Amber D. Kempthorn

In September of 2019, Amber was one of 16 artists/arts organizations selected to receive a Knight Arts Challenge Akron grant.  She was awarded $54,000 for her project, Ordinary Magic: A Sunday in the Cuyahoga Valley, a series of four animations visually translating British composer Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes (1945) into familiar scenes from Northeast Ohio. Created in collaboration with Red Point Digital, Ordinary Magic blends traditional hand-drawn and contemporary computer animation and builds on the tradition of merging classical music and animation by assigning characters to musical instruments. In partnership with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Ordinary Magic premieres, October 15th 2022.

The Knight Arts Challenge is a matching grant.  In order to receive these funds, Amber raised additional $50,000. She is extremely grateful for the generous support the creation of Ordinary Magic has received from Akron’s GAR Foundation, Kempthorn Motors, Fox Charitable Foundation, Hiram Community Trust, Akron Community Foundation, and Peg’s Foundation.

Amber would also like to express her deepest thanks to the following:

Thank you to the Akron Symphony Orchestra for your partnership and for saying yes.

Thank you donors, for believing in this project. Without your financial support the creation of Ordinary Magic would not have been possible.

Annmarie Lann
Sallie Lux
Heather McGill
Malou & Fred Monago
Alex J. Nine
David Pauli
Dr. Thomas J. Pesarchick
Pam Rankin
Diane Schaffstein
Cody Walsh
Alan R. Weimer
H. Scott Westover
Harold & Kathy Westover
Judith C. Willemsen
Karen Sandstrom & Carlo Wolff
Kitty McManus Zurko & Walter Zurko

Thank you to my creative partners at Red Point Digital: Dave Hayward, Tony Samangy, Eric Vaughan, Jacob Keeton, and Lauren Moore. Your knowledge, continued enthusiasm, and patience, enabled me to make an artwork I could imagine, but didn’t have the skills to make.

Thank you to my team, Davey Pauli, Sallie Lux, and Kitty McManus Zurko for bringing your expertise to the project at the very moments I needed them, to Anne Kohn for being my biggest cheerleader from the absolute start and to Morgan Hughes, my right hand, thank you for always being there. Team, I am forever in your debt; I could not have done this without you. Special thanks to Jehan Mullin, for helping me get this whole thing started; without her time, care, and support the whole thing may not have got off the ground.

To my dearest friends and family, and to my partner Scott, I am so very grateful for you.

Thank you.