FEELING LEFT OUT OF THE GLOBAL ACTIONS ON CLIMATE AND WHAT’S GOING ON IN PARIS RIGHT NOW ABOUT CLIMATE? JOIN VisionLA ’15 Climate Action Arts Festival Mon. November 30 to Fri. December 11, 2015
VisionLA ’15 Climate Action Arts Festival
Unites LA Artists and Arts Organizations
Celebrates the Power of Art to Make Change
In Venues Throughout the Greater LA Area
Monday, November 30 – Friday, December 11, 2015
FESTIVAL CALENDAR OF EVENTS SCHEDULE:
http://visionlafest.org/calendar
The Los Angeles climate action arts festival coincides with:
• United Nations 21st Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris
• ArtCOP21, a Paris-wide arts festival
+ over 290 events across Paris and around the world – 34 countries & counting
According to a press release,
VisionLA ’15 offers 80 events at 32 venues: main “hubs” of activity include
• Armory Center for the Arts [Pasadena] film & performance events
• First Congregational Church of Los Angeles [Koreatown/Westlake] music events
• Helms Design Center [Culver City] film & performance events
• VisionLA Home Gallery [Bergamot Station/Santa Monica] festival opening event and fine art exhibit
See Facebook page for various event pages (more to come) and follow @VisionLAFest #COP21 #VisionLAFest #AllUnited #ArtCOP21 #ArtMakesChange #Community #FutureIsNow
Most events are free.
PS Let it snow on your blog! go to settings — general — snow !
In response to the global environmental crisis, Los Angeles artists and arts organizations are uniting for VisionLA ’15 Climate Action Arts Festival, a citywide arts festival. Happening throughout the greater Los Angeles area from Monday, November 30 to Friday, December 11, 2015, VisionLA ‘15 aims to stimulate a creative response to the climate crisis through arts engagement. The multidisciplinary festival coincides with the United Nations 21st Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris and is inspired by the concurrent ArtCOP21, a Paris-wide arts festival which advocates for a strong international climate treaty and sustainable change. For more information please visit http://visionlafest.org.
Participating VisionLA ‘15 projects range from installations and performances interacting with the public space to formal gallery shows; from theatre pieces to concerts, readings, films, street art, and community art workshops; as well as climate change-related lectures, panels, and presentations, and climate action rallies. Key festival events include: the VisionLA Fest Gala Opening eco art exhibition reception and festival launch with performances, music, speeches, beer, and wine (Mon. 11/30); Concert for the Climate classical and new music event (Wed. 12/9); the Vision LA ’15 Film Series featuring environmentally-themed documentary shorts and features (12/1-12/10); and Envision – Closing Celebration of VisionLA ‘15 Fest with music, poetry, dance, awards, food, beer, and wine (Fri. 12/11). Additional details on these events are listed below. For the full Festival Calendar of Events please visit http://visionlafest.org/calendar.
Events will be held in venues, city streets, public parks, galleries, and storefronts. While dozens of venues are participating in the Festival, key events are concentrated at four main hubs:
• Armory Center for the Arts (Pasadena) – film and performance events
• First Congregational Church of Los Angeles (Koreatown/Westlake) – music events
• Helms Design Center (Culver City) – film and performance events
• VisionLA Home Gallery (Bergamot Station/Santa Monica) – festival opening event and fine art exhibit
Schedule Highlights include:
• 11/30/15 [6:00pm – 10:00pm; $20] – VisionLA Fest Gala Opening festival launch and kickoff for Art Makes Change art exhibit. Gala event will include a reception, performance art such as Domestic Apocalypse and LA Mudpeople, DJ Jeremy Sole (KCRW), beer, wine, food trucks, and more at the VisionLA Home Gallery in Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station (the former Santa Monica Museum of Art space). [Art]
• 12/1/15 – 12/10/15 [Daily; 11:00am – 6:00pm] – VisionLA ’15 presents Art Makes Change, a group exhibition of 60 local artists, featuring over 200 environmentally-themed works in pop-up gallery running the entire length of the festival at the VisionLA Home Galleryin Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station (the former Santa Monica Museum of Art space). Participating artists are listed in the Supplemental Information section below this press release. [Art]
