The Arroyo Seco Journal

Cidne Hart and Ruth DeNicola at MorYork Gallery

2011-12-07T14:36:00.000-08:00

Two Highland Park artists, who are friends and neighbors, are collaborating on this month’s exhibit, “Peripheral Vision,” at York Boulevard’s MorYork Gallery.

Cidne Hart and Ruth DeNicola are well known in the local arts community. This is their third collaborative show.

The collaboration began with Cidne trudging uphill to Ruth’s house—a delightful space filled with art and found materials. The two found that they shared a love of figurative art, and especially of faces.

Cidne is a photographer and digital artist, whose collage work has been widely exhibited. For the current show, Cidne has focused on the creation of books.

“I am always experimenting and learning new processes,” says Cidne. “I realized that books could be vehicles to do a lot of artwork and corral it.”

After teaching herself bookbinding over the past year and examining the ways in which her career working with printing companies has impacted her art, Cidne has created a show in which a large volume of work will be on display in book format. Additionally, each book will be accompanied by an art piece mounted on the wall behind it.

Two books that Cidne are very proud of are fat volumes of locally-based work. One documents Ruth’s house. The other is documentation of MorYork Gallery itself. Each contains over 100 pages.

Other books on exhibit contain interesting photographs that Cidne took of railroad workers in Madison, Wisconsin in 1980 and a book of collages made for a Day of the Dead show about the war in Afghanistan in 2002.

Other books feature experimentation with process including image transfer and lamination of pages torn out of fashion magazines.

Ruth’s works, meanwhile, are assemblages. The MorYork show is by far her largest show to date, with close to 70 pieces of varying sizes on exhibit. The pieces represent about two and a half years worth of work.

The materials Ruth, a local resident since the age of six, turns into art come from many places. Initially, her parents’ garage was a major source. There were forays to the Rose Bowl. Then friends began to give her things.

“The ones that spoke to me, I made art out of,” Ruth says.

The influence of Ruth’s work on Cidne’s work is clear; Ruth’s pieces are often subject matter for Cidne’s, and Ruth’s assemblage work has expanded Cidne’s sense of collage.

The influence of Cidne’s work on Ruth’s may not be as obvious. However, while Cidne has been working on her art books, Ruth has found herself incorporating writing into her work for the first time.

“Cidne says we collaborate in ways I don’t understand,” says Ruth.

Ruth refers to Cidne’s presence in her life as “a surprise and a gift.”

The MorYork show has a bittersweet tinge to it in a couple of regards. It will be Ruth’s last large-scale show. While she retains the soul of an artist, and may still do some small pieces, arthritis has taken a toll on her ability to use a drill and to lift large pieces.

Ruth is grateful to have the opportunity to do one last grand exhibit in MorYork. “I really had a lot of art still in me,” she says.

And this will be the last show at MorYork Gallery itself.

MorYork is a cavernous space. It is primarily the private studio of assemblage artist Clare Graham. It is a fantasy world overflowing with art made from Scrabble tiles, yard sticks, puzzle pieces, rosaries, tin can lids, pop tops, doll parts—an indescribable world that has to experienced, not described.

And a great many art lovers have experienced it over the past six years. Clare, one of the co-founders of the popular NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night, and his partner Bob Breen have graciously opened their doors monthly for exhibits by local artists.

Many venues have come and gone over the past six years. Gallery Night continues, as new venues have located to Highland Park and to Northeast L.A. in general. MorYork is one of the few remaining original venues, but Clare and Bob have found it to be time—after Cidne and Ruth’s show—to close the doors.

Assemblage has, over perhaps the past decade, become something of a Northeast Los Angeles art form, with Ruth, Cidne, Clare and other local artists drawing on the rich materials found it the attics and garages of Los Angeles’ oldest suburbs and along the Arroyo Seco and Los Angeles River.

“I’m so lucky I ended up here,” says Ruth.

“Peripheral Vision”
Cidne Hart and Ruth DeNicola
MorYork Gallery
4959 York Boulevard (at Avenue 50)
Artists’ Reception: Saturday, December 10, 2011
7 to 10 p.m., as part of NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night (see NELAart.com for a map of participating venues)
Open at other times by appointment. (Ruth: 323-258-5446. Cidne: 323-258-6873 or ourfinca@aol.com.)

NELAart Gallery Night~November 12

2011-11-12T02:24:00.000-08:00

NELAart Gallery Night Happenings
NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night

The Second Saturday of every month, Northeast Los Angeles art galleries stay open late for NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night. The event is a celebration of the thriving NELA contemporary arts community and of NELA’s history as L.A.’s original arts community. Visit nelaart.com to download a gallery map.

Where to see art Saturday, November 12
including:
NELAart’s Second Saturday Galleries
Stores and Coffee Houses showing local artists
Special Events
And other once-in-a-lifetime opportunities
(7 to 10 p.m. unless otherwise indicated)

Avenue 50 Studio
131 North Avenue 50
“Luna Moods -- Myths and Stories about the Moon,” with poetic stories curated by Suzanne Lummis. Featured artists: David Botello, Pamela Burgess, Martin Charlot, Yu Cotton-Well, Raoul De la Sota, Kathi Flood, Gwen Freeman, Frank Gutierrez, Peter Hess, Heriberto Luna, Beth Peterson, Bobby Rojas, Marianne Sadowski.
In the Annex: “Forest for the Trees,” a site-specific fiber installation project co-sponsored by Yarn Bombing Los Angeles & the Arroyo Arts Collective, featuring Edith Abeyta; Leslie Brown; Katelyn Dorroh; Beth Elliott; Jacque Lene Engel; Carmela Gomes; Heather Hoggan; Amy Caterina Hill; Lisa Jong; Julie Kornblum; Arzu Arda Kosar; Justine Leong; Tyler Mitzner; Lauri Mraz; Racquel “Rocky” Ormsby; David Orozco; Adrianna Rianna; Ann Storc; Kacy Treadway; Jane Wang; Jessica Wards; Tracy Williams and Darlyn Susan Yee.

Bike Oven
3706 North Figueroa
Art show by Bike Oven artist Alex. Spoke’n Art ride at 6:30. Downtown Train Blues Band at the Bike Oven and surprise performances at the Bike Oven and Flying Pigeon. Music starts at 10. Rain cancels the bike ride, but not the bands.

Bonnie Lambert
4022 N. Figueroa Street
“The Night Comes.” Solo exhibit. This introduction of Bonnie Lambert's work is a debut of works produced, some with the unique subtleties of the evening light. With intense color and expressive brush work, Bonnie is able to capture the night in a quiet and poetic way. Her confident brush work challenges you to view the nightscape, beyond the ordinary first look and see the common American suburb as a rich romantic setting of dreams and dreamers.

Cactus Gallery
5434 Eagle Rock Boulevard
"Too Cool For School," a new body of painted and sculptural works by artist Douglas Alvarez. Explores Alvarez’ experience in the Public School system and growing up in Los Angeles through the humor of popular iconography. Addressing the beauty of urban sprawl with its strip malls, nature and the role humans play visibly or invisibly in this environment.
In the adjacent gallery space: Percussion Art.

Cafe de Leche
5000 York Boulevard

Culture Reference (at The York)
5018 York Boulevard
“Mascaras.” New works by Oscar Magallanes.

Curve Line Space
1577 Colorado Boulevard
New Drawings by Kenturah Davis. eu·phe·mism n. The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term/expression for one considered controversial, harsh, blunt, or offensive: [Greek euphmismos, from euphmizein, to use auspicious words]. In a new series of drawings, Davis continues to explore the ideas of self-identification and socialization through portraiture. These works specifically look at the use of euphemisms as a rhetorical device to convey layers of meaning about ourselves. In layering the text to make the drawings they exist as a metaphor for the ways we construct our own identities and perceive one another through language.

Future Studio
5558 North Figueroa
Arroyo Arts Collective Discovery Tour Preview Show.

The Glass Studio
5052 York Boulevard
Mri Scott ElBey. Glass Art Solo Show.

José Vera Gallery
2012 Colorado Boulevard
"City To A Fault, Los Angeles and Environs.” The exhibition features the work of five of Southern California's most noteworthy Plein Air painters: Oscar Arroyo, Jose De Juan, John Kilduff, Alex Schaefer, and William Wray. "En plein air" is a French expression meaning "in the open air,” and is often used to describe the act of painting out of doors, directly from nature. California Plein Air painting gained popularity in the Bay area and Southern California in the early 20th century. "City To A Fault, Los Angeles and Environs" offers the viewer over 40 unique Plein Air perspectives of Los Angeles' urban atmosphere, that are as varied as the artists themselves.
In José Vera's Gallery X-43...”Visit the Moment 25 Years of Art Time” featuring the work of Kostas Lekakis, an expressionist artist working in paintings, woodcuts, etchings, monotypes and jewelry. 6-9 p.m.

Kristi Engle Gallery
5002 York Boulevard
Jocelyn Foye: “Rock n Roll, Rock n Roll, Rock n Roll.“ Using different mediums from clay to sand, Foye has recorded the movements of Greco-Roman wrestlers, cheerleaders, roller derby girls, ballet dancers and sumo wrestlers in an attempt to create a static, aesthetic interpretation of those movements. Foye will be using this opportunity to expand on her earlier processes and practices by including performance, 2-dimensional work as well as audience participation. For this particular exhibition, Foye will be using the world of competitive Air Guitar as her "palette." Fatima Hoang and Janice Gomez, both respected contemporary artists as well as champion Air Guitarists, have been working in collaboration with Foye allowing her to introduce both stages of her process into the gallery simultaneously.

Leanna Lin’s Wonderland
5024 Eagle Rock Boulevard
Vintage jewelry trunk show this weekend! Bringing out all stock Sat (11 a.m.-10 p.m.) + Sun (12-5 p.m.).
2nd Annual Artist Sisters Show. The talented CJ Metzger & Miss Mindy are taking over the main gallery wall showcasing their latest works and fanciful goodies for the season! NELAart Gallery Night preview, 6-10 p.m. Official opening, November 19, 6-10 p.m. Free Box of Stories with $100 or more purchase.

Matters of Space
5005 York Boulevard
The printmaking of Dana McClure. “…I’m interested in finding the space between abstraction and representation. My work aims to create tension between the two rather than polarizing each.”
Matters of Space also will be exhibiting one of Jane Parrott’s exquisite light sculptures.

Mi Vida Boutique
5159 York Boulevard
Dia de los Muertos celebration. “Altarwalk.” Sidewalk Altar Exhibit presented by Artists: Social Machine Productions, Abel Salas, Eric Valdez, Art Junky's Collective. Guest Artist: El Ponk featuring in store altar, paper mache statues, hand painted accessories and more. Jewelry Trunk Show featuring Ilaments by Lisa Rocha. All new Muertos inspired pieces. Muertos Face Painting by Artists: Jimmy Garcia & Valerie Pasarat Hernandez.

MorYork Gallery
4959 York Boulevard
Iva Hladis: “Origins Extinct.” The "Origins Extinct" series was selected by the LACMA Arts Council for their 2011-2012 Special Projects sponsorship. “As I took my found objects and started assembling the first pieces for ‘Origins Extinct’ I was faced with the question of how to tie the opposing elements together and convey the frail ecological state our world is now faced with. Keeping with the Japanese motif, I chose the ancient writing style of Kanji for its history and for its powerful symbolism. My intention is to reflect the simplicity and balance much needed in everyday life and pay respect to the Japanese way of living in the world rather than just living on the world.” 6-10 p.m.

New Puppy
2808 Elm Street, Unit 1
Closing for “Crash Canvas,” an art show featuring five of Los Angeles most active live painters. John Park, Michael Pukac, Christina Angelina, Mimi Yoon and Stephen Williams.

New Stone Age Mosaics
1754 Colorado Boulevard
Mary Clark-Camargo started doing mosaics in 2000. She is known for her large-scale sculptural pieces. Using a vast assortment of exotic glass, tile, semi-precious stone and other "found" objects she intertwines intricate patterns that are at once abstract and organic in nature.

An Orange Door
3188 Verdugo Road
"Antebellum." Stephanie Stein.

Outpost for Contemporary Art
1268 North Avenue 50

Platform
5027 York Boulevard
A multi-purpose concept space offering an art gallery, retail environment and trend library. “Fårö.” Photographs by Martin Rusch.

She Rides the Lion
133 North Avenue 50
The print-making studio of Sonia Romero.

Urchin
5006 York Boulevard
A vintage clothing store with works by young local artists on the walls.

Verbre Studio and Gallery
4540 Eagle Rock Boulevard

La Vida Loca Galeria
5050 York Boulevard
NELA artist, Oscar Magallanes, with Heuristic: LA. New limited edition serigraph prints by artist Oscar Magallanes. All prints hand printed at Self Help Graphics. 6-10 p.m.

White Raven Studios and Gallery
3423 Verdugo Road
Student work and a live painting demonstration by artist Brianna Lee.

York Studios
5029 York Boulevard

2 Tracks Art Studio
135 North Avenue 50

Northeast Carnival

2011-08-28T01:44:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of the second annual Northeast Carnival. Eagle Rock Boulevard, all the way from Avenue 33 to Verdugo Road. 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Proceeds support the youth programs of the LAPD Northeast Division.

From LAFD

2011-08-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

Traffic Collision
Southbound 110 Freeway at York Boulevard
Highland Park
Friday, August 26, 2011
TIME: 5:27 PM
INCIDENT # 0964

HIGHLAND PARK - Despite the Friday evening, rush-hour traffic, LAFD resources swiftly responded to what was first termed a "traffic collision" on the freeway. After having received multiple calls, dispatchers quickly upgraded the incident to a "physical rescue." However, the first arriving units encountered something much worse.

After one car apparently stalled on the southbound side of the Pasadena Freeway near York Boulevard, a sport utility vehicle, having not enough time to react to the disabled vehicle, violently rammed into its rear-end, causing the stalled auto to burst into flames. There were two passengers on-board the fully engulfed vehicle and despite the extreme efforts by nearly 40 LAFD Firefighters and Paramedics on-scene, one of the passengers succumbed to injuries and sadly, was pronounced deceased.

Resources from the South Pasadena Fire Department joined with the LAFD on the freeway incident and helped treat and transport four other patients, including the driver of the burnt-out vehicle. All were taken via rescue-ambulance in fair condition to local hospitals with non-life threatening injuries. At least one patient sustained minor burns, in a clear attempt to assist the poor soul that perished in the vehicle fire.
This fatality collision is currently under active investigation.

Re-thinking North Figueroa Street

2011-08-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

About 30 residents of the neighborhoods along the North Figueroa corridor gathered at the Flying Pigeon LA bike shop Friday evening to brainstorm ways to use the implementation of the Los Angeles Bicycle Plan to benefit the busy street.

The Los Angeles Bike Plan was passed by the City Council a few months ago after years of effort on the part of bike activists. But its implementation—and what it will mean for Northeast L.A. residents—is still rather up in the air.

The plan calls for a bikeway the length of the corridor, passing among the communities of Cypress Park, Mount Washington, Montecito Heights, Highland Park, Garvanza and Eagle Rock with connectivity to the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco.

Flying Pigeon proprietor Josef Bray-Ali encouraged participants to see the implementation of the plan in the coming months as a time to “re-think North Figueroa Street.”

“Is a stripe of paint for a bikeway enough for us, or would we like to see better crossing points for pedestrians, faster bus service, quiet streets with less crashes, and a healthier street for business?”, Bray-Ali wrote in his public invitation to the discussion.

City Transportation Department ideas for the 70-foot wide street are pretty basic. A lane of traffic can be removed to allow for a designated bike lane. Or parking can be removed on one side of the street.

The diverse crowd that gathered at the Flying Pigeon was looking to be a lot more creative, not only in regard to where bike traffic can go, but also in regard to how implementation of the plan can support the health of the business community, economic development, safe routes to schools, traffic slowing, noise reduction, public safety, bus access and bright and vibrant streets and sidewalks. The Figueroa corridor was seen, not as a high-speed way to get across and out of Northeast L.A., but rather as the spine of a butterfly, with day-to-day life in residential communities going on in the wings.

Bray-Ali pointed out that there is currently a lack of awareness on the part of local merchants and the public of the fact that a great many of the patrons of local businesses are arriving by foot, bicycle and public transportation. Meanwhile, the planning focus for many years now has been on fast movement of cars. In essence, the group is looking to return the historic street to local merchants and residents.

North Figueroa is high up on the list of corridors targeted for implementation of the bike plan. The local residents who gathered at the Flying Pigeon mean to be ready to bring creative solutions to local problems in Los Angeles’ historic suburbs.

For information on further meetings: info@flyingpigeon-la.com

Jim Bowden, 1921-2011

2011-08-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

Jim Bowden, who established Occidental Garage on York Boulevard and ran it from 1947 until 1994, has passed away.
Bowden was born in 1921. While a student at Franklin High School, he became fascinated with building and racing high-speed roadsters. After high school, he served in World War II, landing at Normandy the day after D-Day and spending nine months in a POW camp in Germany, before returning to Northeast Los Angeles and opening his popular business. He was profiled in “Rod & Custom” Magazine in its May issue.
Bowden died July 28 in Hesperia where he and his wife spent their retirement. In addition to his wife Florence, he is survived by two daughters and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Still Go-Go-ing After All These Years

2011-08-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

The Go-Go's at the Greek Theatre,
Los Angeles, August 17, 2011

by Eddie Rivera

Was it really that long ago? Gina Schock telling me she's leaving our band to join the Go-Gos?

"Gina, The Go-Go's can't play," I said.

"I can," she answered. That she can.

And, oh so many years, and gold records, and magazine covers, and world tours and honors later, there they were on stage in their hometown. The Go-Go's at the Greek Theatre on a summer night in L.A. You wanna go, just hearing those words.

Morphed into a pop rock and roll band after emerging from the LA punk scene in 1978, the band has held up surprisingly well, as they aptly demonstrated to the sellout crowd. It was almost easy to forget just how many hits they had, sprinkling them through a happy, high-powered set that was as elegant in its simplicity, as it was rich in spirit. A simple rock band stage setup and some pretty cool songs make for a splendid evening.

Charlotte Caffey showed off her versatility on the piano throughout the show, adding a new level of sonic texture. As usual, Gina and her rock-solid drumming held things firmly in place, even as the band sputtered through one or two false starts.

Bassist Jane Weidlin was lively and perky, as though this was a brand new show and brand new band. Singer Belinda Carlisle was svelte and glamorous as she sang gleefully in her woefully thin and often flat voice (I could hear a flat note from out in the parking lot during "Vacation," the set's opener.) But it's rock and roll. No one goes to see the Go-Go's for their virtuosity. It's the joy and spirit of the music they've been making now into their fifth decade.

They've still got the beat.

New Political Districts for Northeast LA

2011-08-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

The California Redistricting Commission just voted to approve new maps for Congressional, State Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization districts.

What are the impacts on Northeast Los Angeles? Who will our representatives be? What forces will shape NELA’s political identity in the coming ten years?
See the Arroyo Seco Journal’s reports on redistricting from a NELA perspective:

http://arroyosecojournal.blogspot.com/2011/07/asj-guide-to-redistricting-in-northeast.html

http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=90491

The final vote on the Congressional maps was Democrats: 5 yes, Republicans: 3 yes and 2 no, Decline to State: 4 yes. The final vote on each of the State maps was Democrats: 5 yes, Republicans: 4 yes and 1 no, Decline to State: 4 yes. The maps are now being delivered to the Secretary of State.
The question now is how many law suits there will be and by whom. The most vocal dissatisfaction is coming from Republicans, and the State Republican Party has filed public records requests for items such as emails from commissioners and the firm hired to draw the maps based on commissioner direction.
The conservative dissatisfaction with the process represents quite a change from previous decades, when the primary litigants have sought greater enfranchisement of Latino voters.
MALDEF (The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund) has been evaluating the mapping, and should be making an announcement as to its response shortly.
The Redistricting Commission itself will continue to meet, partially to respond to any litigation and partially to evaluate the process of the past few months.
A particular item on the commissioners’ agenda for the coming months will be of interest to Northeast Los Angeles voters. Central Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Mountains region are the only two geographic areas singled out for specific study. The commissioners will be discussing the impact of map configurations on and among minority groups in those areas. More broadly, the commissioners will be taking a state-wide look at applications of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on the multi-racial dynamics of California.

NELAart Gallery Night Happenings

2011-08-13T03:03:00.000-07:00

NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night
The Second Saturday of every month, Northeast Los Angeles art galleries stay open late for NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night. The event is a celebration of the thriving NELA contemporary arts community and of NELA’s history as L.A.’s original arts community. Visit nelaart.com to download a gallery map.

Where to see art Saturday, August 13
including:
NELAart’s Second Saturday Galleries
Stores and Coffee Houses showing local artists
Special Events
And other once-in-a-lifetime opportunities
(7 to 10 p.m. unless otherwise indicated)

Avenue 50 Studio
131 North Avenue 50
“Ganas 2020,” an exhibition of stencil and collage on canvas and rubyliths by artist Ernesto Yerena. The exhibition is based on a story written by Yerena detailing a fictional revolutionary movement, GANAS, fighting for reform, empowerment and dignity.
“Fortress of Solitude/Flux Ultralux,” new work by Ismael de Anda III, fusing imagery from de Anda's journeys throughout the Southwestern United States, Northern Mexico, and his recent travels in Japan. De Anda draws on a re-constructed memory of visiting the "strategy room" from the Quinta Luz Museum, the former home and headquarters of Pancho Villa. His composite landscape of memories also re-mixes childhood experiences, Asian textile designs, and interpretive inspiration from Japanese Obon, a time when spirits of the past are supposed to revisit households.

Bike Oven
3706 North Figueroa
The Spoke(n) Art Ride is a once-a-month bicycle tour of art galleries, parks both public and private, and anywhere the creative human spirit expresses itself in North East Los Angeles. Meet at around 6pm. The ride leaves at 6:30 p.m.

Cactus Gallery
5434 Eagle Rock Boulevard
The Reel Rasquache Art & Film Festival's first independently produced art exhibition. The exhibit displays the work of eight prominent Angeleno artists. Featured artist is NELA muralist, teacher and mentor Margaret Garcia. Also: Abel Alejandre, Lili Bernard, Joe Bravo, Pablo Cristi, Yolanda Gonzalez, CiCi Segura Gonzalez and Patricia Krebs. The RRAFF was established in 2004 to provide a showcase for independent U.S.Latina/o filmmakers from across the country.
In the adjacent gallery space: Percussion Art.

Cafe de Leche
5000 York Boulevard
A coffee shop with monthly exhibits by local artists on the walls. This month: Rock Posters by NOVA. A DIY lo-fi legend and all-around decent human--if you're familiar with the Midwestern music scene, then you may already know his work. After printing stints in Lawrence Kansas, San Francisco and the bowels of downtown LA, he's printing in 90042 & sharing a handpicked collection from the last 15 years. Don't miss it!

Cuculapraline-Frenchic
4704 Eagle Rock Boulevard
We are celebrating Jim Morrison and his Poetry. Ricardo Acuna will read An American Prayer and David Strother will play Violin. Everybody is welcome, drinks and food offered, 10% off Cuculapraline-Frenchic goodies. 8 p.m.-12 a.m.

Curve Line Space
1577 Colorado Boulevard
Constructions in Time, Drawings by Philip Vaughan. “Although the drawings in this show are abstract in appearance, their provenance is complex. I see this work as a kind on ongoing research project. To me drawing has always been about looking and seeing and then recording. My work has over the years focused on a kind of search for a hidden harmony or pattern in things around me. Most of the time these are patterns that I will only glimpse tangentially. Often they only become apparent during the process of drawing itself. The action of drawing is the key that opens certain windows for me.”

Future Studio
5558 North Figueroa
Carolyn Potter: Nudibranchs and Other Creatures (Crochet, Polymer Clay & Gourd Sculptures... and more small and large art stuff) "Nudibranchs/sea slugs have taken over my life. These bizarre, colorful sea creatures that live on reefs in the ocean are my obsession. I have used sea slugs to inspire my students to make polymer clay sculptures. My sister brought back a book on the reefs of Indonesia after diving in Borneo. I was in love. Page after page of flatworms and nudibranchs. What color. What form. What fun."

The Glass Studio
5052 York Boulevard
New glass art will be debuted.

Kristi Engle Gallery
5002 York Boulevard
Last chance to see: “Wicked Little Critters,” curated by Anne Hars, bringing together the work of 12 artists who address the human/animal relationship. Non-human critters in art, be they wild, house-pets, zoo residents, farm animals, or fable characters reflect ethical attitudes of privilege over our dominion. Stephanie Allespach, Krista Chael, Erin Cosgrove. Leeza Doreian, Chris Doyle, Matt Driggs, Dana Hoey, Mitsuko Ikeno, Ian Patrick, Hirsch Perlman, Christopher Reiger, Holly Topping. With special contributions by the Main Street Museum and the Seabiscuit Foundation Prints from the Endangered Species Print Project available for purchase with all profits donated to animal conservation organizations.

