Summer Institute

Summer Institute: Oral history for the classroom and the community

Friday and Saturday, August 16 & 17, 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Arbutus Folk School 

705 4th Ave E, Olympia, WA 98501

Learn how to lead a community-based oral history project in your classroom or community. Participants grow skills in project development, archival research methods, oral history interviewing, audio recording, and ethical best practices for documenting community and family histories. This offering is ideal for middle and high school teachers, librarians, professionals working in arts and culture fields, or anyone interested in facilitating an ethical, community-based research project using oral history methods.

6 educator clock hours provided 

Sliding Scale Cost

Full Rate $180 / Supporting Rate $225 / Needing Support Rate $135*

*Educators may be eligible for funding for this offering through a WEA Community Outreach Grant. Learn more here.

Instructors

Elaine Vradenburgh (she/her) is an oral historian, multimedia storyteller, and educator and the Co-Director and “Memory Activist” at Window Seat Media. Before founding Window Seat in 2016, she carried out her vocation through a variety of roles — as a development director at nonprofit organizations in the South Sound; as a community-based learning coordinator at high schools in Albuquerque, NM and Portland, OR; and as a freelance videographer and editor. Elaine has also served as an adjunct faculty member in The Evergreen State College's MPA and Evening and Weekend Studies programs since 2017. She holds a BA in Cultural and Community Studies from The Evergreen State College (1998) and a MA in Interdisciplinary Studies: Folklore, Anthropology, and Journalism from the University of Oregon (2008). Elaine’s roots and extended family are in New England, and she has called Olympia home since 2008.

Meg Rosenberg (she/they) is deeply invested in the local South Sound community and building dialogue that sparks equitable social change. Their passion is for people and finding the connections between us. Meg studied theatre and interdisciplinary arts throughout middle and high school (Vancouver School of Arts and Academics) and undergraduate studies (BA in Theatre Arts, Anthropology/Sociology, and French from Kalamazoo College ‘13). Their graduate degree (MPA from The Evergreen State College ‘18) and professional work have focused on organizational development, education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Meg practices Playback Theatre with the local improvisational troupe the Heartsparkle Players and launched Brave Practice Playback Theatre Collective as a Window Seat community engagement program in 2021. Brave Practice uses Playback to help people connect through deep listening, storytelling, and making art with empathy.