• 12/1/15 – 12/10/15 [Times Vary; Free] – The VisionLA ‘15 Film Series, at Helms Design Center in Culver City, Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, The Crest Theatre in Westwood, and Laemmle NoHo 7 in North Hollywood, will screen 20 environmentally-themed documentary shorts and features, including 100 Mules Walking the LA Aqueduct (Artist’s Cut 2015), Bikes vs. Cars, Racing to Zero,Soil Carbon Cowboys, Standing on Sacred Ground, student-made Green Shorts: Films (RE) Imagining Our Troubled World from Pomona College, The Breach, Neil Young’s Monsanto Years, The True Cost (a co-screening with Conscientious Projector), The Wisdom to Survive, as well as other selections. Many of the filmmakers and other special guests will attend the screenings. [Film]
• 12/9/15 [7:30pm; Free] – Concert for the Climate, a classical and new music event at First Congregational Church of Los Angelesfeaturing Vicki Ray (of the California EAR Unit), the Street Symphony featuring members of the LA Philharmonic, a piano piece with video projections by Lori Pond, Don Preston (of the Mothers of Invention) performing on organ, and a panel discussion on the role of art and music in social change. Moderated by Rev. R. Scott Colglazier. [Music]
• 12/11/15 [6:00pm – 11:00pm; $50] – Envision – Closing Celebration of VisionLA ‘15 Fest hosted by Arts Earth Partnership, featuring poetry by LA Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez, music by DJ Jedi, an installation dance/concert by String Theory Productions, and awards to local environmental stewards at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes in DTLA. Admission includes tamales by Mama’s Hot Tamales Cafe and an open bar with beer and wine. [Performance/Music/Awards]
Among the dozens of diverse arts and related cultural projects included in the Festival are:
• 11/30/15 [7:00pm; Part of Opening Gala] – Domestic Apocalypse, a performance piece providing event cleansing and consciousness purification at the VisionLA Home Gallery in Bergamot Station. [Performance]
• 12/1/15 – 12/5/15 [10:00am – 5:00pm; Free] – Dominique Moody’s Nomad, a recycled materials trailer installation as well as a found object art workshop (12/5), which serves as a catalyst for conversations about the cultural, social, ecological, and economic challenges of our times at the California African American Museum. [Artist Residency/Assemblage Workshop]
• 12/1/15 – 12/5/15 [Daily; 2:00pm – 4:00pm; Free] – MorYork Gallery, presenting Clare Graham’s artworks made from discarded materials. [Art]
• 12/2/15 [7:00pm – 10:00pm; Free] – Coalition for Educational Justice’s and SoCal 350’s Student Art Fighting Climate Changecommunity art-making event at Frank Romero’s art studio. [Art]
• 12/2/15 [7:30pm; Free] – Thriving in a Hotter Los Angeles, a panel discussion on the future of water use in LA at the Hammer Museum. [Panel Discussion]
• 12/3/15 [8:00am – Noon; Free] – Chalkupy LA, a climate change community chalk art action, featuring an infographic designed by theUnion of Concerned Scientists in Pershing Square. [Community Action]
• 12/3/15 [7:00pm; Free] – What the Frack Happened?, a humorous theatre piece that investigates the American home as ground zero for sustainability, at Helms Design Center. [Theatre]
• 12/4/15 – 12/6/15 [Times Vary; Free] – Open Fist Theatre Company’s presentation of Murry Mednick’s The Gary Plays, Part 1, the fist episode of the epic 8-play portrait of Los Angeles that depicts a world on the edge of environmental collapse, at Skylight Theatre. [Theatre]
• 12/5/15 [1:00pm – 5:00pm; Free] – Green City Workshops and Tour at the TreePeople Campus on topics such as Citizen Forestry-Tree Planting and Rainwater Harvesting. [Workshops]
• 12/5/15 [4:00pm – 7:30; Free] – Words to Save the World, poetry and prose with an environmental theme at Beyond Baroque. [Spoken Word]
• 12/5/15 – 12/6/15 [Times Vary; $20] – Groundwork, a play by Mike Ostroski and Derek Davidson, which uses gardening as a metaphor for the journey to find meaning in life at Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre. [Theatre]
• 12/6/15 [1:00pm – 3:00pm; Free] – Diana Wyenn’s Compassio/N, mixed media performances that investigate the historical and contemporary uses, references, and definitions of compassion through the lens of climate change at the Helms Walk. [Performance]
• 12/10/15 [6:00pm – 8:00pm; Free] – William Close and the Earth Harp Collective’s Holiday Spectacular at City National Plaza.[Music/Installation]
Please see additional details, including ticketing and reservation links for free events, on the VisionLA ’15 festival schedule athttp://visionlafest.org/calendar.
