IF YOU ARE DOWNTOWN, WHY NOT TAKE A PEEK?

by Anna Hygelund
Got 30 minutes? Take in 3 great art shows in downtown San Jose…yes, in 30 minutes or less.

Alfred Saheen’s flavor of Hawaii, at the Museum of Quilts and Textiles

The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles’ current exhibit is “Hawaii’s Alfred Shaheen: Master Innovator.” Alfred Shaheen was the cornerstone of which Hawaii’s garment industry was built and was pivotal in its development. The show is well curated with impeccable examples of Shaheen’s approach to the fusion fashion design aesthetic he pioneered. I was interested to learn that this approach is now recognized worldwide as a visual market-not only of a transnational Hawaiian culture-but of a West Coast “American” lifestyle that is informal, environmentally aware and multi-cultural. Shaheen is considered the most important aloha wear designer and manufacturer in Hawaii’s history and his aloha shirts and women’s wear are the most respected and sought-after of all Hawaiian clothing.

Dimitri Drjuhin’s colorful icon0graphy at Anno Domini

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ADULT & CHILDREN’S FINE ART CLASSES PRESENTED BY THE PALO ALTO ART CENTER

Summer Registration Time! – Classes and Workshops in all Media

FOR ADULTS

Ceramics – Weekly classes or intensive workshops offer learning in a variety of art media from experienced teachers.

Classes:

Colored Pencil Drawing-New night!
with Brian Lamprell
64472, Wed, 7-9:30pm, 5 weeks, 7/14-8/11

Jewelry Fabrication
64442, Tues with Edith Sommer
7-10pm, 5 weeks, 7/6-8/3

64471, Wed with Tracy Burk
7-10pm, 5 weeks, 7/14-8/11

Workshops:

Making Books with Kids
with C J Grossman
64476, Wed, 8/11, 10am-3pm
Great for Teachers!!

Clay Heads
with Beverly Mayeri
64477, Tues-Thur,  8/17-8/19, 10am-4pm
In conjunction with Beverly’s exhibition at the Art Center

FOR CHILDREN

Puppet Show, Summer 2009

CFA provides very high quality art experiences to the children of Palo Alto and surrounding communities through weekly classes and week-long Studio Camps. Most of our teachers are working artists; all of them are wonderful art educators. We teach the skills children need to bring creativity into their adult lives.

Puppet Show
63496, 5-6 yrs, M-F, 6/21-6/25, 12:30-3pm

Super Heroes, Space Ships, and the Time Travel Express!
63500, 5-6 yrs, M-F, 6/28-7/2,   9-11:30am

Instrument Builder’s Workshop
63502, 7-9 yrs, M-F, 6/28-7/2,     9-11:30am

Robot and Machine Sculpture
63511, 7-9 yrs, M-F, 7/12-7/16,  9-11:30am

Acrylic Painting
63512, 10-13 yrs, M-F, 7/12-7/16,    10:15am-12:45pm

Digital Photography and Photo Manipulation
63504, 14-18 yrs, M-F, 6/28-7/2,   10:15am-12:45pm

For more great Art Center classes and registration see the Enjoy! Catalog found at any City of Palo Alto facility, call 650.329.2366, or visit Enjoy online. If you know the course number, click the classes and activities tab and type in the class course number.

Registration is underway!
Summer Weekly Class registration starts June 4
There’s still room in many superb Workshops and Studio Camps for adults and children of all ages!

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Dos talleres en uno:

Una exploración de la escultura en vidrio soplado y su aplicación a las técnicas mixtas, para artistas, arquitectos, diseñadores y estudiantes,  interesados en la manipulación del vidrio en caliente más la adición de otros materiales en frío.

La primera semana constará de un programa intensivo de aprendizaje y producción de elementos en vidrio soplado y/o moldeado. Llevado a cabo en el taller de vidrio “Xa Quixe”. Los maestros brindarán una demostración diaria que será seguida con la exploración libre de los estudiantes en el taller de vidrio soplado.

