Jay Boykin (00:01.388)
Well, hello everyone and welcome back to the Just Human podcast. I am your host, Jay Boykin, Just Human is a space where we explore what it truly means to be human, whether we're talking about at work, in relationships, in our communities, and just in life in general, because you see no matter where we come from, what we do,
We all wrestle with the same things. We're trying to figure out how we can grow as human beings. want to connect and we want to have a purpose and stay true to ourselves. So this podcast gives us a space to talk about a lot of different topics. And I'm super excited about today. So we're going to dive in. Just human is partnering with an organization called podcast, a thon and.
They are convincing as many podcast hosts as possible to dedicate at least one of their episodes to a nonprofit or charity of their choice. And we're all going to release these episodes at the same time. And so it's going to create this massive international wave of inspiring audio and content. So it's going to be great. But
Today, we're gonna have a conversation with someone who is connected with an organization that I am personally a part of. And so I am excited to have with me the president of the board of directors for Tri Arts Project, Dana Frazee. How are you? Welcome to the show.
Dana Frazee (01:44.59)
Thank you, I'm doing great and I'm happy to be here. Never done this before.
Jay Boykin (01:49.124)
Well, we're going to have a good time together. So do me a favor, tell us a little bit about what Tri Arts Project is, what its mission is all about so that the listeners can understand a little bit more about the organization.
Dana Frazee (02:04.73)
Tri Arts Project is about two and a half years old. It's an idea that a group of women had that I'm proud that I joined to offer a space for creation and presentation and education of the arts in Castle Rock, Colorado.
Jay Boykin (02:28.836)
that's fantastic. So it's a local organization that is does it just service Castle Rock? Do you have a broader area maybe in the county where Castle Rock is located?
Dana Frazee (02:41.722)
Right, headquarters now are in Castle Rock. We serve all of Douglas County, but actually we're finding that we're serving the whole state of Colorado as we grow. Some of the artists who are teaching with us are from outside of the county, and some of the art that is displayed in our exhibit hall is from outside of the county as well.
Jay Boykin (03:06.07)
That's fantastic. you mentioned instructors and so are there classes that Tri Arts that they sponsor?
Dana Frazee (03:15.748)
Right, we started as a group that just held community meetings in the library where we would bring an artist in once a month to talk to the public. But our aim all along was to open a center, and we kept telling everybody we're going to open a center where we could teach art and then exhibit art. And I would say about the spring of 2023,
Jay Boykin (03:19.896)
just help the community.
you
Dana Frazee (03:45.206)
An opportunity was given to the board. wasn't on it at that time. Joni Porter was the president. Katie D'arcangelo was the vice president. Sherry Montefarante was the treasurer. Jackie Ruff was our Project manager. And Lisa Huffman was our treasurer. And so we started and they brought me on the board in May and we had this opportunity to have a gala.
Jay Boykin (03:55.822)
to your email.
Jay Boykin (04:07.214)
So we started, they brought me on the board in May, and we had this opportunity to have a gala. And by June, I found myself president of this group, putting on a gala that October. And that really put us.
Dana Frazee (04:13.664)
And by June, I found myself president of this group, putting on a gala that October. And that really put us on the map because no one really took us seriously until we started making money. And we put money in the bank and said, we're serious. We want to open a center. So that's kind of how we got going. And from there, it just, it moved.
Pretty quickly, we went to the town of Castle Rock and asked if we could partner with them because the town had just bought an old school building that looked perfect to us for an art center. And the town started moving their own art classes from Parks and Rec into the building. And so we went to Parks and Rec and said, can we partner with you? We would like to have space in the building, classroom space where we can teach.
Jay Boykin (05:02.709)
and so we went into parks and records and we partnered with you to think of like a space, building, a classroom space where we can teach and where we can exhibit art.
Dana Frazee (05:13.366)
and where we can exhibit art. And it took a good eight months or so, but we finally reached an agreement in July of 2023.
Jay Boykin (05:27.489)
That's amazing that you've got this incredible partnership with the town of Castle Rock. And so for my listeners that may not be familiar with Colorado and the surrounding areas, Castle Rock is this beautiful town that is located south of the Denver.
And it's really in between Denver and Colorado Springs. And it's just a beautiful area where we are located. so Dana, before we dive into more about the programs and what Tri Arts does, tell us a little bit about your background and what led you to be involved with Tri Arts Project.
Dana Frazee (06:09.082)
Wow, let's see. Well, we moved to Castle Rock in 2017 and I was trying to retire. I've been a long time educator, working, teaching teachers how to teach and also working with schools and districts on how to improve. And so I did a lot of Project management. When I moved here, I was finishing up my last job with a school up in Federal Heights.
