In the Upper Wenatchee Valley’s backyard, at the entrance of Icicle Canyon, sits a world-class facility for film, dance, theatre and music. Nestled under the Sleeping Lady, the sloping series of peaks that shares its name with the adjacent resort, is the Icicle Creek Center for the Arts (ICCA). Focused on arts education and performance in a natural setting, ICCA is an unparalleled resource for its community.
Founded as the Icicle Creek Center for the Arts in 1995 by businesswoman, philanthropist and denizen of Leavenworth, Harriet Bullitt, ICCA began as an idea of former Wenatchee World publisher Rufus Woods. Woods had longed for an arts center in the Wenatchee Valley. Together, Bullitt and Woods foresaw a musical and artistic retreat at the foot the Stuart Range of the Cascade Mountains providing a cultural treasure for Central Washington. Kathryn “Katie” Anderson, president of the Board of Directors of ICCA remarked that “Harriett wanted a music and arts venue connected to the Sleeping Lady Resort. Her vision was that nature and the arts would be extraordinary aspects of the retreat center.”
The three-stage arts complex consists of: (i) the 230 seat Snowy Owl Theater shaped as a barn (pictured), containing amenities and technology allowing for regular simulcasts of New York City's Metropolitan Opera, classical and pop music concerts, lectures, plays and even an annual ski movie series; (ii) the 100 seat, acoustically designed Canyon Wren Recital Hall, the back wall of which is a multipaneled picture window showcasing the Sleeping Lady Mountain formation, home to chamber and other smaller concerts; (iii) the outdoor Meadow Stage with a capacity of 700 and the setting of concerts, plays and festivals; (iv) Icicle Creek Cabins, used for housing during camps, many of which include CHS students, and conferences; (v) acoustically designed practice huts to provide quite space for musicians and composers.
While offering a wide variety of performances and performance opportunities for all ages, the heart of ICCA is education. The campus is home to the Icicle Creek Youth Symphony (ICYS), summer camps focused on piano, symphony, theatre and film, a chamber music institute, piano retreats, myriad workshops, and special events. Anderson noted that “education is critical to the mission of ICCA. We believe in the notion that young people engaging in the arts, be that theater, music, film or writing, enhances and supplements their academic performance. So, it’s important to us that we engage as many young people as we can.”
The engagement has had a positive effect on many CHS students. Saxophonist and junior Quentin Farrell has many great memories of being in the ICYS and “really being challenged musically.” Sophomore and cellist Isabel Menna recalls fondly being a member of ICYS and “feeling privileged and so lucky to have not only such high-end training, but such amazing facilities in which to play.” Likewise, freshman Mia Dries waxed nostalgic about being on the Snowy Owl stage as a ballerina for “five or six years with the Edelweiss Dance Academie. I’ve always had such great memories and experiences there on the beautiful campus.” Freshman Teyva Dillon similarly recollects “fun evenings at ICCA watching ski movies and Christmas shows.”
ICCA hosts more than 100 performances a year and provides audiences and students with a retreat to which they can escape everyday life with outstanding performance art. Have you taken advantage of ICCA? Do you go there frequently or plan to in the future? Let us know in the comments below.
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