Leanna Lin’s Wonderland
5024 Eagle Rock Boulevard
Come & Celebrate as Leanna Lin's Wonderland turns 1 year old! Crowded Teeth + Friends present Wonderland ... a fun-filled land of happiness! Artists: Allison Revilla, Alyssa Nassner, Axel Honey, Bei Badgirl, Crowded Teeth, Deth P. Sun, Erica Sirotich, Erin Paisley, Fomato, Helena Garcia, J. Fuchs, Jessica Lopez, Julie West, Kali Meadows, Ming Ong, Miss Kika, Sachiho Hino Lee, Stevie Raya. DJ EV-1 from BWOMP. Also: Don Chow Tacos (Chinese Mexican fusion truck), Lake Street Creamery (gourmet ice cream truck), Lovely Jubilee (event stylist), Maile's Fine Pastries, Mugshots photo booth, Steven Lam photography, Crowded Teeth goodie bags to the first 25 people to arrive, Leanna Lin's Wonderland goodie bags to the first 25 people to spend $10 or more. 6-10 p.m.
.
M2 Gallery
4501 Eagle Rock Boulevard

Matters of Space
5005 York Boulevard
The paintings of Angela Deane. “Transitioning from being a walker in NY to being a cyclist in Gainesville, my understanding of space, scale, and speed has changed. I am now inspired by architecture, where my artwork drew previously from strangers and brief encounters, the tug of familiarity of the human form. In specific, my latest body of work draws from abandoned buildings that I see as I pass in a bicycle or car…The palate of neon and whitewash speaks of the imagined lives I bring to these now decrepit structures.”

Mi Vida Boutique
5159 York Boulevard
Guest Artist: Phyme. Live body painting.
Little Sweeties Mobile Sweet Cart Launch.

Monte Vista Projects
5442 Monte Vista Street
The Closing Reception for Heretics Television Workshop will be a lot of fun! There will be a screening of all the footage we've culled together so far that's fit to be seen---hopefully including some animation by Penelope Gazin and certainly including footage of the scene we shot at the Opening of the show. Live music from The Vatican Underground, performing songs from Heretics Lost. Check out the wall of drunken sailors, with puppet arms and mouths that move. Life-like! Bizarre! 6-10 p.m.
Check out the Heretics Television Workshop in the Arroyo Seco Journal’s current issue. http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=90491

MorYork Gallery
4959 York Boulevard
Ted Meyer: “Scarred for Life.” Mono-prints and documentation of surgical scars. Ever since he was a small child with a serious illness, Ted Meyer has mixed art and medical images as a way to understand his experiences. Through his art he highlights the emotional impact of pain and healing on everyday people—patients, families and medical personnel. “Scarred for Life” is a multi-faceted project that includes printing on paper from the subject’s body, interviewing the participants about their experiences, and photographing the process.
"Free Spirit #8... the revolution will not be motorized!" photo collection by Langdon. A fixed gear bicycle photo exhibition.
Plant Food For People will be set up behind MorYork.

New Stone Age Mosaics
1754 Colorado Boulevard
Grand Re-opening at a new location! Mary Clark-Camargo started doing mosaics in 2000. She is known for her large-scale sculptural pieces. Using a vast assortment of exotic glass, tile, semi-precious stone and other "found" objects she intertwines intricate patterns that are at once abstract and organic in nature.

Outpost for Contemporary Art
1268 North Avenue 50
Public Conversation with political activist Carlos Montes & artist/activist Amitis Motevalli as they talk about being raided by the FBI, activism, art and how we can be activists as well. This event is in-conjunction with Andrea Bowers and Olga Koumoundouros' project "Transformer Display for Community Fundraising: Version 2." 4 p.m.
T-shirt Revival Night is a silk-screening event that features a new artist every month. Bring a favorite old T-Shirt that needs a little sprucing up or any other item you'd like to have the artist print on. Each print is only $6, or buy two for $10. This month: CamLab is a collaboration between Jemima Wyman and Anna Mayer begun at CalArts in 2005. All the graphics CamLab will screenprint for the T-Shirt Revival come from the duo's notes and drawings that they generate together as part of their working process. 7-10 p.m.
Ongoing is Stephanie Allespach's window piece, Sometimes, which will be presented in the window through September.

Platform
5027 York Boulevard
A multi-purpose concept space offering an art gallery, retail environment and trend library. Sophia Male's beautiful work. Sophia creates abstract worlds of colors and forms exploring the beauty and complexity of life.
Food from dosa truck.

Public Fiction
749 Avenue 50
Randy Randall, David Scott Stone, Bachsung, The Softest Handshake.

She Rides the Lion
133 North Avenue 50
The print-making studio of Sonia Romero.

Urchin
5006_ York Boulevard
A vintage clothing store with works by young local artists on the walls.

La Vida Loca galeria
5050 York Boulevard

The York
5018 York Boulevard
After Party!
OLLIN will be playing The York in support of NELAart gallery night. No cover, 11pm-ish.

2 Tracks Art Studio
135 North Avenue 50
Nico Avina and Alfonso Aceves

Van de Kamps Controversy Spurs State Audit of College District

2011-08-12T02:57:00.000-07:00

State Controller John Chiang has released an audit of the Los Angeles Community College District's (LACCD’s) bond construction program. The audit questions more than $140 million in district spending, which is part of $214 million in state bond money received by the district from three bond measures approved by voters between 2001 and 2008.
According to Chiang’s office, “LACCD could not produce complete and timely records, spent funds outside voter-approved guidelines, ignored its own procurement rules, failed to plan effectively, and provided poor oversight of bond funding.”
The Controller’s audit has its roots in an investigation of the controversial Van de Kamps project on the border of Glassell Park and Atwater Village.
Many Northeast Los Angeles residents voted for and campaigned for passage of state bonds based on the promise of a college campus at the former bakery site on Fletcher Drive just off of San Fernando Road.
After spending approximately $86 million in district bond, state and federal funds to develop a satellite campus at the Van de Kamps site, Los Angeles City College determined that it had insufficient operating funds for the site and returned it to LACCD. LACCD is leasing most of the site to a charter school under a five year contract.
The Van de Kamps campus ultimately was not included in the audit, because related documents are the subject of pending litigation brought by local activists who have fought since 1999 to save the 1930 Dutch Revival style bakery building from demolition and to see it returned to a productive use. However, the controversy spurred further investigation by the Controller.
“The [Controller’s Office] initially conducted a survey of LACCD’s use of State funding in its bond construction program that was prompted by concerns over the district’s use of $3 million in seed money to start a satellite campus at the former Van de Kamp bakery site,” according to the Executive Summary of the audit. “As a result of the survey, which revealed that approximately $214 million in State funds have been involved in the various bond construction program projects, the [Controller] decided to proceed with an audit to ensure proper accountability of project funds.”
Bond measures carry specific lists of projects on which the money may be spent. The funds are intended for construction, repair, improvements, expansion and upgrade of facilities.
Although the Van de Kamps campus is not included, many of the findings of Chiang’s audit echo contentions that the local “Van de Kamps Coalition” has been making for some time.
The auditors found many LACCD expenditures throughout the district outside of what bonds were designated for. These violations include the construction of buildings that are not on the approved projects lists, the diversion of bond-funded buildings to unapproved uses, completion of projects not completed under previous bond authorizations and construction of buildings without accounting for operating costs. $28.3 million was spent on projects that were canceled before completion, but LACCD could not readily provide Chiang’s office with a list or accounting of canceled projects, had to develop these records during the course of the audit and changed the definition of cancelled project mid-audit.
Further, Chiang’s office contends that the project list for Measure J, the third and largest bond authorization in the Los Angeles Community College District's $5.7-billion construction program, which was approved by voters in 2008, “was intentionally crafted in such as way that virtually any expenditures could be construed to be on the list.”
Measure J, although passed by voters, was a subject of ire among supporters of another Northeast Los Angeles iconic structure, the Southwest Museum, when the measure’s project list was found to include “upgrade the Southwest Museum facility” as part of its laundry list. The discovery was the first that local supporters of the Southwest Museum’s retention in the Northeast area as a fully functioning museum had heard anything about a potential college presence on the museum campus.
The project list also contained the nebulous phrase, “identify opportunities to work with public and private entities on common projects that serve students and generate revenues for the district.” The inclusion of that phrase at the end of a long list of potential projects is now being used by LACCD to support its contention that the leasing out of the Van de Kamps campus is legal under the bond measure.
“The intention seems to be a way to circumvent control and avoid accountability,” Jeffrey V. Brownfield, Chief of the Division of Audits for the Controller’s Office, said of the Measure J project list in a letter to LACCD Chancellor Daniel J. LaVista.
The audit also identified district-wide costs that were inappropriately charged to the bond funds, including $2 million for copying and binding; $1.5 million for public relations, tours and special events and $1.5 million for photography.
Meanwhile, the head bond oversight citizens committee, which is required to issue annual reports, failed to issue any report for seven years. The latest report was found to be virtually meaningless by Chiang’s office. It noted little more than the fact that the committee members had met.
An Inspector General position was filled by an outside consulting firm formed just before the district went out to bid on the contract. That firm, at the time of its interview, had no clients, no employees and no office space. The consulting firm was selected from among 11 applicants, at a cost of $250,000 more annually than what an experienced auditing firm proposed.
Nine months after the hiring of the outside firm, Policy Masters, Inc., founded by a former Director of Policies for the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Controller’s office could find evidence of only one completed “financial review”—of the Van de Kamps project.
“The report bore little resemblance, if any,” wrote Brownfield in his letter to LaVista, “to an audit by an independent entity.”
“Please be advised,” wrote Brownfield, “that, under the .School Bond Waste Prevention Action section of the Strict Accountability in Local School Construction Bond Act of 2000, any citizen who has paid an ad valorem tax on real property within the community college district can pursue legal action against any officer of the district for failure to use bond proceeds in accordance with legal requirements…”
The audit covered the period of July, 2001 through December, 2010. It makes special note of the fact that, despite the Van de Kamps debacle, LACCD is continuing with an aggressive expansion program “without empirical data to demonstrate that LACCD has a viable source of revenues to operate the expanded facilities.”
LACCD says that it expects to return the Van de Kamps complex to Los Angeles City College in 2014.
The district also says, in its response to the audit, “…due to the current State-wide fiscal crisis, it is necessary for the District, in its budget planning processes, to reacess the building program and the resources available to cover the anticipated increases in M&O [maintenance and operation] costs.”
"Local voters raised their property taxes for a major investment in workforce development and higher education," said Chiang. "Shoddy fiscal management and sub-par oversight of a project of this magnitude will undermine the public's trust and threaten billions of public dollars."

City Sued Over Autry-Southwest Merger

2011-08-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

The City of Los Angeles is being sued over its willingness to allow the Autry National Center to absorb the Southwest Museum. A suit has been filed by the Highland Park Heritage Trust and by the Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance.

The two Northeast Los Angeles organizations allege that the Los Angeles City Council, in allowing a Recreation and Parks Board decision permitting the Autry to remodel in Griffith Park, ignored city zoning law and state environmental law.

The absorption of the Southwest by the Autry was presented to area residents in 2003 as a merger that would result in both the Autry Museum in Griffith Park and the Southwest Museum in Mount Washington continuing to exist under one umbrella. However, the Autry closed the Southwest and is planning on remodeling in Griffith Park to present part of the Southwest collection there.

The community groups bringing the suit contend that city zoning law, specifically the Northeast Los Angeles Community Plan, in essence, enshrines the Southwest, the City’s oldest museum, as a central cultural and geographic component of Northeast L.A. and requires the City to take impacts on the 104-year old Southwest Museum and its 97-year old Mount Washington campus into account in any land use decision.

However, at a City Council meeting on the subject of the Autry remodel, Councilmember Tom LaBonge, who represents the Griffith Park area on the council, declared that the Southwest Museum no longer exists.

The lawsuit takes the Autry to task for burying the Southwest Museum name and for moving a land use from Mount Washington to Griffith Park--where new Autry gallery and garden components will bear names and descriptions strikingly similar to those of the Southwest Museum. The contention is that the move is a violation of the City Plan and a violation of the 2003 merger agreement. The lawsuit blames the City of Los Angeles for approving the actions.

The Highland Park Heritage Trust and the Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance also contend that State environmental law needs to be taken into account.

The California Environmental Quality Act mandates that all negative impacts of any significant action must be fully explored and disclosed before the action is taken--a step the organizations believe the City skipped over in granting the Autry permission to remodel on the land it leases from the City in Griffith Park.

On the table before the City is the issue of conversion of space within the existing footprint of the Griffith Park structure into gallery space and an educational garden area. The Autry contends that this is the sum total of what it has planned for the site.

The lawsuit points out, however, that “Autry’s construction drawings submitted to the Recreation and Parks Department staff in May 2010 showed Autry’s total construction project will convert tens of thousands of square feet of non-public space (collections storage and back office space in the Autry Museum’s Griffith Park basement) into expanded new public use spaces (exhibition galleries, special event areas for rental income, new restrooms, etc.).”

The bringers of the suit say that proposed new uses would bring corresponding increases in visitors, traffic and parking needs, all of which mandate a thorough review of impacts on Griffith Park and on its surrounding communities.

The case is being handled for the local organizations by the law firm of Otten & Joyce. This is the firm that won a court decision in the well-known Lopez Canyon Landfill case that found the City of Los Angeles to be in violation of its own laws in authorizing a truck driving school on land that had been dedicated as passive open space.

“Autry broke into pieces its proposal to expand the Southwest Museum land use in its Griffith Park building,” said Brigid Joyce of Otten & Joyce. “Then Autry claimed the City had ‘no discretion’ but to approve the move and no requirement to review environmental impacts.”

When the matter of the Autry remodel went before the City Council in June, only Councilmembers Ed Reyes and José Huizar, who represent the neighborhoods around the Southwest Museum, supported the contention that environmental review was required.

“This is a classic real estate developer ploy to piecemeal a project to evade environmental review,” said Joyce, “and the City went along with a wink.”

The Highland Park Heritage Trust is a nonprofit organization with a 29-year history of advocating for the heritage and historic preservation of communities along the Arroyo Seco in Northeast Los Angeles. The Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance is a nonprofit residents’ association with a membership of nearly 700 residents of Mount Washington.

Three City Council Members--Reyes, Huizar and Paul Koretz--voted to send the Autry remodel back to the Recreation and Parks Board as opposed to giving it the okay.

“Mr. Huizar, Mr. Reyes and Mr. Koretz at least took the vote for integrity,” said Nicole Possert of the Highland Park Heritage Trust at the time.

But the three councilmembers were outnumbered by their colleagues who voted to let the Autry move ahead.

The suit will take an estimated nine months to reach a hearing in the local Superior Court.

NELA's Pending Congressional Districts

2011-07-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

The new Congressional districts, as tentatively approved this morning by the Redistricting Commission. Click on an image for a better view.
Thank you, Statewide Database, University of California, Berkeley.

The ASJ Guide to Redistricting in Northeast Los Angeles

2011-07-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

The Arroyo Seco Guide to Redistricting
http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=90491

The major story that emerges regarding political redistricting in Northeast Los Angeles may not lie as much in who represents what area (not to imply that’s not important), as it does in how the process reflects the changing nature of our communities in the early 21st century. Latino representation remains important. But we are also seeing a dramatic local increase in Asian American influence, and mapping to join Asian American communities together in large measure drove what out new districts look like. Further, Armenian Americans and Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgendered residents have arrived as recognized local communities of interest.
As important as the number of communities of interest is the fact that those communities have not, as many observers expected, treated one another as competitors. Rather, there have been serious efforts to map and work together—a trend that may craft the coming 10 years of political life.

There will be fewer politicians representing Northeast L.A, according to maps set to be approved this morning by the voter-approved Redistricting Commission.
At the State level, almost all of NELA will be within one Senate and Assembly District. The exception is Atwater Village, which is split.
At the Federal level, things changed considerably at the last moment as commissioners struggled with Voter Rights Act compliance.
Most of NELA will be within one district—with some important exceptions:
• Atwater Village and Elysian Valley are on a peninsula that extends down into the NELA district, but will not be not be part of it.
• The line runs down San Fernando Road. El Rio de Los Angeles Park will be in a different district from its Cypress Park and Glassell Park users.
• And the Los Angeles River will be separated from much of Northeast L.A. This applies only at the Federal level, but comes at a time when Washington is putting new resources into river revitalization (see the news brief in the current Arroyo Seco Journal.)
The Northeast L.A. congressional district won’t go as far south as reported in our guide. At the last minute, a turn west was made at Boyle Heights/East L.A. to take in Downtown through Pico Union.

It isn’t over. The final vote on the mapping will take place in mid-August. This will be followed by legal challenges—potentially quite a barrage of them.
The full guide to who’s coming, who’s leaving and what it all means is online in the Arroyo Seco Journal. http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=90491

More from the Arroyo Seco Journal

2011-07-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

Visit Our Photo Albums!:
Check out the photo albums on the Arroyo Seco Journal’s coffee table. Just cut and paste the links below.

Magu
A photo tribute to Magu (Gilbert Lujan), 1940-2011
http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=89964

LA Loves Leo Limón
Studio for Southern California History, 977 North Hill Street, Chinatown, through July
http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=89986

Eagle Rock Independence Day
Eagle Rock celebrates the nation's 235th birthday and its own 100th birthday with a major party in Eagle Rock Park
http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=90179

The Glassell Park Community Garden
A former gang headquarters is now a place for residents to gather and grow food.
http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=90043

Lummis Day
Lummis Day, 2011 at Heritage Square Museum
http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=90153

Butterfly Release
On June 12, the Women's Twentieth Century Club celebrated Eagle Rock's 100th birthday with the release of dozens of butterflies.
http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=90172

And this is what it looked like....

2011-07-25T16:37:00.001-07:00

Untitled from Eddie Rivera on Vimeo.

Tomorrow: Galco's Soda Tasting Supports Southwest Museum

2011-07-23T13:06:00.000-07:00

One Northeast Los Angeles icon is stepping up in support of another. Tomorrow, Galco’s Soda Pop Stop will be hosting a “Summer Soda Tasting" in support of efforts to save the Southwest Museum.
The tasting will be hosted by Galco’s proprietor John Nese and will feature a variety of specialty sodas from several domestic and international companies. Representatives of the companies will be on hand.
Proceeds will go to the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition.
A highlight of the event will be an appearance by humorist and California pop culture expert Charles Phoenix, who will be mixing “poptails,”-- The Galco," "The Southwest" and "The Highland Park,”--family friendly cocktails with candy garnishes.
There will also be music from popular local bands "Artichoke," and the "Greger Walnum Blues Band," plus a special appearance by 13-year old Highland Park vocalist Genesee Hall. A silent auction will feature Mount Washington artist Lauri Mraz' work, "Southwest Museum, Empty," a realistic depiction of the museum knit from hand-spun yarn. Nearby restaurants El Arco Iris and Italiano's will donate a portion of profits to the cause when tasting attendees have dinner on the boulevard after the event.
The Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition brings together some 70+ community, residents and preservation organizations with the goal of keeping the Southwest Museum, Los Angeles oldest museum, open and fully functioning at its historic Mount Washington site.
While the benefit promises to be great fun, Nicole Possert of the Coalition says that it will also serve to open people’s hearts and minds to the possibility that Los Angeles’ first museum could be shuttered forever.
The benefit will take place Sunday, July 24, 5-8 p.m., at Galco’s Soda Pop Stop, 5702 York Boulevard, Highland Park. Advance tickets are $12 and can be purchased at Galco’s or online at www.friendsofthesouthwestmuseum.com. Tickets at the event will be $15 cash.
In addition to hosting the event, Nese has volunteered to donate all proceeds from store soda and candy sales that evening to the coalition, so this is a great time to stock the soda cellar and prepare for upcoming events or gifts.
“John Nese has been a big supporter,” says Possert. “Galco’s is coming through again—not only for us in Northeast Los Angeles, but for the whole city.”

Photographs: John Nese of Galco's Soda Pop Stop (photo: Martha Benedict)/Lauri Mraz’ yarn work, "Southwest Museum, Empty"(photo: Margaret Arnold)

New Police Station for Northeast L.A.

2011-07-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles City Council today approved a new police station for the LAPD Northeast Division. The new station will be located on the site of the current station on San Fernando Road in Glassell Park.

Construction of the new facility will cost $29.45 million of which $28.45 million will come from Proposition Q bond money. Proposition Q was approved by voters in 2002 to fund the building and renovation of public safety facilities.

The Police Department acquired the current station building in the early 1980s. It has never been adequate. It wasn’t designed for police purposes. It was supposed to be temporary, and was never intended to serve for 30 years. It does not have sufficient parking for the officers. It has potential health issues. Trace amounts of chemicals, apparently from the building’s previous use as a photo processing facility, have been found. And on top of everything else, the building smells bad.

“It is time for us to do well for our police officers, as well as for the residents of Northeast L.A.,” said Council President Eric Garcetti, who represents the district where the station is located.

Garcetti attributed the existence of bond money for construction in Northeast Los Angeles to the fact that the fund has been well managed. Previous projects have come in on time and under budget.

Ramon Soto, representing the City Administrative Officer, told the Council that the plan is to build a 45,000 square-foot facility on the western side of the existing property. The current station will continue to serve until the new facility is ready for operation.

Normally, a new police facility would include a transport facility and a parking structure, but those additions would drive costs up considerably. According to Soto, the LAPD has indicated a willingness to wait until funds can be located for those additions.

After the new building is finished and occupied, the old building can be torn down, and that space can be paved to create some new room for parking.

It will be the responsibility of the City’s Building and Safety Department to see that a full environmental assessment is done on the site.

Groundbreaking is expected to take place next summer.

NELAart Gallery Night~July 9

2011-07-09T02:47:00.000-07:00

NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night
The Second Saturday of every month, Northeast Los Angeles art galleries stay open late for NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night. The event is a celebration of the thriving NELA contemporary arts community and of NELA’s history as L.A.’s original arts community. Visit nelaart.com to download a gallery map.

Where to see art Saturday, July 9
including:
NELAart’s Second Saturday Galleries
Stores and Coffee Houses showing local artists
Special Events
And other once-in-a-lifetime opportunities
(7 to 10 p.m. unless otherwise indicated)

Avenue 50 Studio
131 North Avenue 50
“Glass Gourd Mosaic.” Howard Swerdloff, artist and owner of Howeeduzzit Gallery, curates a sort of Bazaar of fine art glass, gourds and mosaic encompassing an orgy of styles. Leigh Adams, Pat Boyd, Angela Briggs, Judy & Larry Cunningham, Cathy Garcia, Tenny Lim, Luz Mack, Dawn Mendelson, Carole Choucair Oueijan, David Van Noppen, Howard Swerdloff, Zoe Topsfield, Stephen Woodruff.
In the annex: “Reheated.” The Tortilla paintings of Joe Bravo. "I use the Tortilla as a Canvas because it is an integral part of the Hispanic Culture and my heritage. For the subject matter of my tortilla paintings, I use imagery that is representative of Latinos, conveying their hopes, art, beliefs and history.
As the tortilla has given us life, I give it new life by using it as an art medium."

Bike Oven
3706 North Figueroa
The Spoke(n) Art Ride is a once-a-month bicycle tour of art galleries, parks both public and private, and anywhere the creative human spirit expresses itself in North East Los Angeles. Meet at around 6pm. The ride leaves at 6:30 p.m. David Roy, Photography. Reception at 10 p.m.

Cactus
5434 Eagle Rock Boulevard
“Treasures of the Sea.” An ocean themed group show. More than 30 artists featuring acrylic and oil paintings on canvas and wood, mixed media works, drawings, watercolors, assemblage and even dolls.
Cactus welcomes Craig Casey of Percussion Art to the Cactus family. Craig will now be working out of the space adjacent to Cactus Gallery.

Cafe de Leche
5000 York Boulevard
A coffee shop with monthly exhibits by local artists on the walls.

Cuculapraline-Frenchic
4704 Eagle Rock Boulevard
An evening of poetry, wine, music and art. Ricardo Acuna reading poetry with David Strother playing violin just behind. 8 p,m, in front of the store.

Curve Line Space
1577 Colorado Boulevard
Vertical Viewpoints - Drawings by Christine Weir

Future Studio
5558 North Figueroa
“Name the Car, Name the Palm” Thos. K. Meyer Photographs. “I have been collecting palm trees for more than 30 years. Driving around Los Angeles, I am always watching for palm plantings. I am also interested in all the neat lookin’ cars parked on the streets of L.A. Therefore, when I see a hot car parked in front of a palm tree, I gotta stop and make a pic.”

The Glass Studio
5052 York Boulevard
Mosaics by Kay K Robinson. A fabulous large piece by Larr Cunningham and lovely work by Leigh Adams. 6-11 p. m. Bull Kogi truck will be right in front.

