Listen to his work.

Richard Curtis was born and raised in Alabama. He studied painting at the University of North Alabama where he received his BFA in 2000. From there, he worked at the Birmingham Museum of Art for one year before deciding to study performance art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During his studies in Chicago, Curtis began to develop and perform extended vocal techniques that drew from a range of influences such as jazz, sound art, Dada sound poetry, experimental improv music, Foley sound effects, environmental sounds, and, later, ethnopoetics. In 2004 he received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute.

This final influence of ethnopoetics, or traditional vocal techniques of indigenous cultures, led him to develop a project called Voices of Heritage. For this long-term project Curtis plans to travel to, live among, and record the vocalizations of various indigenous peoples. In the summer of 2005, he conducted the first of these projects in Laikipia, Kenya among the Maasai. In 2007, through a residency with an organization called Amazwi, based in South Africa, Curtis will continue his Voices of Heritage project. This time he will be focusing on the Zulu people.

"Blue Sky allowed me to create a large-scale project that pushed me creatively and conceptually. The input I received from my group of youth participants and the student artist, as well as from the other Resident Artists, enriched my ideas in unforeseen ways. The final outcome of the work my group and I created was compelling and intricate. But above all, the process of achieving a truly collaborative working relationship with my group was most rewarding. I wish there were more opportunities for working artists to have the structure and support that Blue Sky offers."