 Despite broadcasting online-only during the pandemic, the DTSA First Saturday Artwalk is now back in full-swing on the streets of downtown each month. The Artwalk reappeared in August and has been happening each month since then with the biggest Artwalk of the year expected in November because of cross-collaborations with Viva la Vida and a Catrina Fest to celebrate Day of the Dead, plus the annual international Blading Cup skating event at the East End.   Most of downtown's art galleries survived the pandemic including AvantGarden Gallery. New galleries are also already making waves like Crear Studio, both located around 5th St and Broadway. Any trip to the Artwalk requires a pop-in at CSUF Grand Central Arts Center which has multiple galleries and a theatre which is home to the Wayward Artist theatre group.  Wendy Lopez and Maria "The Hot Tortilla" have been animating the 2nd St Artists Village Promenade with a diverse array of vendors and artists, musical performances and larger-than-life art installations. Pickup a map to the Artwalk at the DTSA Info Booth on the 2nd St Promenade and venture out to the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art and the Santora Building for the Arts, which has been popping-off in the basement to the roof.     Don't just hang out in the Artists Village, the Spurgeon Building (the one with the clocktower) has a special show by downtown-favorite, Matt Southgate at Anna Nalle Fine Art Gallery and Mimi Mar of The Pizza Press across the street would love you to stop by to admire her Day of the Dead altar.  It became a quick hit before the pandemic, and since it has been really heating up: Dancing in the Streets brings you a public square full of salsa dancing for hours on end during Artwalk. Start early for a lesson and you probably won't stop until they cut the lights!  We've only just scratched the surface of everything going on at Artwalk and one of my favorite things to do is to find a cozy place to grab a bite, especially on one of Downtown's new or classic al fresco dining patios like Lola Gaspar.  Enjoy the Artwalk, we'll see you next month!
Story by Ryan Smolar Photos by Brian Feinzimer, Ryan Smolar, Mimi Mar and Matty Slice
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 Boca de Oro Festival of Literary, Visual and Performing Arts is online this year with 100+ free performances and virtual sessions from March 5th-7th. Revelers of culture and enthusiasts of the arts will enjoy this year's open exploration of how we build our cities and lives through our collective memories, dreams and visions. Opening Night begins our explortion of these topics with 40+ local and regional voices in mediums of expression across the arts from writing to puppetry, and dance to author and artist talks. Attendees can sign-up free at BocaDeOro.org. After providing their name and e-mail address, they can choose from over 100 sessions occurring virtually online over the three day festival. Here's what's happening on Opening Night alone:                          Boca de Oro Festival of Literary, Visual and Performing Arts is online this year with 100+ free performances and virtual sessions from March 5th-7th. Revelers of culture and enthusiasts of the arts will enjoy this year's open exploration of how we build our cities and lives through our collective memories, dreams and visions. Day 2 features Keynote Pete Souza, a principle White House Photographer under President Obama and President Reagan. He will open our conversation with his "Eyewitness to History" observations on who we are as a country. Souza is the subject of the hit Netflix Documentary, "The Way I saw It" and his national voice will anchor the importance and timeliness of our community's discussion. Attendees can sign-up free at BocaDeOro.org. After providing their name and e-mail address, they can choose from over 100 sessions occurring virtually online over the three day festival. Here's what's happening on Day 2 alone:                                 Boca de Oro Festival of Literary, Visual and Performing Arts is online this year with 100+ free performances and virtual sessions from March 5th-7th. Revelers of culture and enthusiasts of the arts will enjoy this year's open exploration of how we build our cities and lives through our collective memories, dreams and visions. The festival will conclude on Sunday with "The Arc of Systemic Solidarity," a vision put forth by prophetic Haitian-American poet, Marc Bamuthi Joseph. The artist, citizen philosopher, educator and Vice President of Social Impact at the Kennedy Center will articulate how we collectively design a future of "inspiration for us all." Attendees can sign-up free at BocaDeOro.org. After providing their name and e-mail address, they can choose from over 100 sessions occurring virtually online over the three day festival. Here's what's happening on our Closing Day:                                             The City of Santa Ana Investing in the Arts Grant was given to Artwalk to hire local artists/performers like Calle 4 Cumbia in 2016 While it can feel like there's not enough good news these days -- it's great to take a moment and recognize the City of Santa Ana's small, but meaningful gesture to preserve the City's beloved Investing in the Arts Grant program despite widespread cuts in the City's 2020-2021 Budget which was finalized at the last City Council meeting on July 7th, 2020. A petition was circulated by local artist, Kimberly Duran and arts advocates Victor Payan and Sandra Pocha Pena, that laid out the problem and a plea for help: "For 5 years, the City of Santa Ana has invested in over 60 art projects all over the city funding over 100 local artists and art organizations. This annual grant benefits our residents in many ways, from Beautifying our Neighborhoods, increasing our Quality of Life and Feeding our Spirits with Poetry, Books, Free Concerts, Theater, Films & Cultural Events. Let this blossoming of our creative community continue as we celebrate the best Santa Ana has to offer!". All-in-all, Duran's petition gathered an astonishing 900 signatures in a very short time. Video thanking the City of Santa Ana for the 2016 Investing in the Arts Grant given to DTSA First Saturday Artwalk to hire local artists and performers Correspondence from local artists, community