José Vera Fine Art & Antiques
2012 Colorado Boulevard
Destiny - An Exhibition of Distinctive Mixed Media Photography by Ben Mahler
And in Jose Vera's Gallery X-43: Eternal Hollywood. An exhibition of gelatin silver prints by Alan Kroeber. 6 p.m.-9 p.m.

Kristi Engle Gallery
5002 York Boulevard
“Wicked Little Critters,” curated by Anne Hars, brings together the work of 12 artists who address the human/animal relationship. Non-human critters in art, be they wild, house-pets, zoo residents, farm animals, or fable characters reflect ethical attitudes of privilege over our dominion. Stephanie Allespach, Krista Chael, Erin Cosgrove. Leeza Doreian, Chris Doyle, Matt Driggs, Dana Hoey, Mitsuko Ikeno, Ian Patrick, Hirsch Perlman, Christopher Reiger, Holly Topping. With special contributions by the Main Street Museum and the Seabiscuit Foundation Prints from the Endangered Species Print Project will also be available for purchase with all profits donated to animal conservation organizations.

Leanna Lin’s Wonderland
5024 Eagle Rock Boulevard
2VIE. Silent art auction to cover Vee Vitanza’s medical bills from brain tumor surgery. You can bid on art, jewelry, and raffle prizes while supporting a good cause. 6-9 p.m.

M2 Gallery
4501 Eagle Rock Boulevard

Matters of Space
5005 York Boulevard
The sculpture of Kelly Johnston. This new series of wall mounted wood art utilizes the wood burning tool, wood stains and paint to create a structured but surreal environment within a simple piece of wood.

Mi Vida Boutique
5159 York Boulevard
Kalli Arte

MorYork Gallery
4959 York Boulevard
Gordon Bowen: “Xenotropi.” “Using maintenance-free, castings from recycled metal along with found raw materials, I create creatures that bring new life to otherwise forgotten memories… In the world of my work, things are manufactured to look natural and even something as organic as grass is made of steel and wool.” 6-9 p.m.

New Puppy
2808 Elm Street
In collaboration with the Associates of Brand Library & Art Center, Robert Brown: Glass and Serigraphs. Prints and Studio Glass from a Local Master. Robert W. Brown was a prolific visual artist with a vast range of talents: a print maker, studio glass artist, professor of art at Glendale Community College, ceramicist, figure artist; there are few art forms he didn't delve into and he was generally a master technician at each. After a remarkable career, Brown passed away at age 92 in 2009.

One Day
2113 San Fernando Road

An Orange Door
3188 Verdugo Road
Antonio Mendoza: "Infinity Scares The Shit Out of Me, So Why Don't We Sleep Together."

Outpost for Contemporary Art
1268 North Avenue 50
T-shirt Revival Night is a silk-screening event that features a new artist every month. Bring a favorite old T-Shirt that needs a little sprucing up or any other item you'd like to have the artist print on. Each print is only $6, or buy two for $10. This month: Mario Correa's drag racing images.
Ongoing is Stephanie Allespach's window piece, Sometimes, which will be presented in the window through September.

Platform
5027 York Boulevard
A multi-purpose concept space offering an art gallery, retail environment and trend library. This month's featured artist: a solo show by Aimée Rhodes Cook. Aimée creates abstract, gestural watercolors inspired by images of her children sleeping. 6:30-10:30 p.m.

She Rides the Lion
133 North Avenue 50
The print-making studio of Sonia Romero.

Sprout Creative Arts
5917 North Figueroa

Urchin
5006_ York Boulevard
A vintage clothing store with works by young local artists on the walls.

La Vida Loca galeria
5050 York Boulevard
“Degrees of Separation: The Heart” Unique and original art work from Martin Bustamonte. 6 p.m. on.

2 Tracks Art Studio
135 North Avenue 50
The studio of Pola Lopez and Heriberto Luna.

1215 Projects
1215 Cypress Avenue
Magnus Stark: Pinocchio’s Paradox and Other Camera-less Creations. What happens when one embarks on an alchemical journey that breaks down the definition of what contemporary photography is supposed to be?

NELAart Gallery Night~~June, 2011

2011-07-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

LT Mustardseed

Walt Hall at Cactus Gallery

Sand Oner at Mi Vida

Lucas Murgida at Platform

Kate Hoffman at Matters of Space

Beth Bachenheimer at MorYork

Clare Graham at MorYork

Seeing Thingz (outside MorYork)

Eamon Ore-Giron at Outpost for Contemporary Art

The Glass Studio

Sinan Leong Revell, Los Desaparecedos @ Avenue 50 Studio

Simone Gad, Kathy Fisher, Judith Amdur @ Avenue 50 Studio

Adriana Rincon and Angela Maria Ortiz S. at Avenue 50 Studio

Heriberto Luna at 2 Tracks

Sinan Leong Revell, Los Desaparecedos @ Avenue 50 Studio

OO: M.A. Fists, Bayestch Ghaffary: Vote Here, Yvonne Beatty: Civil Libertarian at Avenue 50 Studio

T+A Friendly at Leanna Lin's Wonderland

Toros Tngrian and Linda Johnstone Allen

A bus stop on York Boulevard

Felicis Montes: Todos Somos Flor at Avenue 50 Studio

Summer Nights in Atwater Village

2011-06-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

Enjoy “Summer Nights on the Boulevard” in Atwater Village tomorrow evening, June 30, from 5-10 p.m., and again on July 28 and August 25.
Businesses along Glendale Boulevard will be staying open late, and special entertainment, food, drink and art will be offered in a pedestrian-oriented environment.
Among the special events this Thursday:
• Dancers from Heartbeat House will be performing on the bump out in front of Kaldi Coffee.
• Atwater Village Farm will be hosting a “Pickle Pop Up” featuring local vendors of jams, jellies, pickles and honey. DJ Al G will be spinning evening sounds.
• Revo Cafe will host live music on its patio starting at 6:30 p.m. This month’s featured bands are Small Animals, Still Spark and Seán Kangataran.
• Grain will be cranking up the stereo and offering an assortment of hors d’oeuvres, confections and bubbly refreshments.
• Hugo’s Tacos will be the site of an “Ice Creme Social.”
• From 7-9 p.m., Woof Dog Boutique is hosting a “Dog Beer Fest.” (Yes, you read correctly.) There will be beer for the canines, wine for the humans and 20% off one regular-priced item.
• From 5-7 p.m., it’s “Family Fun Time” at NILA (down by the bridge). There’ll be face painting, games, family fun and more.
• At The Little Knittery, Kerry Regan will be doing a knitting machine demo all evening. Stop by and see her beautiful creations.
• Indulge your sweet tooth at Sweets for the Soul or relax with Summer Spumantes at 55 Degree Wine.
• A local artist showcase will be hosted by Hypnotiq Solutions and Santosha Space.
Summer Nights on the Boulevard is presented by the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council with support from the Atwater Village Chamber of Commerce.

City Council Accepts Autry Remodel

2011-06-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles City Council today took three important actions that affect the future of the Southwest Museum in Mount Washington and of the Autry National Center in Griffith Park.

• The Council denied a contention by the Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance and preservation expert Charles Fisher that a state-funded Autry renovation, undertaken in large part to display Southwest museum artifacts in Griffith Park, is subject to environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
• The Council let stand a city Recreation and Parks Board ruling that the Autry could remodel in Griffith Park.
• Councilmember José Huizar introduced a motion, with seconds from Councilmembers Ed Reyes and Tom LaBonge, promoting dialogue regarding the future of the Autry National Center, the Southwest Museum and the Casa de Adobe.

Only Huizar and Reyes voted in support of the CEQA contention. They were joined by Councilmember Paul Koretz in the failed effort to send the matter of the Autry remodel back to the Recreation and Parks board.

In allowing the Recreation and Parks Board ruling to stand, the Council majority turned aside arguments made by Northeast Los Angeles residents that moving two galleries and an ethno-botanic garden to like-named spaces in Griffith Park violates the Northeast Community Plan, a legally binding City document that specifically outlaws any change of use of the Southwest Museum.

“The whole city lost today,” said Daniel Wright, a Mount Washington resident and pro bono attorney for the CEQA appellants, after the Council meeting.

Nicole Possert, co-chair of Friends of the Southwest Museum, a coalition of 70+ neighborhood councils, residents’ organizations and preservation groups, quickly ticked off several points of irritation with the Council’s handling of legal issues surrounding the Autry remodel, including ignoring the City General Plan, ignoring the law of environmental review, ignoring the fact that Rec and Parks General Manager Jon Mukri signed a letter to the State regarding lease extension, when that should have been the responsibility of the City Council.

“Mr. Huizar, Mr. Reyes and Mr. Koretz at least took the vote for integrity,” said Possert.

143 people attended the City Council meeting to express opinions on the matters. 87 submitted cards against the CEQA appeal and/or for upholding the Rec and Parks support of the Autry remodel. 56 submitted cards supporting the CEQA appeal and/or against upholding the Rec and Parks support of the Autry remodel.

Northeast Los Angeles resident Philip Dorsey Iglauer likened the Southwest Museum situation to the demise of the City’s trolley system, a move that years later has residents wondering why that ever happened.

“Where’s the vision of the City of Los Angeles?” Iglauer asked.

Many of the Southwest Museum supporters asked for further vetting of the complex planning issues involved. They would have liked to see the Council send the matters to the Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee for “unwinding.”

Autry CEO Daniel Finley said that the Autry is “looking for a solution to the use of the former Southwest building,” but Northeast L.A. residents in attendance were distressed by his use of the word “former.”

“But that is not before you today,” said Finley.

A majority of the Council agreed.

The Huizar-Reyes-LaBonge motion, if ultimately passed by the full Council, will require the Chief Legislative Analyst’s (CLA’s) Office to establish and convene a working group comprised of the city Department of Recreation and Parks; the City Administrative Office; the City Attorney’s Office and Huizar, Reyes and LaBonge’s offices (representing the areas around the Southwest Museum, Casa de Adobe and the Autry National Center respectively).

The working group would be charged with several things:
•To engage in formal discussions with the Autry National Center of the American West, museum experts, stakeholders and community groups;
•To develop a long-range plan for the Autry Center in Griffith Park;
•To develop a long-range plan for the Southwest Museum and Casa de Adobe in Mount Washington;
•To advise as to the status of the lease renewal process between the City and the Autry regarding public land in Griffith Park (a subject about which conflicting opinions have been given regarding the Autry’s use of State funds for its remodel);
•To review the 2003 merger agreement between the Autry and the Southwest and to review the implications of its mandates;
•To identify funding sources for the renovation and operation of the Southwest Museum and
•To report to the Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee and to the Budget and Finance Committee of the City Council within 60 days on the progress of these discussions.

The motion represents a formal request. The Autry National Center is not obligated to comply with its provisions. If successful, it could have the effect of subjecting the carrying out of the Autry-Southwest merger agreement to a new level of public scrutiny.

Several council members expressed support for the idea of dialogue toward preservation of the Southwest Museum.

“Why haven’t you taken this beautiful facility with its objects and made it your first priority?” asked Councilmember Bill Rosendahl. “Why can’t you give us some assurance you’ll open it up?"

“This is a city of immense wealth,” said Council President Eric Garcetti. “It is a city of intense artistic resources.”

“We have new museums opening up,” said Garcetti. “We need to find the resources to make the Southwest work again.”

Garcetti pledged to help reach out to people who have resources.

Reyes pointed out that the City spent a lot on the Griffith Park Observatory because “we supported that iconic structure.”

The Councilmember added that he was looking to the Autry for “a conversation on how we can get it done, not why we can’t get it done.”

“Lummis vision of what a new Los Angeles would become is embedded in the Southwest,” Huizar said in conclusion.

A hearing on the Huizar-Reyes-LaBonge motion has not been scheduled yet.

Committee Approves Autry Center Remodel

2011-06-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles City Council’s Art Parks Health and Aging Committee, by a vote of 2-1, recommended today that the full City Council uphold a city Recreation and Parks Board authorization of an Autry National Center remodel in Griffith Park. It also recommended that the City Council deny an appeal of a finding that the Autry’s project does not have to undergo an environmental evaluation under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

The matters go before the full City Council at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

The CEQA appeal was filed by the Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance, a community organization of 600 plus members, and by local historian and preservation advocate Charles Fisher.

Speaking on behalf of the Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance, Land Use Committee member Mark Kenyon took the position that the organization does not object to the Autry receiving the $6.6 million is state Proposition 84 funds that it is using to fund a remodel of its Griffith Park site, a move the Autry is making in part to display artifacts from the Southwest Museum collection.

“We don’t have a problem with the Autry sharing the collection at both sites,” said Fisher. “There’s plenty of collection to go around.”

“However,” said Kenyon, “the Autry should not be allowed to break the law.”

The Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance, Fisher and the more than 70 organizations that have come together under the umbrella of the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition ask that the Autry comply with Northeast Los Angeles City Councilmember José Huizar’s request that a commitment to keeping the Southwest open as a museum be put in writing.

CEQA requires that any entity undertaking a major project involving land use disclose any negative consequences that could come about as a result of that project. The Autry argues that it is only remodeling within its existing footprint and that CEQA applies to physical changes only.

The appellants pointed out that moving two galleries worth of artifacts from Mount Washington to new galleries with the same themes in Griffith Park and eliminating the ethno-botanic garden in Mount Washington while creating a new one in Griffith Park create negative impacts in Northeast Los Angeles. They say the Autry’s actions are illegal under city planning law, as they violate the Northeast Community Plan, which holds the Southwest Museum to be a centerpiece of Northeast Los Angeles life and culture.

Any potential negative impacts on a historic resource would normally trigger CEQA.

Further, Daniel Wright, a pro bono attorney representing the appellants, argued before the council committee that, even aside from effects on Mount Washington, the change of use of parts of the Autry Museum in Griffith Park would inevitably cause changes in that area involving issues such as traffic impacts and parking.

The appellants contend that the Autry may well be avoiding CEQA by piecemealing a broader plan. They cite Autry documents of a year ago that refer to “the first phase of this multi-year project.” The Autry denies that it is piecemealing, and says that it has no plans beyond its immediate remodel.

The Autry’s lease agreement is also a cause of controversy. The center holds a $1 lease on city land in Griffith Park. Proposition 84 fund recipients have to hold 30-year leases on their sites. The Autry’s 50-year lease expires in 2037.

David Burton, an Autry official who oversaw the writing of the Proposition 84 grant, told the council committee that he has spoken numerous times with officials in Sacramento, and an extension of the lease does not have to be dealt with until a couple of years before it is set to expire.

However, Ana Cubas, Chief of Staff to Councilmember Huizar, who represents the district where the Southwest campus is located, told the committee that their office has been in touch with State Senator Kevin de León’s office. (De Leon authored the provision in the Prop 84 law that directs programming money to urban areas such as Los Angeles that are in need of such resources. He also represents much of Northeast L.A.) Cubas reported that de Leon’s office says that grantees have to provide a 30-year lease agreement.

Cubas told the council committee that discussions with the Autry “have come up short” in terms of getting the Autry to put a commitment to the Southwest in writing.

In addition to the appellants, a dozen community members from Garvanza, El Sereno, Mount Washington, Highland Park and Montecito Heights spoke of their belief in keeping the Southwest Museum open as a functioning museum in Mount Washington.

An approximately equal number of people—all but one of them Autry staff or attorneys—spoke in support of the Autry positions.

One Northeast LA resident, Rob Schraff, also spoke on behalf of the Autry, but used most of his allotted time criticizing the Friends of the Southwest Museum community group.

Councilmember Ed Reyes asked Pamela Hannah, Director of American Indian Outreach at the Autry National Center, who was very much involved in building the relationship between the Southwest Museum and the community when she used to work at the Mount Washington museum, if it would be possible to keep a portion of the artifacts on display in Mount Washington to allow the local community to have access to them. Hannah replied yes, that has been the plan since 2006. Reyes then asked if it would be possible to retain artifacts at a level equal to that of 15 years ago.

“We don’t feel a full museum is possible,” replied Hannah.

Reyes attempted to get the Autry/Southwest matters referred to the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee, which he chairs, for an examination of ramifications of city planning law and for a look at how do deal with the historic nature of entities involved. He was turned down by Arts Parks Health and Aging Chair Tom LaBonge.

LaBonge was joined by the third committee member, Herb Wesson, in voting to deny the CEQA appeal and in supporting Recreation and Parks belief that the Autry project is exempt from CEQA review. Reyes voted in support of the appeal.

Wesson did say that he would like to see the Autry put a commitment to the Southwest Museum in writing. But he joined LaBonge in voting to allow the Autry to accept the grant for its remodel.

The Art Parks Health and Aging votes are not binding. They are recommendations to the full council, which will take the official vote tomorrow. The Council can let the Recreation and Parks Board approval of the Autry remodel stand. Or it can make changes, which would have the effect of sending the matter back to the Recreation and Parks Board.

Mayor Visits Northeast LA to Launch Expanded Recycling

2011-06-14T16:13:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was in the Northeast community of Hermon this morning to let Los Angeles residents know that the list of waste products they can put in their blue recycling bins has been expanded to include cartons from foods and beverages such as milk, juice, soy milk, broth and even wine.
The Mayor, standing in the parking lot at Fresco Community Market on Monterey Road, said that, in expanding what can be recycled, the City is “solidifying our position as the number one recycling city in the nation.”
Los Angeles is now the largest of 200 California cities to offer carton recycling.
The Los Angeles Department of Public Works has partnered with the Carton Council in the expansion of blue bin recycling. The Carton Council was established just a couple of years ago by the four largest carton manufacturers in the United States. It has provided technical support to the City and is now joining the City in a public awareness campaign. It also works to ensure a market for the end product, and according to Jeff Fielkow of the Carton Council, paper mills are ready to buy our used cartons.
Villaraigosa stressed that Los Angeles has already come a long way in a short period of time. Six years ago there was no recycling program for multi-unit housing and no program for schools. Now 430,000 multi-family building units participate, as do all public schools. The City is now recycling about 65% of its waste, well on the way to its commitment to recycling 70% of waste by 2013.
“Someday, this city will be the first to be a zero waste city,” said Villaraigosa.
Fielkow referred to the expanded recycling as “an amazing model to launch coast to coast.”
“We need your help,” the Mayor added. “Please join me in making recycling in Los Angeles a way of life.”
The Department of Public Works asks that reclyclers rinse cartons before tossing them in blue bins. Residents of multi-unit buildings that do not currently have recycling bins can call 3-1-1 to request them.

Southwest Returns to City Hall Next Week

2011-06-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

The issue of the Autry National Center’s desire to remodel in order to house part of the Southwest Museum collection will return to City Hall next week. The City Council’s Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee has scheduled a hearing for Monday, June 20. The matter will return to the full Council on Tuesday, June 21.
The specific matter at hand will be the Autry National Center’s contention that the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) does not apply to its remodel. The City’s Recreation and Parks Board agrees with the Autry.
An appeal has been filed by Daniel Wright of the Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance and Charles Fisher of Highland Park, a well-known historian.
The application of CEQA would require that all available options (i.e. the reopening of the Southwest Museum in Mount Washington) be looked at before a project of such magnitude as a remodel of the Autry in Griffith Park could be undertaken. Further, under CEQA, the lead agency (The Autry) would have an obligation to mitigate all significant impacts brought about by its actions. At issue would be impacts on public land in Griffith Park and on the Southwest Mount Washington campus, which is a centerpiece of the Northeast Community Plan, a legally binding city planning document.

The recent back-story:
http://arroyosecojournal.blogspot.com/2011/06/autrysouthwest-at-arts-parks-health-and.html
http://arroyosecojournal.blogspot.com/2011/05/council-committee-to-hear.html
http://arroyosecojournal.blogspot.com/2011/05/autry-plans-for-southwest-collection.html

NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night

2011-06-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

Autry/Southwest at Arts, Parks, Health and Aging

2011-06-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

“Hopeful chaos.” That’s how Friends of the Southwest Museum Co-chair Nicole Possert describes the outcome of today’s City Council Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee meeting regarding the Autry National Center’s plans to remodel in Griffith Park, a move undertaken, in part, to show artifacts from of the Southwest Museum collection.
Councilmember Tom LaBonge, who chairs the committee, represents Griffith Park and its surrounding communities. He supports the Autry’s plans and stated his belief that the purpose of the meeting was limited to correcting a City Information Technology oversight in not publicizing a Recreation and Parks Board hearing on the matter. The public was given the chance to speak at today’s meeting. From LaBonge’s perspective, done deal.
Councilmember Ed Reyes, who shares representation of the area around the Southwest Museum Mount Washington site with Councilmember José Huizar, was persistent in wanting the impact of the Autry’s plans on the Southwest Museum and its affiliated Casa de Adobe put on the table.
The third council committee member, Herb Wesson, was not in attendance.
The outcome of the meeting was that there will be more meetings—somewhere and sometime and with potentially little notice.
Forty community members were entered into the record as being in favor of taking the Southwest Museum building and its collection into account when making any decisions.
The Autry contends that the Southwest Museum is not a factor in what is before the council. Ten people attended the meeting to speak in support of the Autry’s perspective—its attorney, its board chair, its CEO, a trustee, a volunteer attorney and five staff members.
The Autry must obtain city approval for any renovation costing $25,000 or more to its site, which is on city property in Griffith Park.
Reyes is not opposed to the Autry remodel, but wanted some questions answered, including:
• Why discussion of the Southwest Museum and its affiliated Casa de Adobe is not included in the Autry’s plan;
• What the Autry’s commitment to the Southwest Museum and Casa de Adobe, as a fully functional museum, is;
• And when the Council might be able to obtain a copy of an Autry National Center plan with the Southwest Museum and Casa de Adobe included.
Autry Chief Executive Officer Daniel Finley argued against the relevance of Reyes’ questioning, saying that what was before the committee is a narrow issue and that the Southwest is part of a larger issue.
LaBonge told Reyes that he was willing to agendize Reyes’ questions for a future meeting, but he agreed with Finley on the narrow scope of today’s meeting.
Joan Cumming, Senior Director for Marketing and Communications at the Autry National Center, told the committee that the terms of the $6.6 million state grant that makes the proposed remodel possible require that work be completed by 2017. The condition of the Southwest Museum facility, including its lack of ADA compliance, would have made opening galleries there by 2017 doubtful, thereby eliminating the Autry from grant contention.
“There has been no investment in the Southwest,” responded Reyes. “That put us in this position. We have to figure out how to bring this museum to life.”
Reyes addressed an Autry contention that the center has to have its grant reporting on its $6.6 million in state funds for the remodel submitted by July, making immediate council support essential, by pointing out that the State has granted extensions before.
Northeast Los Angeles residents in attendance were very much in accord with Reyes’ line of questioning.
The Northeast Community Plan, part of the city general plan, says that the City shall support the presence of the Southwest Museum at its current location. No move can be made regarding the Southwest Museum building and its existing uses without an examination of that move’s impacts.
“The First Californians exhibit and the ethno-botanic garden [both elements of the Southwest Museum on Mount Washington, both listed as new elements for the revamped Griffith Park site] are existing uses,” said Mark Kenyon of the Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance.
Darryl Ramos Young of Highland Park contended that, while the Autry National Center now has three separate sites, the view should be one of the collection as a whole.
“Impacts to all three sites—Burbank, Mount Washington and Griffith Park—should be addressed,” said Ramos Young.
“The project did not take into account the general plan,” said Possert. “Look at it carefully to make sure we are not picking up the Southwest and moving it six miles to Griffith Park.”
Marshall McKay, Chairperson of the Autry National Center Board and Tribal Chairman of Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, disagreed with Northeast residents’ contention that the collection is intimately linked to the Southwest site in Mount Washington.
“The collection belongs to the Native People who created it,” said McKay. “The Autry holds it in trust. Native people have continually endorsed this.”
McKay added that the state grant “will make the collection available to hundreds of thousands of visitors for generations to come.”
Yadhira De Leon, the Autry’s public relations manager, spoke of the Autry’s dedication to telling stories of complex cultures.
“Simplifying the argument to cowboys versus Indians does a disservice,” said De Leon.
What happens from here is rather up in the air.
Huizar staff member Paul Habib spoke for the councilmember, saying that Huizar would like to see the matter returned to the full council.
Reyes wants a report from the City Attorney before the council as to whether there can be an extension of the time framework for state grant reporting, but, the councilmember was clear, not out of any anti-Autry sentiment, nor for any impossible expansion of the scope of a specifically targeted grant. Reyes’ goal is to move forward in the hope that the future of the Southwest Museum and Casa de Adobe can be brought into a discussion with an amicable resolution.
Any changes to the original Rec and Parks decision would have the effect of sending the matter back to that department’s board.
LaBonge, however, was sticking with his contention that the council assertion of jurisdiction over the Recreation and Parks decision was specifically to allow a public hearing to be held.
“Now that hearing has been held,” said LaBonge.
LaBonge is willing to take the matter back to the full council to say that the hearing was held. However, he views impacts on the Southwest as matter for a separate discussion.
The committee ended with LaBonge stating a need to consult with the City Attorney as to how to proceed. He will then, as committee chair, either send the matter on to the full council or bring it back to the Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee. The next regular meeting of the committee is June 14. If LaBonge calls a special meeting due to the tight timeline on the grant, only 24 hours public notice will be required.
***
On the Southwest Museum’s role in the future of Los Angeles:
“Just because the Southwest Museum’s role is historic,” said Autry Marketing Assistant and Mount Washington resident Tessie Borden, “doesn’t mean it has to stay stuck in the past.”
“Old historic buildings get transformed with new love from other institutions,” said LaBonge.
“In our eyes,” said Habib speaking on Huizar’s behalf, “[The Southwest Museum’s] place in Los Angeles future is as important as its place in Los Angeles history.”
13-year old Genesee Hall of Highland Park told the committee members of her attendance at the Arroyo Seco Magnet School where it was once possible to use the resources of the Southwest Museum in studies.
“But that program no longer exists,” said the eighth grader.
“The City of Los Angeles has to have some feeling somewhere in its gut for the oldest museum in Los Angeles,” said Louis Mraz of Mount Washington.

