Associate Professor of Dance Brad Garner and his non-profit organization "Integrated Arts" has won a $75,000 Creative Heights Award from the Oregon Community Foundation to produce and tour a new work based on the life of legendary inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla. The work, which is entitled "Tesla: Light, Sound, Color," aims to creatively merge artistic disciplines with physics. The premiere performance is scheduled for Fall 2017 at the Soreng Theatre in the Hult Center.

Garner and his colleagues, Jeremy Schropp, a Pro Tem Instructor of Music Composition at the SOMD and graduate of the composition and music technology programs, and John Park, a Senior Instructor of Digital Arts at the School of Art and Architecture make up the trio that is Harmonic Laboratory (now known as Integrated Arts).

Part of the group’s mission is to integrate art, science, and the humanities in the development of creative works that tell stories and unpack the dense cultural content around us. We believe such projects serve a greater educational purpose and enrich community through performative art.

To that end, the trio will be teaming up with scientists in the physics department to bring Tesla’s theories and experiments to life on stage. The project is still in its development stage, but promises to be an engaging and unique take on the life of a one of a kind inventor.