Is La Jolla coming back as a center for the visual arts in San Diego?

La Jolla is known as an upscale shopping community with lots of sales art galleries, but not that much art street cred. I had high hopes when I planned my recent trip there to see three new galleries. I was most impressed with the beautiful white Scott White space showing Ross Bleckner. On Jan 14^th there will be a community "art walk" in La Jolla and Scott White Contemporary Art will unveil the gallery's second show in this new location having moved from Little Italy. Stranger Than Paradise is a retrospective of photographs by Stefanie Schneider that have been hand-picked by White himself. Although her work has been showcased in collections and museums around the world, this is Schneider's 1st solo show in San Diego. You can also still see the William Glen Crooks exhibition

Thumbprint Gallery does not have street level windows and neither it nor Alexander Salazar Fine Art were open for business on the day I visited. Neither appeared to show work different from their other gallery spaces in North Park and downtown. But both will be open in the evening on Jan 14. ASFA (6-9 pm) will show paintings by Erik Skoldberg from San Diego and sculptures by Kevin Barrett from New York. Thumbprint (5-10 pm) invented Works of Wisdom, works by an eclectic mix of artists using famous quotes as their stimulus.

I used this opportunity to drop into Quint Contemporary to see the stunning minimal back painted glass works by Thór Vigfússon. These works do not read in photographs but have such a quiet power. Also close by is RB Stevenson and I discovered the work of John Rogers, which blew me away. This local professor at San Diego State is another hidden SD treasure. The show at the end of December was sparse because many of the works were sold, but that made the space ever more open and elegant.

The Kathleen Marshall: Still in Paris gouache paintings at the Athenaeum Art and Music Library were almost photographic the technique was so perfect but it was the way that they drew you into the scene and made you believe, for the moment at least, that you could be living in one of these rooms and about to step into the sun dappled garden that is their true charm..

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I visited The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego to see the Phenomenal: California Light Space and Surface. I knew the works of most of these artists and was surprised to be most taken with the completely black room by Eric Orr called Zero Mass. I entered the room with trepidation and left after a few minutes. But something prompted me to ask a guard if I had missed anything. He kindly took me back into the room and gave me the confidence to stay long enough for my eyes to become accustomed to the very low light. The room was not a deprivation experience but an experiment in light and space after all.

Do I think that La Jolla is coming back as a center for the visual arts in San Diego? No, three new gallery spaces will not make that much difference. What I do think we are seeing is the re-bounding of the international art market being reflected in these galleries’ quest for a bit of that succulent pie. I hope that Thumbprint and Salazar have not put more on their plates than they can digest as I sincerely wish that they will succeed.

Audience Engagement

I was glad to see the James Irvine Foundation publication Getting in on the Act as they made a very good case for the value of the policies at SDVAN. They reported that building support for the arts in the future depends on encouraging more participation from our audiences.

The study identifies three main types of involvement; curatorial where the public makes decision about the content or direction of the project; public co-producing with the collaboration of professional artists; and finally when the public is asked to create their own works of art.

We have found that SD audiences want to meet the artists and love to sit down for a meal with them and even share in the process of making the work. We know that art gives people a way to identify their community, take pride in it and thus protect and improve it.

SDVAN continues in its efforts to gain more and more participation from our community. During the Art Meets Fashion 2011 public launch in April of this year, we invited the public to strut their stuff on our catwalk with fashions made by them or their friends. This popular part of the program helped to build the number who attended this event to 1000 and it was one of the most well attended events of the NTC Liberty Station complex.

Hats Off to Life is a project where we will be going into retirement communities and basing hat constructions on the life of some of the residents. We hope to hold a hat making workshop for them as well. We will strive to introduce participatory components into the DNA of Creativity project in the next two years.

However, having spent 6 weeks looking at art in London with very little personal participation, I can testify that this was an immensely satisfying experience. Not all art needs to be displayed with a participation element although a little education is never amiss for those who might want it. The new show at the SDMA, Mexican Modern Painting from The Andrés Blaisten Collection (through Feb 19, 2012), is wonderful to see just for the varied styles and high quality of the work on display. There are two educational rooms within the show space. One has a time line with four ways to listen and interact with the information presented. The other has specially commissioned drawing benches with a chance to create right there.

For SDVAN, not having our own brick and mortar venue has become one of our strongest strategies. We do not consider this a disadvantage or even something to strive for in our future plans. As we work alternatively online, in loaned spaces and even work to get into people homes, we see this as a cost effective and innovative way to go forward.