NELA Artists Support Ai Weiwei

2011-06-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

Northeast Los Angeles artists have added new pieces to the gallery of Ai Weiwei inspired art. Add your work to the fence at York Boulevard and Avenue 50.

2011-05-31T23:46:00.000-07:00

Community members gather at City Hall to demand their right to be heard regarding the Southwest Museum collection

Council Committee to Hear Autry/Southwest Issue

2011-05-31T21:24:00.000-07:00

An Autry National Center request for permission to remodel its facility on city land in Griffith Park will be heard by the Los Angeles City Council’s Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee this Friday, June 3 at 8:45 a.m. at City Hall. One focus of the redesign effort is the creation of gallery space in which to showcase items from the Southwest Museum collection.
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously this morning to assert council jurisdiction over a Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners decision that gave the Autry National Center the go-ahead on the remodel.
See below on this blog for the back-story leading to today’s vote: http://arroyosecojournal.blogspot.com/2011/05/autry-plans-for-southwest-collection.html
The motion to assert jurisdiction was brought by Councilmembers José Huizar and Ed Reyes, who represent the Southwest Museum’s Mount Washington campus and its surrounding neighborhood on the City Council.
Twenty-five members of the public, including representatives of the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition and Friends of Griffith Park, plus residents of Highland Park, Mount Washington, Montecito Heights, Glassell Park and El Sereno, spoke before the council in favor of the motion. The opposition was represented by five speakers: the chair of the Autry Board, museum staff members and the museum’s attorneys.
Huizar began the proceedings by asking his colleagues to support his motion because many citizens believe that they were not given the opportunity to attend the Recreation and Parks hearing and voice their opinions and that “they weren’t even properly notified about the hearing.”
Councilmember Tom LaBonge, whose council district includes Griffith Park, was initially strident in his opposition to the motion.
Among LaBonge’s points were the fact that the portion of Griffith Park where the Autry is a lessee is the site of post World War II emergency housing, not part of the park’s original green space, and that the Autry has a $6+ million grant from the State “to enhance it’s mission.” Autry Chief Executive Officer Daniel Finley said that the awarding of the state grant to the Autry had been well publicized. Autry Board Chairperson Marshall McKay added that the Autry’s application for the grant was fairly considered, that the project will highlight important cultural contributions of Native People, and that 50,000 Los Angeles school children per year will benefit from visiting the remodeled museum.
“The Southwest is no longer in existence,” declared LaBonge.
“The Autry is committing a fraud,” replied Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance member Mark Kenyon during public comment. “The Southwest is only closed because the Autry did not live up to the terms of the merger agreement.”
However, while the closure of the Southwest Museum and the relocation of its collection to Griffith Park are at the heart of issues surrounding the Autry request, what was on the table today was actually very specific. Huizar asked his colleagues, whether they agreed or disagreed with the substance of the Autry request, to “give the many interested individuals the opportunity to be heard.”
“Yes is not a vote against renovation,” said community member Darryl Ramos-Young. “Just a vote for a proper, open hearing.”
City staff members were called forward by LaBonge to explain that the agenda for the Recreation and Parks special board meeting had been posted two days in advance. The Department of Recreation and Parks asserted that the conflict of interest that had previously prevented its board from ruling on Autry matters is now moot. Board President Barry Sanders is indeed a former partner in the Law Firm of Latham and Watkins, but that firm has not represented the Autry for over a year now.
Speaker after speaker spoke to the fact that there had been no public notification regarding the Recreation and Parks meeting.
Charlie Fisher of Highland Park said that he felt rather like Arthur Dent in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Dent awakens one morning to find bulldozers about to demolish his house to make way for a highway. Notification had been given; the plans had been posted in an obscure location in a government building somewhere. Further, the earth is about to be wiped out to make way for a hyperspace bypass; the plans had been posted on another planet.
“[The Autry] set about to get these permits in an underhanded and stealth way,” said Mount Washington resident Daniel Wright of the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition. “A fundamental government right is at stake here.”
Wright said that a no vote on the Huizar-Reyes motion would feed public cynicism and growing anger toward government. He added that allowing the Recreation and Parks decision to stand without public input could well lead to civil court action regarding denial of the public’s rights.
The motion looked to be in serious trouble for a while, as councilmembers, city staff and Autry officials grappled with whether delays could cause the Autry to lose its grant money. Grant reporting is due by July 1. Recreation and Parks, Finley and LaBonge all argued that the delay could doom the funding.
But Councilmember Reyes rose and said, “We can move diligently. We talk about good will and transparency, about fair access, fair hearing.”
At that point Reyes looked at LaBonge and asked, “Will you offer that good will?”
It wasn’t LaBonge’s turn to speak, but it was widely noted in the Council Chamber that Reyes did not exactly get eye contact in return.
Councilmember Richard Alarcón pursued the issue of Recreation and Parks agenda notification. Rec and Parks said it did what it always does with agendas and suggested checking with Info Tech. A representative of the City Attorney’s Office finally confirmed that the agenda had not been posted by the City Information Technology Agency, and that the agenda had not been mailed to subscribers through the City’s Early Notification System.
“The question is whether we want to fully inform people, even beyond the Brown Act,” replied Alarcón.
Councilmember Dennis Zine admitted that he had never been to the Southwest Museum and that he knew little about the controversies surrounding it, but he said that he was prepared to support the Huizar-Reyes motion because, “People are telling me that it’s an issue for them in their community, and that means something to me.”
“Congratulations,” Zine said to the Northeast Los Angeles community members in attendance. “You have had an impact on my vote.”
Huizar reported that, if the council were to pass the motion, that passage would open a 21 day period within which the council would be legally obligated to take action.
“This will not jeopardize the grant,” said Huizar. “Take that off the table.”
As the hearing wrapped up, it seemed clear the motion was on its way to passage. LaBonge held a quick side aisle conversation with Autry officials and then agreed to make the passage unanimous and to hear the matter of the Autry remodeling at a meeting of the council’s Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee, which he chairs, this coming Friday morning.
Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee members, in addition to LaBonge, are Reyes and Councilmember Herb Wesson.
The conversation now shifts from public notification and government transparency to whether or not LaBonge’s contention that the Southwest Museum is no longer in existence is true.

City Council Asserts Authority over Rec & Parks Decision

2011-05-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

UPDATE • UPDATE • UPDATE

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously this morning to assert jurisdiction over the recent Recreation and Parks department decision which allowed the Autry National Museum to to display the Southwest Museum collection.

Such a move would have effectively shuttered the historic museum forever.The matter will now be heard by the City Council Arts , Parks, Health and Aging Committee Friday, June 3, at 8:45 a.m.

Full details available here later today at www.arroyosecojournal.blogspotcom.

Northeast L.A. Artists Support Incarcerated Chinese Artist With Makeshift Gallery

2011-05-29T19:34:00.001-07:00

Today, everybody can become Ai Weiwei
--Writer, Filmmaker Ai Xiaoming

Northeast Los Angeles artists are organizing a show of support for imprisoned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. They are turning the vacant lot at the corner of York Boulevard and Avenue 50 into a make-shift gallery featuring works inspired by Ai.
Local artist Brian Mallman put out the call via Facebook and email. The first few works quickly showed up. More are on the way.
Ai’s art has earned him an international following. The 54-year old artist is known for his work in sculpture; architecture; conceptual, experimental and performance arts; photography; film; architecture; book publishing; social media and curation and for his linkage of art and social criticism.
Among the artist’s most recent works are “Sunflower Seeds,” an installation at the Tate Modern in London, which uses millions of individually hand-crafted tiny porcelain sculptures to create a commentary on individualism versus enforced conformity, and “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads,” which features a recreation of Chinese art ransacked by the British and French during the Second Opium War. “Circle of Animals” had its debut May 4 in New York City, without the incarcerated artist. A major survey show, currently at the Lisson Gallery in London, includes “Colored Vases,” for which Han Dynasty pots have been covered with industrial paint
“For the world, Ai continues to represent the promise of China,” former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman wrote in support of Time Magazine’s listing of Ai as one of 2011’s most influential people in the world. Given Ai’s international stature, many in the arts community would add that Ai “represents the promise of the world,” standing as an example of the artist in support of human dignity.
“It is very sad,” writes Huntsman, “that the Chinese government has seen a need to silence one of its most innovative and illustrious citizens.”
Ai comes from dissident stock. The arrest of his father, a highly respected poet, led to the family spending most of Ai’s youth in a work camp. But Ai’s current problems with Chinese authorities did not come to a head until 2008. Although he had served as an artistic consultant on the design of the stadium for that year’s Olympics in Beijing, Ai became a vocal critic of the “pretend smile” surrounding the games.
Ai ran further afoul of Chinese authorities when he exposed corruption that lead to the collapse of schools during the 2008 Szechuan earthquake. He assembled a huge team of volunteers, who collected the names of well over 5,000 young people killed in the quake, and then he began posting the names online and on the walls of his studio. He created a major installation in Munich called “So Sorry,” in which 9,000 custom-made school backpacks were displayed. The bags spelled out, in Chinese, “She lived happily on this earth for seven years,” quoting the mother of one of the students killed in the quake. He also began reporting on detentions of Chinese activists via Twitter.
In 2009, Ai was severely beaten by Chinese police. A month later, he almost died of the results. He underwent emergency brain surgery in Germany to stop massive internal bleeding.
Early this year, Ai’s studio was demolished by the Chinese government.
Ai was taken into custody April 3.
Weeks went by before any kind of information was released regarding Ai’s condition or charges against him. In mid-May, his wife was allowed a 20 minute supervised visit and reported him to be in apparent good health. On May 21, Ai was publicly accused via government aligned media of tax evasion and other financial improprieties. References were also made to possible charges of bigamy and dissemination of online pornography.
Ai’s is the most prominent name among those of many artists, writers, lawyers and other Chinese citizens who have been arrested in China in recent months.
"Other than a few small protests and an online petition, the art world has been largely silent publicly about Ai Weiwei’s imprisonment,” Mallman says of the York and Avenue 50 installation. “If artists don’t begin forming protests like this one, we need to start asking, ‘Why’?"
On the heels of a demonstration at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in support of the artist, a shipper has demanded the return of two Ai Weiwei designed chairs to China. The move, although nebulous, is being seen by the art world as ominous. Yet it does suggest that China is monitoring what is taking place on the international scene.
The intersection of York and Avenue 50, where the works are being posted, is a very active corner with heavy car and pedestrian traffic. It is an arts-rich corner with a number of arts venues within a block of the temporary outdoor gallery. There are also coffee and eating places and vintage and boutique stores that draw a diverse crowd to the boulevard.
Everyone—from “I’ve never done this before” to world-famous artist—is invited and encouraged to participate in the installation. Simply bring your Ai Weiwei-inspired art to the lot and put it on the fence.

Southwest Museum/Autry Update!

2011-05-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

Update! The City Council will hear a motion asserting jurisdiction over a Recreation and Parks board action allowing the Autry National Center to remodel its facility in Griffith Park to house the Southwest Museum collection. Tuesday, May 31, 10 a.m., Los Angeles City Hall. Background article below.

Autry Plans for Southwest Collection Approved by Rec and Parks

2011-05-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

A major development has taken place in the long and always unfolding saga of the Southwest Museum-Autry National Center “merger.”
On Friday, May 20, The City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commission voted to approve an Autry National Center request for approval to renovate its facility on its Griffith Park campus. (The Autry leases the Griffith Park site from the City for $1 per year, thereby necessitating Recreation and Parks approval for any significant physical changes.)
How the action on the part of the Recreation and Parks Commissioners could have come about is, at this point, mysterious for several reasons.
Local members of the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition, which has fought for the Southwest Museum’s retention as a fully-functioning museum on its Mount Washington campus since 2003, monitor Recreation and Parks agendas closely for any relevant activity. The coalition is made up of a great many Neighborhood Councils, resident organizations and preservation groups. However, no one was aware that the Autry item was agendized for May 20.
The item was, in fact on the commission’s agenda for the day. However, the agenda was filed as a “Special Agenda.” It was not posted on the City of Los Angeles web site under meetings and agendas. It was not sent to members of the public who subscribe under the City’s Early Notification System. It was not sent to the long list of city residents who have expressed serious interest in the case, including those who attended a packed 2009 hearing on Autry expansion, nor to those who have in the past sent mail or email communications on the matter.
The State’s Brown Act requires open, 72-hour advanced posting of agendas except in urgent situations. The agenda for the May 20 Recreation and Parks Commission meeting may have been posted at City Hall shortly before the meeting. It is several clicks into the Recreation and Parks Department web site. But there was no apparent outreach done to notify the public, despite a history of great community interest in the matter. Community activists, who certainly would have been at the meeting had they known about it, are left puzzled as to how an issue that has been on the table since 2003 could suddenly be declared worthy of a “Special Agenda” without public notification.
Further, the Los Angeles City Attorney ruled in 2009 that the Recreation and Parks Commission is not eligible to rule on Autry matters because the Commission President, Barry Sanders, is a retired partner in the Law Firm of Latham and Watkins, which represents the Autry. The City Attorney’s office has considered this to be a conflict of interest.
And there is precedent for the commissioners avoiding taking action in matters involving the Autry. In 2009. when the Autry brought a request for permission to expand to the City, the matter was referred to the City Council’s Board of Referred Powers, which acts when a city board or commission is deemed ineligible. (In the 2009 case, the Board of Referred Powers asked, at local City Council Member José Huizar ‘s request, that the Autry put its promises to preserve the Southwest Museum into the form of a signed document. Representatives of Latham and Watkins, acting on behalf of the Autry National Center, refused.)
"In my more than 25 years representing and advising public agencies, I have never seen such a sleazy and underhanded maneuver as what occurred on Friday, May 20th,” says attorney and Mount Washington resident Daniel Wright. “For a public agency to selectively remove from its meeting agenda email notification system persons it knows are opposed to a project is to maliciously trample the core principles of democracy and fair play.”
It is possible for the City Council to assume jurisdiction over the Recreation and Parks Commission ruling—if the Council acts quickly. Impetus most likely would come from Councilmember Huizar, who represents the portion of Mount Washington where the Southwest Museum building is located, and/or from Councilmember Ed Reyes, who represents the North Figueroa corridor, where the museum’s Casa de Adobe is located. They would have to work with City Council President Eric Garcetti (who also represents part of Northeast Los Angeles) to put an item regarding assuming jurisdiction on a City Council agenda. A two-thirds vote of the full council would then be necessary to proceed. This will have to happen very quickly if it is going to happen, as the Council has only five council meeting days (the Council meets three times a week) to assume jurisdiction over any commission’s decision. If jurisdiction is assumed, the Council will then have 21 days to consider whether to veto or uphold the commission action.
The Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition is asking the public to contact Councilmembers Huizar and Reyes immediately to ask for a motion asserting jurisdiction over the Recreation and Parks Commission ruling. (Addresses and phone numbers are at LACity.org.)
What the Autry brought to the commission is essentially a scaled down version of previous expansion plans. Community members near the Southwest site on Mount Washington and near the Autry site in Griffith Park were never made aware that a new plan was in the works nor that it was finalized.
According the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition, what is at stake is a priceless collection of Native American artifacts, one of the two greatest such collections in the world; a 13-acre Mount Washington site that is listed on the National Register of Historic places and a $5 million endowment.
When the Southwest and Autry Museums merged in 2003, the move was presented to the public as a true merger involving two partners. The Southwest had a world class collection and Los Angeles’ oldest museum building, but was cash poor. The Autry had a much better endowment and a collection that was noteworthy, but not on a par with the Southwest. The public was told that two facilities would be maintained. That contention ended however, when the Autry closed the Southwest campus and sought to expand its Griffith Park facility to showcase the Southwest collection. Meanwhile, the Autry’s bank coffers have been exposed as not nearly as flush as originally suggested, with most of the needed money in the will of a very much alive Jackie Autry, widow of Gene Autry, and in expectations of a blue ribbon committee appointed to raise funds for the preservation of the Southwest Museum, something it never did.
Former Autry National Center Director John Grey commonly portrayed the Autry’s involvement as having saved the Southwest Museum. Coalition to Save the Southwest Museum members, as well as Councilmember Reyes, have, in the past, called it “cultural piracy.”
Proponents of keeping the Southwest Museum as a fully functioning museum, meeting minimum legal standards for museums, at the Mount Washington site, argue that anything less is a violation of the Northeast Los Angeles Community Plan, a planning document used by the City that carries the weight of law. Many residents of the Griffith Park area, meanwhile, have been vocal in opposition to an expansion of facilities in the park, demanding that is be preserved as it was originally intended—as undeveloped green space.
After the 2009 Board of Referred Powers meeting, the Autry withdrew its presented expansion plan. It has since purchased a building in Burbank, outside of Los Angeles’ jurisdiction, for storage. It has also refused serious financial opportunities engineered by Huizar for the rehabilitation and use of the Southwest Museum campus and has gone so far as to return grant money intended for waterproofing. Meanwhile, it has continued to seek and receive grant money for remodeling in Griffith Park.
The Autry’s recent request to the Recreation and Parks Commission was framed in terms of spending $6.6 million the institution has been awarded in state Proposition 84 funding. The funding is to be used toward the construction of two new galleries, an outdoor teaching garden and site improvements within the existing footprint of the museum. 18,000 square-feet of museum space are impacted.
According to materials submitted to Recreation and Parks by the Autry, “The two exhibit galleries and the outdoor teaching garden will be devoted to the native people of California, their relationship to the natural environment, and the key resource stewardship practices they have employed in sustaining their traditions and customary manner of living…visitors to the Autry will learn about historical and contemporary ecological issues that impact, and in some cases, may threaten the way Californians live.”
Proposition 84 provides bond funding to projects enabling safe drinking water, water quality and supply, flood control, waterway and natural resource protection, water pollution and contamination control, state and local park improvements, public access to natural resources and water conservation efforts.
One of the exhibit galleries is designed to house a long-term exhibit on “The First Californians,” showing “how nature is weaved into the customs and ceremonial traditions of Native Californians.” The second gallery is designed to house a long-term exhibit focusing on Pomo life and culture, focusing on two female Pomo “doctors” whose work sustained Pomo practices and culture. It is planned to include suggestions as to how contemporary Californians can benefit from this knowledge. A centerpiece of the teaching garden would be a water feature depicting the journey of a river through various riparian ecosystems.
The two proposed galleries would contain over 500 objects from 50 Native American cultures. The Autry proposal does not use the terms “Southwest Museum” or “Southwest Collection.”
If the City Council does assume jurisdiction over the Recreation and Parks action and the Council hears the matter within three weeks, there will not be, at that Council meeting, something so clear-cut as a thumbs up or thumbs down to the Autry’s latest remodeling plan. The Council could insist on an environmental review. It could tell the Autry to submit its plan to a public review process. It could also decide to investigate whether Sanders broke conflict of interest laws in his role as a commissioner.
Community members are not mincing words when it comes to their feelings on the matter.
"If the Council does not vote to take jurisdiction and veto this fraudulent transaction,” says Wright, “the community will finally do what it has tried to avoid: litigation and public boycott of the Autry Museum.”
"A boycott of the Autry is not in anyone's interest,” Wright adds, “and Councilmembers Huizar, Reyes and Garcetti need to lead the way to resolution."

Relighting the Highland

2011-05-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

The dreams of Amy Inouye and a host of Highland Park activists and preservationists came true May 17, as the community gathered to re-light the sign above the Highland Theatre on North Figueroa Street. Read the full story by Margaret Arnold at http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=81430

Highland Theatre Sign Relighting 05/17/11

2011-05-20T18:06:00.001-07:00

20 Theatres of Northeast Los Angeles

2011-05-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

The Highland Theatre is the only movie theatre in Northeast Los Angeles. But that wasn’t always the case. Movie houses dotted the Northeast map for decades. Some were demolished years ago. But most of the buildings are still standing on our main streets. Click here for a tour of 20 sites—from silent movie houses to grand movie palaces--where NELA residents of years past took their dates, attended free Saturday kids’ matinees, learned about adventure, mystery, horror and romance, ate popcorn and got their feet stuck to the floor.
We invite you to share with us your memories of these theatres (and any others we may have missed). Send us your thoughts in the comments section here or at ArroyoSJ@yahoo.com. We’ll share your comments in a future issue. (P.S. Check your photo albums. Any photos of local theatres?)

Highland Theatre Sign Lighting 05/17/11

2011-05-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

"I'd like to thank everyone for coming to my party. This is my letter. A is for Anton, and that's me!"

2011-05-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

A typical Tuesday evening on a typical street corner in Highland Park

Highland Theatre Sign Lighting 05/17/11

2011-05-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

Highland Theatre Sign Lighting 05/17/11

2011-05-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

Highland Theatre Sign Lighting 05/17/11

2011-05-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

Highland Theatre Sign Lighting 05/17/11

2011-05-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

Highland Theatre Sign Lighting 5/17/11

2011-05-20T13:06:00.001-07:00

New Signs

2011-05-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

As Highland Park celebrates one of the earliest examples of large electric signage this week with the lighting of the Highland Theatre sign, two new examples are to be found just up the street on Avenue 50. Stephanie Allespach’s “Sometimes” is in the window at Outpost for Contemporary Art just off of York Boulevard through the summer. Jason Manley’s “Believe” can be seen through the window at Public Fiction (the museum of) just off of Aldama. The signs, while modern, are crafted with a nod to historic neon and incandescent bulb styles.

Brewery Spring ArtWalk

2011-05-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

Twice a year the occupants of the world’s largest arts colony, The Brewery, located in Lincoln Heights, open their doors to the public for an ArtWalk. For a three-minute recap of seven hours of the Brewery experience, click on the video below. The next Brewery ArtWalk will be in the October.
(Artists: Keith Collins, Tapestries/Chuck Hood, Sculpture & Chess Art/Holly V. Hood, Pastels & Paintings/Yoshi Hashimoto, Peace 22 Studio/Hipcooks/James Hill, Metal Sculptor/Flip Out Tire Gardens/Nicole Fournier, Encaustic Art/Debi Cable, Velvet Touch Painting/Kid Rainbow/Peddler of Dreams Art Space for Children/Chakacoco, Attire for Small Dogs/Church of Art: Llyn Foulkes, On the Machine; Norton Wisdom, Backlit Painting; Kasey McMahon, Dance/Dave Lefner, Reduction Linocuts/Kevin Rolly, Live Painting/Let’s Play Dead/Alyssa Ravenwood, Ravenwood Masks/Joyce Aysta, Live Your Dreams Origami Architecture/Martin Arriola, Live Painting of the Brewery/Sean Sobczak, Sandman Creations/Psycho Girlfriend: Kasey McMahon & Vanessa Bonet, Wearable Art; Mark Miller, Musician/Bruce Gray, Metal Sculpture/Kevin Flint, Dystopian Studio)

Confluence Plaza

2011-05-19T17:37:00.000-07:00

One year ago, the Arroyo Seco Journal reported on major changes in the works for the junction of North Figueroa, San Fernando Road and Riverside Drive. Phase one is now complete. See images from the dedication above. See the story in this month's Arroyo Seco Journal. See the back story from last year rerun below. The Back Story on Confluence Plaza.

