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Recovery Fund Offers Lifeline to Nonprofit Marin Arts Groups Impacted by Pandemic

Arts & Entertainment

Oct 30, 2020

Recovery Fund Offers Lifeline to Nonprofit Marin Arts Groups Impacted by Pandemic

As the North Bay heads into the holiday season, Marin County recently graduated from “red” to “orange” status in regards to Covid-19 risk, allowing some businesses to reopen for the first time, while others can expand their operating capacity.

Still, the pandemic’s impact on Marin County’s economy, and especially the impact on nonprofit organizations and arts organizations, has been severe. According to a statewide Covid-19 Arts & Culture Sector Impact Survey, California’s creative sector has suffered the highest job losses of any industry due to the widespread cancellation of performances, events and other educational offerings, as well as venue closures. In addition, a majority of creative workers do not qualify for safety-net protections such as paid family leave, disability insurance, paid sick leave or worker’s compensation.

Even with the reduced risk status, many Marin County arts and music venues are still closed or only open at limited capacity or by appointment only, meaning it could be a blue Christmas financially for Marin creatives and nonprofits.

To help offset the pandemic’s economic downturn facing Marin creatives, the Marin Cultural Association (MCA) has launched an Arts & Culture Recovery Fund that will provide Marin County nonprofit arts organizations a way to stay afloat. The recovery fund gathers together a variety of grants and a broad array of funders, and nonprofit organizations can apply online for a grant until November 11. Grant awards will be announced December 18 following review by a community grants panel.

“Our local artists and arts organizations are struggling to survive the cancellation of programs and services,” said Gabriella Calicchio, Director of Cultural Services and Executive Director of MCA, in a statement. “We are incredibly thankful for the initial funding from the CARES Act, the California Arts Council, and the Marin Community Foundation, which allows us to support those organizations left most vulnerable by the pandemic.”

Recovery fund grants will be designed to further one or more of the goals of the Marin Arts & Culture Plan, which was adopted by the Marin County Board of Supervisors in May 2019. Those goals include advancing and enriching Marin’s arts organizations for sustainable and accessible cultural offerings.

In particular, the recovery fund’s first set of grants will be focused on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) organizations and those supporting BIPOC communities throughout Marin. All applications go through a diverse panel of Marin artists and arts leaders, who will evaluate each nonprofit’s severity of need and cultural benefit to the community.

Formed in 2015, Marin Cultural Association–a nonprofit under the umbrella of the county’s department of cultural services–is leading the development of a comprehensive arts and culture master plan for Marin that was born out of data that showed diminishing performance and exhibit opportunities in the county, especially for low-income and minority communities. Before the pandemic, MCA annually presented over a dozen art exhibits by local creatives as well as performing showcases. Now, with the recovery fund, MCA hopes to keep the arts culture alive in Marin County until Covid-19 is eradicated.

Get more info on the Arts & Culture Recovery Fund and apply online at Marincultural.org.

Local Bands Dress Up for Virtual Halloween Concert

Charlie Swanson

Oct 28, 2020

Local Bands Dress Up for Virtual Halloween Concert

Petaluma’s historic Phoenix Theater looks stunning right now, thanks to a new paint job. The roof is also in fine form after being replaced earlier this year, and the sprinkler system is almost installed and up to the city’s codes.

Unfortunately, the inside of the Phoenix Theater is effectively closed to the public due to Covid, and the popular concert venue and teenage hangout has been unable to host events since March.

Nonetheless, in keeping with tradition, the venue will present its annual Halloween Covers Show this Saturday, Oct. 31. The only difference is that this year’s concert will be virtual, with several local bands and artists dressing up as classic rock groups and performing their songs for the camera instead of a live audience. The concert will be available to view on YouTube at 8pm on Oct. 31.

“The show is very cool, and it existed long before we hosted it,” says Jim Agius, talent buyer for the Phoenix Theater and co-host of the venue-based podcast Onstage with Jim & Tom. “It was a fixture at one of the punk houses in Santa Rosa. In 2016, we offered to take it and we hosted it, and from there we put our own spin on it.”

The annual Halloween Covers Show is one of the North Bay’s biggest yearly parties, and the participating bands and artists go above and beyond to embody the classic bands they are covering; perfecting the clothes, the between-song banter and more.

