(exciting music) - Welcome to At Issue.

I'm H. Wayne Wilson.

Thank you so much for joining us.

There's a place where people can learn about science and the arts in a freshwater marsh, in an oak and hickory forest, in a prairie along a stream, or even a fossil bed.

Young people have been doing so for five decades now, 50 years of learning the arts and science at what is called the Sun Foundation.

They do it under the sun.

It's the Sun Foundation in Washburn, Illinois, and I'm pleased to be talking with three, may I call them graduates of the Sun Foundation, plus the founder.

First, let me introduce to you Collin Krause.

Collin is, as I mentioned, a former Sun Foundation student, and he's now a member of the Way Down Wanderers.

We'll talk a little bit about that in just a moment.

Collin, thank you for being with us.

- Thank you for having me.

It's great to be here.

- [H. Wayne] And also to Bob Ericksen.

Bob is the co-founder, along with his wife Joan, of the Sun Foundation.

Bob, thank you for joining us.

- Thank you very much.

I appreciate this.

- [H. Wayne] Julia Schwass is here.

Julia will be talking about her artistic endeavors, but it was influenced by the Sun Foundation where she was a student, but also still instructs at the Sun Foundation.

Thank you for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

- [H. Wayne] And Camron is here.

Camron is, sorry, I should have said Stanley too, but Camron Stanley is a high school biology teacher at East Peoria High School, and he really found his career through the Sun Foundation.

We'll talk about that.

Camron, thank you for joining us.

- Thank you very much.

- And we probably should define Sun Foundation, its origins.

Where did it come from, Bob?

- My wife Joan and I had begun, after our college education and working and teaching in Chicago, we'd begun having interactions and opportunities to meet with and talk about education with artists and scientists in particular, writers, authors, and we had decided that some of the things that we had learned outside of the educational environment, that a lot of these things would really be a benefit to students.

So we began with the idea of doing conferences or classes and so forth with individual, cooperation with teachers, and it became an opportunity to grow, because more and more people wanted outside educators, artists, and scientists, sculptors, photographers, people in theater.

They wanted more of that in their schools.

And so we began to offer opportunities for people to sign up and begin to say we have this person we have contact with in Chicago or maybe in other cities around the Midwest.

And it began to kind of ignite an interest.

And so Joan and I then decided we would start an organization to cooperate with schools and artists and scientists and universities to bring that opportunity back into the classroom so it's not all two dimensional learning off of a sheet of paper or a television screen or a computer.

We then were offered an opportunity with the Illinois Arts Council to begin a not-for-profit.

We hadn't thought about that in the past, but it does have a really broad reach.

And then they said what can we name it?

And then we decided that we would employ a connection with a Blackfeet Indian gentleman we had gotten to know in Montana, and the video that we had done with him was called The Sun Gave Man the Power.

Our friend from the arts council said, let's use that.

So we said Sun Foundation, but the title of the organization is Sun Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and Sciences.

It sounds like a complicated description, but it was easy for us to do that because we then had a format and audience and a way of growing opportunities with schools and universities.

- The title almost sounds like a mission statement, the Sun Foundation Arts and Science.

Before we talk about some of the programs that are offered at the Sun Foundation, I want to talk to each of the three former students, if I may say that, in terms of how it affected your career.

Collin, I'd like to start with you, because there was a program that Sun Foundation had, the Suzuki School of Music, and you were one of the students.

Can you give us a little bit of background as to how that directed your career?

- Absolutely.

I started playing music at a really young age and my family moved to Peoria and we were so grateful that the Sun Foundation offered the Suzuki School of Music at the time, which is kind of a philosophy of teaching music that really centers around teaching young people by ear.

I was so grateful to be a student of the Sun Foundation and the Suzuki program for a number of years.

And without that training and sort of an instilled love for music, I really don't think that I would have a career as a musician.

So I'm eternally grateful to the Sun Foundation for that.

But I also got to be a student at Arts and Science in the Woods, and now as a songwriter, I realize how much my love for the environment came from the Sun Foundation, and that's definitely as a songwriter, the environment is something that's super inspiring for me as a writer.

So I owe so many of those experiences to the Sun Foundation, Art and Science in the Woods and the Suzuki program for sure.

- The Suzuki program got you started on the violin, but you expanded your abilities on instruments.

- Yeah.

