Friday, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced the new class of Guggenheim Fellows for 2017. Among the list of 173 “individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts” are several CalArtians.
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In celebration of the first year of Santa Clarita’s adoption of the Arts and Culture Master Plan, Mayor Cameron Smyth will proclaim Tuesday, April 11 as Arts Day 2017. Arts Day has been acknowledged in Los Angeles for several years, and this year the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at their April 4 meeting, proclaimed April as Arts Month.
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College Choice, a leading authority in college and university rankings and resources, has published its 2017 ranking for the 25 Best MFA Programs, with Valencia’s California Institute of the Arts making the list.
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Bridging the gap between the film and dance communities, the nonprofit organization Dance Camera West (DCW) brings audiences two weekends of challenging and provocative dance films for the 16th annual DCW Dance Film Festival. Happening at multiple Los Angeles venues on April 20 to 23 and 29 to 30, festival programming includes short films, documentaries and even live performances at sunset on the Santa Monica Pier.
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April 22: CalArts Highlights Emerging Artists at Dance Camera West Film Festival
The QS World University Rankings recently released its list of Top 10 Universities for Art & Design and CalArts is among the higher education institutions cited. CalArts ranks ninth out of a list that names United Kingdom’s Royal College of Art as the top university for Art & Design. Other universities included are Stanford University and Rhode Island School of Design.
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QS Rankings Ranks CalArts as Top University for Art and Design
Actor and CalArts alumna Condola Rashad (Theater BFA 08) joins Laurie Metcalf, Chris Cooper and Jayne Houdyshell onstage for a Broadway production of Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2, with previews starting on March 30 at John Golden Theatre in New York.
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CalArts Alum in Broadway Production of A Doll’s House, Part 2
The Knoxville, Tennessee-based Big Ears Festival curates a world-class lineup of musicians and filmmakers. This year, the festival runs from March 23-26 with several CalArtians screening their works, including School of Theater faculty Janie Geiser and alumni Manuela De Laborde (Film/Video MFA 16), Christina Nguyen (Film/Video MFA 16) and Mike Stotlz (Film/Video MFA 14).
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CalArtians Screen Works at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tenn.
Each month the Arts Commission recognizes individuals or groups who have made a significant contribution to the artistic and cultural life of the Santa Clarita Valley. At the meeting on March 9, 2017, the Arts Commission recognized Dr. Steven Lavine for his twenty-nine years as the President of California Institute of the Arts.
During his tenure as President, Dr. Lavine has provided exceptional leadership and dedication to CalArts, which under his guidance has become one of the most recognized arts institutes in the world. The Institute’s annual fundraising has tripled and its endowment has grown by 476%. Major endowment gifts led to the naming of The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance and The Herb Albert School of Music on the school’s campus.
President Lavine has led CalArts with a strategic and creative vision that has included initiatives that have expanded not only the reputation of the institute but also the opportunities for the students. To build a bridge to the vibrant art scene in downtown Los Angeles, Steven led the effort to build the internationally renowned Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater, or REDCAT, which opened in 2003 in the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Recognizing the need for arts education to begin at an early age, he founded the CalArts Community Arts Partnership or CAP program. This award winning program, which serves as a national model in arts education, brings the arts to underserved students throughout Los Angeles County, including several programs in partnership with Santa Clarita schools, social service nonprofits, and the City.
One of President Lavine’s biggest leadership challenges came with the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which caused extensive damage to the Valencia campus. He led the effort to raise $42 million to rebuild the campus and was able to reopen in just eight months.
President Lavine has also represented CalArts and Santa Clarita on many regional and national arts efforts, including serving on the boards of the American Council on Education, Americans for the Arts, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, KCRW-FM, Idyllwild Arts, and on Barack Obama’s Arts Policy Committee. He also co-chaired the Blue Ribbon panel that led to a major ten-year investment in arts education by the Los Angeles Unified School District. He has also demonstrated a commitment to supporting cultural exchanges as a way to build bridges between countries, for which he was honored with the Federal Republic of Germany’s highest honor, the Cross of Merit.
As the Arts Commission Chair shared in his comments, “Steven’s most important role as President has been his commitment and belief in empowering students to realize their creative potential, and anyone who has heard him speak about the need to support and grow young artists easily recognizes why he has been so successful leading CalArts for almost thirty years and why the students and faculty of the institute think so highly of him. It is impossible to measure the impact that he has had on Santa Clarita, Los Angeles, and the entire arts world, but it is easy to realize that he deserves to be recognized and honored for that impact.”
The 78th installment of the 2017 Whitney Biennial opened to the public at the Whitney Museum in New York on Friday. The 63 artists, with a number of CalArtians counted among them, explore themes of self and the individual’s place in a turbulent society.
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Santa Clarita resident Frank Rock has been interpreting the world around him with pen, pencil and paintbrush for more than 60 years, when he started doodling faces, landscapes and characters in the margins of his schoolbooks and any available blank space. He started working on canvas after college, but his art career didn’t really take off until his three children were in high school and he began doing murals for friends and local businesses and started collecting followers. He was commissioned by the City of Santa Clarita to create a backdrop for its first public access TV show, a trash can for the Aquatic Center, one of the first in the California Bear Project (history bear, currently awaiting installation at the Old Town Newhall Library) and the Amgen bear that comes out for the annual cycling competition and has been presented in maquette to Stage Winners.
His mural of the historic Southern Hotel at the corner of Market and Main Streest in downtown Newhall provided the backdrop of the Walk of Western Stars dedication one year, and he has two projects in the Old Town Newhall Library – the restoration of the stagecoach mural in the Community Room and the original Howdy mural that greets visitors to the Children’s Section. His original designs depicting our nation’s military conflicts are etched in bronze story stations surrounding the lawn at the Veterans Historical Plaza. He also created the mural in the Administration offices of Valencia High School and adds distinguished sports alumni to the school’s wall of champions every year.
His mural “Angels” graces a wall on the first floor of Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills, and he created the murals at Strathern Historic Park in Simi Valley that depict the apricot industry and its influence on the area. He continues to work on private commissions and has expanded his repertoire to canvas, theatrical set design and chalk. He’s painted walls, floors and ceilings and sculpted surfaces. By now, this Renaissance man spends every day working on his art in one form or another in his home studio.
His murals, each a unique interpretation, grace dining room walls and palatial entryways, creating spots of inspiration and solace. He was recently awarded Best of Theme at the City of Carlsbad’s ArtSplash for his chalk homage to photographer Ansel Adams. His interpretations of forest, beach or urban landscapes on canvas have been featured at art shows and hang in private galleries.
