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[gentle music]

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- Alan Kopischke: Here we are
on Lake Michigan, in the woods.

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All these acres
of gorgeous property, nature.

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It's an ideal location for
artists to find inspiration.

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- Eric Simonson: We've got this
beautiful place,

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and it's conducive
to creativity.

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? But she chose me ?
[cheering]

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It elicits inspiration.

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- Angela Fitzgerald:
It's called Björklunden,

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also known as the
Door County campus

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of Appleton's
Lawrence University.

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It's usually a sedate retreat
center hosting weekend seminars.

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But for one week each year,

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it's home to an energetic
celebration of the arts,

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ironically named DKAF.

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- DKAF, what we call it, is the
Door Kinetic Arts Festival.

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- Angela: Kinetic means
movement, and DKAF is nonstop.

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- Meghann Wilkinson:
For those of us

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who are in the field of art
that is kinetic in some way,

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it's just an extremely inspiring
and enriching time.

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- Eric: It's not just
an arts festival.

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It's a kinetic arts festival.

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What's that mean?

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Kinetic art is,
it's moving in space,

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but mostly, it's moving here.

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It's moving intellectually,
it's moving emotionally,

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and it's moving
because it's in process.

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- Angela: At DKAF, the process
becomes the product,

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as audiences show up
to view works in progress.

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- Host: Unbelievable amount
of artists and dancers...

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- We have big dreams.

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We're in the act
of creating something new.

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- Angela: A big part
of the process

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is bringing artists together
to learn from each other.

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- Alan: We try to bring in
artists

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from lots
of different disciplines

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so that they can bounce off
of each other

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while they're all in the midst
of their creative process.

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- Okorie Johnson: Petri dish
of collaboration.

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It's just
a wonderful opportunity

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where all these different things
are being thrown in

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and germinating and making
things together, so I love it.

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- Angela: It's a vision born

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from festival founder Eric
Simonson's own artistic journey.

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- Jumping from one medium to
another, it elicits inspiration.

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- Angela: As an Oscar-winning
documentarian,

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Emmy nominee,
Broadway playwright,

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actor, theater,
and opera director,

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Eric has had a remarkably
successful and varied career.

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- Eric has done so many things.

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He's just had
a marvelous career.

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DKAF is his legacy.

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- Angela: Eric turned
to his brother-in-law,

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UW-Green Bay theater professor
Alan Kopischke,

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to help make the Door County
festival a reality.

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They have strong family
connections to the peninsula.

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- Eric: It's a beautiful place,
Door County.

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It's got everything.

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We would come up here
from the time I can remember.

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So, when I got older,
that tradition continued,

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and I became a writer
and a director,

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and I found it very conducive
to creation.

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- And I create
a kind of sonic experience

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that is specific to those of us
here in the room.

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[bright cello music]

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- Eric: I've always wanted
the festival to be attractive

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to just anybody who wanted
to come.

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Anybody who's interested
in being moved,

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if that is their passion, we are
the answer to their question.

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So, there's a certain spirit.

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- Angela: It's a spirit

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Eric hopes will propel DKAF
into the future.

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- Eric: We have grand visions.

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I think it's important
that art serves a purpose,

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and that purpose is to find
what is common in all of us.

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If we sit in an audience
and look at one another

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and recognize that,
that's what our aim is here.

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[bright music]
[applause]

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[birds chirping]