Laurel Near, Executive Director
Laurel Near, Executive Director
For over 30 years, as a co-founder of SPACE in 1995, Laurel Near helped shape the culture and curriculum of both pre-SPACE and SPACE as an artist, teacher, administrator, and fundraiser.
Born on an 1,800-acre Potter Valley cattle ranch, her parents Russell and Anne Near instilled in Laurel the value of creating spaces for kids to immerse themselves in the arts and nature. Through this “idyllic performing arts” upbringing, she experienced the benefits of allowing children to grow and play utilizing non-violent parenting techniques. As her mother used to say, “A child’s work is to play.”
Before founding SPACE with Paulette Arnold, Laurel worked in dance and theater with legendary artists Hanya Holm, Roland Dupree and the Eugene O'Neill Drama Program. She cofounded the Wallflower Order Dance Collective in Eugene, Oregon in 1975. The Wallflower Order combined dance, theater, Kung Fu, American Sign Language and comedy to address issues of feminism, the environment and social change. It was one of the first all-women dance companies in the country. Wallflower toured the US throughout the late ‘70s, playing to hundreds of standing-ovation-crowds during the height of the early feminist movement.
In 1984, Laurel came upon the Hand in Hand Parenting Program founded by Patty Wipfler. She became a Certified Hand in Hand Instructor. Patty helped SPACE articulate and integrate her work into the SPACE curriculum, which became SPACE’s philosophy: Building Emotional Understanding Through the Arts.
Over the past three decades, Laurel has been part of a team raising millions of dollars for SPACE programs, which included the transformation of the former St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church into the SPACE Theater, a state-of-the-art theater devoted to youth and families, located in the heart of Mendocino County.
Laurel’s other full-time and most joyous job has been raising her three kids, noting that, “Our own children teach us the most important and inspiring lessons of our lives!”
Laurel says, “The ‘Near’ in “Near & Arnold’s School of Performing Arts Cultural Education” is a nod to my parents- two unique and forward-thinking people: my mom, the Democrat and my dad, the Socialist. Though I put my own creative twist on it, along with all the influences of my own teachers and adaptation to changing eras, I am simply the messenger of those two idealists, who without really planning it, created a legacy of creating spaces for kids to immerse themselves in the arts and nature. Thank you, Russell and Anne Near!”
