TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

Artist in Residence

Meet TEDxSalem VII Artist-in-Residence

By

Pho­to by Ben Mah, from Press Play Salem.

Danielle Baca (Chayse) lives a life steeped in cre­ativ­i­ty, from orga­niz­ing com­mu­ni­ty events, such as the Salem Zom­bie Walk and Salem’s Rocky Hor­ror Pic­ture Show, to reimag­in­ing art on skin in her career as a tat­too artist. She is a wife and moth­er, as well as a zookeep­er of two cats, a dog, a lizard, a 20-year-old tor­tious name Mar­la and 45 house plants. A ded­i­cat­ed com­mu­ni­ty advo­cate, you will often find Danielle sup­port­ing local activ­i­ties, from vol­un­teer­ing behind the scenes to shar­ing them with her fam­i­ly. And her con­nec­tion with TEDxSalem is steeped in his­to­ry, too. She’s been active­ly shar­ing her cre­ativ­i­ty with our audi­ence for a num­ber of years, although you may not have always rec­og­nized her. We are proud to intro­duce and excit­ed to wel­come Danielle as our 2020 Artist-In-Res­i­dence. 

woman dressed in white like a bride and wearing white face make up and gloves while holding bouquet of orange/yellow sunflowersWhat was your first TED expe­ri­ence? Dress­ing up as the 8‑foot bride in 2014, while hold­ing bright orange sun­flow­ers, in light of Aman­da Palmer’s TEDtalk “The art of ask­ing.”

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? Sarah Kay’s “If I should have a daugh­ter” is a beau­ti­ful spo­ken-word piece. It moved the young woman, the moth­er, and sis­ter­ly role mod­el in me, and is a love­ly reminder of my appre­ci­a­tion of poet­ry, and the pow­er has to wake us, move us, or lead our hearts for­ward.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? It means, to see. To see the path before us, but not with our eyes, but with our minds. To look out and with­in. It means to appre­ci­ate our per­spec­tive, while not being afraid to look at some­thing in a dif­fer­ent light.  

What is one of your favorite child­hood mem­o­ries? Hear­ing my sec­ond-grade teacher play the didgeri­doo. It was strange and mag­i­cal.

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? The many oppor­tu­ni­ties I have had to grow, or make my life fuller, and for all the many peo­ple who have helped me along the way.

What is the best gift any­one has ever giv­en to you? My daugh­ter.

Would you rather have a rewind but­ton or a pause but­ton on your life? Pause.

Favorite col­or? Green.

Most embar­rass­ing moment? My first kiss.

Some­thing some­one should know about you? I love puns.

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Click here for tick­ets.  Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com

Cayla Skillin-Brauchle: An artist with questions

By

Cayla Skillin-Brauchle

TEDxSalem is proud to intro­duce our 2018 artist-in-res­i­dence Cay­la Skillin-Brauch­le, who will bring the theme “Through the Look­ing Glass” to life on stage through her art. The theme’s idea of shift­ing per­spec­tives inspired her work.

Cay­la sees the look­ing glass as a kalei­do­scope or a mag­ni­fy­ing glass, but also a mir­ror, all of which show art’s capac­i­ty to give us dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives, she said.

An assis­tant pro­fes­sor of art at Willamette Uni­ver­si­ty, Cay­la is excit­ed for her involve­ment in this year’s TEDxSalem.

“I think it’s inspir­ing to hear peo­ple’s sto­ries of find­ing their a‑ha moments,” she said.

She’s also excit­ed to get to know the Salem com­mu­ni­ty bet­ter and meet peo­ple who are inter­est­ed in think­ing cre­ative­ly about com­mu­ni­ty and oth­er fields.

Cay­la moved to Salem two years ago after spend­ing a year in India on a Full­bright Schol­ar­ship. She enjoys liv­ing and work­ing in west­ern Ore­gon in all but one way. Cay­la says she has lived in the trop­ics dur­ing mon­soon sea­son, but that expe­ri­ence did not pre­pare her to “under­stand the length and depth of the rainy sea­son in Ore­gon.”

She also enjoys the small­er com­mu­ni­ty feel of Salem. Cay­la grew up in a rur­al com­mu­ni­ty in cen­tral Ver­mont ‚“which has four true sea­sons.” She finds Salem to have a sim­i­lar ethos of self sus­tain­abil­i­ty and out­door appre­ci­a­tion.