La segunda semana constará de la aplicación de otros materiales a los objetos soplados, así como de técnicas para pintarlos, creando: esculturas, collages tridimensionales o arte instalaciones. Llevado a cabo en las instalaciones del Centro de Artes de San Agustín.

Los participantes deberían de traer ‘objetos encontrados’ para usar en los asemblajes así como acudir a los mercados locales para encontrar objetos que puedan ser introducidos en la obra.

Costo: $6,350 (incluye: vidrio claro y de color, metales, adherentes; uso de hornos y herramientas.)

Para inscripción o mayores informes: salime@xaquixe.com

También contamos con información sobre hospedaje en Oaxaca

La Curva Estudios North
2180 Calle Serena
San Diego, Ca. 92139
619.470-1448
La Curva Esudios South
Rancho La Curva,
San Antonio de la Minas, BajaCa. Mexico
dd (01152) 646-156-8282 & 646-155-2298

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Sandow Birk

Creative Minds: Sandow Birk – Private Screening of Dante’s Inferno.Saturday, July 17, 2010, 12 pm

Camera 12 Cinemas

SJMA members’ pre-sale: begins Monday, May 17.

Join artist Sandow Birk for a private screening of Dante’s Inferno. This feature-length animated movie features puppets—all handmade by Birk—created in the tradition of “Toy Theatre,” a European style of puppetry from the 1700s that uses paper puppets just slightly larger than six inches tall. The film follows Dante on a tour of modern-day Hell. Birk’s images depict Dante as a contemporary Southern Californian who is lost in the midst of his life. “It was right around the time of day,” Dante says, “when clocks are punched and beers are opened but there I was heading towards a darkness that was beyond what I could ever imagine.”

Following the screening there will be a Q&A with the artist.

Members pre-sale begins Monday, May 17. General sale begins Saturday, May 22.
The private screening is $6 for SJMA Members and $10 for non-members. Click here to purchase your tickets!

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CSMA is located at: Finn Center, 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View, CA 94040, 650.917.6800, www.arts4all.org

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Art Buzz, The 2011 Collection
Call To Visual Artists – Now Accepting Entries.

Art Buzz, The 2011 Collection, is now accepting entries for inclusion into the premier visual arts showcase, hardcover “coffee table” publication. The fine art search and juried competition is open to visual artists, worldwide, who work in any visual art media (must be 18 or older).

Art Buzz, the book, is a full color, large format, hardcover fine art publication that is scheduled for release in late January 2011, with a vigorous distribution and marketing plan. The pages of Art Buzz, The 2011 Collection, are open to all high quality, emerging and mid-career visual artists including artists that have yet to venture out for public scrutiny. Art Buzz, founder, artist Tony Blue, knows how important EXPOSURE is and all serious visual artists are encouraged to enter the juried competition to be included in the volume, Art Buzz, The 2011 Collection. The Art Buzz selection process is fair, unbiased and based solely on each individual artist’s submitted work.

The deadline for entries is September 30, 2010 (early entries discounted). For more information regarding the competition, awards, fee and entry forms, log on to http://www.artbuzz.org/competition.html

fyi… Each year an ART BUZZ COLLECTION volume is sent to art dealers in New York (inc. NYC) -
California (inc. LA & San Francisco) – Sarasota, Naples & Miami, Florida – Atlanta, Georgia area -
Santa Fe, New Mexico – New Orleans, Louisiana – Washington DC – Pennsylvania – The Netherlands -Russia – United Kingdom (inc. London) – Paris, France – & more contacts each year!

www.artbuzz.org – (not-for-profit) by artists for artists
“Dedicated to the Appreciation and Advancement of Contemporary Visual Art and its Creators”

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Tickets to the exciting 2010 Live Nation Summer Concerts, held in Montalvo’s intimate and beautiful Garden Theatre, are on sale now! Don’t miss your chance to see these exciting artists in this one-of-a kind setting. Click here to purchase tickets:

http://www.montalvoarts.org/summerconcerts/
June 9-10: Boz Scaggs
June 18: Jonny Lang
July 17: Lily Tomlin
August 6: Dave Koz and Jonathan Butler
August 12: Joan Baez
August 19: Bill Maher
August 20: All Jarreau and the George Duke Trio
September 11: The Robert Cray Band & Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
September 12: Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey
September 15: Chris Botti
September 17: Creedence Clearwater Revisited

