Oregon Art Beat; #205

Tonight on Oregon Art Beat, we'll take you behind the scenes at the Carousel Museum in Hood River. Believe it or not, it's home to the largest collection of carousel animals in the world. Meet Kathy Schneider, she'll be honored at this year's Oregon Book Awards for her work encouraging children to read. And see how kids in a volunteer music program in Cougs Bay are learning a lot more than music. Smile, cheers out. OPB thanks you, the members whose gifts of support made Oregon Art Beat possible. Good evening, and welcome to Oregon Art Beat. I'm Mike Pipi, along with Casey Cowan. We've got a lot to get in tonight, so let's get started. As unlikely as it may sound, Hood River is home to the largest collection of carousel animals in the entire world. Well, it is unlikely, but the reason the International Museum of Carousel Art is in Hood River is actually

easy to understand. Hood River is where the owners wanted to live. But why did they decide to collect and restore carousels in the first place? Jeff Douglas headed over to Hood River to find out. Visitors have to look around Hood River a bit to find the Carousel Museum in an unmarked old bank building. Once inside, they are taken back to a world of memories of the first amusement ride. Most of the people that we attract are people who just have a fawn feeling for carousels. And that's just about everybody. And then you pulled it the other way. Dwayne Parent loves to help people relive their memories, complete with authentic sound. This is the musical instrument they had for carousels and roller rinks. It's a 153 Whirlitzer. It's the next to the biggest Whirlitzer they made, and this is what it sounds like. It was

an essence to give you five minute fantasy. That's why the horse is someone who carved as armored horses. If you wanted to be a knight or if you wanted to be a princess, you'd ride a horse like fat. If you wanted to be a cowboy, you'd get on a cowboy horse. Dwayne says most horses were done by three carvers with the work divided by the amount of detail. So the master carver always did the head, and the journeyman always did the body and the beginners did the legs. And this is a very, very fancy English horse with gaelic riding on it. The other side is really quite plain because the viewer never saw it. Somebody will come in here one of these days and tell us what it means. This is the most patriotic American horse ever carved. That's the American eagle and the American flag. It's not painted. This is the most patriotic horse ever carved in England. If you look at that, it has the fissile and the shamrock and the rows, which is for England, Ireland and Scotland and the National Animal and the Union Jack Flag. For Dwayne and his wife, Carol, the International Museum

of Carousel Art is the result of a hobby begun years ago that kind of got out of hand. I just wanted one horse, and we were into antiques and being an animal person, I suppose had something to do with it. She wanted one and we ended up with 750. The collectors want the big, fancy ones, and they go in price anywhere from $2 ,000 to $100 ,000. Ironically, the collecting craze which hit in the 70s put many operating carousels out of business. Owners made more money selling individual horses than they could running the merry go round. The parents went the other direction, restoring entire carousel and putting them back in operation across the country. These carousels to us are like 14 -year -old daughters, we won't let anybody near them. We take the money that comes from them, comes in here,

we pay all the bills, anything left over, we restore another carousel. That's the whole mission. We had 5 ,000 carousels in this country and there's only 125 left. Because of the pressure of keeping a carousel running, operators generally resorted to quick fix repairs on the animals. But at the Carousel Museum, Wayne gets some help from volunteers, painstakingly restores every animal. This is a little board that is pretty rotten in the middle. Now, the question is, do you take off this board, put in a new piece and recarve it? Probably would be the strongest, but I don't want to lose all of this original contouring that they've had. So what I've decided to do on this piece, I think it's salvageable. And what I'm doing now is putting an epoxy into this wood, I'm going to rebuild this middle back up. Now, these legs are all behind you and hooves and stuff and tails that are in the thing. Do you know what all those go to? Yeah. It would be like if you had an old Ford

factory and you had a bunch of fenders and so forth. This is a Parker tail. This is a new Parker tail and I'll put this in a Parker downstairs. Any areas too rotten to save have new wood added and are recarve to match the original. Okay, now this is an example. This is a Philadelphia DeBoggin Company horse made in 1906. This is a new little piece here and as you look here, this is a new piece of mane and this is a piece of mane and the ears are new and look at this little piece of mane we put in, this little piece over the eye, this little tiny piece here and then the whole nose. And when you say, wow, that's really a nice horse. Well, that horse was resurrected from that pile of scrap that you might not even want to worry about, but that's what we're here and that's what we're all about. In the beginning, Carol helped restore the animals. Now she

concentrates on supplying the finishing touches. I would rather paint than then restore. So then I've painted about 325 or something like that. To me, to paint a horse, they come alive at that point. They gain a personality. When you choose your paint colors, are you trying for an authentic color or? No, I don't. A lot of people do. If we had original paint, of course, I wouldn't touch it because it is more valued that way. After you get one all finished, is it hard to let it go out? Yeah, it is. It is because they're so grand and so special. And of course, you put many, many, many hours into it and I name them all and all of that stuff. So yeah, it is tough. Eventually, Dwayne and Carol hope to have a full -size working carousel at the Hood River Museum. For now, they have this amazing hand -cranked antique.

