Portfolio

Ryan Conarro is a Creative Producer of storytelling through media including video, audio, web, and live performance. He’s a leader in community engagement and development through creative placemaking and the arts. He is the General Manager and Program Director of Inside Wire: Colorado Prison Radio, the first statewide prison radio station in U.S. history.

Inside Wire: Colorado Prison Radio

Inside Wire: Colorado Prison Radio is the first statewide prison radio station in U.S. history, and the first internationally to broadcast publicly from www.coloradoprisonradio.com. It’s a program of the University of Denver Prison Arts Initiative. Ryan Conarro founded the station, designed in collaboration with producers at three state prison facilities, and provided DU-certified training in Audio Production & Narrative Journalism.

Ryan is General Manager and Program Director for Inside Wire, and served as Facilitating Producer for the above audio works on Inside Wire. Up to the Minute is Inside WIre’s weekly talk show with the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections. Inside Wire is Statewide is a station identification spot, created and performed by Darrius Turner at Limon Correctional Facility.

Inside Wire: Colorado Prison Radio has been featured on NBC News, NPR’s All Things Considered, Rocky Mountain PBS, and more.

Video Production | A/LIVE INSIDE, DU Prison Arts Initiative

Climate Reporting: KNOM Public Affairs Director, Nome, Alaska

As Public Affairs Director for KNOM AM&FM in Nome, Alaska, Ryan covered front-lines climate change stories in 2001-02. Ryan received three Alaska Broadcasters’ Association Goldie Awards in 2002, including Best Service to Community; Best Comedy Feature; and Best Radio Play, with Andrew McDonnell.

Storytelling on Multiple Platforms (live event; web; social media):

ALAXSXA | ALASKA

Ryan was co-creator and performer of the Ping Chong + Company production ALAXSXA | ALASKA, which he co-directed with Ping Chong, and created with Gary Upay’aq Beaver (Yup’ik) and Justin Perkins. ALAXSXA | ALASKA is an interdisciplinary performance exploring cross-cultural encounter in the Last Frontier, including recorded voices and stories of community members from across the state. The piece premiered at University of Alaska Anchorage in August 2017 and toured Alaska communities in 2017 and 2018. Its Off-Broadway premiere took place at La MaMa in 2017.

Ryan served as Line Producer for the production and national tour. He led the creation and editing of the accompanying story website, Encounters Alaska, and he produced a community dialogue series in each presenting community, as well as a virtual storytelling event between the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage and La MaMa in New York. Finally, Ryan oversaw Ping Chong + Company communications staff as they facilitated an ongoing social media story-sharing series during performance runs of the show.Time Out New York called ALAXSXA | ALASKA a ”sumptuous anthropological collage,” and The Village Voice called it “spellbinding.”

Audio Walk: Juneau Voices

Juneau Voices, created by Ryan Conarro and Lillian Petershoare (Tlingit), features eleven place-based audio installations featuring community voices, accessible via QR codes on signs in downtown Juneau, Alaska, installed by the City & Borough of Juneau. The sequence creates an audio walk experience with Juneau citizens who share community histories through their first-person stories. As creative director, producer, and co-sound designer, Ryan collaborated with and supported sound designer Mike Sakarias; composers and musicians George Kuhar and X’unei Lance Twitchell (Tlingit); narrators David Katzeek (Tlingit) and Erin Tripp (Tlingit); and designer Sarah Campen, who created the accompanying story website, the Juneau Voices Story Box.

International Documentary Video Production: When the Salmon Spoke

When the Salmon Spoke was recognized with the 2021 U.S. Water Prize for Outstanding Artists by the US Water Alliance. Ryan Conarro served as creative director and producer for this digital documentary production of community stories from Tlingit, Haida, and Tahltan people of Wrangell, Alaska and Tahltan Territory, British Columbia. Ryan collaborated closely with project leads Tis Peterman (Tlingit/Tahltan), Annita McPhee (Tahltan/Tlingit), Kirby Muldoe (Gitxsan/Tsimsian), and Heather Hardcastle. He advised sound designer and editor Mike Sakarias; composers George Kuhar and Xhunei Lance Twitchell (Tlingit); video editor Dan Mesec; and visual artists and illustrators Julian Bozeman, Sarah Conarro, and Alano Edzerza (Tahltan). He collaborated with designer Sarah Campen, who co-created the accompanying story website, the When the Salmon Spoke Story Box. View the full production here.

Audio Walk: Cornerstone Stories at Atlantic Terminal

Ryan collaborated with community activist and Atlantic Terminal Houses resident Celeste Staton to create Cornerstone Stories, as part of the 2020 University Settlement Artist in Residence Program in New York. A place-based audio walk with 10 stations around the Atlantic Terminal grounds, the audio production seeks to invite visitors to get to know the history of this NYC Housing Authority landmark, and to bridge gaps between Atlantic Terminal and the surrounding, gentrifying neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Ryan collaborated with and advised musician and Atlantic Terminal resident Johnny Famous on the musical accompaniment for Cornerstone Stories. Experience the 10 audio pieces here.

Audio Documentary: Borders

Abu Dhabi: Community Ruminations on Borders | As a companion project to Theater Mitu’s internationally touring production “Juarez: A Documentary Mythology,” a play examining the US-Mexico border, Ryan Conarro served as Community Engagement Lead. He facilitated and produced a series of audio Ruminations on Borders, in which audience members were invited by teams of interviewers to share stories of border identity and border crossings. These recordings were gathered, and the piece was produced. in Abu Dhabi, UAE. 2014.