Today’s artists are collaborating, remixing and repurposing not just with their materials but with their cultural views. At SDVAN we encourage that and try hard to do it internally within the organization. We are a 100% volunteer organization with no salaries or building cost to cover. All our donations go into the funding of projects for the community. This is an alternative way of running a non-profit and one which has grown out of the needs of those we serve.

I was astounded when I first came to SD to see the hundreds of art association that exist here. Although they have not perhaps been very proactive in creating an art market, they have certainly been responsible for supporting the many cultural resources of our neighborhoods. The SD region has this incredibly rich pool of amateur and part time artists and their impact is underestimated, I believe. It is heartening to learn that a total of 33% of all adults create and attend art events. Add to that 17% who attend and 12% who make art but don’t attend and you get a whooping 62% of American engaged in creative processes.

Here are a few examples of visual arts project mentioned in the study that I thought you might enjoy:

• The Art Gallery of Ontario’s In Your Face was an open-submission art exhibit featuring 17,000 portraits collected from the public
• The Davis Art Center’s Junk2Genius program celebrates the community’s commitment to reduce, reuse and recycle. This annual competition features 15 teams of community members competing in a timed sculpt-off using recycled materials
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LONDON 2011 - PART TWO

The link to this PDF includes news of

• Frieze Art Fair
  
• Exhibitions at Tate Modern (Gerhand Richter top)
  
• Degas at the Royal Academy
  
• Frank Stella at the Haunch of Venizen
• Raqib Shaw at White Cube (above bottom)
  
• Grayson Perry at the British Museum
  
• more news of the design shows at the Victoria and Albert Museum
  
• Pipilotti Rist at the Hayward Gallery (above middle)
  
• Turner Prize show at the Baltic in Gateshead
  
  
• and much more totaling 12 illustrated pages of coverage of October 2011 in London and Newcastle
  
  
  I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed attending these exhibitions.
  
  http://www.sdvisualarts.net/sdvan_new/pdf/A+ArtBlogLondon2011Part2.pdf
  
  
  

LONDON 2011 - PART ONE

My London Trip is Sept 15 to Oct 31, 2011 and I am sharing my art adventures this year on the A* Art Blog. This covers Sept 15 to Sept 26.

This is the beginning of my exploration of the London Design Festival 2011 and there are 200 participants and over 280 events in 25 different design areas. I have plans to go to about a dozen of them as it is quite overwhelming but fascinating. Evidently this is the largest design festival in the world. Hold on to your hats as what follows is just the first day.

I started with a lecture by Murray Moss at V&A about digital 3-D printing and examples are scattered through out the Victoria and Albert Museum so it was like a scavenger hunt to see them all, but brilliant and he is one cool old dude. He curated this collection from existing and commissions works and each is set for a reason in its space. It reminds me of what Ruben Ortiz-Torres says he is doing for the Long Beach Museum for Pacific Standard Time. By juxtaposing art works, you provoke new meaning on both. Displaying works of art in a relationships which are not time lined or regional but has to do with the influences is more historical but Moss envisions museums that could be science oriented one day and economic the next. . Moss was very interested in the way that nature can be mathamatised and how that could teach us things about structure in design. New architecture is not so much a referral to older styles (the variation on the box) but wide open to new materials construction in brand new ways. Some of the objects on view could not have been any other way but by 3-D printing.

Art work has been digitized before in a reductive process, where robots cut away in a reductive process, those bits not wants. Laser water jets controlled by computers are a good example of this. But 3-D printing is an additive process. Somewhere in between is digital modification to change an existing shape. This technique is pushed forward originally by the need for substitute body parts in the health industry. So far, we only read about the uses for peace purposes, but Moss thinks a broader dialogue is needed to cover the potential uses for war as well.

What you see below is a set of objects that were all made using 3-D printing. The light fixture opens and shuts like a flower in the sun the little stool telescopes up into a pole. The head of Lady Belhaven is reproduced in resin with a hat added to it by Stephen Jones in fiber filaments. The dress (this time on a dress form) was located in the only empty niche of the V&A hall opposite of one of the warrior saint. And the shoes were ringing the Bed of Ware which was supposed to sleep 16!