This carousel is made in about 1890 in England. It's all hand -done. All of the metal work is hand -forged. All this artwork is all original. Isn't that just the most marvelous thing you've ever seen? Oddly enough, Mary Goarounds didn't begin as pure amusement. The carousel actually was originated in Persia as a war game for children. They put them on suspended logs and spin them and then they tried to lance a ring. The recreational carousel with carved animals developed in Europe. This was a traveling machine. You can set this machine up in about two hours. So they would take this right into the neighborhood and they would set it up on holidays and on weekends. This is the second stage of carousels. The first stage was powered by a horse in a pit. The second stage was powered by man. After the man came the steam and then after the steam engine came

electric motor. In fact, it was electric trolley companies looking for weekend riders that led to development of the large American carousel. They'd buy the land at the end of the trolley line put in a park. So therefore the people would ride to the park on the weekends. Well, in a park you needed some amusement. So the only amusement ride was carousel. So that's why our carousels became so much more wonderful in the European carvings. Because our carvings got bigger and bigger and they were located in facilities that protected them from the weather. Americans also changed the way carousels rotated. And the reason for that's not because they drove on the other side of the road. It's because we originated the brass ring game. So as a result, American machines had to be going this way because Americans are right handed. However, the proper side of the horse to present to the rider is the left side. This is the side of the horse you're supposed to get on. So they wanted to present that side to them. So in America we were interested in a free ride and in Europe they were interested in the propriety of the situation.

Hey Dave, the carousel is right around the turn of the century. It started about 1876. It went right up to 1929. The reason it quit in 1929 is because of depression. The depression put all the carvers out of business because no one was spending that kind of money on amusement rides. When the economy got back on its feet, aluminum and fiberglass replaced the old hand carblets. Because of the work of Dwayne and Carol Perrin, hundreds of carousel horses have not only been saved, they've been given a chance to ride again on working carousels. A trip down the stairs to the museum basement shows how much work is left. Hundreds of horses waiting for their turn. They kind of find us now because we're well known enough that if anybody has anything significant for sale, they get in touch with us. Well, you know, when we started, I was bound in a tournament. I was going to paint every horse in

our collection. And of course, now there's no way with my time left that that will ever happen. But yeah, there's a lot of horses down there. I still want to paint. They have a better chance of going back on the carousel and going round and round than most do. One of the ironies of this story is that the parents could make a lot more money by selling off the collection than they can by operating the carousels and the museum. So right now, they're trying to raise funds to pay off the museum mortgage so that the collection can stay intact. Dwayne and Carol have pledged to donate a collection of their own carousel figures, valued at about a million dollars if they can raise a million for the museum's capital campaign. You can visit the International Museum of Carousel Art at 304 Oak Street, In Hood River, and you can find out more at their website, www .carouselmuseum .com. In spite of growing evidence that music education can improve a child's overall school performance, many school programs and music are dwindled or even disappeared. So it got our attention when a member of a

youth band on the Oregon Coast contacted Artbeat about an all -volunteer program teaching music skills to any interested young person. Nell Gladson traveled to Coast Bay and discovered that the Oregon Coast Lab Band is about a lot more than music. This may sound like your ordinary school band practice, but it's far from it. Instead of hanging out playing video games or watching TV, these kids are spending their Wednesday night rehearsing with the Oregon Coast Lab Band. The volunteer nonprofit group is the brainchild of Greg and Patty Young. By day, Greg runs a Coast Bay music store, where Patty repairs instruments. But for almost nine years, their evenings and weekends have been devoted to the band. This whole program has exceeded all expectations.

We originally thought that it would be tough to get 20 kids together, and we looked up one night in our store. We used to rehearse in the store, and there were 70 kids, and we decided, wow, what do we do? So we split the band, and since then we split the band twice. The Lab Band has expanded into four performing groups, made up of more than 150 students. The musicians are from 9 to 21 years old. They don't come from anyone's school, or even anyone's school district, but from all around the Southwest corner of Oregon. There's no recruitment here. The band expands by word of mouth. Well, because some of my friends have been doing it, and it sounded pretty fun. And I really like school bands, so this one I think was even more fun. Well, instead of following my brother, he came here, and he played the trumpet. And I came here every night with him when I was little, and I thought

it'd be cool, so I picked up a clarinet. I actually heard about it from a friend of mine, and she said it was a lot of fun, and I'm thinking, oh, you know, that could be so kind of fun, and that was about a year and a half ago. The Lab Band consider themselves a musical laboratory. Players of all skill levels are welcomed, and encouraged to experiment with everything from jazz classics to pop and rock tunes. We start off very simply with scales and learning, teaching the kids, how to be a team. These students are going to help you. They're your music mentors. You're important to us. We express to the students that teamwork is critical, that if one person fails, we all fail. That there's no I in team. Cross -town rivalry is gone.