Jay Boykin (06:29.536)
I would get a lot of Project management. When I moved here, I was finishing.
Dana Frazee (06:38.91)
and I wanted to write a book. So I finally retired. I started writing my book, but I got interested in the Tri Arts Projects community meetings at the library. And I had done some art a long time ago. So I began picking up my watercolors again and trying some art and joining this group that was having local artists come in and talk. So that's a little of my background.
Jay Boykin (06:39.47)
and I wanted to write a book. So I finally retired, I started writing my book, and I got interested in art, community meetings at the library, and I got done some...
Jay Boykin (07:11.387)
That's great. So tell me this, Dana, what are your thoughts on just the impact that art itself can have in the community? Why do you think that this is such a needed organization?
Dana Frazee (07:30.746)
That's a good question. Castle Rock is, as you have described it, a beautiful town. It has been ranked high in Livability Online Magazine for many years for all the services that it has. But the one thing that Castle Rock did not have was a center for the arts.
people had to go to Denver, they had to drive like 30 miles, 35 miles away, or Colorado Springs or Parker, some surrounding areas to take art classes. And we could see there was quite a void. We were hanging art in restaurants, but nowhere could people take classes. So it took a while, but we convinced the town fathers that this would be helpful. Art brings...
Jay Boykin (08:13.166)
So it took a while, but we convinced the town fathers that this would be helpful. brings business into the town. So we really had to go into the business side of it and how it brings people in, or compares great people in art exhibitions, that we could really contribute economically as well as artistically to the town. And art for us...
Dana Frazee (08:21.006)
business into the town. And so we really had to go into the business side of it and how it brings people in. Art fairs bring people in, art exhibitions that we could really contribute economically as well as artistically to the town. And art for us is, it brings community together and that's what we wanted to see. We wanted to have a place where we could bring the community together.
Jay Boykin (08:42.03)
is it brings community together, and that's one that we wanted to see. We wanted to have a place where they can bring their community together to create, to present, just to have fun together and do things with one another. That's great. So I do not call myself an artist by any means, but I have always had a passion for...
Dana Frazee (08:50.904)
to create, present, just have fun together doing some art.
Jay Boykin (09:08.724)
since my early teen years for photography. And what I love is that Tri Arts Project sponsors so many different types of classes where whether someone is a beginner or they have lots of experience, they can connect with instructors and learn some things. They can connect with others who may have a similar interest.
So talk about that a little bit Dana, tell people, just give an idea of some of the types of classes that are offered and available to those that are interested.
Dana Frazee (09:48.346)
So it's been pretty amazing. The town publishes a rec guide and they have listed all of our classes in the rec guide. And Jay, we have seven pages of classes in this rec guide. It's amazing. We split all our classes in 10 different categories. I won't remember all 10. But we do have photography.
We have the fine arts. We have music. We even have somebody teaching ukulele. We have, we're not allowed to do pottery because the town does that, but that's right next door to us. So it's there in the building. And we offer knitting, sewing. We have a fantastic artist who raises her own alpacas and she takes the fur and she helps everybody learn how to make felt hats.
We have an amazing cookie decorator. She offers a class every time that there's like a holiday. So she's gonna offer a St. Patrick's class, Valentine's class, Mother's Day class. And she has about 10 people each time who show up and take her cookie decorating class. She's just an.
artist. She did something for us for Core Electric last summer where she had little men on telephone poles climbing up and fixing wires on the top of her cookies. I she's quite an artist and people are loving that class. So we have everything. as you know, we had a big class yesterday where we invited all of our supporters and sponsors to come in and take an oil painting class. Just a fun, quick
Jay Boykin (11:22.712)
Wow.
Dana Frazee (11:36.64)
oil painting class where they would just put on the aprons, pick up the paintbrush and go and not worry about what was going to go on the canvas but just have
Jay Boykin (11:47.896)
Wow, that sounds amazing. How many instructors in different classes do you think that you have approximately?
Dana Frazee (11:56.794)
I know that we have 40 instructors who have contracted with us. They teach at various times, like last semester we might have had 35 of them teaching, this semester maybe another 35. They're not always the same. And we are signing up, I saw today that we have about five new people who have signed up to offer classes. So what we do is we listen to our instructors. When do you want to teach?
When you have time available and we really work with them on the schedule and we're still trying to figure out what are the best times for the best classes and because we're only in our second semester of doing any of this. We're so new at it but we're excited and so we work with them. Some people want to do like a two-day workshop and some people want to do a class for three hours this night and three hours the next week.