The Arroyo Seco Journal, April 2010 A major local intersection is about to be completely transformed. Right now, at the junction of San Fernando Road, North Figueroa Street and Riverside Drive, there is no real way to know that one has arrived at the edge of some of most historic communities of Los Angeles, namely Cypress Park, Lincoln Heights and Elysian Valley. To the immediate west, the Riverside Drive Bridge crosses the Los Angeles River. The lights of Dodger Stadium are visible on game night, atop a verdant hillside. But the intersection itself is dangerous and, well, just plain ugly. The only evidence of anything special is a small U.S. Route 66 sign—dwarfed by an ad-less, peeling billboard above it. But that’s temporary. Changes on the way include a traffic-calming roundabout, parkland and a major piece of public art reflective of the diverse residents of the area. The transformation has been long in coming. City Councilmember Ed Reyes says that he first began working on the corner in 1992 as a staff member to then Councilmember Mike Hernandez. In the beginning, according to Reyes, the project was about wishful thinking. Residents were asked what they wanted to see, and a strong sentiment that emerged was that they wanted to get away from the industrial feel of the neighborhood. Reyes told attendees at a recent gathering that a lot has already been accomplished. The bridge is about to be reconfigured to eliminate a dangerous pinching effect. There will be a designated bike road. Not far away, the Avenue 19 Bridge has been rebuilt, there is a Request for Proposals out for an adaptive reuse of a former jail, the Fuller Building is now providing housing in formerly abandoned structures, there are two State Parks on former railroad properties, and the Metro Gold Line provides clean, fast transportation. The most dramatic coming change is going to be the roundabout, and the biggest excitement generator is going to be what’s going to be in the middle of it. A roundabout is a circular intersection that drivers cross by traveling counterclockwise around a raised center island. A roundabout promotes safety by slowing traffic down and by greatly reducing the possibility of head-on collisions. It can also be a tool for making slowed motorists much more aware of the communities through which they are passing. Greenmeme, a locally based sustainable design firm run by artists Freya Bardell and Brian Howe, has been commissioned to create a very large public art installation for the roundabout’s central island. The artwork will: • Welcome people to the local communities of Northeast Los Angeles and let them know they have arrived somewhere special • Represent diverse generations of residents • Serve a safety function by masking traffic across the roundabout • And serve an environmental purpose related to water runoff and the river watershed. Design plans for the artwork will be released after they are approved by the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission, probably in May. An early look revealed that it will serve as a major centerpiece for the entire Northeast Los Angeles area. Three corners of the intersection itself are being converted to park space. City maintenance yards are being moved elsewhere. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is already installing a fountain and small park on the corner closest to the Home Depot. Reyes says that the whole intersection will soon be reflective of a riverfront district located just steps from the birthplace of Los Angeles. The parkland will be known as Confluence Park. The State’s Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority made a first corner acquisition at the intersection in 2003, and there are plans for picnic facilities, native landscaping, the water feature, interpretive exhibits, walking paths and amenities (including restrooms) for bicyclers and pedestrians. In addition to serving immediate community members, Confluence Park will be a key piece in the connectivity of a much larger picture that includes: • A repaired riparian ecosystem • Recreational access to the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco • Realization of an emerald necklace of parkland connecting Griffith Park, Rio de Los Angeles State Park; Confluence Park, Los Angeles State Historic Park (Cornfield), Elysian Park and El Pueblo • And meeting day to day commuting needs via a variety of modes of transportation. The neighborhoods around the intersection are densely populated. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy estimates that as many as one million people could benefit from local parkland. Project partners in piecing the whole bridge-roundabout-parkland project together include the California Department of Transportation, the County of Los Angeles, the City of Los Angeles (Council District 1, the Bureau of Engineering, Cultural Affairs), the United States Geological Survey, Community Development by Design, The University of California Berkeley, The Los Angeles Conservation Corps, The California Trust for Public Schools, The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and Greenmeme. Funding for the project is largely through Federal sources, but includes State sources as well. Expected duration of the whole bridge-roundabout-park project is through 2013. It will be a dramatic change for an intersection that was once part of the trail that in 1776 brought the Juan Bautista De Anza expedition to the river where it founded the pueblo that became Los Angeles, but has been treated more recently as a throughway and storage facility. Now, standing at San Fernando Road, North Figueroa and Riverside Drive, one gets more of a feeling of being outside a backdoor than of being at the City’s front door. “We are asking the City to change its culture,” Reyes says.

Home As Canvas

2011-05-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

The first in a series of art houses has been completed along the Gold Line route. See the images above. Read the story in this month's Arroyo Seco Journal.

An Urban Forest in Highland Park

2011-05-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

Volunteers line York Boulevard with shade trees. See the story in this month's Arroyo Seco Journal.

Eagle Rock Day at Los Angeles City Hall

2011-05-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

Eagle Rock has passed the century mark, and community members celebrated their neighborhood’s three digit birthday with a party at Los Angeles City Hall March 4. Local Councilmember Jose Huizar and his colleagues officially proclaimed the day “Eagle Rock Day in Los Angeles.”
Children from Dahlia Heights Elementary School enlightened City Councilmembers on the history of their community. There were remarks by Bob Gotham, President of The Eagle Rock Association (TERA); by resident since 1939, John Miller; by city historian, Councilmember Tom LaBonge and by Council President Eric Garcetti whose grandfather was from Eagle Rock and who once taught at Occidental College. Candles were blown out on a birthday cake as Eagle Rock Elementary School Students sang “Happy Birthday to You—cha cha cha.”
Then everyone was ushered up to the City Hall’s 27th-floor Tom Bradley Room where they were serenaded by the Eagle Rock Junior/Senior High School Latin Jazz Band and enjoyed cake amidst a 360-degree view of the City.
The Dahlia Heights students put on a play, “The Adventures of Eagle Rock, Then and Now,” taking the audience through the history of the community—the native Tongva, strawberry and dahlia farming, author John Steinbeck (who was informed that no one would ever buy a book about angry grapes), trolley cars, Occidental College, Barack Obama and the rock itself.
In addition to large contingents of Dahlia Heights and Eagle Rock students, TERA, the Latin Jazz Band and Huizar’s staff, representatives of The Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce, Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, Collaborative Eagle Rock Beautiful (CERB), B.L.E.N.D., Eagle Rock Valley Historical Society, Women’s Twentieth Century Club and the Kiwanis and Lions were in attendance..
The community’s official birthday was March 1, marking the 1911 date when Eagle Rock was incorporated as a city.
“And since then it’s kept its small town feel in this large metropolitan area,” said Huizar, “where neighbors know neighbors, and you can find anything you need in our beautiful local community of Eagle Rock.”
A full year of centennial events is planned.

Art Among the Chard

2011-05-19T17:08:00.000-07:00

Artists Linda Johnstone Allen and Kacy Treadway debut a series of totem poles at the Eagle Rockdale Community Garden and Art Park. The project organized by Treadway, will evolve, as artists--some local and some from as far away as Australia--add components.

More Food Trucks

2011-04-01T00:33:00.001-07:00

A food truck fest at Eagle Rock Plaza to Benefit the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts. The lines were long, the food was great.

Avenues Gang Leader Sentenced for Human Smuggling

2011-03-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

By Margaret Arnold
News Editor

The Glassell Park-based head of a human smuggling ring with ties to the Avenues street gang has been handed a stiff sentence in Federal Court. His parents have also been convicted of crimes related to participation in the ring.

Eduardo “Tito” Alvarez-Marquez, age 37, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was convicted last September of conspiracy to smuggle into the United States aliens who were previously convicted of aggravated felonies and of harboring an illegal alien. He had already pleaded guilty to another alien-smuggling conspiracy. According to a statement released by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Alvarez-Marquez’ sentence is one of the longest prison terms ever imposed in a human smuggling case.

Alvarez-Marquez’ father, Teodoro Alvarez-Estrada, 58, of Los Angeles, is among eight others who have been sentenced for roles in the smuggling ring, He has been sentenced to 188 months on human smuggling and drug trafficking charges.
Alvarez-Marquez’ mother, Aquilina Alvarez, 57, of Glassell Park, has been sentenced to 57 months.

According to ICE, the smuggling ring headed by Alvarez-Marquez was responsible for bringing at least 200 undocumented people per year, who paid up to $4,500 each in fees, into the United States.

In one incident, Alvarez-Marquez refused to release an ailing 3-month-old infant to its family until a $1,200 smuggling fee was paid. In another incident, the smuggling organization locked 26 people inside a freezer truck in Imperial, California.
Alvarez-Marquez most famous client was Maria León, matriarch of the Avenues street gang Drew Street clique. (Leon is serving a 100 month prison sentence. The Leon house on Drew Street was declared a nuisance property by the City and torn down. The site is about to become a community garden.)

A Decision for Education

2011-03-16T00:52:00.000-07:00

By Margaret Arnold
News Editor
Arroyo Seco Journal

Northeast Los Angeles’ new public high school, Central High School 13, was on the agenda today at the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education meeting.

Although there are five small "schools" on the one large San Fernando Road campus, the board made only one definite decision today, despite other local media reports.

Alliance College Ready Public Schools will operate a “Technology and Math Science High School” (TAMSHS).

The authors of four other proposals have been invited to resubmit, with certain very specific questions answered, by April 25. Those proposals are Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC), the Los Angeles River School, ArtLAB and the School of History and Dramatic Arts (SoHDA).

PUC is a non-profit charter school management organization. The other three proposals were created by a collaborative of teachers from Marshall and Franklin High Schools.

A fourth proposal from the teacher collaborative, for a School of Technology, Business and Education (STBE), has been eliminated from consideration.

CHS 13 was one of 13 schools for which the board was conducting a special meeting in order to make decisions as to which innovative education programs will be in place in place when schools open in September.
Although the meeting was not scheduled to begin until 1 p.m. on Tuesday, supporters of various proposals began lining up outside the district’s office on the edge of Downtown by 8 p.m. Monday evening in the hope of signing up for only 13 public comment slots and of getting seats in the board room. The crowd outside began to swell about 4:30 a.m. with the arrival of Charter School supporters. It grew further with the 7:45 a.m. arrival of United Teachers of Los Angeles members.

The Board followed the recommendations of LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines in making its decisions regarding CHS 13.
In singling out Alliance, Cortines praised the Charter operator for the demonstrated college readiness of its students, for its personalized learning plans and for its substantive support of English language learners, gifted students and special education students.

Although he said that there were “many good things” in the rejected STBE proposal, Cortines said that “It needed to be further developed.”

With five small schools sharing one large campus, educators will have to cooperate in order to have a doable situation. Paul Payne, of the River School proposal, asked the Board to select the four “Pilot School” proposals developed by Marshall and Franklin teachers, saying that “The four Pilot teams embody the collaborative process necessary to run this school.”
Alliance CEO Judy Burton told the Board that, throughout the development process, the Charter teams and the teacher teams were not competing against one another, but rather, were learning from one another.

PUC founder Ref Rodriguez suggested to the Board that it might actually be possible to find a way for all six schools to share the facility.

Although the CHS 13 campus itself is located in Board Member Yolie Flores Aguilar’s district, it was Board Member Steve Zimmer, who has spent his teaching career at Marshall and who has worked with many of the teachers who developed the Pilot School proposals, who opened the Board’s discussion of the Cortines recommendations for the school.
“I was inspired by the cooperation I saw at the podium,” said Zimmer.

Zimmer proposed allowing STBE to resubmit its proposal with the rest on April 25. He also said that, although he had come to be a believer in Alliance, he would like to see it return in April with more information as to how it would approach being a neighborhood school, without the option to exercise control over which students it accepts, and as to how it would address social and emotional needs of students. He asked that all six proposals be resubmitted and readdressed in April.

Five members of the Board, including local representatives Flores Aguilar and Mónica García, voted to go with Cortines’ recommendations. Zimmer was joined by only Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte in seeking to have STBE and Alliance resubmit. Flores Aguilar, who has been a staunch advocate for small schools and who drafted the motion that created the Public School Choice process leading up to today’s decision-making meeting, said that she was worried to see so many proposals recommended “with reservations.”

“It suggests we have yet to be more creative,” said Flores Aguilar.

The Board is especially sensitive to approving academic proposals with reservations, given an experience with another Northeast Los Angeles school, Luther Burbank Middle School. Last year, in round one of the Public School Choice process, a plan was approved for Luther Burbank with reservations, and it has failed, leading to emergency measures currently being taken to “reconstitute” the school.

Among the issues to be addressed by the CHS 13 applicants: The River School must cite research to support all aspects of its plan, present a better implementation plan a clear plan for assessment and better address how it will meet needs of English language learners. PUC must articulate how it will meet needs of English language learners, better discuss how all of its instructional strategies will come together in one program and present a timeline for start-up. SoHDA must incorporate a stronger focus on math and science in with its history and drama emphasis, present a better plan for meeting needs of English learners and present a professional development plan aligned with its instructional plan and a budget.

ArtLAB needs to incorporate a stronger focus on math and science, present a better plan for serving English learners and present a better data assessment and monitoring plan and a budget. All revisions must involve teachers, parents, administrators and Local District 4.

If, at its April 25 meeting, the Board finds that one or more of the proposal teams has not answered questions asked of it adequately, it will have to decide what to do with an incomplete compliment of small schools on the CHS 13 campus. This is far from the District’s intent, however; the hope is that the questions are specific enough to provide guidance in closing gaps in proposals, leading to all five spaces being filled.

That will hardly end the teams’ work, however. There will still be budgets to prepare, principals and teachers to hire and lesson plans to develop in anticipation of 1,594 students arriving in September.

LAUSD Picks Alliance Program

2011-03-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

The Alliance College-Ready Charter School has been selected by LAUSD as one of five curriculum programs in the new High School #13, in Northeast LA. The Partnership to Uplift Communities, The School of History and Dramatic Arts, ArtLab, and the LA River School have been asked to return April 25, to answer more questions.

The School of Technology, Business and Education has been eliminated.

The remaining four programming slots may or not be filled following the April 25 meeting.

Look for a full update later this evening.

Eagle Rock Day at LA City Hall 3/4/11

2011-03-05T22:15:00.000-08:00

Photos by Arroyo Seco Journal News Editor Margaret Arnold

Round 'em Up!

2011-02-19T20:20:00.000-08:00

Gourmet Wheels!

2011-02-09T20:47:00.000-08:00

Taylor Yards High School

2011-02-05T18:51:00.000-08:00

The upcoming issue of the Arroyo Seco Journal will feature Northeast L.A.’s new high school, Central High School 13, (aka Taylor Yards High), nearing completion just off of San Fernando Road. Our coverage looks at how the school will be a laboratory for innovation in education. Just to bring you up to speed, here's the back story—Arroyo Seco Journal articles from 2007 and 2008 detailing how the new school came into being.

November, 2007:
Several years ago, Glassell Park resident Alisa Smith attended a meeting about a Caltrans maintenance facility proposed for the north end of the former Taylor Yard railroad site off of San Fernando Road. Caltrans needed to relocate the facility from North Hollywood because that site was needed for a school.
Didn’t Northeast Los Angeles need a school too, Smith wondered? Why was North Hollywood getting a school while NELA was getting a truck yard?
Jump ahead to November 19 of this year. Smith was sitting in a courtroom as a judge awarded that same parcel of land—Taylor Yard Parcel F—to the Los Angeles Unified School District. It is to become LAUSD Central Region High School #13.
The court decision represented a hard-fought victory for education activists from communities across the Northeast. The struggle involved a close brush with success in 2005, only to see the property snatched away by a developer, followed by some serious contamination of the land with arsenic, lead and volatile chemicals under mysterious circumstances.
The need for another NELA high school has been apparent for decades, as secondary students from Glassell Park and Cypress Park have had to walk or take the bus to Eagle Rock, Franklin, Marshall and Lincoln. Those schools have long been overcrowded, resulting in year-round scheduling with shortened school years and portable classrooms.
The Taylor Yard site was a rare find on the urban landscape. A school could be built there without necessitating the displacement of any homes or businesses. It was set back from a major transportation corridor. A large park was going in just down the block. A community college satellite campus was slated for just up the street. And property owner Legacy Partners of Texas wanted to sell.
Still, a full high school may have looked like too much to hope for. LAUSD was simply not in building mode and hadn’t been for generations.
Then-Glassell Park Neighborhood Council Chair Helene Schpak brought together representatives of LAUSD, the Construction Bond Oversight Committee, City Council offices, the Neighborhood Council and property owner Legacy Partners.
“The purpose of the meeting was to introduce ourselves to each other and begin the process of discussing the viability/possibility of a school being built on Parcel F,” says Schpak. “It was agreed that the conversation would continue.”
At that point, Caltrans pulled out of its quest for the property.
A lot had changed in 2004. A voter-mandated move away from school overcrowding meant dollars for construction. Local activists pointed LAUSD in the right direction, and the district was on the verge of an agreement for the purchase of Taylor Yard Parcel F. The district began an environmental assessment. The School Board took its sweet time with the politics of approval, but HS13 looked like a done deal.
But a shocker of a plot development was in the works. In 2005, the development firm of Meruelo Maddox swooped in and offered Legacy Partners more money than the fair market value the school district could spend by law. The District is said to have offered $29.4 million. Meruelo Maddox offered $30 million.
Meruelo Maddox holds the largest property portfolio in Downtown Los Angeles and has extensive holdings in areas surrounding Downtown. CEO Richard Meruelo was the largest individual donor to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s election campaign.
Meruelo Maddox dubbed the property “Riveredge Village.” A description of the development firm’s plan for Glassell Park is on the company’s web site:
A mixed use community is being planned to offer attractive housing, local-serving retail and inviting public spaces that bridge Glassell Park and a projected revitalized L.A. River. Projected for the 23 acre plus parcel are 1,000 to 1,200 units of varied housing types, and 120,000 SF of commercial uses, a variety of active and passive open spaces, and links to proposed mass transit system. It has been recommended that a high school planned for the site be relocated on an adjacent central parcel bordering the Rio de Los Angeles State Park to encourage joint use.
The “adjacent central parcel” referred to is the current Fed Ex site, which Meruelo Maddox only recently acquired. The Fed Ex property is less than half the size of the site Meruelo bought out from under the school district. Rather than having their own athletic and recreation spaces, the high school students would be expected to use the new park, a use for which community activists say the park was not designed. Further, the smaller parcel is the subject of a legal dispute totally separate from the LAUSD case.
Rethinking the plan for the school, which was designed specifically for the Parcel F site, could mean a delay of five years.
The school district was having none of it. The board went after the larger parcel by means of eminent domain, Meruelo Maddox took the matter to court, negotiations failed—and hence, the November 19 court date.
The court appearance resulted in a victory for LAUSD and local school advocates. But there are still huge issues to be worked out.
First up is the fact that the temporary owner apparently trashed the place.
In 2006, the Glassell Park Neighborhood Council and the Glassell Park Improvement Association began receiving inquiries as to why there were trucks pulling into the property. A strip of land was covered in asphalt, and Glendale Kia began storing cars there. The neighborhood council board wrote to officials at various levels of government expressing the concern that a large pile of dirt had appeared at the site, and no one knew what was in it. No one could find any permits.
Activists didn’t know what was being imported—but they had their suspicions.
In April of this year, the Los Angeles City Attorney announced that his office had filed multiple criminal charges against Meruelo Maddux Properties for the improper removal and disposal of asbestos-tainted materials at a demolished industrial complex on the edge of Downtown. The complaint alleged 16 criminal counts, including illegal disposal of hazardous waste and improper handling and disposal of asbestos removal. The company was unable to document proper asbestos removal procedures or provide waste shipment records for hazardous materials removed from the site.
In October, LAUSD received the results of its newest environmental study. Despite substantial clean-ups of the former rail yard in the l990s, there are now 37 sites on the property contaminated with arsenic, lead, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls and/or pesticides. The infill contains building debris. Clean-up will involve trucking out 7,000 cubic yards of soil and the total clean-up cost will be about $4 million.
Javier Hinojosa of the Department of Toxic Substances Control told a November 8 community meeting on a remedial action plan that “undocumented” soil represents a huge portion of the contamination. Tom Watson of the LAUSD Office of Environmental Health and Safety, when asked about the “undocumented” fill said, “We believe it was brought in by Meruelo Maddox.”
In January, the court will address the issue of hazardous clean-up and who’s going to pay. In April, the court will assess whether and how the change of ownership impacts Glendale Kia (although its lease on the property ends in January).
On May 5, a valuation trial will take place. Attorneys cannot discuss figures being put forth in chambers, but one participant did divulge that Meruelo Maddox is asking for approx 75% more than LAUSD’s valuing of the property.
But despite pending issues, education activists from Glassell Park, Cypress Park, Mount Washington, Atwater Village and other NELA communities are in fact getting the school they have been fighting for.
The school has been designed to accommodate almost 2,300 students. They will, however, be divided among five “small learning communities,” each with its own building and its own specific area of academic focus. Students will therefore have the advantages of personalized attention and of shared athletic, arts and library facilities. It is expected that programming will make strong use of the revitalization effort at the nearby L.A. River.
Roberta Trotman of the Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council points out that Marshall has 4,500 students, while each learning community at HS13 will have 460 students with their own administrator. The official district drop-out rate is 15%, although Trotman says the number of students who start 9th grade but never graduate from high school is substantially higher.
“Kids drop out of school because they’re bored,” says Jackie Goldberg, the area’s former School Board Rep, City Council Member and State Assembly Member.
“We need this size school,” says Trotman, “and a development like Meruelo’s just exacerbates the problem.”
If all goes well, current fifth graders may be the first students of High School 13.

July, 2008:
“What a glorious day!” proclaimed former State Assembly, City Council and School Board Member Jackie Goldberg as residents of Northeast Los Angeles gathered to break ground on the construction of Central Region High School #13. Among those in attendance at the June 11 celebration were community activists and elected officials who labored for years to make the much-needed new high school a reality.
The new school will be located at the former Taylor Yard rail yard, near San Fernando Road and Division Street in Glassell Park. Students from that area for generations have had to walk or take public transportation to Marshall, Franklin and Eagle Rock High Schools. The Taylor Yard school will go a long way toward relieving serious overcrowding at those schools.
According to Board of Education Member Yolie Flores Aguilar, the new construction will mean a traditional two-semester calendar for all Northeast high schools, with more time for learning. The new school may also serve as a recreation area and adult learning center for the community.
The impetus for the school clearly came from the community. Local residents envisioned it before the School District embarked on its current ambitious building plan. They chose a site where some in power had proposed warehouses, and they convinced their elected representatives to come on board. At the groundbreaking, Goldberg thanked “those who stood up when it wasn’t popular” and who brought about “a place where our children will grow and thrive.”
Central Region High School #13 will serve 2,295 students who will be divided among five small learning communities (SLCs), each with its own classrooms, teachers and administration. It is hoped that the personalized attention students will receive as part of the SLC structure will go a long way toward encouraging students to complete their high school educations. Northeast Los Angeles currently is plagued by a very high drop out rate. District wide, only about 50% of all students complete grades nine through 12 in four years. In Cypress Park, education activists estimate that the graduation rate may be as low as 25%.
At the groundbreaking, Local District Superintendent Richard Alonzo pointed out the many links between the new campus and historic sites, including the Los Angeles River, the Van de Kamps Bakery and the Portola Trail. According to Alonzo, the District is already looking beyond construction to educational partnerships. Students may have opportunities for internships with the many agencies involved in the river revitalization effort. They will also be able to take classes at the new community college under construction up the street at the Van de Kamps site.
Parent activist and LAUSD School Construction Bond Citizens’ Oversight Committee Member Scott Folsom took advantage of the opportunity to encourage everyone to “pick up pen, pencil or crayon” and oppose the Governor’s proposed draconian cuts in education funding.
“We must send the message that our children are not responsible for the budget crisis and must not pay for it,” said Folsom. [The construction] will end bussing and year-round, but we didn’t enact the [construction] bond to have larger classes and no books.”
There are other financial issues relating to the school that remain to be resolved. When former Board of Education Member David Tokofsky got up to speak and receive an award for his service to children, he thanked the lawyers who made the day possible. In 2005, the development firm of Meruelo Maddux swooped in and purchased the Taylor Yard property after LAUSD had already spent considerable money on environmental assessment and just as the District thought it was about to ink a deal for the land. Meruelo Maddux offered then owner Legacy Partners just a bit more than the District was offering, making it clear that an insider had leaked confidential information. The source of that leak has never been found. The District eventually took control of the property through the process of eminent domain. But the delay during a time of rising construction costs coupled with the need to redo environmental work mean that taxpayers will ultimately pay millions more for Central Region High School 13 than originally anticipated.
Meruelo Maddux and LAUSD are still in court over how much money the developer should be compensated for the property and who will pay for the clean-up of pollution of the site that occurred while Meruelo Maddux controlled it.
But despite the fact that controversies regarding the site have not ended, June 11 was a day of celebration. Construction equipment was already in evidence at Taylor Yard as groundbreaking participants turned gold shovels of earth—proof that the vision that had once, to some, seemed far-fetched had become a reality.
Central Region High School #13 is one of 132 new schools planned or recently opened in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The school’s first students are expected to be on campus in the Fall of 2011.