Then we just work the kids through a half a dozen to a dozen beginning songs. We encourage them to work together to improv and stand up and do solos. Then there's this little flowering point here where all of a sudden the students just bloom when they just start taking off. The program engages not only the

students, but their families as well. I'm involved with doing a lot of the volunteer work. Trisha and I do the merchandise table where we raise money for uniforms and traveling and all of that. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of work, but it's great. The number one complaint we get from parents is that how do I get my students to stop practicing? We have gotten many calls at 11 o 'clock at night saying, geez, we just got back from rehearsal and it's 11 o 'clock and I can't get them to stop practicing. We have found that through the years we are no longer just teaching music. These kids are looking to patty and I and the other parents in the

organization. We are setting examples for these students that we are involved in their private lives by answering questions. They're looking at us for morals and character. I mean, you really feel like it's one big family. I mean, it's not just a band. If you have problems outside of this place such as school or family problems, you can come here and anybody will listen to Greg's wonderful about that. The lab band's reputation has fostered tremendous support among the community. A recent gift from their neighbors fulfills a dream of having a private rehearsal space. The community has actually come forward and donated a lot of supplies to help us remodel the building. I just can't believe how the community supported us. Think about the note. Center the tone. Listen, teamwork. One, two, three, blow.

All the fine tuning during rehearsal pays off when it's time to get in front of a larger audience. The band regularly performs across the state. Today, they've come all the way to Arlington, hometown of Doc Severson, to take part in the Big River Band Festival. Some lab band members have dreams of following Doc to the big time. After this, I plan on going to New Orleans and try and get a bachelor's degree in music and open a little club there. But most of these kids are playing for other reasons. I think it keeps us off the streets and keeps us off of drugs. It gives us something fun to do with other people, not that's not in school. And we're all in equal here. Keeps it busy, motivated. It actually, I think, it makes me study harder. The band's chief goal is evident in their slogan, passing it on. They strive to keep the music and the shared experience alive.

My personal dream is to have just in the state of Oregon, just to have other programs started. Where we would meet maybe in a common place in Portland or Eugene and have a convention of all these kids involved. I really like to see it go international. All kids have the opportunity. We feel that music is something that our students and our kids can carry the rest of their life. We don't see a lot of that in some of the other activities. And we have said for eight and a half years, there's a lot worse things that kids could be doing than playing jazz. If you'd like more information about the Oregon Coast Lab band, drop them a line at PO Box 1608 North Bend, Oregon 974 -59. Next Wednesday, the 14th annual Oregon Book Awards will celebrate Oregon's literary excellence. There will be awards given to our best writers and dedicated supporters of literature. And one special

honor will be bestowed on Kathy Schneider of the Multnomah County Library. In our next story, you'll see why she'll receive the Walt Mori Award for contributions to children's literature. Rainer Shine, Kathy Schneider loves her work as head of the Multnomah County Libraries Books to You program. Over the past six years, Kathy and her cohorts have stood before some 22 ,000 kids, sparking their interest in books and libraries. Today, she's visiting third and fourth graders at Portland's Vestal Elementary. Right from the very beginning, everybody knew Oliver was different, and I do mean right from the very beginning. When Oliver was still inside his egg, his egg was so big that Lydia the Goose, when she tried to sit on it, she couldn't even cover it. And it was so frustrating. Kids are not doing enough outside of school reading. They're basically what we call school readers. They read only what they have to when they're in school. And when they go home at night or on the weekends or on vacation, they

do not pick up a book. To become a really good reader, you have to do a lot of reading outside of school. Actually, recreation reading or fun reading is the practice of reading. How did the Austria family think that this was their baby? And even more importantly, how did Lydia the Goose think that this could possibly be her egg? You'll have to read The Cuckoo Child by Dick Kingsmith to find out. So we needed to come up with a way that would sell kids on reading that would be really effective. And that was book talking. And book talking is basically just a short commercial, not an infomercial. It's not a book report. It is not a book review. Kids want to know, is this book funny, fast, scary, do other kids like it? Am I going to like it? That's basically what they want to know. And a book talk is no longer than one or two minutes, maybe three minutes at the most. Short little bite of the book. Enough to motivate them to want to finish the book at a later date.