Cay­la describes her­self as a con­cep­tu­al artist who seeks to chal­lenge peo­ple’s per­cep­tions regard­ing both what and how they think. Many of her projects com­bine com­plex draw­ings, bright col­or­ful cos­tumes and per­for­mance.

“A lot of my work is absur­dist. I often set up scenes that are absurd…the func­tion of that is to allow peo­ple to con­sid­er oth­er pos­si­bil­i­ties than they do in their every­day life.”

Cay­la will not only design the instal­la­tion, but will also give a talk and lead a recess activ­i­ty. She hopes that peo­ple will be inspired to think about the dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives in Salem.

Pets: No. I have a part­ner and a gar­den. That’s enough. We trav­el a lot.

Favorite Movie: “Amelie”

Favorite Book: “Bell Hooks”, Teach­ing to trans­gress is very inspir­ing to me right now.

Favorite Music: I’m cur­rent­ly lis­ten­ing to a lot of the B52’s. They are awe­some, weird fem­i­nist musi­cians. Also, girl rock from the 80’s and 90’s, singer song­writ­ers, and music I can dance to.

Favorite Food: Right now, the toma­toes from my gar­den.

Favorite Salem Food: Flash fried Brus­sels sprouts from Tap­root Lounge & Cafe

Favorite Drink: Milk shakes at Minto Island Grow­ers farm stand.

Hob­bies: Gar­den­ing and cook­ing. “I like to do stuff with things from my gar­den, like mak­ing pick­les.”

Creativity in action

In coop­er­a­tion with the Salem Art Asso­ci­a­tion through a pro­gram cater­ing to the Artist-in-Res­i­dence con­cept, Cay­la will be work­ing on her TEDxSalem stage instal­la­tion on-and-off at The Annex from Dec. 12 to Jan. 6.

Salem Art Asso­ci­a­tion exhi­bi­tions are always free and open to the pub­lic. Gallery hours are Tues­day-Fri­day from 10 am‑5 pm, and Sat­ur­day-Sun­day from Noon‑5 pm (Annex week­end hours may dif­fer, please call 503–581-2228 to check avail­abil­i­ty). Learn more at salemart.org/programs/annex.

Get your tickets for TEDxSalem V

TEDxSalem V is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag Sat­ur­day, Jan. 6, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Pur­chase tick­ets here. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com.

Artist-in-Residence program seeks applicants

By

TEDxSalem seeks appli­ca­tions for its Artist-in-Res­i­dence pro­gram. The select­ed artist will design and cre­ate a stage instal­la­tion for TEDxSalem V, which takes place Jan. 6, 2018. In addi­tion to cre­at­ing an instal­la­tion, the artist gives a TEDx talk (5–8 min­utes) that reflects their work and the event theme “Through the Look­ing Glass.”

“It is a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty for an artist to share their work with a new audi­ence and in a new, dynam­ic way,” co-cura­tor Car­lee Wright said. “This pro­gram encour­ages the Artist-in-Res­i­dence to explore their prac­tice and cre­ativ­i­ty as it relates to and con­nects with the TEDxSalem theme.”

TEDxSalem pro­vides the Artist in Res­i­dence with sup­port, assis­tance and a $1000 stipend to cre­ate their instal­la­tion piece.

The TEDxSalem AIR pro­gram will con­tin­ue to col­lab­o­rate with Salem Art Asso­ci­a­tion as part of SAA’s Com­mu­ni­ty Arts Edu­ca­tion (CAE) Artist-in-Res­i­dence (AIR) Pro­gram in the ren­o­vat­ed Art Annex in Bush Park. The select­ed artist will uti­lize the stu­dio space for par­tial cre­ation of the instal­la­tion, and will have access to the larg­er main space as the instal­la­tion grows in size. SAA’s CAE AIR Pro­gram con­nects with our com­mu­ni­ty through var­i­ous oppor­tu­ni­ties such as artist talks, work­shops, and oth­er pro­gram­ming, which the TEDxSalem artist can par­tic­i­pate in as part of SAA’s CAE Pro­gram.

Dead­line to apply is June 14, 2017.

For addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion, includ­ing how to apply, please vis­it TEDxSalem.us/artist-in-residence. Sub­mit email inquiries to: artist@tedxsalem.us.

