SD Art Prize 2011 show and 2012 announced

Adam Belt installation

Tristan Shone performance

Ruben Ortiz Torres (smiling!)

Adam Belt and Jay Johnson

San Diego Art Prize 2011 Exhibition of Ruben Ortiz-Torres with emerging artist Tristan Shone and Jay Johnson with emerging artist Adam Belt . Reception on March 30, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM. show until May 5, 2012 at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library (1008 Wall St. La Jolla, 92037) More info:press@ljathenaeum.org 858.454.5872

Adam Belt has this magical room of pin point light heightened by a subtle fog in the air which shows up streams of light. It was exquisite. Ruben Ortiz Torres exceeded himself by showing very saleable single color canvases with candy colored glitter paint all of which was heat sensitive/.. These painting looked like you should never touch them, but you were invited to do so. Such a thrill. Tristan Shone's performance with 7 musicians singing through his mouth protector masks was haunting and wild and the audience seems to really get it which was thrilling. Jay Johnson showed a similar work to one at the Art Fair that we displayed last September but and also a new work of collaged found objects, very witchy and Edgar Allen Poe-ish. A terrific full house. crowd showed them support for this fifth year of the art prize. The Award Recipients for 2012 were announced and they are Arline Fisch jeweler and sculptor and Jeffery Laudenslager, kinetic sculptor. They will be choosing their emerging artists later this year. We also announced the launch on Thursday June 7 of the New Contemporaries V show of all emerging artists nominated in 2012 at Susan Street Fine Art Gallery

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Art and Science needs new venue or sponsor

The Bronowski Art and Science Forum and almost 40 other arts organizations may be looking for a new home as.the Neurosciences Institute (NSI) was stepping out of its lease. These programs were funded by Performing Arts Program through it’s Minding the Arts event. The building is going back to the The Scripps Research Institute on Oct 1.. Stacy Rosenburg, their spokesperson says they will be asking for $1500 for each event rental and that her organization focuses on science, not the arts. She seems to have missed the point entirely that the arts and their creativity are the new economic driver for the sciences. She states "…. biomedical research is our mission, and we have to guard our resources." This short term thinking is one of the the things holding back San Diego from taking its rightful place as a city of innovation.

If you know of a venue in La Jolla or a sponsor to fund the Bronowski Art and Science Forum, please contact Ron Newby
ronnewby34@gmail.com

SDVAN March Overview

March was another active month at SDVAN. We are so happy to be directly involved in the following projects.

We had a good showing at the .Ste(+a)m Art and Science Networking Meeting including DNA of Creativity team building on March 7, 6-8 pm at Hera Hub , ( 9710 Scranton Road, #160, San Diego, CA 92121). Lots of connections were made between the art and science commiunities. Remember DNA of Creativity, Team Info PDF & Application Word doc
Survey for participants and Information Video Application deadline March 31, 2012
More info: patricia@sdvisualarts.net 760.943.0148

We announced the SD Art Prize 2012 established artists and also those we call the New Contemporaries who are nominated as emerging artists this year. We celebrate the last showing of the 2011 recipients as well.

San Diego Art Prize 2011 Exhibition of Ruben Ortiz-Torres with emerging artist Tristan Shone and Jay Johnson with emerging artist Adam Belt . Reception on March 30, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM. show until May 5, 2012 at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library (1008 Wall St. La Jolla, 92037) More info:press@ljathenaeum.org 858.454.5872

We are delighted to announce the SD Art Prize 2012 recipients. The established artists Arline Fisch and Jeffery Laudenslager will be making their choice of emerging artists to mentor later this year. Susan Street Fine Art Gallerywill exhibit all the nominated emerging artists from June 2 to July 3. It is an exciting group including:Shawnee Barton, Lauren Carerra, Noah Doely, Rob Duarte, Alexander Jarman, Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli , Lee M. Lavy, Ingram Ober, Vincent Robles, Deanne Sabeck, David Leon Smith, Brian Zimmerman