This one's called Strange Mysteries from Around the World. There are six different unsolved mysteries that even today, scientists and doctors cannot explain. Runups are determined to make children read books that we think are good for them. Now, they do that in the school day. And when they're on their own, I feel just like I want to do. I think most kids want to read books they like to read, fun stuff. So we try to pick high interest books. They're all paperbacks. And by high interest, I mean books that kids like. They love books that are just slightly gruesome, probably. Just a little bit. Big bugs that eat other bugs. Any of those things are probably the favorite books. Mysteries, scary stories. The second goal of the program basically is to teach the children in our program about the library itself. We're forming there oftentimes their very first relationship with the library is the book talker in their classroom. Most of the kids we see are not currently

using the library, and their family isn't either. So we're hoping that they will like us enough. Trust us enough. Value our information on books. That then they'll take that next step and go into the library and make uses of the resources there. The book awards program will be Wednesday at the Scottish Rights Center. Tickets are $15. Oregon author John Daniel will be master of ceremonies at this year's event and Mel Wagoner spoke with him about this year's awards. John, you've been awarded two Oregon book awards, both for creative nonfiction. One in 1993 for the Trail Home, one in 1997 for looking after a son's memoir. What did the Oregon book awards mean to you? They've meant something very substantial in two ways. A writer's career has an inside and an outside. On the outside it's something significant to add to your resume. It brings additional attention to the book, both in Oregon and to some extent around the country. I found that the Oregon book

awards is a program that's pretty well known and much respected now around the country. Perhaps because it's unique. I don't know of another state that has a similar program. But that's the outside. The inside of the career is the work itself. The inside is the writer at his desk trying to meet the demands not of popular taste but of his own art as he conceives it. It's solitary work. It's hard work. It's sometimes a very uncertain work and for the vast majority of us it's poorly paid work. And so to receive something, to read that, to receive such an affirmation from your peers is a very heartening boost. To be honored for a book you've written bolsters your spirit in writing the next book which is always the most important book to any writer. That's just wonderful.

The Oregon book awards, that's really the premier literary event in Oregon every year. And you've been selected to preside this year over the Oregon book awards. That's quite an honor, isn't it? Well, I think... An exciting assignment. I think it is. I get to be the guy who cracks the jokes and opens the envelope. And I hope to equip myself well. As I told literary arts, I do feel very honored to be chosen to do this. And I'm looking forward to it very, very much. Judging the Oregon book awards is interesting, isn't it? Yeah, I think when they first started, the first awards were given in 87. And I think the judges that year were in state or were in region in the Northwest. And since then they've intentionally selected judges from outside the state, outside the region, from around the country. And I think that was a good move. We're honoring and celebrating Oregon writers,

but we're holding them to national standards. Well, it's going to be a lot of fun. It's really an exciting event. A lot of people show up who really love books. You bet. And a lot of the wonderful authors in Oregon who write those wonderful books. So, John, congratulations. And thank you very much. Thank you. You can get more information about the Books To You program and on the Oregon book awards at the Oregon Arpeid website at www .opb .org. If you enjoy harmony singing, you have two chances this weekend to hear Misty River, the all -woman band sings a mix of Americana and their own original songs. You can catch the harmony at Music Millennium in Northwest Portland on Friday at 5 o 'clock. Misty River will play Saturday at 8 o 'clock at the state and performing arts center at 279 North 3rd. Tickets are $7. From today through November 12th, you can join the Arts Against Hunger Drive. The first 4 ,500 participants who bring at least two non -perishable food items to the Portland Art Museum, the Oregon Ballet

Theatre, the Portland Institute of Contemporary Arts, or the Oregon Food Bank will receive a voucher. The voucher is good for free admission to either the Art Museum or Pica, and all food donations benefit the Oregon Food Bank. It's a great way to help out and see what's happening in the Portland Art scene at the same time. Certainly is. Well, that's it for this week's Oregon Art Beat. Next week, we'll visit Sasha Samuels in her jewelry studio. Not only will we see her award -winning jewelry, but we'll also see how her seldom seen paintings have influenced her jewelry design. We'll also head to the Sitka Center in Nesco and it's a lovely place that combines a love of art and nature. And meet Christy Edmonds of the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art and find out why many people call her the Avant Guardian of Oregon's modern art scene. That's all next Thursday at 8 o 'clock. And now stay tuned for Oregon Field Guide. Thanks for watching. Good night. Good night. Good

night. Good night. Good night.

Good night. Good night.