2 for 1 Holiday Special at OC Museum of Art

This holiday season, bring your family and friends to the museum and receive 2-for-1 admission for all through December 31, 2010.
Holiday hours:

Wed–Sun, 11–5 pm
Thurs 11–8 pm
Closing 3 pm on
Christmas & New Year's Eve
Closed Christmas and New Year's Day

Thank You OC Register

For all of you who did not catch it, The Orange County Register published my story on The New Children's Museum of San Diego.  You can catch it here!  If you are in the San Diego area, this museum is a great experience for you and your children.
Click Here to view article

Art at the Ducks Game

I recently went to my first Anaheim Ducks game at the Honda Center.  I sat astounded surrounded by a virtual light show of magnificent sight, sound, fashion choices, and flying balloon sculpture. I understood why people pay $40 a ticket.  When the light show and music stop all you see is, hockey.Sporting venues know the value of a great lighting artist. They are conductors of mood and feeling.  It expands the original experience.  I  wondered if people were really present to what they were experiencing.   That this form of illustration art featuring music and light was controlling their actions, telling them when to cheer, when to settle down. It was doing what all great art does. Create an emotional response.
  I was fascinated by  the remote controlled  aerial lamb sculpture circling the stadium dropping phamplets. They wanted to experience this grand piece of art.  People wanted it to come near them, fly over them. They were happy when it flew directly over them and they could catch what it was dropping, and disappointed when it wouldn't fly their way.  Even the girls baring their mid-driffs running out to scoop up ice were artistically inspired. No one would be paying attention if they were dressed in turtlenecks and big thick parkas.
   People in Sunny Southern California are filling the Honda Center not just to watch a bunch of guys play hockey.  They are going for an experience enhanced by light,  music,fashion design, and sculptures floating through the air.

Art stays forever....

I just came back from a CPR class and was astounded how life-saving maneuvers changed over the years.  For example, you lean over a chair or a table in order to cure self choking.  I remember when it was put your fist and hand below the breastbone and push!  It made me think of how much information changes over the years. Art, however, stays consistent.  Art tells stories.  Our personal stories, illustrated from our saved children's artwork through the years, our cultural stories which helps us identify our heritage, and most important our civilizations stories.
 Its important not only to preserve beautiful artwork,  but also terrifying art displayed at museums  commemorating events such as the holocaust, or the Spanish inquisition.  Art is knowledge, pure and simple.  It records events  we would soon forget.  It doesn't change with time or "discovery".  It is the purest of sciences. Why? Because it tells the truth of the artists views, emotions, or events as they see them.  Just like we embrace our children's art as precious. We as a society must embrace art that way also.

Art for Everyone?

I'm the chairperson for the PTA art contest at my son's school. In addition to giving them award "certificates"  I'm trying to solicit our local arts venues for donations for our music students.  Our local arts festivals have been more then generous with donations for passes and whatever is needed to support the fine arts for our young artists.  Music on the other hand has been an adventure.  I called our local concert hall and was greeted with a elitist attitude I've seen satirized in regards to the arts.  It begged the age old question. How do we make the arts for everyone instead of associated as an elitist pursuit for a privileged few?  On a more practical level, it appears to me this elitist attitude bites the hand that feeds them.  Young artists are the future money-makers for their current jobs. It seems smart that art venues would want to encourage the arts in public schools and take a keen interest in what is happening to the arts in the public schools.   A six year old in my Reflections program submitted original music, hand written (with the notes) on plain paper.  I was astounded.  Lets encourage him by recognizing his efforts on a community level.  Will he be one of the lost ones in the forest of academia getting math, science, language, and eventually business, marketing...etc emphasized as the way to "success" and wonder why he feels unfufilled as an adult.  How many stories have I read of artists feeling lost in their lives, then going back in their minds to realize that what they really loved, their passion, was art.  Some catch it in time and can make a living doing what they love, others are lost forever, merely existing, trying to survive at whatever job they can.  I feel like Alice in Wonderland when it comes to watching our local arts community.  I read an article interviewing the new "chair" at a local university who was pondering the question of how to reach the community.  Hello...get involved with your local elementary schools.  Your feeder schools(the local ones who will fill your program) who don't have any money for the arts.  Develop programs to go OUT into the elementary school located across the street.   Universities, the arts venues, symphonies, galleries, museums, REACH OUT!! Get involved in your public schools!!

International Holidays Family Festival, Free! December 5

It's Free!
INTERNATIONAL HOLIDAYS FAMILY FESTIVAL
12 PM - 3:30PM
On the first Sunday of every month, the Bowers invites you to bring your family to the museum for a free afternoon of cultural fun! This month`s spotlight shines on the music, dance, arts, and food of the world.
TARGET FREE FIRST SUNDAY
Sunday, December 5, 2010 (10AM - 4 PM)
The Bowers Museum offers free admission to the museum on the first Sunday of every month.
Sponsored by the Target Corporation.