VisionLA ’15 Climate Action Arts Festival –
VisionLA ’15, the first festival of its kind in the Los Angeles area, is co-executive produced by Cheryl Slean and Guy Zimmerman in association with SoCal 350 Climate Action, the Los Angeles branch of environmentalist Bill McKibben’s 350.org climate activist organization, and Arts Earth Partnership.
The VisionLA Fest aims to engage the Los Angeles creative community in the international cultural dialogue on climate change, as the LA-based sister event to ArtCOP21. Based at “ground zero” of the automobile-centered way of life, LA’s arts community has a unique and creative role to play in transitioning to a just, sustainable society. The Festival invites artists to engage with climate and sustainability themes by presenting shows, performances, and events during the Paris time frame. VisionLA is functioning as curator, marketing umbrella, and aggregator, collecting citywide events in performing, visual, literary, dance, media, music, street, and public arts, as well as related cultural events, into a branded website with schedule, map, and information. Many events will also feature a climate action/education component appropriate to the venue. VisionLA ’15 is sponsored by SoCal 350 Climate Action and Arts Earth Partnership.
The Festival and key partner, SoCal 350 Climate Action, will prepare educational and outreach materials to be presented at participating events to grow public awareness and enthusiasm for a strong and timely response to global warming.
“It’s time to actively put the genie of climate change back into the bottle,” says VisionLA Co-Executive Producer Guy Zimmerman. “By harnessing transformational magic of all kinds, including the power of art, together we can make the most of our moment in time.”
Links –
• VisionLA – http://visionlafest.org
• VisionLA Schedule – http://visionlafest.org/calendar
• VisionLA on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/VisionLAFest
• Vision LA on Twitter – https://twitter.com/VisionLAFest
• VisionLA on Instagram – https://instagram.com/visionlafest
• SoCal 350 Climate Action – https://www.facebook.com/SoCal350
• COP21 – http://www.cop21.gouv.fr/en
• ArtCOP21 – http://www.artcop21.com
# # #
For more information, photos, to schedule an interview, or request press passes, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201,lynn@greengalactic.com.
# # #
~ SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION ~
Art Makes Change Group Exhibition –
VisionLA ‘15 presents Art Makes Change, a group exhibition of 60 local artists whose work strives to bring awareness to the climate crisis through various fine art mediums. The show will feature over 200 pieces of fine art, sculpture, photography, and site-specific installations that inspire, provoke, confront, and bring to light the many issues plaguing our world today. All works are for sale.
Co-curated by Dale Youngman and Lilli Muller, two long-time Downtown curators, the exhibit – split into four themes of EARTH, WATER, RECYCLE, and AWARENESS – illustrates how art can create and promote change by focusing on environmental topics including sustainability, reducing emissions, the California drought, ocean pollution, endangered species, activism, etc., while also reminding us of the beauty of the planet that we need to protect. The Art Makes Change exhibit – free and open to the public – will be open daily December 1st through December 10th from 11:00am to 6:00pm, with a gala opening on Nov. 30th from 6:00pm to 10:00pm at the VisionLA Home Gallery in Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station (in the former Santa Monica Museum of Art space at 2525 Michigan Avenue, Building G1, Santa Monica, CA 90404).