I started on violin, later picked up a few other instruments along the way, but without that foundation of ear training from the Suzuki program, I don't know if I would be doing what I'm doing now for sure.

- And you are a musician based in Peoria.

- Yes, full time.

We do about 100 shows a year, lots of festivals based out of Peoria, yeah.

- The Way Down Wanderers is the name of the band that Collin is in.

Let me turn to Camron Stanley.

Camron, if I understand correctly, the Sun Foundation actually kind of gave you a little different bend in your career choice.

- I would say so.

I started out as a participant in the Clean Water Celebration, which is put on by the Sun Foundation each year.

When I was in high school, I had the opportunity through some wonderful teachers, my English teachers and my science teachers, to get involved in that program, helping volunteer.

And then from there got excited and they kind of pushed me into some research when I turned into my senior year.

I got excited about doing some research with the environment, and I got a chance to present that at the Clean Water Celebration, and that just took me in a completely different way.

I will say I started out in medicine, pre-med, at Bradley University as a biology major, and then from there, my sophomore year, decided that I really loved teaching, just like I had started doing at the Clean Water Celebration.

So I went into teaching, and I now teach science and biology to wonderful young men and women at East Peoria High School.

- So how did that experience at the Sun Foundation affect your method of teaching in terms of, it's not just on paper, it's not just out of a book.

- Absolutely.

I think as educators, one of the things that we really want to do is give our students opportunities to live in real world science, to be true scientists and to think outside the box.

I think the Clean Water Celebration and the Sun Foundation in general allows students to see science happening in the world around them and to experience nature and experience that love pre-going to college and figure out what they want to do.

I think that that really helps to shape young men and women and get them excited about things that they won't get excited about from a textbook or from a website.

It's just a completely different way of doing science, of living.

- Julia, you're an artist, but it didn't start out that way.

- No, I actually started at the Sun Foundation when I was about eight years old, and I've been there about, this coming summer will be my 28th year.

- [H. Wayne] As an instructor now.

- As an instructor now, so I started as a student and then I taught and then also was on staff, so I've literally seen every role you can do at the Sun Foundation.

And through that, I went into teaching and then also a career in the restaurant industry.

And then as my job, as we moved forward, Sun Foundation has instilled in me a level of confidence, an ability that has allowed me to transition to becoming a freelance artist, and through being at the Sun Foundation and getting to know my own strengths and abilities, but also seeing these amazing examples of artists making their own way in the world, it showed that I could be a successful freelance artist, that I didn't have to follow a traditional career path and that I had my own abilities and strengths and I could make my way as they did.

I think that's a really invaluable example to be set.

- We've made reference to the Sun Foundation's Arts and Science in the Woods program.

It's been going on since the early years, back in the 1970s.

Bob, can you give us an overview of what Arts and Science in the Woods encompasses?

- This is a long story.

- Okay, give us part of it, and then we'll allow the three people who are with you to explain some more.

- One example that I think always stands out for me is that you can go to the store and you can buy paint, or as has been taught at Art in the Woods for a number of years, Art and Science in the Woods, you can make your own paint.

And people say, why would you want to do that?

Well, because it's free, and because when students walk down the driveway and they see that little particle of yellow stone, well that's iron oxide.

And if you cook that with a fire, it goes from yellow to red.

Well, why would you do that?

It's Venetian red.

It's been used for years.

So those kinds of contacts and those experiences, they don't cost any money.

They make a three-dimensional object.

They make something functional and usable by the artist.

And there is a fellow that has taught for Art in the Woods for about three years.

He's called an organic artist, and he's not trained by us, but he found a connection for us, and he makes all of his own paper, string, paint, watercolor, oil.

Well, why would you do that?

It's because that's the way it was done in Rome and in the Mayan culture.

So I think sometimes it's a way of using the materials and the tools that artists and sciences use.

It's a way of adapting that so that you get a better view sometimes of your own experience, your family's experience.

You don't have to be born in a family of piano players.

You can introduce that way of loving music, but also joining with other people with a musical group.

- Let me turn to Julia, because Bob, you've mentioned you look at objects in a different way after you've been at the Sun Foundation Arts and Science in the Woods.

Is that a pretty good description, Julia?

- It's an accurate description.

My class specifically, I actually take recycled materials and turn them into fiber art using old bedsheets, old clothing, things that would end, necessarily end up in the trash.

