In late February, Jacksonville again takes center stage of the Southern Oregon music scene when the South Stage Cellars Rising Stars music competition returns to town—at Redmen’s Hall. The five Saturdays of fun starts-off with four semi-final rounds on February 28, March 7, March 14 and March 21. The final round will be held on Saturday, March 28 on the closed main Britt Stage when this year’s winner will be announced.
SSC Rising Stars, now in its 4th year, was the brainchild of Porscha Schiller, Tasting Room and Marketing Events Manager of South Stage Cellars at 125 South 3rd Street, located just footsteps from the venue. Having grown the competition every year, Schiller says the event simply outgrew the limited tasting room space and will now be held upstairs in historic Redmen’s Hall. “SSC Rising Stars has become huge…in order to keep it in Jacksonville, I needed a more open venue that would still enable South Stage Cellars to participate and be a major part of the event…with the tasting room within a few feet, it was the perfect location and solution.”
Rising Stars Season 1 winner, Jeff Kloetzel with students from LIFEArt. The two murals in the background are by LIFEArt student, Mello Saldivar-Anaya.
In past years, winners of the music competition include ever-popular season one winner Jeff Kloetzel, season two’s Matt Hill Trio and season three winner Cee Cee James. Jeff Kloetzel, who is featured on this month’s cover with two of LIFEArt artists says, “The South Stage Rising Stars event basically kicked my music career into high gear and led to an amazing number of opportunities in the valley and West Coast.” Kloetzel’s winning prize package included a chance to perform solo on the Britt Performance Stage and a cash award that helped fund the release of his first CD, “Long Time Coming,” just released this December.
“As has been the case since its inception,” Porscha notes, “the event has always had a local, non-profit beneficiary—all the ticket profits and donations gathered at the weekend performances go directly to the non-profit.” Past beneficiaries have included CASA, La Clinica and the Britt Institute. This year, LIFEArt was chosen due to the amazing work it does in the community with at-risk youth.” Porscha was introduced to LIFEArt by Daria Land, a local graphic arts designer who sits on the SSC Rising Stars Board of Directors. Land, who is personally involved in several non-profits, suggested a meeting with LIFEArt founder Phil Ortega in early 2014. Ortega is employed by the Jackson County School District in an Attendance and Homeless Student Support capacity. It was then Porscha says, that she learned that, “Phil was working as a youth mentor when he caught two boys in the act of painting and tagging a wall in downtown Medford…they were tagging it as their way of dealing with their grief and pain after the suicide death of a cousin.” To his credit, Ortega didn’t respond harshly to the act but rather saw magnificent art being created, albeit on the wrong canvas.
Ortega’s experience that day was the genesis that led to the birth of the LIFEArt program, an acronym for Live, Inspire: Freedom of Expression. Now in its fourth year, the art-not-graffiti program, gives local teens a creative outlet for expression and an alternative to gangs, substance abuse, depression and even suicide. LIFEArt participants create art, hold gallery showings and work with school kids and other at-risk youth in the community, all with the help of guided mentors, most of whom have real world knowledge of the arts.
Porscha says she became interested in supporting the non-profit through SSC Rising Stars after learning a great deal more about the challenges many local Rogue Valley teens are facing from pressure and environmental factors. Located just five miles from Jacksonville, the LIFEArt Gallery and youth center at 106 S. Grape in downtown Medford houses nearly 250 works of art, all created by kids in the program ages 10 to 22. The art is created using a variety of media including oil, acrylic and water color paint, digital, recycled material, graffiti and more. At any given time, up to 100 unfinished works of art are in production that will then adorn the walls of the center at a future show.
Porscha adds, “The program was funded in-part by a $225,000 grant from the Garrett Providence Health Plan Community Benefits Foundation and includes a collaborative effort with Life Track and other youth-oriented programs. Both the new art center and LIFEArt program provide a place and means for young artists to open up about issues they are facing, such as bullying, depression, suicidal thoughts and substance abuse.” The venue gives youth a way to express themselves creatively, in a place where they can drop-in and find the support of caring mentors. In addition, the center offers FREE art classes every Saturday for youth. The funding will end in October, 2015.
LIFEArt was originally funded through a Garrett Lee Smith Memorial grant awarded to several counties in the state of Oregon from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2010. The grants became available through the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, the first federal suicide prevention program targeted towards youth. The Act is named after the son of former Oregon senator, Gordon H. Smith, who took his own life in 2003.
LIFEArt is in partnership with United Way, Jackson County Health and Human Services, Una Voz, Eastburn Photography LLC, Lenart Art Education Foundation and the Oregon Community Foundation (Latino Partnership Project).
Finally Porscha says, “Everyone involved in the music competition and LIFEArt is extremely proud of the work these kids are doing and so very grateful to the community for the amazing support this life-changing non-profit group is getting!” The community is invited to view an exhibit of art work from program artists now through the end of March at South Stage Cellars Tasting Room.
Tickets for the 4th-annual South Stage Cellars Rising Stars Competition are on-sale now at South Stage Cellars in Jacksonville, the Music Coop in Ashland and online at www.southstagecellars.com. For more information, call 541-899-9120.
Featured image of group is Front (l-r): LIFEArt student Adrian Chavez, student Karla Lopez, mentor Aaron Dykstra, student Mello Saldivar-Anaya who painted the murals in the background of our February 2015 cover photo. Back (l-r): LIFEArt founder Phil Ortega, mentor Caroline Wasick, mentor Nicole Paradis, student Luis Rodriguez.
Other featured image is of from l-r: LIFEArt student, Adrian Chavez, mentor, Aaron Dykstra and student Luis Rodriguez.
LIFEArt Photos by Ezra Marcos