Meet Artist-in-Residence Kathryn Cellerini Moore

By

Ore­gon-native and self-pro­fessed nerd Kathryn Cel­leri­ni Moore is a cre­ative force trans­form­ing child­hood mem­o­ries into thought-pro­vok­ing art instal­la­tions. And this year she is the TEDxSalem Artist in Res­i­dence help­ing set the tone for our event, com­mu­ni­cate its theme and con­vey an ‘idea worth spread­ing.’

Drawn to art for its ther­a­peu­tic val­ues, Kathryn holds a BS in Psy­chol­o­gy and a BFA in Allied Visu­al Arts from Ore­gon State Uni­ver­si­ty. She earned her Mas­ter’s Degree in Stu­dio Art with a focus on print­mak­ing, sculp­ture and instal­la­tion from Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty in New York. Although across the coun­try, Kathryn want­ed a pro­gram that would allow her to explore.

“Stu­dio art was open enough for those like me who can’t decide on one medi­um,” she said. “I wasn’t good about mak­ing deci­sions, about focus­ing. I want­ed to do what felt should be done for what­ev­er the idea was.”

“I nev­er felt like I was going to mas­ter any one mate­r­i­al because I nev­er stick with one for very long,” Kathryn said. “What you are mas­ter­ing is how to take an idea and give it form. So I would say, I am most­ly drawn to con­cep­tu­al ideas where the idea forms every­thing else.”

“I am also very drawn to mate­ri­als,” Kathryn added. “The sump­tu­ous­ness, tex­tures and col­ors.”


Inspi­ra­tion for the artist derives from her child­hood and the envi­ron­ment in which she grew up.

“My art is very seat­ed in how I respond to my every day and con­nect­ing to that…asking the ques­tion ‘Why do I respond that way?’” Kathryn said, not­ing that how for­ma­tive expe­ri­ence con­tin­ues to impact our dai­ly lives has been a thread through her work for some time.

For her TEDxSalem stage instal­la­tion, Kathryn hopes view­ers will see some­thing unex­pect­ed. It’s a vision that’s chaot­ic and con­trolled at the same time, she said. But there is also a very per­son­al lev­el, a fam­i­ly por­trait, to the instal­la­tion.

“For me, this instal­la­tion pays homage to the sweat and tears that goes into a rev­o­lu­tion,” Kathryn said, “I am look­ing at rev­o­lu­tion on a broad­er scale….as being a per­son­al a‑ha moment, a break­through in per­cep­tion that changes your life for­ev­er. I cre­ate art­work from direct per­son­al expe­ri­ence with the intent and belief that the per­son­al is uni­ver­sal.”

“Rev­o­lu­tion is also from begin­ning to end…one full cycle…a destruc­tive force,” Kathryn said. “Rev­o­lu­tions can be the basis for com­mu­ni­ty and growth.”

In coop­er­a­tion with the Salem Art Asso­ci­a­tion through a new pro­gram cater­ing to the Artist-in-Res­i­dence con­cept, Kathryn will be work­ing on her TEDxSalem stage instal­la­tion on-and-off at The Annex through Jan. 6. The Bush Barn Art Cen­ter and the Annex are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tues. to Fri. and noon to 5 p.m. Sat. and Sun., at 600 Mis­sion St. SE in Salem. The build­ings will be closed from Dec.  25-Jan. 3.Learn more at salemart.org/programs/annex.

Announcement: Welcome, speakers of TEDxSalem 2017!

By

One of the hard­est jobs the TEDxSalem team has is select­ing speak­ers, espe­cial­ly when, like this year, we receive almost 50 well-thought appli­ca­tions on inspir­ing, con­tro­ver­sial and infor­ma­tive top­ics.

It was not an easy task to nar­row down the selec­tion, but after much delib­er­a­tion, we are proud to intro­duce the class of TEDxSalem 2017.