Art Makes Change Participating Artists –
Participating artists in the Art Makes Change group exhibit include:
Jacki Apple, Clara Berta, Om Bleicher, Qathryn Brehm, Bill Brewer, Gary Brewer, Wini Brewer, Wanda Boudreaux, Mark Brosmer, Nathan Cartwright, Michael Carrier, Morgan Chavoshi, Steven David, Ben Dewell, Karen Fiorito, Nicole Fournier, Barbara Fritsche, Anyes Galliani, Tom Garner, Brian Goodman, Patrick Haemmerlein, Michael Hayden, Erin Hansen, Sean Sobczak, William Hogan, Dave Knudsen, Jonna Lee, Aline Mare, Rick Mendoza, Colette Miller, Lilli Muller,Billy Pacek, Monica Mader, Rebecca Molayem, Michael M. Mollett, Jen Moore, Pamela Mower-Conner, Julie Orr, Miguel Osuna, Vinnie Picardi, Naomi Pitcairn, Jena Priebe, Catherine Ruane, Robert Rosenblum, Osceola Refetoff, Louise Russell, Elizabeth Saveri, Gwen Samuels, Winston Secrest, Moses Seenarine, Karen Sikie, Anna Stump, Jill Sykes, Rachel Van Der Pol, Andrea Villefane, Geoffry D. White, Rush White, Tami Wood, and Alexandra Underhill.
Participating Venues –
Festival hubs are the Armory Center for the Arts (Pasadena), the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles (Koreatown), the Helms Design Center (Culver City), and the VisionLA’s Home Gallery (Bergamot Station/Santa Monica). Additional venues include the Amity Foundation(South Park), Avenue 50 Studio (Highland Park), Beyond Baroque (Venice), California African American Museum (Exposition Park), California Institute of Technology (Pasadena), City National Plaza (DTLA), Erin Hanson Gallery (Elysian Valley), Griffith Park (Los Feliz), Hammer Museum (Westwood), La Plaza de Cultura y Artes (DTLA), Laemmle NoHo 7 (North Hollywood), Malibu Lagoon State Beach, Malibu Library, MorYork Gallery (Highland Park), NextSpace Los Angeles (Culver City), Pershing Square (DTLA), Pomona College (Claremont), Richard Lillard Outdoor Classroom (Studio City), Santa Monica Playhouse, Skylight Theatre (Los Feliz), Spring Arts Collective (DTLA), Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre, The Crest Theatre (Westwood), The MET Theatre (Hollywood), Tod Lychkoff Art Gallery (DTLA), TreePeople Campus (Beverly Hills/Coldwater Canyon), Union Theater (Pico-Union), Vista Hermosa Natural Park (DTLA), and many others.
Organizational Partners –
Organizational partners and sponsors include the Amity Foundation, Arts Earth Partnership, Climate Change Theatre Action, Citizens Climate Lobby, Climate Resolve, COlabs, Conscientious Projector, Downtown LA Artwalk, InsightLA, LADADSpace, Open Fist Theatre Company,Otis School of Art and Design, Pachamama Alliance, Padua Playwrights, Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples, SoCal 350 Climate Action, and Watts Labor Community Action Committee.
Cheryl Slean, VisionLA Fest Co-Executive Producer –
Cheryl Slean is a writer, filmmaker and educator exploring the intersection of the arts, sustainability, and contemplative practice. Her theatre history in Los Angeles goes back 25 years and includes dozens of award winning shows as writer, director, producer, and actor. Her films have been programmed at over 50 international film festivals and received worldwide distribution. Recent theatre work includes two commissions from Seattle University and site-specific performance events in Koreatown and at the LA River.
Guy Zimmerman, VisionLA Fest Co-Executive Producer –
An award-winning writer, director, and producer, Zimmerman has served as artistic director of Padua Playwrights since 2001, where he has produced over forty productions of new work. He is currently completing a doctoral degree in Theatre and Dramatic Arts in the joint UC Irvine/UC San Diego PhD program and he has also received a graduate certificate in Urban Sustainability at Antioch University.
COP21 –
COP21 is the 21st Conference of Parties on Climate Change organized by the United Nations to establish cuts in carbon emissions across the globe. This year’s make-or-break international meeting will be held in Paris from Monday, November 30 through Friday, December 11, 2015.COP21 will be a crucial conference, aiming to make a strong statement about the need to limit global temperature rise to 2°C by 2100.