Other people want to do every Monday morning, they want to do a class. So we really work with our instructors. And then we have to work with the town because it is the town's building that we are in. And so they have classes going on all over the place. And so we work with them and we work on a schedule together. And then that schedule and all of our classes are published twice a year in the town's rec guide that I just showed you.
So we really work. We work with all these instructors too on their fees because nobody teaches for us for free. Artists are so important. We want to give them their due. We're always paying them. So we pay for our space with the town and we pay our artists through our program fees. The rest of us are all volunteers.
Jay Boykin (13:45.208)
So speaking of paying, most nonprofits and charities have to secure funding in different ways. tell the listeners a little bit about how Tri Arts Project secures its funding and how do you sustain yourself as an organization.
Dana Frazee (14:07.128)
That's always a good question. We, of course, started by doing the gala and fundraising and putting some money in the bank so that we then had money to begin with, you know, to pay for the nonprofit status and all of that. To pay our artists, we had to have money in the bank so that we could get them going. So we're always fundraising. I especially am always fundraising and I am meeting new people trying to
new donors who don't know about us yet because we don't have a very big marketing budget to even tell people we're here and so we're working on that. When they find out we're here they're very supportive so fundraising, grant writing, and program fees. So that's how we're doing it right
Jay Boykin (14:59.81)
Well, I also know that there's a big event that's coming up here soon. You mentioned the gala that you started with, but you've got another one coming up here pretty soon.
Dana Frazee (15:06.062)
Yeah.
Dana Frazee (15:12.59)
Yeah, we have a couple of things coming up that we're very excited about. The first one is on April 4th, and it's our new exhibition that we're going to have where we're showcasing all of our instructors. Our instructors are amazing artists, and so we're asking all of them to submit three pieces, and we're going to put them on our gallery walls for a big show that will open on April 4th. And at that time, we have what we call tap
and we always have an artist talk to us about the art on the walls or about himself or herself. This time we're going to have all of our instructors talk a little bit about who they are and their art and what kind of class they're offering. So that's the first thing we're going to have on April 4th and public is invited. We have wine and hors d'oeuvres for an art show. Then the next huge thing that we're having is on April 25th we're going to have our Art of Giving Gala. This is the second
that we will host and everybody's supposed to wear black and white and that doesn't mean black tie that just means get a little arty and wear black and white so we hope to have fun we have a very good speaker from the Cherokee Ranch James Holmes their executive director will be our speaker and he's going to talk about how art helps people's mental health and I think people need to hear that
Jay Boykin (16:40.824)
think that that's a beautiful thing where you talk about art and helping mental health, especially in this day and age. so for our listeners, I will say this. I will provide links to Tri Arts Project's website, as well as links where if you're interested in participating in...
classes or if you want to check out one of the events that Dana was talking about I'll make sure to provide some links where you're able to do that. Dana let me ask you this how do you see in general the role of arts evolving over the next say five to ten years?
Dana Frazee (17:29.895)
here locally in Castle Rock or Douglas County or Colorado or just anywhere.
Jay Boykin (17:34.548)
We can start there locally, but if you have a broader opinion about that, I'd love to hear that as well.
Dana Frazee (17:41.828)
Well, something I'm already seeing here in Castle Rock, where it was kind of like an art desert, is that we are making waves. We are getting people to know that we're here. I'm also on the Public Art Commission, and the Public Art Commission, for the first time ever, received money from the town. So the town now is backing some art. And then we have another organization called the Castle Rock Artist Alignments.
that works with veterans and does some art therapy programs for them. And they are growing. They have over 100 artists on their rolls. And of course, we want those artists to teach for us. So it's all a terrific relationship. And the Public Art Commission is going to be able to award some grants to nonprofits here in town, cultural grants here in town. So we see here in Castle Rock that we are right at
Jay Boykin (18:47.532)
That's amazing. That's really good to hear. So you mentioned when we started that you are a bit of an artist yourself or you still, probably don't have as much time for that as you would like to since you're always out fundraising.
Dana Frazee (19:03.63)
You know what I started doing though is I'm taking several classes at our new art center. I'm pushing myself. I've always done watercolor in the past and I took two oil painting classes in the fall and I'm taking an oil painting, a five week oil painting class right now with artist Carol Hein.
and I took a watercolor class a couple of weeks ago. So I'm taking advantage to get myself back in and to really give myself permission to slow down and take an art class because I find that art just empowers me and just my creativity comes out if I allow myself some time. And I know I hear that from everybody that
Everybody just gets in there and they get in a zone and they mark. They didn't know they could create, you know, and so it's really fun to see this difference with people. Like yesterday, they were all novices. Nobody had any art background in the workshop I took. And they were all just delighted to be putting paint on a canvas and going, I can do it. It's cool. It builds community. It really helps your mental health.
