MEDIA ADVISORY
NEA Public Forum, March 13, 2 pm

March 13 is a big day for our arts and culture community.

Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), will make San Diego the first California stop in his national tour promoting the NEA’s “Art Works” initiative. Landesman is touring major American cities to promote the role of art in creating vibrant communities and spurring economic development. Learn more about Art Works here. The chairman’s public schedule will be posted in the Newsroom on the NEA web site at www.arts.gov

NEA ART WORKS FORUM
SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2 PM
Mandell Weiss Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse
2910 La Jolla Village Drive
Free Parking and Directions

Please RSVP directly to Toni Robin, tr@trprsandiego.com, 858.483.3918

MEDIA is invited to attend a public forum featuring Rocco Landesman and some of our community’s most engaging leaders who will share how Art Works here in San Diego. This is a chance to hear remarks from one of our nation’s leading arts advocates and a vigorous defender of arts funding.

The City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture is thrilled and honored that San Diego has been selected and provided this opportunity to showcase our vibrant arts and culture community.

Toni Robin
public relations / marketing
964 chalcedony street
san diego, california 92109
www.trprsandiego.com
e: tr@trprsandiego.com
t: 858.483.3918
c: 619.997.3918

BERLIN (REUTERS).- Banksy, the secretive British artist whose work has appeared on city streets around the world, said on Sunday he hoped his documentary film “Exit Through The Gift Shop” will raise the standing of urban art. But the anonymous graffiti artist with a cult following said in a shadowy video message to audiences at the Berlin Film Festival on Sunday before the screening of his film that it was possible it could have the complete opposite effect.
 
“I guess my ambition was to make a film that would do for graffiti art what ‘The Karate Kid’ did for martial arts — a film that would get every schoolkid in the world picking up a spray can and having a go,” Banksy said of his first film. “As it turns out, I think we might have a film that does for street art what ‘Jaws’ did for waterskiing.”
 
Banksy’s voice was altered and his face concealed, as in the documentary….

 
Click the image to read the entire post by ArtNow favorite ArtDaily.org

See the rest here:
Secretive Urban Artist Banksy Shows Film in Berlin Film Festival

MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL APPOINTS TWO TO THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO
COMMISSION FOR ARTS AND CULTURE

January 25, 2010 – San Diego, CA – Mayor Jerry Sanders announced the appointment of two new Commissioners to serve on the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. “We acknowledge and appreciate these individuals and their willingness to give their time, talent and expertise to serve the City of San Diego,” said Sanders.

Larry Baza is a professional arts administrator with more than 32 years experience in advocating for the arts at the local, state and national level. He was recommended by Councilmember Marti Emerald and will replace Claire Anderson.

Baza has served on the boards of various non-profit arts organizations and provided his expertise as a panelist for arts commissions and foundations. In his professional career, Baza has directed and managed San Diego arts organizations and businesses including Centro Cultural De La Raza, Sushi Performance and Visual Arts, Fingerhut Gallery and Community Arts of San Diego.

His wealth of knowledge and experience includes affiliations, consultancies, site visits and panel participation with various arts organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, California Association of Local Arts Organizations, Chicano Federation of San Diego County, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture and the San Diego Community Foundation.

Currently, Baza is a partner in Noel-Baza Fine Art Gallery in Little Italy. He lives in North Park.

Todd Figi has a long and distinguished career as an arts and culture patron, advocate, entrepreneur and civic leader. Through his career in the art, gift and design industries, he became affiliated with many business and trade organizations and was recognized as a leader and generous donor including being named Man of the Year by the Young Presidents Organization and Man of the Year in the Gift Industry by amfAR (American Foundation for AIDS Research.)

His lifelong interest in the arts led him to be an avid collector of Latin American paintings, drawings and sculpture from masters including Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Locally, he has served on the boards of the San Diego Museum of Man and the Museum of Contemporary Art, where he served as President from 2008-09.

Figi was nominated by Councilmember Kevin Faulconer and will replace Courtney Ann Coyle. He lives in La Jolla.

The mission of the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture is to vitalize the city by integrating arts and culture into community life while supporting the region’s cultural assets and showcasing San Diego as an international cultural destination. For more information please call the Commission office at (619) 236-6778 or visit the Commission website at www.sandiego.gov/arts-culture.

So, how is it that, when it comes to art education, California comes in dead last out of all 50 states – even below Guam? According to State Councilman Bobby Shriver, California’s public schools no longer even offer arts education. … If art means as much to you as it does to me, or even if you’re just exploring the art world for the first time, I invite you to turn off the boob tube, pry the Wii controllers from your kids’ hands, and drag them to a museum….

Read the original:
Lynda Resnick: Why Art Education Matters

Museum Month, allowing visitors to most museums in the county to receive half-off regular admission prices, began in 1989, and is going stronger then ever. Last year, more than 19,000 visitors took advantage of Museum Month — double the number of visitors only four years ago.

 
While you can find full details online at www.sandiegomuseumcouncil.org, check out this list of museum participants– we love the near universal participation in this promotion for improving access to our cultural treasures at a time when more potential audience members than ever are feeling the pressure to reduce expenditures on entertainment and enrichment.
 

Participating museums and historical sites:

Adobe Chapel Museum

Barona Cultural Center & Museum

Birch Aquarium at Scripps

Bonita Museum & Cultural Center

California Center for the Arts, Museum (Feb. 13-28)

Coronado Museum of History & Art

Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum

Heritage of the Americas Museum

La Jolla Historical Society

LUX Art Institute

Maritime Museum of San Diego

Marston House

MCRD Command Museum

Mingei International Museum

Mingei International Museum North County

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego – Downtown

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego – La Jolla (Feb. 21-28)

Museum of Making Music

Museum of Photographic Arts

Oceanside Museum of Art

Old Town San Diego Historic Park

San Diego (Quail) Botanical Gardens

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

San Diego Air & Space Museum

San Diego Archaeological Center

San Diego Automotive Museum

San Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum

San Diego Historical Society Museum & Research Archives

San Diego Model Railroad Museum

San Diego Museum of Art

San Diego Museum of Man

San Diego Natural History Museum

Tijuana Estuary Visitors Center

Timken Museum of Art

USS Midway Museum

Veteran’s Museum & Memorial Center

Water Conservation Garden

Whaley House

Women’s History Museum & Education Center

 
Way to go, San Diego museums and cultural institutions!

Here's the latest installment in the courtship of Eli Broad — and the art museum he aims to plunk somewhere in the Los Angeles Basin, complete with big-name architecture, a spiffy $200 million endowment and the 2,000 works of contemporary art held by his Broad Art Foundation.

Downtown L.A. is officially making a play, courtesy of the Grand Avenue Authority, which today authorized negotiations with Broad toward a possible deal that would wrest the museum from Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, which are also in the running.

After a closed session today of the Grand Avenue Authority, L.A. City Councilwoman Jan Perry, a member of the joint city-county authority that's overseeing development of vacant land and parking lots in the heart of downtown's arts district, said it will deploy a negotiating team “to proceed with discussions with the Broad Foundation to consider his proposal and reach a mutual agreement.”

The Grand Avenue project, of which Broad himself has been a leading advocate, is considered the centerpiece of downtown's revitalization. Designed by Frank Gehry, it includes two towers, condos, hotel rooms and a shopping center….