ArtCOP21 –
ArtCOP21 will connect hundreds of thousands of people to the climate challenge through an extensive global program of over 290 major public art installations, exhibitions, concerts, performances, talks, conferences, workshops, family events, and film screenings, taking place across Paris and around the world – with major events in 34 countries and counting. All of these events will highlight the need for governments meeting in Paris to support strong climate action and signal the end of the fossil fuel era.
SoCal 350 Climate Action –
SoCal 350 Climate Action is a coalition of individuals and groups from the Southern California area working together to fight climate change. Through collaboration, the organization aims to mobilize, support, and strengthen the efforts of different organizations and community members who are working toward solutions to dirty fuel dependence and who are battling the effects of global warming-caused climate disruption.VisionLA ’15 is sponsored by SoCal 350 Climate Action and Arts Earth Partnership.
Arts Earth Partnership –
Arts Earth Partnership (AEP) is a 501c3 non-profit whose mission is to harness the transformative power of the arts to help create sustainable cities. AEP is the first sustainable business certification program specifically for the arts and cultural sector in the world. The organization currently administers the green business certification programs for the arts and cultural sectors of Los Angeles and Santa Monica.
Los Angeles as the Festival Site –
As ground zero of the automotive economy, Los Angeles has a unique contribution to make in devising better ways to live. VisionLA ‘15 has invited the local arts and sustainability community to get involved in this vitally important project. By engaging the international dialogue on climate change, imagining creative responses, and building momentum for change, artists and storytellers and their audiences have a crucial role to play. The creative sector is key to raising awareness, engaging broad communities and imaginatively exploring how to actualize a sustainable, just, zero-carbon future. Together we can transform the slow-motion crisis of climate change into an inspiring call to action and a remarkable opportunity for positive change.
Get Involved –
Get involved at http://visionlafest.org/#get-involved.
“I feel that each of us needs to come to the challenging work of climate action through the communities and activities we love the most, and for me, that’s the Los Angeles arts scene,” says VisionLA Founder Cheryl Slean. “The Festival invites all Angelenos, art-makers, and art-lovers alike, to step out of the stasis of helplessness and engage in the climate issue through the joyful, inclusive, open door of art. Around the world, projects like VisionLA ‘15 and ArtCOP21 in Paris are creating the cultural narratives that will inspire us toward a thriving future for all.”
# # #
~ CALENDAR LISTING ~
VisionLA ’15 Climate Action Arts Festival
Mon. November 30 to Fri. December 11, 2015
In Multiple Venues
Throughout the Greater Los Angeles Area
VisionLA ’15 is a citywide, climate-focused arts festival
celebrating the power of art to make change.
Festival Site: http://visionlafest.org
• Master Schedule of Events: http://visionlafest.org/calendar
• Opening Night: http://visionlafest.org/event/visionla-fest-gala-opening
• Closing Night: http://visionlafest.org/event/arts-earth-partnership-presents-envision-closing-celebration-of-visionla15-fest
• Visual Art Events: http://visionlafest.org/calendar/category/visual-art
• Film Events: http://visionlafest.org/calendar/category/film
• Music Events: http://visionlafest.org/calendar/category/music
• Performance Events: http://visionlafest.org/calendar/category/performance
• Literary Events: http://visionlafest.org/calendar/category/literary
• Workshops: http://visionlafest.org/calendar/category/workshop
• Family Friendly Events: http://visionlafest.org/calendar/category/family
• Climate Action Events: http://visionlafest.org/calendar/category/climate-action
# # #
PHOTO CREDIT FOR IMAGE GRID ABOVE:
Imagery from VisionLA ’15 Climate Action Arts Festival participants:
• Row 1: Ben Dewell, Gary Brewer, Liquid Times by Brenda Varda
• Row 2: DREMPELS by Evelyn Rudie, Lauren Bon’s 100 Mules Walking the Los Angeles Aqueduct,
Jill Sykes [top white flower on green], Wini Brewer [middle: bees], Gwen Samuels [bottom: green pattern], Ron Zeno
• Row 3: Roberto Delgado, Aline Mare, Chalkupy, Union Theatre/The Velaslavasay Panorama
• Row 4: Osceola Refetoff, Jonna Lee, Brian Goodman
[request a hi-res version of collage via lynn@greengalactic.com]
Filed under: literary arts