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Montalvo’s Annual Food & Wine Classic celebrates some of the most prestigious restaurants and wineries in the region. Join us for this exclusive gourmet experience, and while you’re here, be sure to bid on one of our fabulous auction items, like this amazing vacation package to the Napa Valley Festival del Sole:

VIP 2010 Napa Valley Festival del Sole Experience for 2, July 17 and 18
Package includes:
Use of a Bentley or Aston Martin for the weekend
2 VIP Festival passes to Festival del Sole with concerts by Chris Botti, Joshua Bell and the Russian National Orchestra
Food & wine tastings, Sunday brunch and the Festival Gala at Meadowood
Two nights in a deluxe room at the Napa River Inn
Donated by: Festival Association Napa Valley and Los Gatos Luxury Cars
Hotel Underwriting: Kathy & Joe Beyers
Value:    $6500

Food & Wine VII: The Art of Dining will take place on Sunday, June 6 from 5:30-8:30pm. Tickets are still available! $175 per person or $150 for members ($125/$100 is tax deductible!) – Only 400 will be sold!

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You’ve got less than a week to submit your film to the 2010 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival. The final deadline for submissions is JUNE 1st.

The Mead Festival considers a range of non-narrative films and videos, including the best in international documentary, experimental films, essay films, animation, and new media.

For more information on submission requirements and other details, please check out the guidelines and Mead FAQs on our website: http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/

Pass the word along to your colleagues, friends, neighbors, students, and resident filmmakers.

Mark your calendar: Mead 2010 Takes place November 11-14!

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Tweak is an interactive art festival aiming to promote the understanding of the use of technology in our lives. This years tweak consists of an exhibition, cinema, talks, music performances and a week long workshop and lots more in-between.

Submissions are currently open until June 30th for the following categories: Exhibition, Workshop, Cinema, Music Performance, Listening Post, Symposium

For more information visit: http://www.tweak.ie
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Athens Photo Festival 2010, the annual festival of photography in Greece and a premiere cultural event in Athens, is organized by the Hellenic Centre for Photography this autumn. The festival’s programe covers a wide range of solo and group exhibitions with national and international artists as well as a number of other parallel events throughout the city.

PARTICIPATION IN THE EXHIBITION PROGRAME
SUBMISSIONS FOR ARTISTS AND CURATORS/ ORGANIZATIONS
Submissions close: July 18th 2010
Τhe Hellenic Centre for Photography is issuing an invitation to artists wishing to participate in the exhibition programe of the Athens Photo Festival 2010. This year’s festival theme under the titleINTERFACES focuses on the interactive relationship between contemporary photography and reality. For more information regarding the submission process, please visit the festival site http://www.hcp.gr/news_en.html

PARTICIPATION IN THE EXHIBITION YOUNG GREEK PHOTOGRAPHERS 2010
Submissions close: July 18th 2010
The Hellenic Centre for Photography is issuing an invitation to young artists wishing to participate in the exhibition Young Greek Photographers 2010, scheduled for autumn 2010, within the framework of Athens Photo Festival 2010. For more information regarding the submission process, please visit the festival site.

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Photo: John Pickelle

You’re invited!

Reception Party for the 2010 Lift Off Artists

Friday, May 28, 6-8pm (cash bar and appetizers)

The 6th Annual Lift Off exhibition opens this weekend at the ICA. Please join us for this celebration with the artists, friends and families. This show marks the culmination of two to three years of intensive investigation by students in the Fine Arts program at SJSU and launches the graduates into the next chapter of their artistic pursuits.