Alia Bra­ley | Direc­tor of Pro­grams at the Albert Ein­stein Insti­tu­tion
Gina Ochsner | Award win­ning author and writer in res­i­dence at Cor­ban Uni­ver­si­ty
Jer­ry Braza | For­mer pro­fes­sor, Bud­dhist teacher, author and con­sul­tant
Karen Hol­man | Chem­istry Pro­fes­sor at Willamette Uni­ver­si­ty and punk rock­er
Kathryn Cel­leri­ni Moore | Artist In Res­i­dence
Megha Joshi | Stu­dent and inven­tor
Nick Sym­monds | Olympic Ath­lete, Out­door Enthu­si­ast, Writer and Entre­pre­neur.
Rebec­ca Mait­land-Court­ney | Cre­ative com­mu­ni­ty thinker and activist
Renee Mitchell | Mul­ti­me­dia artist, teacher/facilitator, com­mu­ni­ty advo­cate and cre­ative rev­o­lu­tion­ist
Ter­es­sa Raiford | Con­tem­po­rary Civ­il Rights leader and com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­er
Vanes­sa Tim­mons | Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Ore­gon Coali­tion Against Domes­tic & Sex­u­al Vio­lence
War­ren Bin­ford | Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Law at Willamette Uni­ver­si­ty, Direc­tor of the Clin­i­cal Law Pro­gram
Yese­nia Gal­lar­do | Co-own­er of Poda Foods

As the months lead­ing up to TEDxSalem 2017 unfold, you will be hear­ing more about them and their top­ics, so stay tuned.

Meet TEDxSalem’s Artist in Residence: Brianna Miller

By

As part of our activ­i­ties this year, TEDxSalem has launched an Artist in Res­i­dence pro­gram. The Artist in Res­i­dence (AIR) will help set the tone for our event, com­mu­ni­cate the event theme and con­vey an ‘idea worth spread­ing.’

As you can imag­ine, it’s a mighty large under­tak­ing both the selec­tion of an artist to take charge of the role and for an artist to cre­ate a work of art that will impact a space, express a feel­ing and con­vey a mes­sage while being suit­able for pho­tog­ra­phy and videog­ra­phy.

It’s a tall order, but also a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty.

We received a num­ber of won­der­ful appli­ca­tions, but there was one that stood out among the rest, one that made an unfor­get­table impact. It stirred a response both men­tal and emo­tion­al. It showed inno­va­tion and intu­ition.

Meet Bri­an­na Miller, our inau­gur­al Artist In Res­i­dence for TEDxSalem.

A Salem-born Keiz­er res­i­dent, Bri­an­na was drawn to art in her youth, doo­dling, craft­ing and cre­at­ing. While attend­ing McNary High School, her ulti­mate goal was to land a job with Wieden+Kennedy, a Port­land adver­tis­ing agency best known for its work for Nike and Trav­el Ore­gon.

She is a recent grad­u­ate of the Pacif­ic North­west Col­lege of Art, where while study­ing design and dab­bling in illus­tra­tion, an inter­est in instal­la­tion art grew. Dur­ing the cre­ation of her the­sis, she devel­oped a fas­ci­na­tion with col­or the­o­ry, expe­ri­en­tial design and synes­the­sia.

Her final project was an inter­ac­tive instal­la­tion called “The Mag­i­cal Chro­ma­chines.” It con­sist­ed of three mov­ing light sculp­tures, her take on “The Dream Machine” by Brion Gysin and William Bur­roughs, which were each accom­pa­nied by a mixed tape of hand-select­ed songs that rep­re­sent­ed or inspired mem­o­ries from her past. It was an explo­ration of the inter­con­nec­tiv­i­ty of col­or, music and mem­o­ry that could be expe­ri­enced col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly or with indi­vid­ual inter­ac­tion.

At the urg­ing of a friend, Bri­an­na applied to be the TEDxSalem AIR. Although a long­time fan of TED, since she only moved back to Salem in Novem­ber 2014, she was not famil­iar with our local event but when she read our post about the devel­op­ment of this year’s theme, co-cura­tor Bri­an Hart’s words stuck with her.

“Fear­less as a theme res­onates with me,” Bri­an­na said. “I like to explore top­ics of phi­los­o­phy. Why do we have fear? What is fear? Is it pos­si­ble to be com­plete­ly fear­less? How do you become fear­less?”

For the TEDxSalem stage she is lean­ing towards a light instal­la­tion, but has a num­ber of ideas in mind. Essen­tial­ly, she wants to cre­ate an immer­sive, sen­so­ry expe­ri­ence with her instal­la­tion.

The AIR pro­gram is a unique oppor­tu­nity for an artist. Bri­an­na is explor­ing her work, ideas and cre­ativ­i­ty to fash­ion a stage dis­play that will intrigue and inspire. She will also present a TEDx talk about her art.

After the event, TEDxSalem hopes to secure a pub­lic loca­tion to dis­play her instal­la­tion so the whole com­mu­ni­ty may enjoy and expe­ri­ence it as well.