TED Community » Teri Orr
About Me
I have lived in Park City, Utah for the past 34 years and watched it change from a failing mining town to a thriving four season resort community. I have written a weekly, award- winning column here, all these years. As the former editor of the local paper, The Park Record, I became involved in politics and understanding land use and helping in the development of the non-profit community. In the mid '90's I made a radical career change, left the paper and started fundraising to build and run a performing arts center here. I was able to be involved, in a small part, of the entertainment locally for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Our programming has been recognized nationally for our eclectic, international mix of dance, theater and music, all in a town of less than 10,000 people. To date I have raised about $20million for the arts here. After attending my first TED conference in Aspen in 2008, I came back a zealot and presented Pangea Day and began the process to start our own version of Dave Egger's 826 tutoring center. For the past two years we have been running the free, after school, one-on-one literacy tutoring center, The Mega-Genius Supply Store and IQHQ. Separately, we created a series of evening talks and wine and food pairings called "Curiousities." Our theater is the anchor facility for the Sundance FIlm Festival and I have been involved with them, working with press or being the press, since 1982. I owned a children's clothing store in the '70s at Lake Tahoe called "Ruffles and Ruffenecks" and it is still there. I have been a mostly single mom, who left an abusive marriage in California and reinvented myself in Utah. I now have two adult children, who produced three grandchildren. We like each enough to spend most holidays together and a bunch of time in between. They left Utah to attend college but returned to work and raise families here. I helped start the women's shelter, the Peace House. I worked and spoke on domestic violence for years and served on the Governor's Council for Domestic Violence issues. For that, I was given the "Many Women, Many Voices" award. I also have received a number of awards from The Society of Professional Journalists, The Utah Press Association and the National Press Association. I am the only woman, to date, to have received the Chamber/Bureau's Spirit of Hospitality award. I have served as a judge for the PEN literary competition and been a parade judge even more times!
- Location:
- United States, Park City, UT
- Current organization:
- Park City Performing Arts Foundation
- Past organizations:
- Park Record newspaper/columnist
- Current role:
- Executive Director/alchemist/curator
- Gender:
- Female
- Areas of expertise:
- Grant Writer, Domestic Violence Activist, Performance and Dance, Journalism editor
- I am:
- Activist, Change Agent, Concerned citizen, Consultant, Educator/Teacher, Event planner, Idea generator, Public servant, Social entrepreneur, Writer/Editor
- Associations:
- PEN , Utah Presenters Network, Williiam Morris Agency/Creative Artists/Concerted Efforts/Columbia Artists , Society for Professional Journalists
- My website links:
- ecclescenter.org, parkrecord.com
- Universities:
- Northern Colorado University, University of Nevada - Reno
- TED conferences attended:
- TEDActive 2013, TEDActive 2012, TEDActive 2011, TED2010, TED2009, TED2008
More About Me
I'm passionate about
Books/ Chocolate/ Music/ My Garden/ Embers from a fire/ Spending time teaching children-anything/ Navajo rugs and jewelry and ceramony/ Social justice issues/ Politics -local to international
Talk to me about
The Mega-Genius Supply Store and IQHQ. My Neighborhood. The back stage stories.
People don't know that I'm good at
Cooking (though I rarely do it) Ironing (a lost art) Really I 'm fairly good at the domestic life I just don't live it.....
Comments
Favorite talks
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A comment on Conversation: Are there other presenters of the arts who find TED a complete inspiration?
If we had someone allow us to see how the messy side created the beauty we would have a powerful TED talk I suspect. Kinda like Brene Brown set to music, or dance...Or a reveal ,really, of say Anna Deavre Smith, or Jason Marz. Or not only the stunning performance last year of Quixotic but the choregrapher who created that magic.
A girl can dream....
A comment on Conversation: Are there other presenters of the arts who find TED a complete inspiration?
A comment on Conversation: As a TEDx organizers I wish there were this feature on ted.com/tedx. Please propose a suggestion or an idea around future functionality.
is, sadly, funding. The quality of the filming, the meals, the little gift bags, the name badges and notebooks. Everyone can help some but this economy, in small communities, makes it awkward to ask some folks -- often the very folks you want/need involved--- to completely donate their services. And if TEDx is but one thing you are involved in, in the non-profit world and fundraising for, it gives one a split personality trying to make Sophie's Choice-style decisions on which of the children you feel forced to give up when you dearly love them both.
Money, is the the dirty little secret we tip-toe around as individual organizers and we need to discuss this, together.In a safe environment.
A comment on Talk: Quixotic Fusion: Dancing with light
Yep.
Utah!
LOVED them at TED....
A comment on Conversation: Does it really matter whether you have old money or new money?
A reply on Conversation: More Music in Schools?