The exhibition features sculpture, photography, painting, mixed media and new media, and includes works by: Kirkman Amyx, Pernilla Andersson, Tracy Burk, shiloh burton, Yunan Cao, Wendy Crockett, Jim Edgeworth, Johnny Hanna, Hedwig Heerschop, Barbara Horiuchi, Trevor Koch, John Pickelle, Beverly Rayner, Elizabeth Rivera, Danielle Siembieda, Susan Suriyapa, and Hongbiao Wang.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the MFA graduates have published a catalog of their work with essays by Art History Master Degree candidates Tariq Abdul-Wahad, Sarah Goodman, Heather Peterson, Maayan Glaser-Koren and Samantha Johnson.

Lift Off is an extension of the ICA’s commitment to provide meaningful opportunities for emerging artists to present their work to the public.  The ICA is always excited to present the work of new artists and develop a collaboration with a diverse group
of art makers and thinkers who reflect the cultural vibrancy of our community.

We hope you can join us for this very special evening.  Lift Off will be on view in the Main Gallery through June 19th.

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John F. Kennedy University, Arts and Consciousness Gallery, 2956 San Pablo Avenue, 2nd floor, Berkeley, CA.

WEAD’s 15th Anniversary Exhibition
Dates: May 12 – June 12, 2010
Reception: Saturday, May 22, 6 – 9 p.m.

This exhibition is a re-dedication to WEAD’s original commitment to support women’s unique contributions to the fields of environmental and social justice art. A goal of this exhibition is to educate its audience to the depth of thinking and breadth of material approaches in contemporary women’s activist art strategies and production.

The participating artists include: Krystle Ahmadyar, Estelle Akamine, Sylvia Algire, Pamela Blotner, Dianna Cohen, Lauren Elder, Linda Gass, Dee Hibbert – Jones, Lisa Kokin, Robin Lasser, Violeta Luna, Linda Mac Donald, Barbara Milman, Liz Merolla, Juana Alicia Montoya, Janice Nakashima, Adrienne Pao, Marella Pedersen, Praba Pilar, Daphne Ruff, Judith Selby – Lang, Danielle Siembieda, Maryly Snow.

Danielle Siembieda, important environmental artist also shows her work in this exhibition. Robin Lasser was asked to pick an environmental artist who she felt would contribute greatly to the field, and guess who came to mind, SJSU, MFA Graduate Danielle Siembieda.

Robin is also showing Consume (eco art show) in New York City at EXIT ART Gallery in Chelsey.

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What Makes Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley?

You are invited to upload images that you think represent the Silicon Valley experience in all its cultural, geographic and technological diversity.

The images submitted will provide inspiration to artists Corinne Okada Takara and Colleen Quen, who will create printed fusionwear sv fabrics and an artwear installation.

Or, put your artistic flair to work and send us your textile design. It’ll be voted upon by the public and the favorites will be exhibited during the 2010 01 SJ Biennial!

So, what do you see in Silicon Valley?

The interactive project ends June 3, 2010, so hurry! Go to fusionwearsv.sjquiltmuseum.org!

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Photo: Ben Wang, 2010

For 33 years, a mural by California artist Millard Sheets has hung in Terminal C of Mineta San José International Airport.  The mural, a gift to the City of San José from the San Jose Mercury and the San Jose News (the predecessors to the Mercury News), commemorated the bicentennial of the city’s founding. It depicts a romantic vision of San Jose history, from the earliest Native Americans, through the Spanish settlers, the orchards, the light tower and early industry, stopping short of the Silicon Valley technology revolution.  Typical of Millard Sheets’ style, the images unfold in layers, with one vignette winding into another.  The large-scale mural, measuring 30′ wide by 18′ at its highest points, has become a fixture at the airport.
With the completion of the Airport’s new Terminal B and related improvements, Terminal C is scheduled to be demolished this summer. This raised issues regarding the available for the mural’s future. Preserving and moving a major mural is no easy task, and as with the many murals across the nation, questions about preserving them garner considerable attention.

The City and Airport approached the preservation of Millard Sheets’ mural very seriously and consulted expert fine art conservators to obtain a clear understanding of the technical issues and alternatives. The work of these professionals included in-depth investigations focused on saving the canvas in its original state.  They looked at the content and composition of the canvas, paint, primer, research into the wall structure, and the adhesive materials used to mount the mural to the wall.