And so through that, you are able to see what would be considered just a rock or trash or something that somebody would throw away and create art with it, and that's a really awesome way to both interact with our Earth and our environment, but also give an accessibility to art that some might not have.

You don't have to have money for paint.

All you have to have is a vision and time, and to find art in ways that is maybe nontraditional I think is so important.

- And Arts and Science in the Woods is coming up in June, correct?

- June, yes, this year.

- And that leads me to Camron, because another program out at Sun Foundation is called the Clean Water Celebration.

Actually, it's not at the Sun Foundation.

It's usually down at the Civic Center.

Because of the pandemic, it's been done virtually.

Let's talk about what Clean Water Celebration is and what it means to you.

- Clean Water Celebration is exactly what it sounds like.

It is a celebration, a push for the community to understand the importance of water.

I think Clean Water Celebration has had its evolutions through the years from being a simple celebration of clean water to expanding to really understanding what impacts water outside of just knowing hey, we throw pollution into the stream, what's going to happen.

I think we have a much larger interpretation of that now than what we used to.

I started with Clean Water Celebration, like I said, when I was in high school.

We do a lot of things for students from presentations by scientists to presentations by other students.

I think that that is where really the power of clean water comes from, is other students showing that they understand, or they're doing projects and amazing things to help to better our environment and better our water systems and streams.

So we do some amazing things there, as well as recycling streams and natural education with animals and plants that are affected by the water systems.

And so it's just absolutely a wonderful thing.

I got involved as a presenter when I did a project with purple loosestrife which is an invasive species, and from there, I had the opportunity through the help of my teachers and Clean Water Celebration to do some awesome real world science.

And then I got the chance to present that to other little kids, and I think that that is one of the most powerful things about clean water, because they saw me as a high school student at the time doing real world science, actually trying my best to make a difference, and I think that that really excites kids.

- I want to go back to the purple loosestrife, because once again, it's an example of looking at something in a little different way, because purple loosestrife to the casual observer might look like, well, it's a pretty flower.

- Yeah, and I will say during the process of doing my project with the abatement of purple loosestrife, I had some really angry gardeners that were not happy that I was trying to abate the plant and get it out of our systems.

But as an invasive species, it's absolutely beautiful, but it was something that is taking over our waterways and decreasing our natural species that live in our water systems.

And so along with trying to abate that, raising a predator of that plant, it was a little scary for people to think hey, you're getting rid of the plant that I love to plant in my garden, but at the same time, you're trying to raise something that we're gonna release, so is that gonna cause a bigger problem?

So I had some angry gardeners on my hands.

- [H. Wayne] A different perspective, for sure.

- [Camron] Yeah, absolutely.

- Bob, the Community Arts Access re-granting program, that actually started in a little bit different form.

It's been going on since 1979, I believe.

What's the purpose there?

- To try to introduce new ideas and individuals.

In many cases, they are the scientists that may be studying water quality or helping to manage water issues, and to try and get that educational and that informational package back into the experience of young students and teachers, and to try and spread that out so more and more people become educators and they feel like they're accomplishing things by way of this interaction.

- So it's grants that might go to libraries, to schools.

- Yes, and schools are fighting for and looking for grants, and so what the foundation does is to provide access to a working group that can help to manage information exchange and funding back into the schools, 'cause teachers are busy.

- Environmental field trips have been going on at the Sun Foundation since 1980.

Have any of the three students or former students gone on an environmental field trip through the Sun Foundation?

- Hmm, you ask me to remember back quite far.

I believe we have come out, yeah, and since I have been out there every summer of my entire life, it does kind of blend together a little bit, but I think I do remember going out with a class when I was in grade school and not only getting to, having the excitement of being able to share this place that's so important to me, but also watching my peers at the time discover a new world to a lot of them, and I think that applies also to outside of even just that program.

Kids that come out to the camp, we get a lot of kids who have never seen nature in the way that we can give it to them.

They don't see the insects that we give them and they learn that these aren't things to be feared and nature is not meant to be feared.

It's there for us to access.

- And the Sun Foundation owns no land and we own no buildings, so on the farm that was initially available, was owned by Joan's family, her father.

He allowed us then to move there and to set up our home.

We built our own home in a dome, which is our office for the foundation, a little teeny round building.