“All of the things I love about Halloween are represented in this show,” Agius says. “It gets a great variety of people from all sorts of different musical corners.”

In past years, local bands have performed as everything from AC/DC to the Spice Girls, and this year’s virtual lineup is another varied assembly of musical genres and artists.

Seven bands appear at this year’s online concert. Marin County’s young rock star Matt Jaffe—with bleached blonde hair—embodies Lou Reed and leads a Velvet Underground set. Marin natives The Happys don socks (and nothing else) to perform as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Young Sonoma County punks Kurupi take on Rage Against the Machine, and local performer Kara Ferro sings as Loretta Lynn with a full backing country band. Other sets include Moon Sick performing as Toadies, Dry Ice Queen performing as No Doubt and several young rockers from various local bands performing as The Strokes.

Also in keeping with tradition, this year’s Halloween Covers Show ends with a massive balloon drop.

“It’s a wonderful dot on the exclamation point to end the show,” Agius says. “This year, of course, there’s no audience. It’s very surreal actually to see 800 balloons sitting where the audience would have been.”

Despite its current inability to host live shows, the Phoenix Theater’s nonprofit foundation is staying afloat through the pandemic thanks to private donors and the Paycheck Protection Program.

“It looks like the Phoenix is going to be OK,” Agius says. “Obviously, things can change and who knows how long this is going to go on for, but we’re feeling positive about coming out the other end of it.”

The Phoenix Theater’s Halloween Covers Show debuts on the “Onstage with Jim & Tom” Youtube channel on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 8pm. Find more details at Facebook.com/thephoenixtheater.

Latino Photography Project Presents Inspiring Exhibit in Point Reyes

Arts & Entertainment

Charlie Swanson

Oct 27, 2020

Latino Photography Project Presents Inspiring Exhibit in Point Reyes

A regional arts landmark since 1983, Gallery Route One hosts artistic exhibits by member artists as well as exhibitions by guest artists that often address environmental and social issues such as climate change and immigration.

GRO also maintains several arts outreach programs like the Latino Photography Project, which was formed seventeen years ago with the support of the West Marin Literacy Services.

Over the years, the students who participate in the Latino Photography Project have become documentarians for the Latino community of West Marin, and the project often features Latino-Anglo collaboration and cross-cultural learning. The project also regularly exhibits at GRO, and the images on display often tell stories that help bridge the Latino and Anglo cultures in the North Bay.

This weekend, the Latino Photography Project returns to GRO for a new exhibit, “She Inspires Me: Nine Latina Photographers & the Women Who Inspire Them.” The show features portraits of Bay Area women who are in positions of leadership, and the images were taken over the last two years in a documentary-style project produced with the support of the West Marin Fund.

“She Inspires Me” explores the nature of women’s leadership as experienced not only by each photographer, but by the women who inspire them as well.

The images of leading community women include a portrait of Esther Vidrio Tejeda, taken by Ana Maria Ramirez. Esther is a leader and a godmother to many locals from her hometown of Atemajac Mexico, and the photograph captures Esther holding her wedding portrait.

Other contributions to the exhibit include Jessica Oliva’s striking image of Madeline Hope, a West Marin artist and community leader, and Isela Orozco’s portrait of her personal inspiration, Carmen Orozco (pictured).

The photos tell the common story of the external and internal obstacles women continue to face on their paths to empowerment, and how they overcome those challenges to achieve their individual goals.

Essays by the photographers about each of their subjects accompany the black-and-white images, and the text is presented in both Spanish and English. In addition, copies of a commemorative bilingual book containing all of the portraits and their related essays will be available at the gallery. Sales from the book will benefit the project.

“She Inspires Me” opens online and for in-person viewing by appointment on Saturday, Oct. 31. A virtual artist reception and art talk takes place on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 3pm. The show will remain open and online through Sunday, Dec 6.

Two other solo exhibits will also open at GRO for viewing online and in-person on Saturday; as Marie-Luise Klotz presents “Connected Earth” in the center gallery and Jenny-Lynn Hall presents “Diary” in the annex.

Klotz is a photographer and visual artist who specializes in combining environmental photography with fine art, and her work is rooted in the natural world. “Connected Earth” is described as, “An exhibition of photographs which consider the extent to which our planet is deeply connected as a single organism that is whole, but which is frequently perceived by humankind as a collection of separate entities.”

