Any way you look at it, Spoke the Hub and Flygirl Production’s first “LIVE ART in DEATH VALLEY” (LADV) western fundraising sojourn in the desert was a resounding success.  As the following comments from both LADV guests and participating artists indicate, our communal experience in Death Valley was as close to perfect as one might hope for!

By the end of the weekend, Spoke the Hub and Flygirl had raised $10,000 for Marta and the Amargosa, as well as making a hacienda full of new friends out there on the CA/NV border.

It was such a pleasure to meet all of you and be involved in this Magical Weekend!  Thank you to those who envisioned it and brought it to life (so many of you).  For me, the spirit of generosity that was the driving force of this weekend flavored every interaction and event. Thank you all!
— N. Lyons

I had such a great time this weekend!!!  i feel refreshed and inspired and a little nostalgic for the wonderful group all out in the desert together.  Thank you for getting the whole thing together!
— S. Lopez

Thanks for including us at the last minute – it felt like such a big family! A brilliant event!
— J. Morgan

Thank you for creating such a special, memorable and lovely weekend for Dan and I as well as whole lot of other people…The whole weekend had the sense of living in a lovely hallucination!
— J.  Grassman

Thank you so much for a wonderful weekend at the Amargosa!  I can’t imagine how hard you all worked to make it all come together so brilliantly! You made it all look so easy…and I’m sure it was not! It just all worked so well and was so much fun…I can’t get it out of my head…and well…why would I want to?
— C. Wendt

Like a dream come true I was given the chance to travel to Death Valley and see the Amargosa Opera House and experience the magic that Marta created there myself. I’m on the mailing list for the opera house and a few months back I got an invite there from a dance company located on the east coast called Spoke the Hub who was hosting a fundraising artist’s retreat at Amargosa. Myke and I worked our butts off to earn the money for the donation and plane tickets to fly out…It was an amazing experience. The desert is beautiful, quiet and alive with creatures, including wild horses! We met so many lovely, talented people. The dancers from Spoke the Hub were creative, off the wall and super fun to watch. We also met this guy Omar Lopez who rides around the desert with a dark room on the back of his motorcycle making antique tin photos. I took a workshop on sand-painting located on a helicopter pad in the middle of nowhere. We had a yoga and meditation class. We discovered Mike and Christy, the Gypsy Time Travelers who roam the US on their mobile castle, a land yacht called “Florence”… But most of all I got to meet one of my personal heroes, Marta Becket. It’s not every day you come across someone like that. Amargosa, Marta Becket and my experience in Death Valley Junction will forever more have a very special place in my heart. I hope I can go back someday.
— J Fedyk

Read more about Jacquelyn‘s experience and see some great photos

How did this benefit weekend come about?  It began last summer, when, heeding the call for “help!” from 88 year old dancer/painter Marta Becket and her historic Amargosa Opera House (AOH) in Death Valley Junction, CA,  Elise Long (Director of Spoke the Hub) and her long-time friend Ellynne Skove (of Flygirl Productions) joined forces to create a weekend fundraising “extravaganza” at the AOH  which featured indoor performances by dancers, actors and musicians from both the East and West coasts as well as participatory workshops in dance, art, sand painting, vegetarian cooking and yoga, along with the tracking of wild mustangs, movement meditations amongst the pup fish and reeds of a real desert oasis, and even getting a chance to interact with AOH’s well-renowned community of ghosts!  By the end of the weekend, Spoke the Hub and Flygirl had raised $10,000 for Marta and the Amargosa, as well as making a hacienda full of new friends out there on the CA/NV border.

Since LADV, Elise and Spoke the Hub have been invited by Marta and Richard Regnell (the AOH’s General Manager and Director of Operations) to officially join the AOH “family” and serve as new “pardners” to help AOH form a new Amargosa Artist Advisory Board.  In this capacity, Long and Spoke the Hub hope to assist Marta, Rich and AOH “re-vision” their desert enterprise to make it more viable and accessible to the next generation of young artists, dancers and desert enthusiasts who have been — and have yet to become — inspired by the rebel ballerina and her 45 years of art, dance-making and animal rescue work out on the desert sands.  Long would like to see young artists’ residencies started at the AOH in painting, dance, and music, and to extend the vision and activities Marta started on her own there in the late 1960’s. Marta, Rich, and the AOH staff are looking forward to the new partnership with Spoke the Hub.  Our mission, to bring this magical place, and Marta’s vision of Art, Dance and Theater to future generations of art lovers.

Thus, Long, STH and the AOH are currently seeking a very experienced grant-writer and development person to help the Amargosa in the task of seeking grant moneys and additional individual, foundation and corporate funding for artists’ residencies, capital improvements, community collaborations, preservation of Marta’s paintings and murals, and retreats for geologists, astronomers and historians to name just a few possible educational ventures at the AOH  in the future.

Long, STH and the AOH would also like to find an architectural firm who specializes in the preservation and restoration of Spanish colonial-style adobe architecture of the early 1900s, as well as state of the art “green” architectural or engineering firms to work together with Marta and Rich on coming up with a grand, over-arching scheme for the rehabilitation and restoration of  the entire AOH complex, a plan which both preserves the incredible history of the Junction yet also brings the complex up to date in terms of sustainability and becoming state-of-the-art energy efficient.

Interested in helping Marta, Spoke the Hub, and the Amargosa Opera House meet any of these formidable challenges and taking the Opera House to the next level, to meet the demands of the next century — or know anybody who might be interested?  If so, please contact Elise at elise@spokethehub.org.