Jay Boykin (20:16.398)
And that's the great thing about it, Dana, is that I feel that, and I'll see if you agree with this, sometimes there is, people are reluctant to get involved in some of these classes and events because they think that they're not good enough. And they're thinking about perfection and thinking about what other people are going to think about their art. But at the end of the day,
Don't you think that the opportunity to participate in whatever creative endeavor it is, it's really just an opportunity for you to relax and to express yourself. And it doesn't matter whether you are great at it, it only matters if you're enjoying yourself.
Dana Frazee (21:05.901)
Yeah, enjoying yourself and having in our classes a sense of community because we're getting people who don't know each other and they come in and they're all having this fabulous shared experience. know, so many people are beginners and so they're sharing that together and going, look what I can do. And we always have them hold up their paintings at the end of the class and everybody's is different and they all have fun.
Jay Boykin (21:38.616)
That's amazing. So Dana, we recognize that many nonprofits also have their challenges. What are some of the biggest challenges that Tri Arts is facing right now?
Dana Frazee (21:52.026)
I would say right now it's marketing to get the word out. You know, a new nonprofit, you don't really have this huge budget for marketing. And so we are looking at a partnership here in town that I think will really benefit us. We have a local community college branch, the Arapahoe Community College branch called the Stern Campus here in town.
And we've gone and we've talked to them because one of the classes, some of the classes they offer are marketing classes. And so I've talked with Jay Ecker, their executive director, about could we have some interns? And so we're working on a whole thing where we're going to try to get two interns a semester to work for Tri Arts who are marketing students. And we'll get them doing social media for us.
reels to go on social media and do some data collection, maybe even create a market analysis survey that we can put out into the community. So we're really excited about this partnership that we are just now beginning.
Jay Boykin (23:07.726)
That's fantastic. So if people want to get involved, so we know that there's classes that they can sign up for. Are those limited to, because they go through the city of Castle Rock, are those limited to residents of Castle Rock or Douglas County or can people outside of the community partake?
Dana Frazee (23:30.554)
Everybody can partake. What the town does is they take care of our registration system. So anybody who takes a class has to register with the town. So they have to sign up and do a little...
you know, identification thing with the town and then they can sign up. We've had people like in my watercolor class just last week, a woman drove up two days in a row from Colorado Springs and from my oil painting class we had a person come from Boulder, all the way from Boulder, two days in a row. We were very impressed that somebody from Boulder was coming down to Little Castle Rock. But yeah, anybody can join our classes. And what we've tried to do with beginning classes is we've really worked with our instructors
that the supply list is generally included in the class. Supplies will be included if it's a beginning class. And if not, then we can add a little fee on for the supplies and have the instructor buy the supplies. Because we have found that for some of our beginners, it's very intimidating to have a class list of things they have to go get and they go to Michael's or Hobby Lobby and go, I don't know any of this. So we're working with our instructors to make it easier for beginners to
Jay Boykin (24:49.388)
Well, that is great that it is open to individuals outside of the community. So I want to ask this question because you continue to say we and Dana, you are a great leader. And I also know that you've got a great group of individuals who are supporting you with Tri Arts projects. So do you want to talk a little bit more about your other volunteers that are supporting?
Dana Frazee (25:19.15)
Yes, Katie D'arcangelo is our vice president and she is one of those founders from a couple of years ago. Jackie Ruff is also on our board. was on the founding board. Lisa Huffman just left us and she was on the founding board. She was on for a couple of years. Wonderful artist who's gone off to do more art.
And Christine Whaling is our gala director. Christine has a fabulous art historian and art appraisal background. So getting her on the board, adds a whole different dimension to art for us because she comes with a different perspective. Dawn.
Jones joined about the same time I did and she's our treasurer. She's been fabulous in getting us hooked up with an accounting firm so that we can go to the accounting firm and say are we doing this right? know all this all this stuff that you need to get right right from the beginning for a non-profit. Dane Robinson is a fundraiser with me. She and I are the ones who going out and
schmoozing with a lot of people to get to know people and to get them to know Tri Arts. Dane is very outgoing and has an easy time doing that with me. Kim Hostler is my next door neighbor that I recruited to the board because she's an educator at the university level.
And I just thought we needed that education expertise on the board since we are setting up contracts and curriculum for all of our teachers. And Kim helps them do that.