Hall’s abstract paintings are inspired by her daily trips to the ocean and her work often reflects the natural world as well as the nature of time. “Diary” is a new collection of paintings completed during Covid-19’s shelter-in-place ordeal, and Hall’s art documents her recent perception that days seems to blend into each other while irrevocable sociopolitical changes upend our world.

“When looking at one of my pieces, whether monumental or modest in scale, I want you to sense that the particular and universal are accessible to you, and present in every living thing, every person that you see,” Hall writes in her artist statement. “To recognize unfathomable uniqueness while understanding our interconnectedness is an underlying theme in my work, which uses light, texture and dimension to create experience.”

For more information, visit GalleryRouteOne.org.

San Rafael’s Day of the Dead Celebrations Go Online

Arts & Entertainment

Charlie Swanson

Oct 20, 2020

San Rafael’s Day of the Dead Celebrations Go Online

For more than three decades, San Rafael has marked the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with colorful cultural events that bring out the entire community.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, San Rafael’s 32nd annual Dia de los Muertos will be held online and on social media sites like YouTube and Facebook throughout the entire month of October, culminating in a car procession through San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood on November 1.

“Our annual event is such a wonderful coming together of the many diverse members of our community. We didn’t want to lose that during this year that we can’t gather in person,” Catherine John, Chair of the 2020 organizing committee, says in a statement. “Our event’s presence on the web, social media, and live streaming video aims to connect community members in an uplifting and humanizing way. These values are intrinsic to any Day of the Dead celebration.”

San Rafael’s Dia de los Muertos celebration is working together with partners such as the City of San Rafael and the Albert J. Boro Community Center, and the organizing committee is made up of a wide swath of artists, business owners and community members such as Douglas Mundo, Executive Director of the Multicultural Center of Marin.

“This year, we are pleased to welcome our new partners: San Rafael Downtown Business Improvement District, Downtown San Rafael Arts District and Art Works Downtown, among others,” Mundo says in a statement. “Together, we have organized for the entire month of October a series of art workshops, face painting tutorials, and altar displays in local businesses in Downtown San Rafael and the Canal. We will also have cultural presentations, live music and for the first time ever a talent show for local youth.”

Upcoming online highlights of the Day of the Dead celebrations include art workshops, cooking demonstrations, talks and other ceremonies happening every day through October.

On Thursday, Oct. 22, participants will learn how to make ‘Pan de Muerto’ with Mexican-based Chef Ana Garcia of La Villa Bonita Culinary Vacation retreat. On Saturday, Oct. 24, Bay Area-based Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Carlos Moreno presents a virtual Dia de los Muertos musical performance.

Following that, on Sunday, Oct. 25, traditionally dressed Catrinas (the skeleton figures that symbolizes the Day of The Dead) lead a virtual tour of downtown San Rafael, where local artists are displaying their Day of the Dead altars in storefronts and businesses this month. The next day, Monday, Oct. 26, Ernesto Hernandez Olmos (pictured), a Marin-based artist originally from Oaxaca, leads a workshop on the significance of Day of the Dead altars.

Other virtual highlights of San Rafael’s Dia de los Muertos includes The Center for Domestic Peace in San Rafael hosting a solemn but uplifting ceremony on Oct. 30 to remember the lives lost to domestic violence in the Bay Area this past year. The next day, Oct. 31, Mill Valley’s O’Hanlon Center for the Arts virtually hosts local artist Zoe Harris in a talk about art related to the Day of the Dead.

San Rafael’s Dia de los Muertos concludes on Sunday, November 1 with the festive car procession through the Canal community. The traditionally decorated cars will meet at the Marin County Health & Wellness Center and the car procession will begin at 6:00 pm and will be broadcast live on social media.

Find the San Rafael Dia de los Muertos full schedule of events at dayofthedeadsr.org.

Art of Bolinas: West Marin Museum Goes Online

Uncategorized

Charlie Swanson

Sep 3, 2020

Art of Bolinas: West Marin Museum Goes Online

Founded in 1983, the Bolinas Museum hosts Marin County’s premier collection of the art and history of coastal Marin, presenting exhibits and hosting events that express the rich, diverse array of local artists and crafters.