And since we own no land, on the farm, there are three barns.

There are lots and lots of maybe three or four miles of trails that are managed and maintained.

There are some fields which are water prone and flood prone, so they've been converted back to native species and managed by our son, Brett.

And so there's a lot of maintenance that is time consuming.

The gentleman who came from California, a friend of ours, and he came from California to help to manage some of the fields with fire.

Sometimes you need to burn the spring weeds and provide a sufficient field for education and for maintenance over time.

So it's kind of a complicated description, but without the barns, we don't do all the classes.

We also set up tents for students and for teachers.

- And you have field science programs there, and basically there's two different kinds.

There's the fossil, and I'm intrigued by the fossil one, and then you have reptiles and amphibians, which Doug Holmes conducts.

What's been the impact?

How do you see the students when they go on these field trips?

I mean, do you see these wide eyes?

- Yes.

- [H. Wayne] You know you're doing some good?

- Yes, a student who may be in grade school comes up to you and says, I want to show you what I found today down in the creek, which is where the fossil beds are most prominent.

He has a little teeny fossil.

The instructors told that student the name of the fossil and what era it came from.

It wasn't from 30 years ago.

It was maybe from one and a half million years ago, and it's got a name.

So all of a sudden, now the student has a piece of paper and the fossil and can take it back to his family and his teacher and say, look what I found.

So instead of looking at a two dimension, you can see a two dimensional fossil quite easily in a computer, on a printed piece, but when it's in your hand, that really changes their perception.

- Let me turn to Collin.

I want to talk about the Suzuki School of Music again.

Unfortunately it's no longer at the Sun Foundation, but you had a huge impact on many, many students, and of course it created your career.

- Absolutely, yeah.

Hands down.

It's just such a wonderful program.

I kind of swear by the Suzuki program as an adult, and I do teach a few younger students myself.

So I've kind of been able to take some elements of what the Suzuki program through the Sun Foundation taught me and have been able to kind of pass that on.

And the more I teach it, the more I get older, I realize how valuable that program was and how it just continues to benefit me today and hopefully other students that I get to share a few pieces with, too.

- And the value of music from, and I know you started at a young age, very young, but how important is music in all our lives, from your perspective?

And I know you play in the Way Down Wanderers, and of course it's important.

- I see music as an art form that kind of connects all other forms of art.

Whether we're inspired by the environment or by physical art like sculpture or paintings, I think it's one of these mediums that has this unique ability to combine so many other forms of art, whether it's film, and so I think music is one of the most important things, at least to me, and I hope to everyone else too.

I think it is one of these elements that's kind of a backdrop to our lives.

I don't think any of us could imagine our lives without music, for sure.

- There's a language.

- Yeah, we're so lucky to have educational programs like the Suzuki program that kind of instill that love in young people, 'cause without them carrying that on, who is there to keep it going?

- It's amazing to really think how art and science truly become one and you can't do one without the other.

Really, scientists, we sit down and want to use our little Erlenmeyer flasks and our beakers and our test tubes to do some science, but really we rely on the arts and we rely music and it ties everything together.

I think that's one of the really amazing things about the Sun Foundation, is it really understands that science and technology, engineering, art and math and music and everything are all so closely related and so closely tied together.

- And as you walk through a museum, you see artwork, a wonderful piece of art by a friend or maybe a Renaissance painter, and then you switch over to music.

It takes time.

People go to concerts and they sit there and they absorb the impact of those notes.

The violin goes playing along with the piano.

It's time.

- And we haven't even touched on some of the other specific programs, such as bow making, bow making, ornithology, lots of birds at the Sun Foundation.

I had the opportunity to learn from your son the art of flint knapping with obsidian rock, which I didn't even know existed.

Bob, the future of Sun Foundation in 30 seconds.

30 seconds.

- The future is going to increase contact with more scientists and artists.

We have to do different kinds of funding now.

They all have different definitions, and so it's going to be growing in whatever way the board of directors, we have a significant number of people.

- And with that, we are unfortunately out of time.

We appreciate having Collin Krauss here, Julia Schwass, Bob Ericksen and Camron Stanley on At Issue.

We'll be back next time with another edition of At Issue.

This time, we're going to be talking about a bill that was signed last year, but hasn't got a lot of talk.

It's the Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act next time on At Issue.

(exciting music)