September, 2008
Local schools will soon be much smaller, due to a measure authored by local School Board Member Yolie Flores Aguilar and co-sponsored by Board President Mónica García.
The measure is designed to deal with the fact that 86% of Los Angeles Unified School District high schools, 96% of middle schools and 51% of elementary schools have populations exceeding state averages. The largest LAUSD schools are not spread evenly across the City, but are characteristic of certain districts, including the east-side districts represented by Flores Aguilar and Garcia.
According to Flores Aguilar, research has identified many benefits to small schools including improved academic performance, higher graduation and college-going rates, safer campuses, increased parental and community involvement and greater teacher satisfaction and retention.
The advantages probably boil down to the fact that students on small campuses get more personalized attention. Teachers and administrators have a better sense of where students are and what is happening with them academically and personally. The students in turn feel the fact that someone is noticing and caring.
“Size leverages possibilities,” says Flores Aguilar.
Newly constructed schools will now be limited to 500 students each (400 for middle schools). Small schools may share sites, with limits of two elementary schools and four middle or high schools per site with possible shared facilities such as gyms. Each small campus will have its own administration, staff, budget, contiguous space and responsibility for all aspects of its educational program.
By 2020, all existing campuses of 1,000 or more students, except those that specifically opt out, will be transformed into small schools.
Many parents have expressed strong support for the concept of small schools, with some willing to sit through many hours of Board of Education meetings to express their support. There has been some concern expressed at community meetings that reducing campus size is insufficient in light of large class size and lack of educational materials. However, Flores Aguilar is clear that the small schools movement is not to be seen as a panacea.
“It’s a steep climb still,” says Flores Aguilar of school reform, “but I feel we’re at least on the trajectory.”
“This is historic and revolutionary,” said Garcia as the Board of Education voted 6-1 to move forward with the small schools proposal.
In December, School Superintendent David Brewer will present the Board of Education with an analysis of options for implementation including cost analysis and specific funding resources. Implementation will happen in phases with evaluation built into the process.
Middle Schools will be a high priority for phase one. Parents at Thomas Starr King Middle School have already begun researching options for restructuring, and there is strong interest at Luther Burbank.

Exclusive Benefit Performance for FOMWS Slated

2011-01-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

The Friends of Mt. Washington School (FOMWS), and the Central Los Angeles High School #9 for The Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA), are presenting The Yu Opera of Henan Province, China's presentation of "Chinese Orphan," to benefit both the local school and the new performing arts high school Downtown.

Direct from mainland China, this is the only scheduled live performance in Los Angeles of this world famous opera on its first American Tour. The performance will be staged in the new state of the art theatrical venue—Central Los Angeles High School #9 For The Visual and Performing Arts— directly across from the Music Center, Downtown Los Angeles.

Saturday January 22, 2011 at 8 pm, 2011年1月22日（周六）晚上8:00
Central Los Angeles High School #9
For The Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA),

(1 block from the Music Center, Downtown)
450 North Grand Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90012

SUGGESTED TICKET DONATIONS
$15.00 adult, $10.00 students
$20.00 at the door without reservations

TO PURCHASE ADVANCE TICKETS ONLINE GO TO:
WWW.FOMWS.ORG

FOR WILL CALL RESERVATION OR PAYMENT AT DOOR BY CHECK
订票信息：
E-MAIL NNAPnow@aol.com or FAX (323) 230-7566.
PROVIDE NAME, PHONE NUMBER, E-MAIL ADDRESS AND NUMBER OF TICKETS. All checks must be made payable to (FOMWS), a non-profit 501c3, tax exempt organization)

ALL ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE AT WILL CALL WINDOW

All DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE and all proceeds (after expenses) will be divided equally between FOMWS and Central Los Angeles High School #9 (VAPA).

中国河南省豫剧二团出品
赵氏孤儿
洛杉矶联合学区视觉艺术中心

It's LA Arts Month!

2011-01-11T16:20:00.000-08:00

It’s a town where Cirque du Soleil turns out to dance to the sounds of Los Lobos. What city could be more deserving of an arts month than Los Angeles?
The third annual LA Arts Month kicked off January 5 with an open air performance by Dos de Los Lobos—David Hidalgo and Louie Perez—and members of the Montreal-based Cirque at the downtown Music Center Plaza. LA Arts Month encourages residents and visitors to attend local cultural events during the month of January and beyond. It is a celebration of local museums, galleries, theater, music, dance an festivals. First put forward in a City Council motion by Councilmember Tom LaBonge, LA Arts Month has expanded this year to include county as well as city venues. It functions as a collaborative effort on the part of city and county agencies, private partners and arts organizations.
Also on the bill at the Music Center were Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who pointed out that every dollar spent on arts generates $2.53 in economic impact for the City; County Supervisor Gloria Molina; selections from About Productions’ “Evangeline, the Queen of Make-Believe,” a theaterwork co-written by Lobo Louie Perez about an Eastside girl who dares to dream big; and the Hollywood High School Show Choir.

Visit laartsmonth.org for info on Museum Free For All Weekend January 29 and 30 and other cultural opportunities.

Local ArtLocal GalleriesJanuary 8

2011-01-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

The Second Saturday of every month, Northeast Los Angeles art galleries stay open late for NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night. The event is a celebration of the thriving NELA contemporary arts community and of NELA’s history as L.A.’s original arts community. Visit nelaart.com to download a gallery map.

Where to see art Saturday, January 8
including:
NELAart’s Second Saturday Galleries
Stores and Coffee Houses showing local artists
Special Events
And other once-in-a-lifetime opportunities
(7 to 10 p.m. unless otherwise indicated)

Bike Oven
3706 North Figueroa
The Spoke(n) Art bicycle ride to several local galleries leaves at 7. Return about 10 for an after party. You’ll get to take home stenciled shirts and prints, depending on what you bring

Cactus
5434 Eagle Rock Boulevard
"A Murder of Crows and Other Avian Stories.” Cactus Gallery’s 4th annual bird themed show featuring artists Nicole Bruckman, Christopher Umana, Matt Adrian and Walt Hall. Plus: over 20 artists have also created new works for this show. Come celebrate the beauty of our feathered friends!

Cafe de Leche
5000 York Boulevard
A coffee shop with monthly exhibits by local artists. Robey Clark's "A Glut of Butterflies."

ChangeRPG
2113 N. San Fernando Road

Curve Line Space
1577 Colorado Boulevard
“Out of the Woods” by Los Angeles-based artist Kate Savage. "In these drawings, I used dolls as models to explore the wilderness of childhood. In some, I extended the picaresque tale of Pinocchio, an iconic character in search of authenticity. In other works, Flora (a character of my own invention) is a survivor who joins forces with her power animals. Drawing media include graphite, ink wash, acrylic and charcoal on paper. Paper and wood are my preferred surfaces, whether drawing or painting, as they feel closely connected to nature. Formally, the theatrical 'stage' upon which the players act is often very simple: a horizon line, an ambiguous abstracted nature."

A Flash Gallery
York Boulevard and Avenue 50
There is a Flash Gallery happening on the corner of York and Ave 50 this Saturday Night!Bring a piece of work and hang it on the fence that surrounds the vacant lot. Leave it up from 7pm-10pm.Work should be available for sale or trade.(Be sure to remove it at the end of the evening.)

Future Studio
5558 North Figueroa
Jeff Boynton, Mona Jean Cedar, and Andy Ben combine forces/talents in their latest endeavor--visual art installation with sporadic mini performances throughout the night. Jeff Boynton’s circuit bending is legendary. Always pushing the black art into ingeniously innovative inventions, he will be premiering three new circuit bent instruments: The Saw Choir –- yes, a choir of small recordable dolls from the “Saw” movies; The Perplexi-Feeli -- really the Touchie- Feelie on steroids (you’ll see); The Giant Pink Wheel of Torture -- think pink with a capital P, and spinning. Mona Jean Cedar will be presenting a new prose piece: The TEN-der Commandments conceived specifically for The Saw Choir and inspired by Rob Brezsny’s book Pronoia. Andy Ben brings his multi-media artistry into the fray by performing on his own old timey housed bent toys in solo sets and with Jeff and with Walter Gross. Mr. Ben’s DIY bent instruments will be for sale. Virginia Dan and will also be showing some of their disturbingly cute artwork. Chicken Boy Shop will be open.

The Glass Studio
5052 York Boulevard
Art glass, beads and tiles. Demos, classes and supplies.

Heritage Square
3800 Homer Street
Heritage Square and the Arroyo Arts Collective invite you to their first "Stitch Group" hosted at the historic Perry House. Meet fellow fiber artists, bring work to share (and show off) and learn about their next Yarn Bombing event. All levels of experience welcome. 4-6 p.m.

José Vera Fine Art & Antiques
2012 Colorado Boulevard
The Photography of Ricardo Barrera. Ricardo Barrera was born in 1953 in Mexico City. He is the son of Mexican Muralist Armando Campero. He began painting seriously at the age of 14. Barrera traveled to Mexico City to work on the "March of Humanity" mural of David Alfaro Siqueiros when he was 15. At 18, he traveled to Europe and visited Salvador Dali and Henry Moore at their respective homes. During this trip he began shooting with his first camera, a Minolta 35mm. He returned to Mexico three years later to study for a year with muralist Jorge Gonzalez Camarena. He spent his evenings in classes at the Academy of San Carlos. In 1979, he began experimenting with computers. This would lead to him working in Computer Graphics for several game companies in Los Angeles. He then became obsessed with programming, and moved between programming, computer art, and, his first love, painting. In 2005, he took a class at Los Angeles Valley College in Photography. He became hooked, taking every available class. He was forced to expand his studies to Santa Monica College, where an epiphany occurred - the camera was a brush that painted with light. 6-9 p.m.

Knowhow Shop
6019 Echo Street
An exhibition of skateboard and street art inspired paintings and sculpture, exploring atmosphere in design through relationships between objects, materiality, ornament and form.

Kristi Engle Gallery
5002 York Boulevard
TBA: A Group Video Exhibition in 7 Parts. Part 3 features works by Jay Lizo and McLean Fahnestock. Lizo’s “Dancing Is Political, Stupid” is inspired from Barbara Ehrenreich’s book “ Dancing In The Streets: A History of Collective Joy”. Found internet images from the Montgomery Bus Boycott to Rembrandt’s the “Nightwatchers” paintings create a scenario where two factions of “dance parties” do a dance-off at Bastille square. Two types of ideologies come together to form a kind of mutated form where the groups fuse through a explosion and then reunite as particles that drift in the air together. Fahnestock’s “St. Clare of Burbank” (2010) is a projected video installation that incorporates footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing shown on a 1950’s RCA television, mimicking the way that it could have been seen in the homes of those lucky enough to be watching on Earth at the time. The title alludes to St. Clare of Assisi who, because of her claim that the she could see St. Francis speak through a space that opened in the wall of her cell when she was too ill to attend mass, has been named the patron Saint of television. The work itself is skeptical. And is questioning its faith in the achievements of science and in the truth telling of television.

Leanna Lin’s Wonderland
5024 Eagle Rock Boulevard
Axel Honey's TigerBunny show will be featuring artworks of Melissa Contreras & Friends! Celebrate the new year with this show themed off the Chinese zodiac signs ~ transitioning of Tiger to Rabbit! Along with Axel Honey's paintings + cooshees, Melissa Contreras will be doing limited edition collaborations with Crowded Teeth (paper toys), Cermae (scoodies), Nadfly (creations of what bunny & tigers dream of), Lady Gee (mini duffle accessory pouch w/wooden charm) + Sweet Siren Designs (beautiful jewelry with Axel Honey's art). DJ EV-1 + Face painting by Yuuta. Come dressed in theme (if you dare). 6-10 p.m.

M2 Gallery
4501 Eagle Rock Boulevard
“Crowns + Veils.” Javiera Estrada presents a unique mixed media exploration of traditional photography, digital texturing, sanding, wood and resin, a photographic journey of the struggle between the ego and true nature. [Art Lounge: January 22, 7-11 p.m.]

MorYork Gallery
4959 York Boulevard
“Egg Tree Egg” is Jason Hadley's first solo show in Los Angeles in two years and his first showing at MorYork Gallery, the perfect space for Hadley's strange sculptural brand of storytelling. Wax light bulbs, cement life casts and noisy mechanical contraptions will combine to create a surreal home where trees built of rubber and nails grow inside a tangled nest of repurposed musical instruments.

New Puppy
2808 Elm Street
A benefit in honor of the late artist Gil One.

New Stone Age Mosaics
4532 1/2 Eagle Rock Boulevard
The mosaic studio of Mary Clark-Camargo (who just did four pieces for the TV show “Parks and Recreation).

An Orange Door
3188 Verdugo Road

Outpost for Contemporary Art
1268 North Avenue 50
T-shirt Revival Night is a silk-screening event that features a new artist every month. Bring a favorite old T-Shirt that needs a little sprucing up or any other item you'd like to have the artist print on. Each print is only $6, or buy two for $10. This month: Jena Lee creates socially-based projects that invite viewers to collaborate in her process. For "T-shirt Revival Night," Lee draws inspiration from the Do-It-Yourself cultural phenomenon and utilizes the visual language of pattern making and garment construction to reinterpret the form... of the basic t-shirt. Each of Lee's images present a set of instructions for transforming the t-shirt into a new object or article of clothing, suggesting the screen print is no longer the final step in the process of product and creation.
Window Dressing for Outpost by Olivia Booth. A project for Outpost’s window residency series, on view now at Outpost HQ. “It’s not a given that windows -- simply by making outside and inside visible at once -- open up and relate interior and exterior spaces; most of the time windows need to be attended to in order to get them to do so. I’ve been working directly with window glass in order to deal with this problem.”

Studio Root66
5917 North Figueroa
“Collection,” a sampling of photographic art by Nicole Fournier. Fournier is an accomplished production artist, photo editor and photographer with 13 years experience in the publishing industry--specializing in books, magazines and newspapers. Her process begins with photography. She then prints the image onto canvas. After stretching the canvas, she embellishes the surface using an encaustic wax process.

Urchin
5006½ York Boulevard
A vintage clothing store with works by local artists on the walls. Armed with an adapted spin-art machine and hundreds of discs rescued from the depths of a landfill, Kristen DeWitt rocks a canvas with an assortment of painted CDs that explode with color.

Verbre Studio and Gallery
4540 Eagle Rock Boulevard
The art studio of D. Paul Verbre.

1st Defense, Mind Body Studio
5577 North Figueroa
Henia Flynn and Rebeca Guerrero. Henia Flynn: “Art ...to me is an expression of a journey; it grows and develops as we grow and develop--spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically--with our experiences, lessons, successes and failures. I believe that we are all artists, creating and manifesting our realities in our daily lives. One of the ways I choose to manifest is through painting. It is the physical expression of my soul, it is me turned inside out...The lessons you are meant to learn are in your work. To see them, you need only look at the work clearly—without judgement, without need or fear, without wishes or hopes. Without emotional expectations. Ask your work what it needs, not what you need. Then set aside your fears and listen,..." Rebeca Guerrero: “My work consists of a variety of media. My preferred media are pastels, acrylics, oils and silk screens. Filled with bright vibrant colors, my works are both, dramatic and poetic. Traveling, literature, my garden and life are the sources of my inspiration. Loyalty to my subjects is imperative to my work. My art seems to be pleasing and inviting to the beholder. At first sight it seems to be just what you see, but once captured by it, one finds hidden messages that might be faces, poetic symbolism and literary references. I create art because I breathe.”

1215 Projects
1215 Cypress Avenue
Jordan Steinberg: Paintings. 7 p.m.-midnight.

Something Old is New Again: Vision for a "New" York Boulevard

2011-01-06T15:51:00.000-08:00

In our October issue, The Arroyo Seco Journal featured an article about Los Angeles City Councilmember José Huizar and community organizations’ plans for York Boulevard. The process is now well underway. Below, we reprint our original article followed by an update.

Green L.A. Coalition's Ryan Lehman, City Councilmember José Huizar and Huizar's Planning Deputy Edel Vizcarra hold up a temporarily blank map to be filled in with residents' ideas.

Your ideas for making York Boulevard a friendlier place to walk, bike, eat and shop are requested.
City Councilmember José Huizar and dozens of Highland Park community members gathered on the boulevard the morning of Saturday, September 25 for the kick-off of the “New” York Vision Plan. Huizar and community organizations are looking for creative, low-cost improvements for York Boulevard.
There are two aspects to the plan. A long-term vision for the boulevard, specifically the stretch from Avenue 50 to Avenue 56, will be crafted. Such a document will greatly facilitate the City’s ability to go after federal, state and Metro funds for projects, a process Huizar’s staff is already engaged in.
Meanwhile, four or five fairly small-scale projects will be implemented quickly. Huizar has committed $100,000 to the effort.
What those projects end up being is a decision to be made by the community. The Green L.A. Coalition will facilitate a community input and assessment process over the coming months.
According to the Councilmember, the goals of the plan are to make York Boulevard a place where people want to come and shop--and to make it a true center for a community.
York has a history as a walkable, commercial district. Through the 1960s, the boulevard featured shopping and entertainment venues. Hard times hit with the advent of shopping malls. Lately, however, the boulevard clearly has been on its way back up. There are places to eat, drink, shop and see art, and there is foot traffic both day and evening.
“Our goal is to support the organic process that is already going on here,” Huizar said at the kick-off event.
“Our job is to help the community get the most out of this project,” says the Green L.A. Coalition’s Ryan Lehman. “We have not made any specific design decisions.”
Many local organizations are participating in the process, including the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce, the Highland Park Heritage Trust, the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council and Clean and Green. Occidental College President Jonathan Veitch has expressed serious interest in the proceedings.
There is one previously existing project that has already been in the pipeline for several months. A bicycle parking lot, the vision of Matt Schodorf of Café de Leche, is planned for York at Avenue 50. One parking space will be transformed into a bike corral for a dozen bicycles.
As part of the kick-off event, Huizar honored several business owners who have recently opened establishments on the corridor.
York Village Gifts ‘N Things, 5106 York Boulevard;
Eloelia’s Boutique, 5110 York Boulevard;
Urchin, Vintage and Recycled Clothing, 5006½ York Boulevard;
Makara’s Antique Store, 5670 York Boulevard;
The Glass Studio, glass art, classes and supplies, 5052 York Boulevard;
Jet the Pilot, Make Your Own Tees, 5108 York Boulevard;
Visions Hair Concepts, 5104 York Boulevard.
Following the kick-off event, Graffiti Busters, the agency that holds the graffiti clean-up contract for the area, conducted a neighborhood clean-up assisted by members of Victory Outreach.
A public meeting to continue the “New York Vision Plan” process will be held Wednesday, October 13, 6-8 p.m. at Café de Leche, at the corner of York Boulevard and Avenue 50.

Update:
The process is now well underway, and an initial project should be undertaken this Spring! There have been two community meetings since the kick-off—the more recent involving a packed house at The Glass Studio.
Community members are deciding on a fairly small-scale project that will be implemented at the end of February. It is to be followed by several small projects over the coming 12 months and the creation of a long-range vision plan for the boulevard.
70+ meeting participants broke into small groups to craft ideas for the first project. Among the resultant contenders are seating at Avenue 51 and York (near Elsa’s Bakery), a green space at Avenue 50 and York (the vacant lot), an entry archway to the community, street murals on crosswalks (to slow traffic and ID an arts-rich community), a seating deck near the bakery and portable corner plazas (serving like sidewalk bump-outs).
A volunteer committee will be meeting to work toward selection of the specific project to be implemented. The next general meeting will be February 2 (at a to-be-determined site large enough to accommodate the significant interest in the process).
Among concerns brought to the table by constituents are the need for area clean-up (sidewalk, trees and the vacant lot), public safety needs (i.e. lighting and safe street crossing for school children, pedestrians and transit riders) and the current lack of seating, shade, trash receptacles and signage.
Support was expressed at the meeting for the ways in which the NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night has brought new visitors to the boulevard and for the presence of artists and arts venues in the neighborhood.
There is also particular interest in projects that will “knit” together the six-block project area as a community.
Long-time Highland Park Chamber of Commerce member and boulevard business person Doug Brown asked that project participants honor two long-established goals of the chamber—to dub the immediate area “York Village” and “to keep York Boulevard a nice place to be.”
New businesses continue to make their homes on York Boulevard. Huizar honored Awesome Playground and SoCal Mixed Martial Arts at the meeting.

Where We're Gonna Be

2010-12-28T13:47:00.000-08:00

OK, they look like guys on a wanted poster, but this Thursday night, Electronica DJs MR Oizo, wunderkind Brodinski, french visionary DJ Falcon, italo bass champion CongoRock, dancefloor destroyer Harvard Bass, birthday boss Destructo, afterparty ambassador Chris Holmes, host Keith WIlson, and old school DJs Mike Messex and Sean Perry, will lay to waste the venerable and historic Music Box Theatre, on Hollywood Boulevard. We'll be there. You'll be there. And a few thousand others greeting the dawn of the 'teens. Unlike most HARD events this year, organizers have chosen an indoor venue for
their New Year’s Eve bash, so if you have to dance a little closer, we're ok with that.

Friday, December 31st 2010
The Music Box
(Henry Fonda Theatre)
6126 Hollywood Boulevard
Limited Capacity
Doors at 8:00 pm

BUY ONLINE: $50 / $60 / $70. On sale at GROOVETICKETS.

GO V.I.P: VIP table seats up to eight guests. Reservations are currently available.

ORDER BY PHONE: Dial toll free 1-855-2-FLAVOR.

BUY AT RETAIL OUTLETS: Limited quantity pre-sales available:
MISHKA • 1547 Echo Park Ave Los Angeles, CA 90026 • 213-536-4234
XLARGE • 1768 N Vermont Ave Los Angeles, CA 90027 • 323-666-3483
BLENDS • 125 West 4th St Los Angeles, CA 90013 • 213-626-6607
BLENDS • 2930 Bristol St Costa Mesa, CA 92626 • 714-241-0666
GLOBE CLOTHING STORE • 168 W 3rd St Pomona, CA 91766 • 909-620-2772

LAPD Shooting of 13 year-old Draws Contentious Crowd

2010-12-18T17:42:00.000-08:00

by Margaret Arnold
News Editor
Arroyo Seco Journal

The recent LAPD shooting of a 13-year old Glassell Park boy on December 16 was the subject of a sometimes contentious community meeting the following evening at the Glassell Park Community Center.

The name of the young victim has not been released because he is a minor, and many details of the incident have not been revealed, because they are the subject of an ongoing investigation.

Commander John Sherman of the Los Angeles Police Department Central Bureau told attendees at the standing room only community meeting that at about 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 16, two LAPD Northeast Division officers were driving down Verdugo Road in Glassell Park when they saw three people in the street. As the officers approached, according to Sherman, the three people began to run, two in one direction and one in the opposite direction. The officers ordered them to stop, at which point, Sherman said, two complied and one did not. The one who was not complying with police orders produced a replica handgun—an air pistol bearing a serious resemblance in size, shape and color to the guns that police officers themselves carry. It was at that point, according to Sherman, that the youth was shot by one of the police officers.

Sherman said that all three youths were found to have been carrying replica handguns. It is believed that they had been running around the street shooting the air guns at each other.

“From every angle, this is a complete tragedy,” Sherman said.

While police cannot release the name of the victim, the LAPD is saying that he is male, about 5’7” and weighs about 200 pounds. There was a loud gasp among the crowd at the community meeting when it was revealed that the hospitalized victim is only 13 years old.

The other youths involved in the incident are 13 and 14 years old. No charges are being brought against any of the minors.

The Inspector General’s office, which responds to every police-involved shooting and use of force incident, will now investigate the case. The Inspector General operates independently of the LAPD, and both the Inspector General and LAPD leadership report to an appointed Police Commission. Upon completion of the investigation, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck will make a recommendation, and the Inspector General will make a recommendation. An ultimate decision as to how to respond to the tragedy and whether there will be any charges or remonstration against the involved officers will be made by the Police Commission.

The incident is not considered to have been gang-related in any way, although Guillermo Cespedes, who heads up Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development did attend the Glassell Park community meeting to convey the Mayor’s interest and concern. One community member questioned whether, while the young people involved are not gang members, police in a heavily gang inhabited neighborhood like the one in which the shooting took place might be quicker to use force than in other areas.

The community meeting was also attended by Juan Carlos Mendoza, Acting Consul General for the local Mexican Consulate. Mendoza said that his office is working closely with the police department during the investigation. But he also spoke bluntly about the Consulate’s willingness to make legal advise available to the victim’s family and, should it appear necessary, to bring a civil suit against the police officer involved in the shooting.

“We have excellent communication with the police department,” said Mendoza. “We’re not looking for revenge. We are looking to have the investigation reveal exactly what happened, and we will take action accordingly.”

Mendoza asked that anyone with any information on the case bring it to the Consulate’s attention.

Many questions went unanswered at the community meeting. Due to the victim’s age, state law and the fact of an ongoing investigation, the LAPD did not divulge many details of the incident, including in what manner the youth produced the fake weapon, whether he pointed it, how many feet away from the officer he was and why the officer didn’t fire in the air or aim for the boy’s foot. Sherman replied simply that “the officer felt threatened,” an incomplete answer that caused grumbling in the audience.

“Por que venimos?” said one woman near the back of the room.

“So then we’re done here,” said another woman.

Inspector General Nicole Bershon, who attended the meeting on her first visit to Northeast Los Angeles since her appointment to the position a few months ago, interjected that she would be “very concerned if we had all the answers within 24 hours because that would suggest the investigation wasn’t very thorough.”