groups, business groups and institutions poured into the City and undoubtedly shed light on the importance of the arts to a variety of sectors. Tomas Benitez, a member of the consulting team that drafted the City of Santa Ana Arts and Culture Master Plan, wrote, "As I' m sure you are aware, there is a multiplier effect for public monies invested on the arts which returns 3 times the amount invested through purchases and expenses related to attendance at arts events. To date, Santa Ana has allocated $375, 000 towards the Investing in the Artists Grant. By means of this multiplier effect, that investment has generated $1.125 million real dollars that economically benefit both the City of Santa Ana and Santa Ana community as a whole. " Briana Harley, a local teaching artist and small business owner wrote, "Investing in the Arts grants are incredibly important to creating community jobs. I have personally paid multiple musicians and artists for events and programming that bring business to the city countless times." Madeleine Spencer, Executive Director of the Santa Ana Business Council wrote, "The arts are pivotal to the city of Santa Ana. It is this critical artistic talent in your community that will help this city move resiliently beyond crisis. It is this talent in the city that will eventually allow the next generation of Santaneros to build back up this city to become the city of their dreams."  At the final reading of the budget, Councilmembers, one-after-one announced their support for keeping the grants and also for supporitng the arts in general as an economic driver and important mental health outlet. Councilmember Penaloza said "When we're looking at things like cutting the arts grant, we have to consider the the artist grant program is an economnic driver for the City. It's used to activate dead space and bring in revenue and people. I would give up my discretionary art funds to provide at least 1 or 2 grants...I'm not much of an artist but I believe art leads to mental wellness. When I'm about to burst, I like doing a little improv or going to Michael's because it's therapeutic." Mayor Pulido went further and even advocated for future arts grants to have thier funds distributed upon award, as he had heard from the community that artists had trouble with the system of reimbursements that is currently in-place. City Manager Kristine Ridge made a presentation to City staff and responded to Council, "We will turn over every rock in order to find the $65,000 to restore the arts grant program." The next day, Kimberly Duran claimed victory for the arts on her highly-circulated petition page: "We did it !!! I would like to take a moment to thank all individuals who participated in signing and spreading the word to continue to fund the "Investing in Artist grant" for the City of Santa Ana 2020-2021 FY budget. We feel as artist it is important to voice and defend the significance Public Art has in our community and support these grant opportunities for future generations of Artist. We could not have done it without you! So thank you!" What's most exciting about the preservation of the arts grant is the rare coming together of so many artists, leaders and residents to save the grants and to state the importance of the arts. Let's hope the arts grants are well-utilized this year and that further coordination and organization of Santa Ana's creative sector continues. Story by Ryan Smolar
 The "Defend The Earth" digital art gallery is a eight-artist, thematic online gallery show curated as part of Santa Ana's participation in the global Placemake Earth movement to raise awareness between climate change and the power of our local communities to make change. Enjoy these artistic works by creatives in our city who are speaking to the ecological, social and psychological shifts imperative to building a climate resilient Santa Ana and world.   Untitled by Adriana Martinez  Scorched by Jonathan Martinez (9”x12” on Panel / Mixed Media / $550 )  Contaminated Playground by Federico Medina ( 16x20 / Print: $200 )  Organic Transformation by Manuel Cortez (palm frond sculpture)   SAVE EARTH by Gene Jimenez Artist Satement: The elephant is an endangered species, and whenever I paint elephants, I’m actually painting what I reference as ‘family’ since elephants also are family oriented species, stay connected to family members for life and respect their dead and elders by actually burying them and visiting their graves annually. The butterfly, for me, is transformation of the human spirit. Our willingness to do whatever it takes, even like the butterfly in that it actually dies during its own transformation to become a butterfly and fly. Both of these were designed into poster prints that were never used to promote saving the earth. In SAVE EARTH, we must address climate change as much as we value the lives of our own families and for that matter, our own selves. Be willing to transform ourselves, however uncomfortable and by any means necessary. We cannot disrespect our fore fathers who fought, died and worked endlessly to give us the world we have, only to destroy it out of our unwillingness to care for each other and ourselves. SAVE EARTH is saving art. We are saving creation itself. No other creation is more wondrous on the planet than the planet itself. The planet has NO PROBLEM being creative. It is we who are the issue. We are in the way of its creativity and lest we be ignorant, it will find a creative way to continue its journey, with our without us. It always does.  Let Us Fly by Denise Moritz ($550 framed in black or $400 without)  La MamaPacha by Alicia Rojas / Santa Ana Community Artist(a) Coalition The "Defend The Earth" digital art gallery was one of 27 actions taking place in 14 countries as part of the Placemake Earth challenge. Through the PlacemakingUS network, our local efforts were connected to similar community-driven projects in New Zealand, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Mexico, Norway and beyond. Defend the Earth Gallery curated by Madeleine Spencer and Ryan Smolar
Contact Artists Directly for Sales Inquiries  “Change has to begin with us as individuals. Art can be used as a tool to empower people to believe that we can bring about that change within our own capacity.” |
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