Founder Retires, Passes Artistic Leadership to Protégé

Starting with the 2014–15 season, photochoreographer emeritus James Westwater has passed creative leadership of Westwater Arts to his protégé Nicholas Bardonnay, who at the time had been collaborating with James as well as producing his own pieces for 7 years.

During his extensive career spanning more than four decades, James photographed for and produced many photochoreography pieces and performed them with orchestras across North America and abroad. He was the National Science Foundation’s Artist in the Antarctic, received the Antarctic Medal, authored an award-winning book of photography and served two years as a National Endowment for the Arts resident artist. Some of James’ most popular pieces like Reflections of the Spirit, Vanishing Forest, and The Eternal Struggle are still available in our repertoire and are now being performed by Nicholas. Together, James and Nicholas undertook two major joint commissions—Grand Canyon Country and Czech Journeys—for the principal orchestras in Tucson and Phoenix in 2012 and Scotland and Toronto in 2013, respectively. Some of James’s photography can also be seen in National Park Suite and Rodeo!, both of which Nicholas produced after James’s retirement. 

Although now retired from Westwater Arts, James has continued to serve as the president of the Utah Valley Earth Forum, a non-profit community organization supporting healthy stewardship of the environment. He is also continuing to capture and share the Earth’s beauty—his latest project is a new book of photography set in his beloved state of Utah.