The Siskiyou Crest Coalition, an organization in Applegate, Oregon, dedicated to finding permanent protections for the Siskiyou Crest, is producing Celebrating the Siskiyou Crest: A Festival of Art, Culture, and Science July 14-16, 2023, at Pacifica Garden in Williams, Oregon.

A prominent feature of the festival will be a juried art show of all media, including visual arts, textile arts, sculpture, ceramics, video, poetry, music, and dance. The Siskiyou Crest Coalition is soliciting submissions from artists, musicians, poets, and dancers whose work has been inspired by the wild nature of the Siskiyou Crest—a poem about a hike on the Stein Butte trail, a painting of Grayback Mountain, a video of the Applegate River, a tapestry weaving of the big trees at Frog Pond, a dance about the bears who make their home on the Siskiyou Crest. The jurors will be looking for the visual (or musical) and story-telling quality of the art—how well it portrays, explicitly or in essence, the wild nature of the Siskiyou Crest.

  •             Deadline for submissions is May 1.

For online applications go to https://forms.gle/qU9bc8ZqMcPZvrW98.

For a pdf, go to

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f8e2uhkuk1qwrm4/Application%20for%20Festival%20final.pdf. Or contact Diana Coogle at siskiyoufestival@gmail.com.

The three-day festival will begin with a series of hikes led by experts on the butterflies, birds, and fish of the Siskiyou Crest and of the ecologies of the Red Buttes Wilderness Area, Hinkle Lake Botanical Area, and similar places.

David Rains Wallace, author of The Klamath Knot, will be the keynote speaker on July 16. Other speakers include Joe Scott, a recognized Language and Culture Bearer of the Confederated Tribe of Siletz Indians; Michael Kauffmann and Justin Garwood, co-authors of The Klamath Mountains: A Natural History; and local activist Luke Ruediger, author of The Siskiyou Crest: Hikes, History, & Ecology.

The art show will be up for the two days of the festival, and poetry readings and music and dance performances by artists juried into the show will take place during the two days as well. There will be music by Alice Di Micele and Windsong, food, and children’s activities.

Jurors for the art show come from the top tiers of their professions:

  • For visual arts: Hyla Lipson, Director of the Grants Pass Museum of Art, and Mabrie Ormes, whose portrait installations are archived at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England.
  • For video: Kevin Peer, who has made films for National Geographic Television and the US National Park Service.
  • For ceramics: Nancy Yturriaga Adams, winner of the Tuttleman Award of Excellence in Ceramics, whose work has been exhibited in the Smithsonian Craft Show.
  • For sculpture: Ela Lamblin, whose sculptures were featured at Burning Man in 2019 and 2022 and as the basis of Lelavision performances in cities in Europe, Asia, and the US.
  • For textile arts: Chris Carpenter, whose career of dyeing and painting costumes for theater includes work at Seattle Opera and at the Oregon Shakespeare Theater (OSF) in Ashland.
  • For music: Dennis Kambury, a voting member of the Recording Academy (Grammy Awards) with an extensive career in theatrical sound design and music and in voice-over.
  • For dance: Suzanne Seiber, a teacher of dance at Southern Oregon University and former dancer with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
  • For poetry: Amy Miller, a finalist for the Oregon Book Award in poetry and poetry editor for the Jefferson Journal, the magazine of Jefferson Public Radio.