Dana Frazee (27:02.35)
Who am I missing, Jay? Let's see, Jay is on our board and he is our gallery director. And we are so happy to have you on the board. But we have a dynamic board and I have to really hand it to Katie D'arcangelo. She is sort of the internal backbone of the organization and I am the external person out there meeting a lot of people. And we have made a very good partnership, the two of us.
and we've brought other people on board that we just adore. Some have left us because they want to go be painters or they want to go to school, but everybody we've had involved with us, we just love.
Jay Boykin (27:45.578)
Yeah, and we need to we need to mention Rhea, our secretary.
Dana Frazee (27:49.946)
thank you. knew I was forgetting someone. Rhea started in, Rhea Hiemstra started in our education group and I snatched her away from that group to come be our board secretary when we lost our secretary who was going on to bigger and better things with galleries. So Rhea is brand new. She loves it. She wanted to do something, she said, a little more dynamic than what she was doing in retirement. And I said, boy, you really found the place.
We are dynamic.
Jay Boykin (28:23.694)
She is great. So if people want to get involved with Tri Arts Project, whether they are an artist and perhaps they want to consider teaching, if they want to volunteer with Tri Arts Project in other ways or just generally support the organization, what's the best way for people to get involved?
Dana Frazee (28:48.932)
We have a terrific website and on the website we have a little box where you can contact us and tell us who you are. We also have a phone number, Ask Tap, that's on the website where you can call and somebody will get back to you. A lot of times we get people calling in, Ask Tap, and they're asking if they can volunteer. And at that point I pick up the phone because I want to meet all the new volunteers and plug them in where they want to be.
Some people just want to do behind the scenes. Some people want to man our booth at our art fest. Some people want to help with decorating at the gala. So we plug people in where they would like to be. I'm going to an organization out in the Montaigne neighborhood this next week and I'm going to meet
a gentleman named Doug Weisbart who's going to introduce me to this whole team of volunteers that he has out there. So I'm really looking forward to that because there's a lot of different places that we could use volunteers. We also, something I didn't talk about is we received a grant from the Douglas County Community Foundation to provide art classes out at senior living homes in senior centers.
We've been doing that. Right now we're in our last two classes that we're offering. One is at Morning Star in Parker, and one's at the Oakwood Apartments here in town. The very last one is at a new place called Meadowmark.
and we have instructors out there in all of these senior living places doing acrylic painting classes with the residents there. So that's been another way I'm always looking for art teachers who want to go out into the community and teach at a senior center too.
Jay Boykin (30:43.828)
is great. I want to encourage my listeners who may not live in Colorado and you may not be in the metro Denver area and have no idea about some of these places that we're talking about. will say this, check out your local community and see what they have that they are offering because again art can be very
Therapeutic, as Dana mentioned, it's great for your mental health and it's great for community. We went through a period of time a few years ago where the world essentially shut down and we got away from some of that community. So we don't want you listeners who are outside of Colorado to feel like we're not speaking to you. So definitely reach out and see if you can find some opportunities to participate in art.
And maybe you find an organization that may be similar to Try Arts Project in your local area. So Dana, as we begin to wrap up, if there was one thought that you could leave our audience with about the importance of art, what would that be?
Dana Frazee (31:57.796)
For me, it's, well, I really think for many people, it brings out the creativity in a person. It empowers people in a way that they just may not have thought of before. It brings people together in classes where you are breaking down cultural barriers, if you will, because you can have diverse audiences in your classes.
building a sense of community, getting to know people across the political divides without talking politics, you're just having fun together. I think art can do all of that for a community and it certainly has for me in this community. It's a beautiful center that we are making with all of our volunteers and we love bringing people together.
Jay Boykin (32:54.082)
Well, I can't think of a better way to end our discussion. That was very powerful and we definitely need all of those things, especially in this day and age. So again, everyone, this is a very special episode of Just Human that is supporting the efforts by Podcast-a-thon to support worldwide charities and nonprofits.
It's been our great pleasure to have our guest, Dana Frazee, the president of the board of directors for Tri Arts Project, an organization that's located in the beautiful town of Castle Rock, Colorado and Douglas County. And let me say this, if this episode resonated with you, we're gonna leave some links where you can connect with Tri Arts Project.
But feel free to share this in your circle. If you know someone who is an advocate of the arts, maybe someone who is looking to take a class, please feel free to share this episode with them so that they can learn more about Tri Arts Project. so Dana, again, thank you for being with us. I am Jay Boykin, your host. And until next time, stay open and keep on exploring. Thanks, everyone.
