Theatre History on Display

Assistant Professor Gabrielle Barnett (Liberal Studies) presented her newest creative activity project that she titled "Out of the Box and Onto the Walls" with Out North Theatre. The project arose from a conversation with Out North's artistic director, Scott Turner Schofield. Schoefield first came to Out North as a touring performance artist himself several years ago. At that time he saw Barnett's work on a prior exhibit with Out North, the "Sweet Sixteen" exhibit. He was impressed by the work done by local artists. As the current Director, Scott donated materials for archiving to the Consortium Library's Special Collections, which became the focus of the current project. Together Schofield and Barnett developed a permanent exhibit that marks the relevance of Out North's first 25 years, locally and nationally.

Barnett began working with Out North in 2009 when she received a "We the People" grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum. That grant was to help preserve, organize, and catalogue both print and video materials. Barnett also curated a temporary exhibit of "Under 30" materials a the theatre to coincide with the 16th anniversary of the Under 30 series. Barnett summarized her passion about working with the theatre in saying, "Out North is an organization with a history of stirring up controversy in pursuit of its mission of producing work by and for underserved, and often marginalized, peoples in the state of Alaska."