Hats Off to Life Exhibition Opening Reception: was a joyful occassion. Seeing the Eight artists depict and celebrate in creatively designed hats the lives of 9 residents of Fairwinds Ivey Ranch, is a rich and fulfilling experience. We were thrilled to get so much press for this subject.
North County Times: Oceanside Fashion Show to Feature Hats, Sat Jan 7, 2012
Union Tribune: Hats Off to Life fashion show honors seniors, by Linda McIntosh, Jan 11, 2012
Coast News: Community artists, models take hats off to life by Promise Yee Sat, Jan 20, 2012
La Jolla Light: Hats Off to Life by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt, March 1, 2012.
Go and see photos of the models and the hats at this wonderful exhibition, made possible with a donation from Heritage Senior Care, Inc. and Show until Fri. May 18, Mon to Fri, 9 am to 5 pm Hera Hub , ( 9710 Scranton Road, #160, San Diego, CA 92121) More info: Felena Hanson 619.889.7852

Stephanie Wang is the SDVAN sponsored Student Scholarship recipient of the Mission Federal Art Walk and will be showing at Space #111 on Beech Street between Kettner Blvd and the railroad tracks. Valentine Viannay: is SDVAN sponsored Participation Event Artist and will show on India Street in front of Blick Art store near Fir Street. You can see both for free on Sat/Sun April 28/29.

A+ Art Blog: United Councils of San Diego?

I was lucky to be invited to a web conference for the California Arts Council (CAC). This is an organization that I know of especially for its advocacy role for funding art for the state. It turns out that their state budget allocation was cut from $40 million to $1 million. The one million was a concession to a matching NEA federal grant of $1 million. In other words if the state had not funded the CAC for $1 million they would have lost the $1 million from the federal NEA grant. Surprisingly, a huge percentage of the money raised for the CAC comes from the ARTS license plates and the largest city to buy those plates is San Diego. They raise $3.5 million this way and most of that goes to fund the artist residency programs to get art back in the state schools. Programs have to be 13 weeks long and a whopping 75% actually go to the artists! Yes, I was not surprised to hear this is way above average as in many cases it seems to be the reverse with 75% going to admin. Average is about 50%

I further found out during this exchange, that most counties have a recognized art council that can apply for fund form the CAC. But in the case of SD, we only have a city council, the Commission for Arts and Culture, which can apply for funds. And the Commission for Arts and Culture only serves the City of San Diego. We also have an independent, unrecognized by the CAC, SD Regional Coalition for the Arts. Any city council can be a member (SD, Encinitas, Escondido and Carlsbad are members), but the Coalition is mainly an advocacy organization and does not have anything to do with funding.

We do not have any umbrella group to which all the cities councils in our county belong at this time that I have discovered. If we want to have a County Arts Council it would need to be recognized by 3 out of the 5 SD County Board of Supervisors i.e. Chairman Greg Cox , District 1 , Vice Chairman Dianne Jacob, District 2 Pam Slater-Price (soon to retire, I am told) District 3, Ron Roberts District 4 Chairman and Bill Horn District 5 . There is not much funding that can be applied for, as the CAC total budget is only about $5.5 million. Besides the residency programs, there is money for operating expenses, technical assistance for disabled, support for low income and rural programs, and funding for programs that are collaborative between at least 3 geographically unconnected counties.

We are being asked to check the box on our income tax returns to give $1 to the arts for the CAC. If we want that to come to SD outside of the city funds, then a council needs to be formed and approved. So we struggle here in San Diego with the idea of a County-wide Arts Council. What would be its role? What funds would actually come its way if it did organize? Would a new non-profit need to be formed or would an existing one take on this role? Until the role of a regional arts council is determined, these are hard questions to answer. That role would certainly have to be determined by its members.

Our local cities have different names for those making decisions about the arts. There are art councils, commissions, committees but most are volunteers who are exclusively concerned with their own agendas. There must certainly be crossover concerns and there might be some united goals as well. This is only a worthwhile project if coming together is a win-win for all concerned. The recent envision project Show Your Love for SD funded by the SD Foundation announced results that the general population is ready for change and does want those in leadership roles to all work together and not be silo-ed with little or no inter-communication. I found this quite heartening.

But the real challenge of creating a united SD arts council is to do it in such a way that it is an administratively minimal financial obligation. If not, it is just one more drain on resources. The moment you ask for a membership fee or listing fee, you are in danger of disenfranchising part of the community. So are we technologically advanced enough to have a virtual arts council? If we see San Diego as an innovation capital, a virtual arts council would be a good way to prove it.