Paul Harrelson

Director of Quest Productions, Paul served as the Associate Producer of Gallaudet University’s Deaf Way II International Arts Festival in the summer of 2002. Two years in the making the performing, visual and literary arts festival featured over 400 artists, attracted almost 10,000 registrants, and was enjoyed by many thousands more in the extensive concurrent public programs.

Paul came to Gallaudet and the Washington area in 1988. After working as a residence hall counselor and with the performing arts department at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, Paul moved to the College for Continuing Education and coordinated more than twenty-five academic conferences on topics such as Employment and Deafness, American Sign Language in the Classroom, Substance Abuse, African American and Hispanic Deaf Issues, Americans with Disabilities Act, Deaf Studies, and Bilingual/Bicultural Issues. For many years Paul has served as an interpreter and production staff member with Gallaudet and Quest on the performing arts emphasis area of the Young Scholars Program, a summer program for deaf and hard of hearing high school students.

For the last twelve years Paul has also been an American Sign Language Interpreter in private practice. Nationally certified by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf with both the Certificate of Interpretation and Certificate of Transliteration, he interprets in a wide variety of settings including education, government, business, and performing arts in both the United States and abroad.

Also a potter and ceramic sculptor, he has been working in clay since 1997. Most recently his work has focused on creating a series of thrown and assembled low sculptural columns. He is also interested in asymmetrical thrown and suspended vase forms.

Paul has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master’s Degree in Administration and Supervision from Gallaudet University and a Certificate in Sculpture and Ceramics from the Corcoran College of Art and Design. He lives in Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.