One topic of discussion at the Glassell Park meeting was the ready availability of fake guns that look like the real thing.

A photograph of a fake gun taken from one of the youths was passed around at the meeting. It looked very much like a real handgun and was labeled “UKARMS.”

UKARMS’ web site reads, “We are Airsoft Gun Manufacturers' representative, the exclusive Chinese airsoft gun source.”

An Airsoft gun uses air to shoot BB pellets. The UKARMS web site says that Airsoft was “created for people who enjoy target practicing or indoor plinking with friends. Individuals who are not concerned about the high power hunting application of a BB or pellet gun but just wanted to have Fun.”

Toy guns that are sold in stores generally have bright orange tips so that officers can distinguish toys from the real thing, and some in attendance at the meeting said they’d experienced no trouble telling the difference. However, various community members at the meeting suggested that such toys without the bright tips can be purchased at local ice cream trucks, and that the tips of toy guns can be gone over with black marker while the tips of real guns can be painted orange. As depicted on UKARMS’ web site, what they sell is orange-tipped.

Sherman said that Chief Beck is working in support of laws that would prohibit the sale of soft air BB pistols.

LAPD Northeast Division: 213-485-2563;

Office of the Inspector General: Monday-Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at 213-482-6833 www.ci.la.ca.us/oig/isgcu1.htm;

Mexican Consulate in the United States: 213-351-6800;

LAPD Text-a-tip Service: User types “LAPD” plus their tip on their cell phone or PDA and texts it to “CRIMES” (274637). The police have no way of determining the user’s identity;

LAPD Web Tip link: www.lapdonline.org and follow the link for “Anonymous Web Tips.” The police have no way of determining the user’s identity.

Arroyo Arts Collective Discovery Tour

2010-12-14T23:15:00.000-08:00

The 18th Annual Arroyo Arts Collective Discovery Tour, Sunday, November 21.

Photos by Margaret Arnold and Rosamaria Marquez.
The annual Discovery Tour offers a rare opportunity to visit artists’ homes and studios in Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Garvanza, Montecito Heights and Mount Washington. Tour goers meet the artists and see how and where they derive their inspiration and do their work. They can buy works, large and small, directly from the artists themselves. The tour celebrates the area’s heritage as L.A.’s original arts community as well as its vibrant artistic present.

Howard Swerdloff/Carol Colin and Ted Waltz/Carol Colin and Ann Walnum/Raoul De la Sota and City Councilmember Ed Reyes

2010-12-14T22:58:00.000-08:00

Ginger Mayerson/Madam X/Frank Gutierrez and Rosamaria Marquez/Mavis Leahy/Lynette Yetter

2010-12-14T22:53:00.000-08:00

Annie Forguette/Patricia Lee/Lynette Yetter and Rosamaria Marquez/Mavis Leahy/Madam X, Rosamaria Marquez, Heather Hoggan & Amy Inouye

2010-12-14T22:46:00.000-08:00

Ruth DeNicola with art by Mavis Leahy/Heather Hoggan/Kacy Treadway/Ruth DeNicola/Howard Swerdloff

"Haramokngna A Place Where People Gather"

2010-12-14T21:49:00.000-08:00

The many ways in which Highland Park has been a gathering spot—from Tongva settlement to birthday party in the park—are depicted in a temporary mural installation, a collaborative effort between local high school students and professional artists, on view on North Figueroa Street across from Sycamore Grove Park.
“Haramokngna A Place Where People Gather,” was dedicated November 21 during the Arroyo Arts Collective Discovery Tour.
Students from Franklin High School and Academia Avance spent 15 months on the mural under the guidance of artists Pola Lopez and Heriberto Luna. Its creation was spearheaded by LA Commons in partnership locally with Avenue 50 Studio.
“We watched our students grow and empower themselves, not only as budding artists, but also as members of their community,” Lopez wrote in the project’s Artist Statement.
The mural is hung at the GlenMary Archway, which leads to the home of Lupe Handy. Mrs. Handy, now 87, has cared for 150 foster children there. The mural is dedicated to her.
“What we did was akin to making a dress without a pattern,” wrote Lopez. “We dreamed it, designed it, cut out the pattern, sewed it together, embellished it with our images, and finally fitted it and had to make adjustments.”
At the dedication, Youth Artist Alex Soto explained how the students began their participation in the project by gathering stories. Then they asked people what they thought of Highland Park.
Youth Artist Heather Fuentes spoke of how her 15 months of participation in the project made her feel “proud to be part of our community.”
Fuentes expressed the hope that the mural will serve the continuation of Highland Park’s role as a place where people gather.
“Art helps us interact with one another,” the young artist said. “It doesn’t need words.”
The team of Youth Artists included Lino Aguilar, Michelle Aguilar, Cynthia Avila, Cindy Delarosa, Isabel Franco, Francisco Franco, Heather Fuentes, Evany Ibarra, Terri Jackson, Linette Martinez, Jocelyn Rivera, Alex Soto, Yomaira Tapia, Douglas Vasquez, Sam Childs, Genessee Cervantes, Sofia Garcia, Tiffany Garibay, Brian Hernandez, Adrian Manzanares, Thalia Torres and Amyleila Mejia.

2010-12-14T21:45:00.000-08:00

2010-12-14T21:26:00.000-08:00

2010-12-14T21:18:00.000-08:00

Chicken Boy and Guardian Honored

2010-12-12T14:22:00.000-08:00

Chicken Boy’s guardian, Amy Inouye of Highland Park, was among nine recipients of the year’s Governor’s Historic Preservation Awards.
Chicken Boy spent his earliest years atop a chicken outlet on Historic Route 66 in Downtown Los Angeles. When that gig ended in 1984, Inouye saved the half chicken-half boy from a fate worse than death, moved him and guarded him until 2007, when she was able to install him on top of Future Studio on North Figueroa Street, from where he once again looks down on Historic Route 66.
Established in 1986, the Governor's Historic Preservation Awards are presented annually under the sponsorship of the State Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) and California State Parks to recognize meaningful achievements in historic preservation and to increase public awareness, appreciation and support for historic preservation efforts throughout the State.
Inouye recently travelled to Sacramento to receive the award. Chicken Boy elected to remain in Highland Park to guard the roost.
The City of Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources was also honored for its SurveyLA Public Participation Program.

Atwater Village Park Expansion

2010-12-12T14:08:00.000-08:00

Ground has been broken for an expansion of North Atwater Park and a related creek restoration project. Three acres of parkland between the creek and the Los Angeles River will feature a picnic area, demonstration garden, outdoor classroom, concrete play tunnel and sand play area. The creek restoration will involve native plantings to prevent erosion and to improve water quality by cleaning storm water before it hits the river.

Councilmember Tom LaBonge, who represents North Atwater Village on the Los Angeles City Council, was joined by two Northeast Los Angeles colleagues, Ed Reyes and Eric Garcetti, for the groundbreaking. After the formal ceremony, LaBonge enthusiastically led guests to a section of the river where nature is at work reclaiming the space.
“There's so much history and meaning right here, and nobody has a bad day at a park,” LaBonge told attendees.
The project will cost $1.3 million and is partially funded through voter-approved Proposition 50. It is part of the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan. Completion is expected by the end of 2011.

2010-12-10T21:14:00.000-08:00

webweaver.nu

Happy 5th Birthday NELAart!

Art Listings~~Saturday, December 11

2010-12-10T21:06:00.000-08:00

The Second Saturday of every month, Northeast Los Angeles art galleries stay open late for NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night. The event is a celebration of the thriving NELA contemporary arts community and of NELA’s history as L.A.’s original arts community. Visit nelaart.com to download a gallery map.

Where to see art Saturday, December 11
including:
NELAart’s Second Saturday Galleries (2 New Ones!)
Stores and Coffee Houses showing local artists
Special Events
And other once-in-a-lifetime opportunities
(7 to 10 p.m. unless otherwise indicated)

Avenue 50 Studio
121 North Avenue 50
“Words of Paz.” Visual Reflections on the Poetry of Octavio Paz. Curated by Raoul De la Sota. Works by Abel Alejandre, Guillermo Bejerano, Raoul De la Sota, John Deheras, Rebeca Guerrero, Pola Lopez, Jose Lopes, Jose Lozano, Poli Marichal, Isabel Martinez, Andres Montoya, Marianne Sadowski, CiCi Segura Gonzalez, Kathy Mas-Gallegos, Sergio Vasquez, J. Michael Walker.
In the Annex: “8” x 8”” A $100 Silent Art Auction with works by Judith Amdur. Linda Arreola. Joe Bravo. Rudy Calderon. Martin Charlot. Raoul De la Sota. Kikki Eder. Margaret Garcia. Yolanda Gonzalez. Dolores Guerrero, Frank Gutierrez. Peter Hess, Michelle Juarez Taylor. Susan Lasch Krevitt. Ron Llanos. Robert Louden. Jose Lozano. Daniel Martinez. Isabel Martinez. Paul Martinez. Kathy Mas-Gallegos. Andres Montoya. Julie Nagesh. Yana Nervana. Toti O'Brien. Ramon Ramirez. Stuart Rapeport. Sonia Romero. Daniel Ruiz. Richard Scully. Antonio Sorcini. Howard Swerdloff. Kacy Treadway. Melly Trochez.

Bike Oven
3706 North Figueroa
The Spoke(n) Art bicycle ride to several local galleries leaves at 7. Return about 10 for an after party. Ilir Zeneli showing paintings. Ilir’s band Peg Leg Love and His Name is Red will play.

Cactus
5434 Eagle Rock Boulevard
Annual miniatures show, "Tiny Treasures," featuring small, original and affordable works of art in a cash-and-carry style exhibit. All art will be priced at or below $100 with some works priced as low as $25. In addition, you can always find wonderfully priced jewelry and art objects that are completely handcrafted by Argentine artisans and created specifically for Cactus Gallery.

Cafe de Leche
5000 York Boulevard
A coffee shop with monthly exhibits by local artists. Featuring a singular art installation by Julia Michalski in collaboration with SO DA (Julianna So and Brenda So). It's architecture meeting historic brick wall.

Curve Line Space
1577 Colorado Boulevard
Kate Savage: "Out of the Woods"

Future Studio
5558 North Figueroa
“Soft.” Artists' Stuffed Animal Show, curated by Edith Abeyta. Available for cash and carry. Kim Abeles, Michele Hubacek, Edith Abeyta, Amy Inouye, Rheim Alkadhi, Merry-Beth Noble, Marshall Astor, Charlene Roth, Sandra Carter Rachel Siegel, Amy Caterina, Yong Sin, Jacqueline Draeger, Camilla Stacey, Beth Elliott, Deborah Thomas, Carol Es, Porous Walker, Bean Gilsdorf, Julie Zemel, Heather Hoggan. Chicken Boy Shop will be open.

The Glass Studio
5052 York Boulevard
Art glass and tiles, classes and supplies. Debut featured artists are Leigh Adams, Chad Sterandeo, Shirlee Yantz and The Glass Studio owner, Cathi Milligan.

José Vera Fine Art & Antiques
2012 Colorado Boulevard
“Observations: Past and Present.” Featuring the art of Charles Borman, Ron Kriss and David McNutt. Borman’s works, the majority carved from one piece each of American Lime, are influenced by works of Native People of the Northwest Coast. They also depict animals of the Southwest. Kriss’ illustrations have graced record album and CD covers for most major recording companies. He is a well-known film poster artist and has also created 40 murals for a western financial institution. Kriss is currently working on a series of fine art paintings of Koi and Geishas. McNutt has designed award-winning university publications, and his work has appeared in numerous art and design textbooks. He is also the author/illustrator of a children's book entitled There Was An Old Man Who Lived In A One. His media include drawing, painting, printmaking, jewelry-making, sculpture and photography. 6-9 p.m.

Kristi Engle Gallery
5002 York Boulevard
TBA: A Group Video Exhibition in 7 Parts. Part 2 features works by Stephanie Allespach, Nichole Antebi, Davis & Davis, Ecstatic Energy Consultants Inc. in collaboration with Elana Mann, Michele Jaquis, Susan Joseph, Annetta Kapon, Hillary Musnkin (with Jen Hofer), Danial Nord. (For complete viewing, the gallery also will be open daily, noon-6 p.m., through December 18.)

Leanna Lin’s Wonderland
5024 Eagle Rock Boulevard
The Artist Sisters: CJ Metzger & Miss Mindy’s “Heart on Our Sleeve,” splendid works in paint, pencil & ink. Small paintings, drawings and watercolors, hand embellished limited edition prints, hand painted nesting dolls, signed sets and more. New works just added.
Local Jewelry Designer Trunk Show. Meli Jewelry by Ashley Gall, ODD Jewelry by Oskar de la Cruz (Luxe de Ville), Thursday Brown by Sharon Sancer and new Leanna Lin Jewelry. Holiday Drinks + Sweets from Maile's Fine Pastries, Don Chow Tacos Chinese Mexican fusion truck. Live music by Love In The Circus at 7 p.m. 6-10 p.m.

M2 Gallery
New!
4501 Eagle Rock Boulevard
“Crowns + Veils.” Javiera Estrada presents a unique mixed media exploration of traditional photography, digital texturing, sanding, wood and resin, a photographic journey of the struggle between the ego and true nature. 7-11 p.m.

MorYork Gallery
4959 York Boulevard
“be-longing” Paintings by Tamarind Rossetti. "Have you ever stood on a cliff above the ocean, or floated in a boat in the middle of a lake and felt that you were undeniably part of the vital breath of the water? This is what painting does for me. I begin a piece by choosing intense colors and mixing them to abstract attraction. Then images appear and I bring them into focus, often animals. My recent work is an exploration of vibrant turquoises, blues, ochres, and birds flying and floating through these." .

New Stone Age Mosaics
4532 1/2 Eagle Rock Boulevard
The mosaic studio of Mary Clark-Camargo (who just did four pieces for the TV show “Parks and Recreation).

An Orange Door
3188 Verdugo Road
Jordan Halsey / Rafael Serrano

Outpost for Contemporary Art
1268 North Avenue 50
T-shirt Revival Night is a silk-screening event that features a new artist every month. Bring a favorite old T-Shirt that needs a little sprucing up or any other item you'd like to have the artist print on. Each print is only $6, or buy two for $10. This month: Stephanie Sabo, whose interest in the profusion of winter apparel as a standard for holiday gift-giving has led her to create unique experimentation with the textural limitations of the T-shirt. Sabo has taken patterns from garments such as sweaters and scarves, and will collage them into compositional explorations to enliven simple cotton jersey knit. A variety of colors and screens will be available, allowing the viewer to advise the artist and participate in determining the image, placement and overall style of their new creation.

Public Fiction (the museum of)
749 North Avenue 50
A shape-shifting museum in the model of cabinets of curiosity. The shows combine made and found things to create slightly unusual environments, to frame art, artifact and facsimile in one fictional place. Currently: “Public Records,” featuring Alee Peoples, Anders Johnson, Ashley Zangle, assume astro vivid focus, BEVERLY FRE$H, Bobbi Woods, Breanne Trammell, Brendan Threadgill, Brie Ruais, Clement Valla, Davida Nemeroff, Erin Perry, Grant Worth, Greg Kalliche, Julia Dault, Joshua Callaghan, Kat Hodges, Mark Rice, Maureen Keaveny, Michael Bizon, Michael Magnan, Paul Pescador, Riah Buchanan, Sto, Talon True Gustafson, Walker Mettling.

Show Cave
3501 Eagle Rock Boulevard
“L AZY ID E N TIT Y,” new videos curated by Hazel Hill McCarthy III. Screening at 10 p.m. sharp. Performance and after party with Mikki and the Mauses. $5.

Studio Root66
5917 North Figueroa
“Collection,” a sampling of photographic art by Nicole Fournier. Fournier is an accomplished production artist, photo editor and photographer with 13 years experience in the publishing industry--specializing in books, magazines and newspapers. Her process begins with photography. She then prints the image onto canvas. After stretching the canvas, she embellishes the surface using an encaustic wax process. Special musical guests Princess Pangolin, a four-piece female acoustic band, will perform one set only at 8 p.m.

She Rides the Lion
133 North Avenue 50
The print-making studio of Sonia Romero.

THIS
5906 North Figueroa
"THIS Holiday." Cash & Carry Extravaganza. Affordable handmade goods.
Ben Woodward, Blake E. Marquis, Caroline Hwang, Christopher Bettig, Damien Correll, Garrett Morin, Jim Houser, Kevin Byrd, Kimberly Scola, Mary's Granddaughter, Todd St. John and a couple surprises. noon-6 p.m.

Urchin
5006½ York Boulevard
A vintage clothing store with works by young local artists on the walls.

Verbre Studio and Gallery
4540 Eagle Rock Boulevard
The art studio of D. Paul Verbre.

Workspace
2601 Pasadena Avenue
“Dark Glasses,” an installation by Bobbi Woods.

York Studios—The Loft
5029 York Boulevard
Get ready for some great Music, Art, Dancing and a Live Art Auction! 7 p.m.-2 a.m. Bands start at 9.

2 Tracks Art Studio
135 North Avenue 50
The LA-Artist Documentary Project is dedicated to people working creatively in and around Los Angeles. In addition to producing a series of informative online films, a team of dedicated volunteers has been strategically placing ArtCards all over the greater Los Angeles area—in coffee shops, art galleries, community centers, schools, etc.—to facilitate a citywide community art project linking LA’s heterogeneous range of artistic practices. ArtCards are published in an online archive (www.la-artist.com/artcard). The most recent ArtCard submissions will be on exhibit at 2 Tracks Studio. 6-9 p.m.

1215 Projects
New!
1215 Cypress Avenue
“Vision Pulse.” Artist Scot Schneir is having his first solo exhibit. Inspired by daily
experiences and personal interpretations, his collection of paintings reveals
a soul searching journey through abstract and contemporary images. 7 p.m.-midnight.

Holiday Art Sale and Party

2010-12-10T18:46:00.000-08:00

Avenue 50 Studio, Two Tracks Studio and She Rides the Lion
Sixth Annual Holiday Sale & Party

131-135 North Avenue 50
www.Avenue50Studio.com
Saturday, December 18th from 7:00pm to 11:00pm, and
Sunday, December 19th from 12:00 noon to 4:00pm
Original and affordable prints, paintings, photography, jewelry, scarves, etc. by local artists:
Anna Alvarado, Lalo Alcaraz, Nico and Alfonso Aceves, Joseph Botello, Benito Campos, Damian Dovarganes, Raquel Escobar, Jack Fenn Margaret Garcia, Rosie Getz, Jaime Guerrero, Roberto Gutierrez, Mavis Leahy, Pola Lopez, Jose Lozano, Heriberto Luna,
Stephanie Mercardo, Gracie Miller, Gisel Osuma, Robert Palacios,Beth Peterson, Nancy Romero, Sonia Romero, Jaime Sabatte, Marianne Sadowski, Roderick Smith, Kay Brown with Los de Abajo, Hector Silva, Miranda Calvin Tanya, Stormie Trujillo, Richard Valdes, Michael J Walker and more.
Festive Attire encouraged.

Panpipes in Highland Park

2010-12-10T14:24:00.000-08:00

Lynette at the Arroyo Arts Collective Discovery Tour

Lynette Yetter will be reading and signing her novel Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace December 19, 1 p.m., at Avenue 50 Studio, 131 North Avenue 50 in Highland Park.

Lynette Yetter is an author, indie musician, visual artist and film-maker dedicated to inspiring people to live their dreams. Lynette played panpipes on the Academy Award Nominated documentary, "Recycled Life." She followed the sound of the panpipes from California to the Andes. Her experiences she transforms into music, movies, books and art to touch your soul and make you think.

Northeast Holiday Parade Fundraiser

2010-12-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

Northeast Los Angeles Holiday Parade Barbeque Fundraiser, October 2010. Sponsored by the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce and the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce at the Eagle Rock home of Michael and Eugenie Nogueira.

Holiday Parade~~Sunday

2010-12-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

Northeast Los Angeles Holiday Parade

2010-12-04T17:55:00.000-08:00

Northeast Los Angeles Holiday Parade
“Holidays on Route 66”
Sunday, December 5, 1 p.m.
North Figueroa Street
—Avenue 60 southbound to Sycamore Grove Park
NortheastHolidayParade.blogspot.com
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is the latest addition to this year’s Northeast Los Angeles Holiday Parade Lineup.
The theme for this year’s parade (its 66th year) is “Holidays on Route 66.” Grand Marshall will be actor and activist Francesco Quinn (“Platoon”).
Other honored guests include: Rogers Family Descendants (Descendents of Highland Park’s early land owners), Scott Piotrowski (Director of Route 66 Productions and Author of “Finding the End of the Mother Road: Route 66 in Los Angeles County”), Amy Inouye and Chicken Boy (Saved Chicken Boy from demolition on Route 66 Downtown and gave him a home on Route 66 in Highland Park) and Brian Mallman (NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night Founder).
There will also be local Marching Bands, Drill Teams, Dancers, Musicians, Floats, Horses, Classic Cars, Elected Representatives and Community Leaders.
And—making his 66th Northeast Los Angeles appearance—Santa Claus will greet the crowd from atop an LAFD fire truck!
The Northeast Los Angeles Holiday Parade is a volunteer-led effort sponsored by the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce, with generous assistance from City Councilmembers Ed Reyes and Jose Huizar, plus numerous local businesses and organizations. It is the second oldest parade in Los Angeles.

2010-11-12T20:59:00.000-08:00

The Second Saturday of every month, Northeast Los Angeles art galleries stay open late for NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night. The event is a celebration of the thriving NELA contemporary arts community and of NELA’s history as L.A.’s original arts community. Visit nelaart.com to download a gallery map.

Where to see art Saturday, November 13 and Sunday, November 14~~
including:
NELAart’s Second Saturday Galleries
Stores and Coffee Houses showing local artists
Special Events
And other once-in-a-lifetime opportunities
(7 to 10 p.m. unless otherwise indicated)

Saturday

Avenue 50 Studios
121 North Avenue 50
“Two Generations/Four Brothers” For the first time brothers David and Paul Botello will show their art together with David's sons, Joseph and Benjamin Botello. David and Paul, natives of East Los Angeles, are both well known for their Public Mural work and many solo and cooperative pieces. Joseph and Benjamin, raised in El Sereno, are starting their own mural efforts this year. Each of the Botello brothers have developed their own unique style, totally distinct from each other, ranging from abstract to realism to ceramics to highly stylized.
In the Annex: “Portraits” by Ricardo Estrada.

Bike Oven
3706 North Figueroa
The Spoke(n) Art bicycle ride to several local galleries leaves at 7. Return about 10 for an after party. Blinky lights for your bike and a cell phone recommended.

Cactus
5434 Eagle Rock Boulevard
“LA X SF” San Francisco based artists: Clam Lynch, Lil Tuffy, Ross K Jones and Luc Martin are bringing their art here to L.A. in an exchange between Cactus Gallery and 63 Bluxome Street Gallery. Also featuring new works by Cactus favorites, Kelly Thompson, Walt Hall, Douglas Alvarez and Terri Berman.
Small room will feature NEW works by Sophia Gasparian, Patricia Krebs and newcomers Lena Sayadian and Mac. Many works from our 6th Annual Day of the Dead show still on view.

Cafe de Leche
5000 York Boulevard
A coffee shop with monthly exhibits by local artists on the walls.

Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
2225 Colorado Boulevard
Parking @ Bank of America, just to the west
“FORM vs THE ABYSS” features work from Rose Masterpol and Joan Scheibel. Rose Masterpol is unshackled by the constraints that once held her in bondage. With this new work, she leaves her architectural renderings behind and pours the magic onto the canvas with unbounded passion, freedom, and conviction. The new paintings formulate moments occurring in nature. The viewer is taken on a journey of reckless abandonment through a dust of dandelions, a buttermilk sky and into the depths of the abyss. Joan Scheibel's series of paintings culminated from a singular morning in Palmdale, California. Taking images of her own shadow on her Blackberry cell phone, Scheibel conveys a perfect moment in which her androgynous form exhibits strength as well as vulnerability. Scheibel was inspired to return to her creative work after visiting Peter Max's studio, and uses a variety of mediums in her process. 6-9 p.m.

Curve Line Space
1577 Colorado Boulevard
Ryan Logan: “Of Other Places.” Sculptural work using numerous units he combines and suspends into a network using overlapping pathways. "While creating these "Intersection" collages over the past two years, concentrating on the idea of dislocation within a vast area was my main concern. The collages have been an attempt to present this dislocation visually as a tension that exists from this lack of a sense of place. There are overlapping systems within the pieces that seem to lead to nowhere in particular and yet there is also an absurd attempt to centralize the overall composition."

