said. "The fire actually stimulates the growth of the forest. Nature is a great art work in itself."

He noted the beautiful cobalt blue of the sky and was grateful for the opportunity to see the area again. He explained that since the land surrounding this area is private, it is only through the trail at Caldera's facility that the public can view the area.

The nature prints workshop was very popular with aspiring artists of all ages. Central Oregon artist Karen Ellis hosted the creative endeavor which used objects from the natural environment to create prints on paper. Leaves, flowers and pieces of bark were all fair game in the printmaking process, and the spectacular results of the first students drew more students into the workshop in a snowball effect.

Shiobhan Watson was attending a Caldera event for the first time with her two children and had been attracted by the printmaking workshop.

"We are going to use these prints to decorate the bedrooms of our new house," Watson said, as she enthusiastically displayed the prints the children had created. Watson said that she and her family had recently migrated to Central Oregon from New York City. They chose this area because of the lifestyle and closeness to nature, a major change for the family.

Harriet Langmas was also enjoying the printmaking workshop. She has recently returned to the area after a 53-year absence. Langmas had last been here when she had to pay to enter the locked gate to go fishing at Blue Lake.

Langmas was proudly wandering around the workshop displaying her print, and when asked what she thought about her creation her reply was, "I don't know, but I'm really, really turned on."

And that was a comment that could have been made by nearly everyone who attended Saturday's activities at Caldera.