While looking for all these goodies, I discovered lots of other parts of the Design Festival. The entrance was decked out with a giant curve of interlocking wood bits called Timber Wave by Amanda Levete (left) that looks better in this photo than it did in real life. Bouroullec Brothers: Textile Field (right)- click the link to see a film of this being installed which is more interesting then the finished product,

basically a huge colored couch. When I saw it, exhausted museum visitors were reclining all over it. . The massive 240-square-meter structure was pieced together panel by panel over a fourteen-hour nocturnal stint captured by photographer Ben Dunbar-Brunton in the Raphael Gallery

A Pylon for the Future was a set of maquettes of short listed winners of a design contest by the Electric Grid. I think they missed the point here as these are really sculptures and no matter how elegant there is no way they will disappear into the landscape, so why not go all out and use a scheme of 6 which changes as you view them through the landscape.

Engineering Eyelashes: Paper Art by Jessica Palmer was a cute little

workshop for drop in visitors with an array of fiber papers for making jewelry and more sturdy glazed paper for making intricate cut out. I met Jessica who was wearing this collar necklace (left) at the time. I relaxed a bit from all that walking (three tube changes to get to the V&A from my flat in Clapham Common) and made a fun flower broach (right).

I was very surprised to be impressed with the Jameel, the bi-annual £25,000 international Art Prize for contemporary artists and designers inspired by Islamic traditions of art, craft and design. The Jameel Prize 2011 short listed artists and designers span a geographical region stretching from North America, to France, Algeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. I did not notice the prize winner Rachid Koraïchi perhaps because it was more subtle.

The youngest artist in the shortlist, Noor Ali Chagani (left) lives in Pakistan and his sculptural works made from miniature terracotta bricks are like a piece of cloth. Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (middle) has combining Iranian traditions of mirror mosaic and reverse glass painting techniques with a modern aesthetic. Farmanfarmaian spent nearly a decade living in New York during the 1940’s and 1950’s as an art student and later as a fashion illustrator where she worked alongside Andy Warhol. Hadieh Shafie‘s (right) new works are made up of 22,500 strips of paper, each scroll is marked with printed and hand written Farsi (Persian) text then tightly rolled into concentri circles The concentric forms of both text and material take their inspiration from the dance of the whirling

dervish.Hadieh Shafie was born in Iran and lives and works in the USA.

Lifeline (2010) Birds of Paradise'(2008) 22500 (2011)

It is a very pleasant experience, walking around in an elegant tent erected in the middle of Berkeley Square at the LAPADA Art and Antique Fair presented by The Association of Art & Antique Dealers. Gold jewelry, silver presentation pieces, curiosities, furniture, paintings and drawings of the very finest quality, beautifully presented with a glass of champagne when one is parched, and a bit of smoked salmon if one felt faint. I gravitated to the Colander Table (so named for the holes) by Daniel Rohr, an edition of 8 for about $72,000 each which crated a stunning optical illusion. It dipped in the middle but a thick glass cover made it viable for use. This was the winner of the LAPADA "Object of the Year 2011 and presented by Peter Petrou Works of Art.

The Tent and Origin Fairs plus Super Brands which is one of five other displays near Brick Lane which is now the most happening place in the capitol. The streets were thronged and apparently this is not unusual for any weekend. The district was old and poor Jewish immigrants but is now a mix of Indian and yuppie. Spitalfields meat market has gone the way of Convent Garden flower market and is now all restaurants and shops. We got fabulous cheese from Androuet and chocolate brownies from St. Johns. Both were first consumed as a picnic lunch with wonderful cold meats, chocolates, corn nuts, baby artichokes, delicious bread and of course, wine, at Lesley’s nephew Ben’s temporary home while his business The Cold Press was displaying at the Tent Fair. (below)

The Old Truman Brewery London E1 was home to the English design fair in about 9 different rooms (NO actual tent!). These fun stools were made from cricket bats and more shapes liked cupcakes, fabulous puddled chrome chair, wonderful chandeliers that looked like them were made from a children’s erector set, and this clever knotted light.

Pierra Ospina Daruma Design Phillip Aduatz

Pink Clip Tick Chandelier by Freshwest Jung Myung Taek

These little fine porcelain pots all lined up like soldiers or a Morandi landscape (left) and this collection of little animals with a tiny pin cushion and two pins (right) was part of the onslaught of far eastern wares on view. .

Ikuko Iwamoto Naori Preistly

I couldn’t help but document all the deer themed wall décor I saw at Design and Made

Another theme was birds that seemed to be everywhere.

Latorre Cruz

Then on to Origins which was in the middle of Old Spitalfields Market London E1 and consisted of 6 long rows of small booths of fine crafts including a mass of jewelry, home décor objects, textiles and lighting. I was watchful for hats because of our upcoming Hats off to Life project and this antler hat seemed most impressive as it referred to all the deer I saw earlier at Tent.