Dark Dark Science Gallery
3245 Casitas Avenue, Suite 157
Celebrated counter-culture curator Lenora Claire is proud to announce two distinct exhibitions opening on one evening: “Smile Even if It Hurts” featuring Jessicka Addams and Lindsey Way. Florida-born, Los Angeles-based artist Jessicka Addams has combined her fascination with Goth culture, all things John Waters, religious iconography and the Easter Bunny in her first solo collection titled, "What's Behind The Bunny." The collection features bunny masks with a vast array of dark, nostalgic and strangely melancholy mixed media sculptural work, as well as collaborations with artists Mark Ryden, Elizabeth McGrath, Marion Peck, Morgan Slade, Louis-Marie de Castelbajac, Joshua Petker, Albert Sanchez, Lindsey Way, Tarina Tarantino, Jared Gold, Austin Young, Janine Jarman, and more. Lindsey Way was born in Dunoon, Scotland. She attended The Pratt Institute, where she studied fine art and illustration. She then worked as a window display artist throughout New York City as assisted the prolific painter Ron English. After years as a touring musician with the band Mindless Self Indulgence, she has been inspired by world art culture. Lindsey's current body of work is a collection of thirteen dioramas entitled "Hush.”

El Chapin
5010 York Boulevard
The restaurant will host “a great night full of life.” Music and art by Highland Park locals. Art works by Sebastian Torres, Summer Bernal, Andrew Martinez. Poetry reading by Mario Peregrino. Music performed by Irene Diaz and Joey Loya. Photography by International High School: David Meade, Kimberly Quirarte, Kimberly Valenzuela, Michael “Teeter”, Rajah Marquez, Samuel Martinez.

Future Studio
5558 North Figueroa
Preview Party for "North by Northeast" the 18th Annual Arroyo Arts Collective Discovery Tour.
This November 21 self-guided auto tour features a unique glimpse into artists' homes and studios in Highland Park, Mount Washington, Glassell Park, Montecito Heights and Eagle Rock. It also offers a great opportunity to pick up one-of-a-kind art works and artistic treasures at great prices. For those who don't wish to drive, shuttle buses will be offer a sample of five to six studios around Montecito Heights and Highland Park in the morning and Mt Washington and Eagle Rock in the afternoon.
Tickets are only $10 if purchased in advance, and will be available at this free preview party. The preview is also a great chance experience the works of local artists and to plan your Discovery Tour agenda in advance.

Gallery 622
622 Milo Terrace

The Glass Studio
5052 York Boulevard
Art glass and tiles, classes and supplies. Debut featured artists are Leigh Adams, Chad Sterandeo, Shirlee Yantz and The Glass Studio owner, Cathi Milligan.

José Vera Fine Art & Antiques
2012 Colorado Boulevard
As part of the city-wide celebration of the 100th anniversary of Mexico's revolution and 200th anniversary of its independence...”Confronting Revolution: A Siqueiros Aesthetic.” An exhibition of a vast and rare collection of prints and publications featuring Mexican muralist and political activist, David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896 -1974).
In José Vera’s X-43 Gallery: “The Codex Ramirez: Volume Two,” featuring new paintings by Ramon Ramirez. Like its predecessor, "The Codex Ramírez: Volume II" borrows from ancient manuscripts, or codices, in order to explore a language of color and form through which to articulate a narrative of home. Home, in this instance, is split between the landscapes of Los Angeles-those of Ramírez' upbringing-and those of Jalisco, Mexico, or the land to which his family is tied. 6-9 p.m.

Kristi Engle Gallery
5002 York Boulevard
The launch of a new project with the goal of placing original contemporary art in every house in Highland Park (and beyond). Efforts will begin with a one-night exhibition of small affordable works. Much of the work will be in the realm of traditional wall work but there will also be some conceptual pieces and small-scale sculpture. All art will be priced at below $500--with some work priced as low as $50-- in a variety of media including drawing and photography. A friendly environment will be provided to encourage people to ask questions and seriously consider acquiring original artworks. This first show will include the work of Martin Gantman, David Eddington, Nicole Antebi, Chris Bassett, Rebecca Lowry, Toby Corbett, Ted Duarte, Margaret Griffith and Kireilyn Barber.

The Land of Odd Gallery
4690 Eagle Rock Boulevard
The Land of Odd Gallery will be hosting a joyously dark birthday celebration to mark its first anniversary as part of Gallery Night. “The Land of Odd Gallery is grateful and proud to say that we have not only survived, but flourished through our first year! We would like to share our excitement and happiness with you by inviting you to our one year anniversary gallery night.” 7-Midnight.

Leanna Lin’s Wonderland
5024 Eagle Rock Boulevard
The Artist Sisters: CJ Metzger & Miss Mindy present “Heart on Our Sleeve,” splendid works in paint, pencil & ink. They will be bringing small paintings, drawings and watercolors, hand embellished limited edition prints, hand painted nesting dolls, signed sets and more! 6-10 p.m.
Papas's Tapas Spanish cuisine truck and Lake Street Creamery gourmet ice cream truck will be parked outside.

MorYork Gallery
4959 York Boulevard
Photography by Erika Marrin.

New Puppy
2808 Elm Street
Thinkspace will be presenting a special pop-up show at New Puppy-- Belgian-born artist ROA's debut west coast solo show. ROA's organic animals, huge both in presentation and reputation, will soon take over the streets of LA as well as the walls of New Puppy Gallery, reminding the city's art lovers that there is indeed nature all around us, even in the middle of the City of Angels. His street work brings to mind the natural world before it was covered in skyscrapers and highways. His stark black and white illustrations are as much home on the walls of galleries as they are on the walls of abandoned factories. As the cities of the world continue to push nature further and further away... and closer and closer to extinction, ROA's work acts as an ardent cry to arms for us all to take action. 6 p.m.-midnight.

New Stone Age Mosaics
4532 1/2 Eagle Rock Boulevard
The mosaic studio of Mary Clark-Camargo (who just did four pieces for the TV show “Parks and Recreation).

An Orange Door
3188 Verdugo Road
Michael Reisman’s “Agglomerations: Drawings on Various Subjects Including (but not limited to) Life, Death, and Mineralogy” This body of work, informed by both the natural and the mechanical, finds inspiration in processes ranging from additive manufacturing technologies such as inkjet printing to the development and growth of mold spores.

Outpost for Contemporary Art
1268 North Avenue 50
T-shirt Revival Night is a silk-screening event that features a new artist every month. Bring a favorite old T-Shirt that needs a little sprucing up or any other item you'd like to have the artist print on. Each print is only $6, or buy two for $10.

Public Fiction (the museum of)
749 North Avenue 50
A shape-shifting museum in the model of cabinets of curiosity. The shows combine made and found things to create slightly unusual environments, to frame art, artifact and facsimile in one fictional place. Currently: “Public Records,” featuring Alee Peoples, Anders Johnson, Ashley Zangle, assume astro vivid focus, BEVERLY FRE$H, Bobbi Woods, Breanne Trammell, Brendan Threadgill, Brie Ruais, Clement Valla, Davida Nemeroff, Erin Perry, Grant Worth, Greg Kalliche, Julia Dault, Joshua Callaghan, Kat Hodges, Mark Rice, Maureen Keaveny, Michael Bizon, Michael Magnan, Paul Pescador, Riah Buchanan, Sto, Talon True Gustafson, Walker Mettling.

Studio Root66
5917 North Figueroa
Works from Brooke Harker’s “Color Series.” Brooke Harker creates vivid images with oils on canvas in a variety of styles--from color abstractions to recognizable images and detailed portraits and murals. The spirit of play found in Brooke's paintings, reflect a nature dedicated to inspiring children and encouraging adults to find the children within themselves.

She Rides the Lion
133 North Avenue 50
The print-making studio of Sonia Romero.

THIS
5906 North Figueroa
The gallery is in the midst of a Latin American Graphic Design show, featuring Eduardo Hernandez ( Mexico ), Material ( Chile ), Celeste Prieto ( Paraguay ), Juan Mendez ( Guatemala ), Lion Lucy ( Argentina ) and Marco Schlesinger ( Brazil ).

2 Tracks Art Studio
135 North Avenue 50
The studio of Pola Lopez and Heriberto Luna.

Urchin
5006½ York Boulevard
A vintage clothing store with works by young local artists on the walls.

Women's Twentieth Century Club of Eagle Rock
5105 Hermosa Avenue
Holiday Boutique and Craft Fair featuring hand-crafted items, hot soup, baked goods and holiday music. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Sunday

Eagle Rock Brewery
3056 Roswell Street
Art Works by Glassell Park artist Alisa N. Smith, including photos of San Fernando Road and areas adjacent. The Brewery is also hosting The Cast Iron Gourmet and her pop-up Bacon Event from 12-6. Alisa will be present from 3-6.

Monte Vista Projects
5442 Monte Vista Street
Donna Coppola: Homemade soup. People are invited to eat soup together during the dinner hour between 6 and 8 p.m. Three soups made in the gallery: white bean and tomatillo, curry pumpkin, vegetable. BYOB&S: bring your own bowl & spoon. BYOB: bring your own beverages too! Receptacles and utensils will be provided for the inadequately prepared. Donna Coppola’s work as a Los Angeles chef informs her artistic practice as much as her exhibitions and guerilla performances. Her approach has always been interdisciplinary. She has been head chef at the popular and beloved Auntie Em's Kitchen since 2004 and has played in the California krautrock band The Faraway Places since1998. In Boston, she was part of the Mobius Artists Group (1998-2001) and also worked as the Communications Director at the Mobius art space (1997-2000).

Outpost for Contemporary Art
Over 100 Los Angeles Artists will participate in a “Monster Drawing Rally,” from 12-6:30 p.m. at the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Boulevard. The event will consist of five one-hour shifts with approximately 20 artists drawing simultaneously each hour. Audiences will have the rare opportunity to watch art come to life and purchase completed drawings for $75 each. Kid’s Drawing Corner, silk-screening station, food and drink by featured vendors and more! The event will raise funds for Outpost for Contemporary Art, a non-profit organization devoted to bringing together artists and art audiences from around the world through a variety of innovative partnerships and programs. Admission is $10. Kids, seniors and Outpost members free.

The Art of the Steal

2010-10-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

"The Art of the Steal"
Free Screening Sunday Evening October 24, 6:00
5577 N Figueroa Street, Highland Park (at Avenue 56)

The film documents the greedy desire to move a valuable art collection from a Philadelphia suburb just five miles to a different location, "the biggest act of cultural vandalism since World War II." Sound familiar?

Sponsored by Friends of the Southwest Museum

www.friendsofthesouthwestmuseum.com

NELAart Gallery Night! 10/09/10

2010-10-08T21:32:00.000-07:00

NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Listings—10/09
(7-10 p.m. unless noted)
Download a map at NELAart.com

Avenue 50 Studios
121 North Avenue 50
“Day of the Dead Planet” Threats to planet Earth are causing our physical world to change in ways that may become permanent and fatal. What have we already lost? What are we in danger of losing? What connections to the earth matter enough to cause us to change our ways? Memorials, stories and ofrendas about the natural world, in the spirit of Día de los Muertos will be shared by 14 artists, working in a variety of media, who care about the environment. Ulla Barr, Marie Cenkner, Isaac Landon Cohen, Lani Cupchoy, Jacqueline Dreager, Beth Elliott, Peter Hess, Rachel Hobreigh, Heather Hoggan, Ann Isolde, Kerry O'Brien, Denise Seider, France White. Sponsored by the Arroyo Arts Collective. Curated by Deborah Thomas.
In the Annex: Cindy Suriyani, “Dreamscape Live” An Installation in Remembrance of her Father.

Bike Oven
3706 North Figueroa
The Spoke(n) Art bicycle ride to several local galleries leaves at 7. Return about 10 for a solo show about chess by the artist Want and the monthly party. Consider dressing as a chess piece; perhaps play chess on bikes.

Cactus
5434 Eagle Rock Boulevard
Sixth Annual Dia de los Muertos Exhibit and Celebration, featuring over 40 artists who have created original acrylic, oil and watercolor paintings, assemblage, paper mache, etching, sculpture, mosaic, printmaking and mixed media works on canvas and wood. Plus an altar installation by Letica Castañeda in honor of her recently departed father and brother. The community is welcome to honor those who have passed by adding pictures, notes and other offerings to the altar.

Cafe de Leche
5000 York Boulevard

Curve Line Space
1577 Colorado Boulevard
Ryan Logan: “Of Other Places.” Sculptural work using numerous units he combines and suspends into a network using overlapping pathways.

Future Studio
5558 North Figueroa
Arroyo Arts Collective presents a Fiber Art Exhibit and Yarn Bombing Event: FIG KNIT-ON. a fiber art experience along North Figueroa, between Avenue 56 and Roselawn Street. A group of artists will magically transform the sidewalk by dressing
everyday items in varying combinations of fiber material. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “Hey, that parking meter could use a sweater,” or “Wouldn’t knit flowers look good in that empty planting box,” then we have an exhibit for you. Plus a wall display inside the gallery. Works range from funny to functional; some draw on the rich history of Northeast Los Angeles, while others use unusual materials; and all push the knit/crochet envelope. Ellen Bloom, Beth Ellitoo, Jacque Lene Engel, Carmela Gomes, Miriam Gonzalez, Susana Gonzalez, Heather Hoggan, Amy Inouye, Julie Keehner, Arzu Arda Kosar, Artemisia Kosar, Lauri Mraz, Raquel “Rocky” Ormsby-Olivares, David Orozco, Noah B. Orozco, Connie Rohman, Joya Ray, Ann Store, Susie Stroll, Sherry Thompson, Kacy Treadway. Curated by Heather Hogan.

The Glass Studio
5052 York Boulevard
Art glass and tiles, classes and supplies. Debut featured artists are Leigh Adams, Chad Sterandeo, Shirlee Yantz and The Glass Studio owner, Cathi Milligan.

José Vera Fine Art & Antiques
2012 Colorado Boulevard
As part of the city-wide celebration of the 100th anniversary of Mexico's revolution and 200th anniversary of its independence...Confronting Revolution: A Siqueiros Aesthetic. An exhibition of a vast and rare collection of prints and publications featuring Mexican muralist and political activist, David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896 -1974). Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Kristi Engle Gallery
5002 York Boulevard
Mary Addison Hackett, “Fluid: Elusive Chapters from the Passage of Time (Volume 1: The Lost Months, Volume 2: Pools and Flowers)“ The earlier body (Vol. I) shifts from the work in her previous exhibition at the gallery by scale and material, from large-scale work on canvas to small-scale on linen. The second "volume" of work shifts more notably from abstraction to representation, containing representations of abandoned swimming pools and bouquets of cut flowers while still retaining a distinctly abstract quality. Adding figurative elements does not negate the abstraction in either body of work, but only expands the breadth of Hackett’s tools in working with the same ideas of language, form and meaning.

The Land of Odd Gallery
4690 Eagle Rock Boulevard
Featuring the collaborative artwork of Jason and Melissa Sullivan, Sullivan’s Super Fantastic Ish Factory brings you a strange and exciting adventure inside a world unlike anything you have ever experienced before! Sullivan’s Super Fantastic Ish Factory incorporates fine art, commercial art and textile design, packaging them all into one perfect gift of fun and excitement. Open late. Eat toast.

Leanna Lin’s Wonderland
5024 Eagle Rock Boulevard
Mr. Funky Book Signing and Trunk Show. Meet designer Narumi Ogawa as she signs copies of her best selling book. Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful shows teens, "tweens" and hipsters how to craft their own hip creations. A mishmash of Japanese style and 70's bohemian-inspired fashion, Mr. Funky is where Hello Kitty meets cool crochet. Be the first to see her Fall/Holiday Funky crochet animals + super cute accessories. 6-10 p.m.
Lomo Arigato and Lil Rae Cakes will be parked outside.

Monte Vista Projects
5442 Monte Vista Street
Sandy de Lissovoy: “We are caught falling” Imagined through a set of objects and their re-presentations in photography and sound, the installation reveals the scene of a magical accident. A nebulous meteorite is caught on one side of an incomplete cube. Snagged in an instant, the amorphous shape unfolds, exposing its structure. It poses the inescapable question: how long can we remain in stasis before the act of falling resumes?

MorYork Gallery
4959 York Boulevard
Still-life Compositions: Not the Usual Set-Up, an exhibition of artworks by Kathleen Swaydan. Swaydan’s works incorporate both organic and inorganic materials in complex compositions. Some tend toward the traditional still-life genre, others display levitating objects, which defy gravity and lend a surreal aspect to her drawings. She works primarily in graphite but will also have watercolor paintings on display.

New Puppy
2808 Elm Street
Brian Tucker, “From Punk to Purity” A 30 year survey featuring paintings, photographs, objects and drawings by the legendary chronicler and creator of Punk. Presented by Cannibal Flower. 7-11 p.m.

New Stone Age Mosaics
4532 1/2 Eagle Rock Boulevard
The mosaic studio of Mary Clark-Camargo.

An Orange Door
3188 Verdugo Road
The “non-committal flux space in the 90065” showcases the work of Los Angeles painter Jan Taylor. Created to illicit a response, through the physical nature of a hole and height of the hole, a series of innuendos occur that might demand some physical participation by the viewer. Open at 6.

Outpost for Contemporary Art
1268 North Avenue 50
T-shirt Revival Night is a silk-screening event that features a new artist every month. In anticipation of the arrival of Outpost's Brazilian artists-in-residence, Grupo Bijari, later in October, and to continue the theme of last June's successful soccer tournament/fundraiser, the Outpost Cup, portraits by Carolyn Castaño of famous South American futbol players, like Brazil's national hero, Pelé, will be featured. Bring a favorite old T-Shirt that needs a little sprucing up or any other item you'd like to have the artist print on. Each print is only $6, or buy two for $10.

Studio Root66
5917 North Figueroa
A solo photography show by Cindy Daigneault, "Gaudi to Glaciers: An Eclectic Perspective," featuring photos from the 4 corners of the world. Rob Grad will be appearing in the Artist's Alley in "NOW," a unique live show combining Grad's original music and mixed media visual art. Studio Root66 is celebrating its first year anniversary.

She Rides the Lion
133 North Avenue 50
The print-making studio of Sonia Romero.

2 Tracks Art Studio
135 North Avenue 50
The studio of Pola Lopez and Heriberto Luna.

Urchin
5006½ York Boulevard
Wow! a free show with 2 live bands and a multitude of young local artists!

And while you are out and about:
Saturday 10/09, Soul Shakedown at the Verdugo Bar, 3408 Verdugo Road. Bringing L.A. the heaviest selection of funk, soul and hip hop vinyl. Food by the Tapa Boy Truck.
Saturday 10/09, it’s Motorcycle Night @ El Chapin Restaurant, 5010 York Boulevard. Live Reggae performance by 700 lbs Gerrilla. Special menu. 7 p.m.
Saturday 10/09 and Sunday 10/10, The Brewery Artwalk is a free, semi-annual event that occurs in the Spring & Fall, where over 150 artists open their studios for the weekend. 2100 North Main Street, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

2010-10-08T21:20:00.000-07:00

Ellen Bloom at Future Studio/ Lauri Mraz at Future Studio/ Beth Elliott at Future Studio/ Snow Mack at Cactus/ Andrea Monroe at Cactus

2010-10-08T21:11:00.000-07:00

Joanna Barnum at Cactus/ Holly Wood at Cactus/ Cindy Suriyani at Avenue 50 Studio/ Ulla Barr at Avenue 50 Studio/ Jan Taylor at An Orange Door

2010-10-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

Kathleen Swaydan at MorYork Gallery/Brian Tucker at New Puppy/ Carolyn Castaño at Outpost for Contemporary Art/ Leanna Lin’s Wonderland/ The Land of Odd Gallery/ Mary Addison Hackett at Kristi Engle Gallery

GARVANZA

2010-10-08T00:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday, November 6, 2010

6:30 to 8:30 PM

Join the HPHT and author Charles J. Fisher

As we celebrate Garvanza, the book and the community

A Book Signing Event

At Figueroa Produce Market

6312 N. Figueroa S/York Blvd

Highland Park, CA

in the shopping plaza

tasty treats will be served

Highland Park Heritage Trust

2010-10-08T00:02:00.000-07:00

Membership Appreciation Event
Monday, October 11, 2010 • 7 to 9 pm
Cafe de Leche
5000 York Blvd. (corner Avenue 50), Highland Park, CA
CELEBRATE PRESERVATION
• What a year this has been and it’s not over yet!
• Discuss HPHT preservation activities with the Board and other members
• Recognition of very special member volunteers
• See the “year in action” photos and find out what’s still to come!
• Free to members . . . same as last year
• Charles Fisher will be available to sign both Highland Park and Garvanza
• Coffee, Tea and Tasty Treats
Free to members • Guests $5 • While you’re at it, renew for 2010-2011
Acknowledge each other as well as our Sponsors, Benefactors, Angels, and Life Members
Please RSVP by October 7 by phone 323-256-4326 or by email hphtpres@gmail.com

Eagle Rock @ 100

2010-10-07T23:54:00.001-07:00

Planning is already underway for Eagle Rock’s centennial celebration, to take place in 2011. An entire year’s worth of festivities is planned—beginning with a kick-off event at the time of the actual anniversary in February and continuing through to a major community event later in the year.
Many community organizations have been working on the plans. A special focus has been on monuments that will endure for another hundred years, such as the planting of 100 trees for 100 years and the creation of an Eagle Rock Centennial Monument near the Colorado Boulevard border with Glendale.
A commemorative Centennial calendar is in production and will be available shortly.
Eagle Rock was originally a separate city from Los Angeles. The Centennial marks Eagle Rock’s incorporation as a city with a population of about 600 people. In 1923, voters opted to join up with Los Angeles. (The area around Occidental College already had become part of L.A. in 1916.)
Centennial planning meetings are held regularly, and representatives of organizations and individual residents are most welcome to participate. Visit www.eaglerockcentennial.com for meeting information.

Eagle Rock City

2010-10-07T23:52:00.000-07:00

The Arroyo Seco Journal

Cidne Hart and Ruth DeNicola at MorYork Gallery

NELAart Gallery Night~November 12

Northeast Carnival

From LAFD

Re-thinking North Figueroa Street

Jim Bowden, 1921-2011

Still Go-Go-ing After All These Years

New Political Districts for Northeast LA

NELAart Gallery Night Happenings

Van de Kamps Controversy Spurs State Audit of College District

City Sued Over Autry-Southwest Merger

NELA's Pending Congressional Districts

The ASJ Guide to Redistricting in Northeast Los Angeles

More from the Arroyo Seco Journal

And this is what it looked like....

Tomorrow: Galco's Soda Tasting Supports Southwest Museum

New Police Station for Northeast L.A.

NELAart Gallery Night~July 9

NELAart Gallery Night~~June, 2011

Summer Nights in Atwater Village

City Council Accepts Autry Remodel

Committee Approves Autry Center Remodel

Mayor Visits Northeast LA to Launch Expanded Recycling

Southwest Returns to City Hall Next Week

NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night

Autry/Southwest at Arts, Parks, Health and Aging

NELA Artists Support Ai Weiwei

Council Committee to Hear Autry/Southwest Issue

City Council Asserts Authority over Rec & Parks Decision

Northeast L.A. Artists Support Incarcerated Chinese Artist With Makeshift Gallery

Southwest Museum/Autry Update!

Autry Plans for Southwest Collection Approved by Rec and Parks

Relighting the Highland

Highland Theatre Sign Relighting 05/17/11

20 Theatres of Northeast Los Angeles

Highland Theatre Sign Lighting 05/17/11

Highland Theatre Sign Lighting 05/17/11

Highland Theatre Sign Lighting 05/17/11

Highland Theatre Sign Lighting 05/17/11

Highland Theatre Sign Lighting 05/17/11

Highland Theatre Sign Lighting 5/17/11

New Signs

Brewery Spring ArtWalk

Confluence Plaza

Home As Canvas

An Urban Forest in Highland Park

Eagle Rock Day at Los Angeles City Hall

Art Among the Chard

More Food Trucks

Avenues Gang Leader Sentenced for Human Smuggling

A Decision for Education

LAUSD Picks Alliance Program

Eagle Rock Day at LA City Hall 3/4/11

Round 'em Up!

Gourmet Wheels!

Taylor Yards High School

Exclusive Benefit Performance for FOMWS Slated

It's LA Arts Month!

Local Art~~Local Galleries~~January 8

Something Old is New Again: Vision for a "New" York Boulevard

Where We're Gonna Be

LAPD Shooting of 13 year-old Draws Contentious Crowd

Arroyo Arts Collective Discovery Tour

"Haramokngna A Place Where People Gather"

Chicken Boy and Guardian Honored

Atwater Village Park Expansion

Art Listings~~Saturday, December 11

Holiday Art Sale and Party

Panpipes in Highland Park

Northeast Holiday Parade Fundraiser

Holiday Parade~~Sunday

Northeast Los Angeles Holiday Parade

The Art of the Steal

NELAart Gallery Night! 10/09/10

GARVANZA

Highland Park Heritage Trust

Eagle Rock @ 100

Eagle Rock City

Local ArtLocal GalleriesJanuary 8