Flash Forward at Oceanside Museum of Art

I have been instrumental in arranging a NCAN meeting at Oceanside Museum of Arts (OMA) taking a look at the challenges we have to meet and opportunities available in 2018 and beyond in the art in San Diego. My special area of expertise is obviously visual arts and I do spend a considerable amount of time thinking about this subject. 

There is a group of shows at Oceanside Museum of Art called Healing Journeys: Veterans and Artist Unit which I think is a perfect example of the future now. The Arts and Culture community is going to be called upon more and more to advocate for social issues. To do that effectively they need to be able to collaborate and aid intersections within the community. They also need to provide a meeting place for those wishing to come out from in back of their computers. That audience is increasingly wanting to do more than look, they want to have the making experience. OMA demonstrates all these qualities and that is why they are considered effective leaders and why there relevancy is assured. 

Learn more at: 

Flash Forward: North County Arts Network’s roundup of future cultural events, trends, predictions, visions and directions.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017 from 9 am to 11 am
Oceanside Museum of Art
704 Pier View Way, Oceanside CA 92054

Flash Forward: NCAN’s roundup of future cultural events at Oceanside Museum of Art on Wednesday July 12, 2017 from 9 am to 11 am. Industry leaders in Visual Arts, Theater, Music, Dance and Spoken Word will make overview presentations in their particularly area of expertise. The emphasis will be on sector directions in 2018 and beyond. Come and learn what the future holds and become part of the intersections in North County between all the arts. There will be updates on the Arts and Economic Summit and news about the revised website plus a chance to network with colleagues before and after the presentations.

Hosted and Moderated by Maria Mingalone, Executive Director, Oceanside Museum of Art

Visual Arts: Kerri Fox, Vice President, Marketing,  New Children’s Museum, President of the SD County Museum Council
Theater: Chris Williams, Associate Artistic Director, North Coast Rep
Dance: Emily Miller, Director, Performing Arts Workshop
Music: Naimeh Tahna, President, Encinitas Friends of the Arts
Spoken Word: Danny Salzhandler, 101 Artist Colony/Full Moon Poets

Meaning In Bronze: May 27–October 8, 2017

Veterans works with the VetArts team (started by Stephen Dilley and aided by Mark Jesinoski with instructors Kevin Larson and Scott Hickey) to re-create their faces. Casting in bronze is laborious process which calls for strength and dexterity and concentration. This makes it particularly suited to veterans. I found their statements very moving, but just seeing their faces was compelling.  

Work by the instructors was included and they are veterans themselves and used the medium to communicate complex issues.  

Kevin Larson

Scott Hickey

Scott Hickey

Ted Meyer: Scarred For Life: May 27–September 17, 2017

Ted Meyer has connected with survivors of wars, accidents, and mental and physical health issues by layering paint on top of the skin, rubbing it to record the actual contours of the scars left by these incidents. Not only has Meyer embellished the resulting marks on the paper, but photo of the survivors with their stories in their own words makes a strong visual statement.  

Coming up is one more exhibition in this series: A Time To Heal: July 29–October 8, 2017. A small group of veterans wrote letters to themselves, reflecting on hardship and healing during workshops facilitated by artist Trinh Mai at the museum. These letters have been incorporated into the “war wounds” that participants created using various materials.

But there is another exhibition by Michelle Montjoy that also demonstrates community involvement in  making art. River from March 25–July 9, 2017 is a small show which documents the participation of people who, using large table top looms or finger crocheting, contributed to a visual conversation by knitting or crocheting, braiding or knotting a form using old t-shirts.  

More of Michelle Montjoy's work can be seen at the entrance and when ascending and descending the main staircase. Ms. Montjoy is currently in the New Contemporaries exhibition. You have until Aug 4 to visit and vote for your own choice of New Contemporaries emerging artists nominated for the San Diego Art Prize. There is a second reception for this show on July 8 from 6 to 9 pm at basileIE + CMCuratorial in Barrio Logan. San Diego Visual Arts Network who produced the San Diego Art Prize is putting up a cash prize for the public choice award but you have to be present at the venue to vote with your smart device. at www.sdvan.net/app. Here are links to 

The New Contemporaries 2017 Catalog is now available for download.

2017 New Contemporaries SD Art Prize Picked RAW Peeled by Patricia Frischer

I matter

I am a busy person. I don’t like to waste time or effort. I am also a person worried about funding cuts for the arts. So I gamely signed petitions, wrote emails, and even made the occasional call to help those trying to save the status quo for the NEA, CAC, SD Commission for Arts and Culture and the City of Chula Vista City when asked. But I was truly surprised when I learned that these efforts really helped. What I did not know is that there is a formula that converts every contact into a ratio. So each email, for example, represents 10,000 voters in the state. That makes a big difference to me. I like knowing that my time and effort is not wasted and that these seemingly small acts are relevant and can result in changes.

The City of San Diego passed the 2018 budget. It reduced the cuts to San Diego’s arts and culture funding from 31% to 3.5%. While less than ideal, this much smaller budget cut is great news for keeping most programs intact and minimizing job loss. This news comes from Rise Up for the Arts.

PLUS: the Chula Vista City Council voted unanimously to support a budget compromise that keeps the city's Cultural Arts program, and other important city programs, intact. The council’s action averts the potential layoff of 10 – 15 city employees, and other cutbacks, that would have eliminated the positions of the Cultural Arts Program Manager, the Marketing and Communications Manager, an Economic Development Specialist, two Code Enforcement officers and more. Thanks to Patricia Aguilar, Chula Vista Councilperson for this great update.

PLUS, PLUS: Grants totaling $15,032,837 have been awarded to various nonprofit organizations statewide this year by the California Arts Council. A total of 1,076 grantees will receive state grant funding for their work spanning the Arts Council's 15 unique program categories, benefiting California's students, veterans, arts educators, at-risk youth, formerly incarcerated individuals, underserved populations, and communities at large.

PLUS, PLUS, PLUS: it appears that the NEA and Public Broadcasting will not now be cut if the congress holds strong on these matters.  

At the American for the Arts Conference held in San Francisco this month, there were many wonderful sessions and they are all available via their YouTube page. I liked the presentation during Art and Politics in the Trump era by Sofia Klatzker,  Executive Director of Arts for LA in charge of art advocacy in Los Angeles.  I found her to do list for local action very concrete. She advocates for each community to declare an arts day, arts week and then arts month. Get out and do candidate surveys and post them online and then hold candidate forums in association with the league of women’s voters. Work to make non-profit art sites into polling places and add a performance or exhibition on the day. Do briefings about what is occurring and build local coalitions to mobilize when needed. And most importantly activate the youth. She has an 8 month training session that culminates with an advocacy project of their choice. And there is a program where volunteers actually walk young voters to the polls with slogans like “I matter”.

Finally, we are seeing many artist that are being activist i.e. artivist. Don’t Shut Up curated by Linda Litteral produced by FIG  (founder Anna Stump) is at City Gallery AH314, San Diego City College  (1508 C Street, SD 92101)  with an opening reception on July 8 from 5 to 8 pm and a panel discussion July 13 from 6 to 8 pm, and an artist talk on July 20 on 5 to 8 pm. Female-led art and activism  focused on raising women’s voices on an assortment of issues is featured. This exhibition includes an activist quilt featuring 40 blocks from all over the United States including San Diego. The opening reception will also feature a political postcard writing station by Lori Lipsman and spoken word performance by poet Stacy Dyson. This event runs until July 26.