Barbara Keal Katty Janneh Mirjam Muver

Another trend was paper cut outs and you can see further birds here in paper as well.

Claire Brewster Sarah Morpeth Abigail Brown Maxine Greer

This light sculpture below seems to tie every theme together and I am showing it with a wall of doll arms used to display necklaces. As always, many booths put a lot of thought into the display design and that is great fun to see.

Tsai and Yoshikawa Momocreatura

But I think my favorite piece of the shows was these drawings in space, one at the Tent fair on the left and one at Origins on the right. I especially like the one on the right as it only used the essentials lines to tell its story.

Jan Plechac Maya Selway

Drink, Mate, Art

I am sure everyone has noticed how well attended the events aimed at the younger demographic group are when art is added to the entertainment. TNT at MCASD, Cocktails and Culture at SDMA, A-List at the Athenaeum and Art After Dark at the Oceanside Museum of Art, as well as the numerous vodka companies that hold launches at art gallery, are all opportunities for young adults to mix and mingle.


The really big question is how do we get that same audience to start buying art after they have attended an art show to eat, drink and mate? Suggesting education might be too big of a leap for those addled by alcohol. But the idea is to get them to start looking more closely at the art to develop some sort of choices that might lead to a desire to acquire. Here are two strategies to consider:

• Roll playing: Hand out oodles of fake money and ask the guests to make choices about what art they would buy. A case of vodka goes to anyone who brings out the real thing and makes a purchase.

• Match Making: ask couples to choose art for each other. This would entailed some work in figuring out the what and why. A bottle of vodka goes to the artist whose work is most chosen.

We need every trick in the book to build a healthier art world and that means where events are not only well attended but artists are supported hopefully in a monetary way.

Read another view on this subject by Kevin Freitas

Too Brave to Fail

One of the suggestions for a DNA of Creativity project that was generated in our June meeting was Super Heroes, the DNA of our future selves. Comic Con, host to all things with super powers, came to town in mid July close to the same time I was invited to a SD Foundation visioning exercise for the future of SD. Join them all together and that train of thought dumped me into the subject of power and how it is used in a successful community and what we expect from our leaders.

In my own limited case, power is not a goal in itself. But I seem to have accrued some power as a by-product of various projects that I had a passion to complete. For example, my phone calls or emails are answered, I am asked to make job recommendations, our events draw a crowd and we can fund some projects because of the money we have raised. I have the power to get things done especially for others and I try my best to be a force for the good in the community.

Leaders are known to hold power and leaders have affected our past, affect our present and have a huge responsibility to affect our future. To see that future calls for imagination and a fearless attitude towards charge. No matter how much we might like things to stand still, the world turns and courage is called for to make sure we are traveling in the right directions. My husband Darwin coined a phrase, “too brave to fail.” It refers to risk takers who aren’t afraid to have new ideas and make them public. These leaders are responsible enough to know that failure is not acceptable. Everyone who has an imagination and is willing to use it is a leader in my book. I just wish these leaders were the ones who held the power.

Out and About in June, 2011

I hear a wonderful video talk sent out by Dan Springs about shattering your miss-conceptions by Jared Cohen and I realized yet again how important it is to have an open mind to allow creativity to flow. I also know that we can’t just talk about ideas we have to do things and do them with passion and conviction. That is why I am so excited about the DNA of Creativity project. I spent a day and a half at the Art of Science Learning Conference at Calit2 and then we held a DNA of Creativity meeting where 28 professional gathered to further discuss the project, give in put and feedback. This was our third meeting and I think we now have a project which has legs and will help us meet the goals not only of SDVAN but to follow the mission to fuse the art and science communities.

Now that Art Meets Fashion is almost over, I have had a chance to go to a few exhibitions and boy has it been fun to see what is up and about in San Diego. I am not claiming to have made a survey of everything out there, but I just visited the shows that were in my path.

Italo Scanga mini retrospective is at the Oceanside Museum of Art to Aug 21 and I am looking forward to seeing a selection of his more intimate objects at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. He broke new ground in San Diego but I think it is the way that his colleagues speak of his zest for art and his welcoming spirit that adds to his status. Also at the OMA is Beatrice Wood Drawings and Ceramics to Sept 18, a charming eccentric women with an exciting love life that she captured in her often naïve way which makes art so accessible to all. Jeff Yeoman was a star at the Gold Coast Paintings of Southern California, California Arts Club now over. There were a few other paintings that made the show worthwhile. I liked Eric Merrell and Ken Goldman and I imagine these lush landscapes were a treat for the Oceanside audience.

