Chris Kastle
Folk Art: Puppetry; Folk Art: Storytelling; Literature; Literature: Children's; Literature: Fiction; Literature: Non-Fiction; Literature: Poetry; Music; Music: Composition; Music: Vocal; Visual Arts; Visual Arts: Illustration; Visual Arts: Other; Visual Arts: Painting; Visual Arts: Photography
As a professional touring musician and storyteller, songsmith, author, artist, and educator for half a lifetime, Chris Kastle has performed throughout the United States and in Canada, Europe, and New Zealand. As a recording artist, and part of a duo, she has released 12 critically acclaimed CDs and a DVD and recently, three solo CDs of music and spoken word. In 2015 Chris was the recipient of the Annette J. Bruce Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Storytelling Association. In May of 2016 she posted a video of her song, El Faro, in memory of the crew.
As an educator, she worked as the Director of Education at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum, an instructor for the Inland Seas Education Association, a Visiting Professor at Governors State University, Community Educator for Friends of A1A Scenic & Historic Coastal Byway, has done a myriad of educational residencies, and is currently on the faculty at the Old Town School of Folk Music, and a Teaching Artist for VSA Florida.
As an author, she has penned articles for maritime publications and been a contributing author in a maritime history anthology published by Claremont Press. She has many original short stories to her credit and, most recently, was the author/illustrator of a new children’s book, Dolly the Decorator Crab, inspired by her work as a teaching artist for VSAFL and also From the Icy Fingers of the Deep, a book of short, scary, sea stories that received five stars in Goodreads.com.
As a visual artist, Chris has helped students of many ages and abilities to create personal and collaborative artwork such as watercolor, sculpture, collage, set design, and puppets. Her individual work has been displayed alongside that of her students at the Cummer Museum of Arts and Gardens and by the Thrasher-Horne Center for the Arts.
As an arts administrator, advocate, and producer, she is the Executive Director of Common Times, the folk-arts organization that presented the “Chicago Maritime Festival” and the “Chinquapin Folk Music and Storytelling Festival” and has served on the boards of the Florida Storytelling Association (Past President) and the Tale Tellers of St. Augustine (Secretary, Past President).
She is a one-time Tall Ship sailor from Chicago who has found a new home in St. Augustine, the nation’s oldest port city, and is enjoying the best of the old world and the new!