After more than a year of investigation, it became clear that there is no easy answer to preserve the painting itself. The conservator reported that there is no way the mural can be removed in one piece: the materials and assembly method make this impossible without considerable damage to the artwork.  Removing the canvas and wall together as one assembly was also explored.  Unfortunately, removing the wall in segments would cause considerable, irreparable damage to both the painted surface and canvas, which would preclude it from ever being restored effectively. Moving the entire 28-ton wall would be prohibitively costly, estimated at well over $1 million, and still would present serious preservation risks and additional transportation, storage, and relocation challenges.

Fortunately, technology now provides an option for retaining the mural image in a way that was not possible when Millard Sheets first painted it:  an extremely high-resolution digital image can be captured, and that image can produce a high-quality, large-scale reproduction of the mural. Murals generated from digital images can be created on many types of material with excellent results and many additional long-term benefits. This option is now a leading approach to mural conservation nationally, and it could allow for the Sheets mural to have a continued presence at the Airport.

Throughout the process of investigating the options the City stayed in close contact with the artist’s family and with concerned community members.  After reviewing the technical findings, the artist’s son, Tony Sheets, concluded:

“Those responsible for this new terminal construction have worked endlessly to explore ways to remove the mural, hiring several experts in the fields of art restoration and architectural preservation. The conclusion of all, including myself, is that successfully removing the mural intact in anything but small pieces is not possible. Removal of the pieces is not possible without sacrificing the mural as a whole.”

In a community meeting on May 6, the City shared the reports and engaged in a thoughtful discussion about options. Understanding that the original mural cannot be saved intact, all agreed that the option of a digital reproduction was an excellent alternative, and one that could work within the Airport’s schedule for the completion of its renovations. This approach will allow San Joseans and visitors to San Jose to enjoy Millard Sheets’ vision of San Jose for years to come.

Millard Sheets (1907-1989) was a renowned California artist known for his stylized depictions of daily life.  He is credited with over 200 architectural designs and murals that span the United States. His artworks hangs in 46 museums in 15 states, including the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Chicago Art Institute and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Locally his presence is evidenced in many building designs, mosaics, and wall paintings. His work can be seen throughout California on the entrances of buildings that were formerly Home Savings of America banks.

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Next Month: Airport’s New Terminal B Grand Opening Celebration

Looking forward to June’s Grand Opening of the Mineta San Jose International Airport’s new Terminal B!

A two-day Community Open House will open with a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony the morning of Saturday June 26th. Activities will continue throughout the day and Sunday June 27th. Public Art tours are planned. Preregistration will be required for admittance through the airport security checkpoint during the open house.  Stay tuned for more information, including a special edition of San Jose Public Art!!

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42nd Annual Textile Exhibition, Olive Hyde Art Gallery
April 2-May 15, 2010
by Jane Przybysz

Perhaps it was the fact that I’d just finished reading Glenn Adamson’s Thinking Through Craft (2007), a provocative book that makes the case that “craft, as a cultural practice, exists in opposition to the conception of art itself….as a conceptual limit active throughout modern artistic practice.”  In a chapter that teases out what Adamson refers to as the “laudable idealism and tragic self-deception” that can be commonly found in crafts’ invocation of the pastoral, I couldn’t help but reflect on how many artists seem to find their inspiration in apparently unproblematic and totally decontextualized experiences of the natural world.  So I entered the Olive Hyde Art Gallery on the look out for artwork with content that engaged a specific context.

Art quilt Hong Kong Taxi by Jean Renli Jurgenson

I found just three artworks that met the admittedly unformulated criteria that served as my lens for viewing this show and held my attention with the questions they asked or issues they posed.  “Hong Kong Taxi,” an art quilt by Jean Renli Jurgenson, takes a dizzying aerial view of a lone red taxi cruising along a deserted urban landscape of high rise buildings that overwhelm small patches of green at their edges.  Seen from this angle, the taxi reads something like a wildflower whimsically disrupting the grids formed by buildings and pavement, more alive than the nature tamed by cement borders.

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