I enjoyed the crowd and the cookies at the Zandra Rhodes and Andrew Logan tea party at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. I know both and own many marvelous jewelry pieces by Andrew from my time in London. It appeared like there were lots of sales for this one day event. Code of Chromes by David Forbes now over but well reviewed by Kevin Freitas on our Picked RAW Peeled blogsite. I love color field works and so was enchanted by these made from duct tape. They are all about the edge and seem to be on the edge of being edgy so I will follow his work with great interest.

Lynn Engstrom and James Watts at RB Stevenson are now over but the Watts showed a new (to me) style not using his usually tin tacked method. It was almost globe shape of drift wood hanging with little men dangling like chandelier crystals. I saw a similar pieces at the Solomon’s home in La Jolla (they were host for the annual SDMA Contemporary Art Council picnic) called brick man. I loved the sense of humor that Watts brings to his work.

Behind What It’s In Front Of: John McLaughlin painting and Roy McMarkin sculptures at Quint Gallery gave me a chance to see their new space just east of Torrey Pines on Gerard. The façade has been deigned by Roman de Salvo (SD Art Prize) and has a retro maze feeling that suits the building perfectly. The show of augmented and altered bureaus was so intriguing and bodes well for exciting shows in the new larger space.

It is your last few days of Patricia Patterson show at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido open only until June 30 so get your skates on if you have not seen the show if only to see the one installation room which is brilliant papered her personal notes.

We looked forward to seeing Gustav Stickley and the American Arts and Crafts Movement as we lived for a time in a Renee Macintosh inspired home near Glasgow. This American version has strong ties to that European master’s work. On the night of our view we also got to see, John Dillemuth with his crazy and charming wood machines like a cross between a Da Vinci invention and Rube Goldberg and Brian Zimmerman with his astounding chairs which seemed to be site specific rising up in the atrium of quietly adding to the aesthetics of the eastern rooms. Both were part of the Summer Salon Series, What Does a City Need, Every Thursday from June 2 to Sept 1 at The San Diego Museum of Art Balboa Park, 92101 and highly recommended. By the way to the parties at the SMDA are elegant and fun and real crowd pleasers with special cocktails and exotic foods. Well done to the staff for putting on these events for people who really want to see the art besides having a good time. I think they hit just the right balance.

Who wouldn’t like wondering among the incredible gardens with exotic flora and cascading waterfalls of the SD Botanic Gardens but an added pleasure is the New Sculpture installation curated by Naomi Nussbaum Synergy Art Foundation aided by Dennis Batt. Special pieces by Cheryl Tall (with added mosaic skirts), Jeffery Laudenslager (who continues to grow as a master kinetic artist), Deanne Sabeck (new 3-d column of glowing light), Sandra Chanis (cleverly sites over water), and many, many more.

At the Lux Art Institute, see the work of South African sculptor Claudette Schreuders and the new sculpture she created while in residence at Lux. These works are an unexpected blend of realistic and cartoon that draws you in and then surprised you with a certain poignancy. A big wow for the ceramic objects for sale by Kelly Schnorr who reproduced ordinary objects but added unusual colors and transfers to show her quirky take on life. Very reasonably priced as well.

I also went to Hera Hub a new business center for women started by Felena Hanson for a Legal Issues in Business workshop by Amanda L. Mineer from the Legal Center for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs, Inc. Watch her new space for other events of interest to those setting up shop of some kind or another.

I end with just a plain old crazy assed Mid-summer party at Fusion Glass Company in La Mesa full of artists wearing wings and sporting wands and eating, drinking, and dancing. All this gaiety was a thank you to their customers and artists for a great year of sales. No fee, no cause, just bohemian artists doing what they do best. A big thank you to Debb and Paul for including us.

Putting Our Tax Dollars to Work

Putting Our Tax dollars to Work or what I would do if I were Arts and Culture Commissioner.
By Patricia Frischer

Okay, I will probably never be a commissioner for Arts and Culture, but I had a good fantasy while I was in the shower and thought I would share some thoughts. You never know when seeds of ideas might sprout. I have no doubt things need to shake up a bit and these ideas would certainly do that

1. Throw out the current plan for distributing TOT dollars. It is too much paperwork that no one wants to complete or read. Instead instigate a nomination process and a lottery draw to see who gets what. How great would it be if a tiny organization got a wind fall and could run with it?
2. All commissioners would be responsible for one interactive community project during their term. They would mentor and support the project to make sure it was excellent.
3. A Commission for Art and Culture Limousine would be on call once a week to take VIPs to art events. Commissioners would be responsible for filling this car up with different people for every trip thus widening the support of the arts and being seen to be present in the community. Only limited number of these trips would go to large established organization events. VIP would have a wide definition: politicians, community leaders, entertainment stars, sport stars, industry leaders, etc. A blog would be kept on these trips and statement taken from the VIPs.
4. The Commission would stand fully in back of SD Art Month and do everything possible to make this an awareness time for the value of the arts in our community. They would encourage cross collaborations of all kinds.
5. The Commission would hold the 21 st century version of a decathlon. Each entrant to complete a 100 Meter Race, High Jump, Hurdles, Discus, Swim/Surf, Painting, Poetry, Dance, Video, and Song.

Now it is your turn. Do you have a fantasy of what you would do as commissioner? Blog away.

PS This is written with respect to the current Commission for Arts and Culture. It is a hard job, we know.

The Birthing of Art Meets Fashion

Besides the fact that this event takes more than 9 months to gestate, I feel that it is much like carrying a fetus to term. Strange for me to say perhaps, as I have never born a real child, but just look at the process and make up your own mind.

It is always easy to procreate with a partner and whether you call it a marriage or a friendship, I could ask for non better than Felena Hanson who is the Fashion Designer coordinator for Art Meets Fashion.

We turn to Krystel Tien, Fashion Show coordinator with the aid of Loren Smith Productions for our baby shower i.e. thefashion show launch. This is the celebration for all the participants and a few special guests. We are anticipating the more extensive shows in the various venues and giving the project its extra push into the world.

You need a Midwife standing by to aid you through the process and Rosemary KimBal does proof reading, mans a desk, gives me a ride…what ever I may need most. Amazingly she is also making with the Valentine Viannay the scarves commemorating the project and also fabric for the dance performance and even doing a demonstration of Giant Brush painting at the Art Walk (the event draws 150,000 on one day.) where she will help us promote Art Meets Fashion.

Birthing is a natural process but it is essential to have this vital person to supply money transfusions Doctor Carolann Dekker is our Sponsorship Liaison

Standing by is the Nurse practitioner, Lauren Letizio who coordinates the over 35 Fringe Event which are cross promoted during this project. We consider them all our Neighbors who lend a hand when needed.

What could be more vital than choosing the correct hospital and with the help of Constance White and Susanna Pereda we secured the San Diego International Airport to birth the project.

It’s sextuplets! We thought we had an 11 pound (team.venue) baby, but it turns out there is an online competition with winners presented at the L Street Fine Art Gallery by Kay Colvin , an AMF artists exhibition at San Diego Dance Theater directed by Aimee Dupuis, a Mannequin show organized by Denise Bonaimo and Ariane Brittany at the NTC, a group show at the SD Airport and all those fringe events galore.

We have the glorious fortune to have three Godmothers, ,Irene de Watteville who watches over us and Rana Sampson, first lady of SD and our honorary patron and Jodi Kadesh, NBC San Diego Traffic & Weather Anchor and MC for our fashion show at the airport.

Christening is the time you declare your joy to the entire world and what nicer place than the NTC Promenade at Liberty Station for our public launch party hosted by Alan Ziter and with a dance performance by Jean Isaacs, San Diego Dance Theater and fashion show coordinator Ranee Alano. Having the public join in on the catwalk is an extra bonus with all that good will and best wishes.

Spreading the good news is Kim Richards our PR Liaison, .Louisa Garcia the documenter coordinator and Art Blog Editor, Erinn Ryan our Fashion Blog Editor. We have Adam Levins and Jessica Mandeville to thank for creating the video promotion of the project. Watch for the video by John Schell and those wonderful baby pictures by Kira Corser and Clarissa Danielle Sepulveda who documents the SD International Airport Fashion show, April 28, 2011

Knowledge transfer is handled by Denise Bonaimo Educator coordinator of the many schools who will be teaching lesson plans and to the Art Institute of Ca, SD and their staff including Jaye Brown and Ruth Holden with help from Tania Alcala and Mark Jesinoski.

It truly take a village to raise a child and ours is well tended by the more than 200 collaborators who are the artists, the fashion designers, the educators, the documenters, the gallery and boutiques owners. It’s a boy, It’s a girl….it’s Art Meets Fashion. Pass the cigars!