Free to the visitors who come from near and far to enjoy the small West Marin charm of Bolinas, the museum features five galleries and a courtyard that display both classic and contemporary works of fine art, photography, sculpture and more. To provide this free experience, the museum hosts special fundraising events throughout the year, most notably the annual Benefit Art Auction and Party each September, which provides nearly half of the museum’s annual operating costs.

This year, like everything else in Marin, the Bolinas Museum’s party plans were canceled in the wake of Covid-19. Instead, the museum’s 28th annual auction and party are moving online for a virtual fundraiser that includes online bidding as well as several other offerings that culminate in a virtual live auction on Saturday, Sept. 12.

The benefit auction is currently online, and visitors to the Bolinas Museum’s website can register to bid now as part of that auction and purchase virtual tickets to the upcoming live-auction night. Registration also enters visitors into the museum’s first-ever “Week of Giving,” featuring daily prize drawings taking place Sept. 6–12.

The “Week of Giving” is the museum’s way of thanking the public for their continued support, and daily prize giveaways will include a limited-edition framed print of Gertrude Southworth’s 1901 Bolinas Beach photograph (pictured), a handmade sail bag from local designer Susan Hoff, organic products from Bolinas’ own Amanda Ross Skin Care, a $250 gift certificate to Bolinas Hardware and more. Everyone who registers to bid, purchases a ticket to the virtual live auction or donates to the online auction is entered into the drawings.

The Bolinas Museum is also raising funds to secure a rare and extraordinary photograph, “Earthrise Seen for the First Time By Human Eyes,” photographed by astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission on Dec. 24, 1968. Renowned photographer and Bolinas resident Michael Light worked with NASA archives to create the large, dramatic black-and-white image of the Earth rising over the Moon as part of his first book and exhibition project, “Full Moon,” in 1999. This photograph was one of many recently featured in the Bolinas Museum’s 2018 exhibition “Cosmic Wonders,” and Light has offered to donate the historic photograph to the museum’s collection if the museum can raise at least $10,000 before Sept. 15.

Every dollar counts, and the museum is asking generous patrons to digitally raise those virtual auction paddles as part of the online fundraising efforts that will allow the museum to continue presenting cultural events and exhibits, as well as maintain its collection of over 3,000 historical photographs, archival materials and items of historical significance from the times of the coast Miwok to present day, and over 250 artworks by coastal Marin artists from the late 1800s onward.

Bolinas Museum’s Benefit Art Auction runs now through Sept. 15, with a virtual live auction on Sept. 12 at 6:30pm. Register and bid online now at Bolinasmuseum.org.

Marin Sanctuary Marks 75 Years of Arts and Gardens

Features

Charlie Swanson

Aug 10, 2020

Marin Sanctuary Marks 75 Years of Arts and Gardens

Even in picturesque Marin County, the Marin Art & Garden Center stands out. The 11-acre property in the town of Ross is an oasis of floral beauty and historic buildings, and the nonprofit organization that owns and operates the center hosts year-round events and programs on the grounds, including performances from resident theater company the Ross Valley Players.

This summer, as the country stays shut down due to Covid-19, the Marin Art & Garden Center remains open to visitors on foot or on bicycle who are welcomed to safely enjoy the spacious gardens for some much-needed respite. This month, the center celebrates its 75th anniversary, and Marin Art & Garden Center Executive Director Antonia Adezio hopes the grounds remain a fixture of Marin for many years to come.

“We’ve been here for 75 years and the world is a very different place, of course,” Adezio says.

The gardens were originally formed at the end of World War II by the women members of the Marin Conservation League, who also helped save Angel Island and Tomales Bay, among other Marin locales.

“(The Marin Conservation League) were very committed to the natural environment and the environment for people in the North Bay,” Adezio says. “We have that legacy, and there’s also the legacy of the groups that have come together to present programming and arts at the center, and that tradition is alive and well today.”

Working with the center for five years, Adezio is the nonprofit’s first professional executive director for many years, and she is helping raise the center’s profile along with expert horticulturist and garden manager Steven Schwager.

“He’s really taken hold of the gardens,” Adezio says. “People who come and see it now say, ‘I’ve been visiting here for 30 years and it’s never looked like this.’ And they’re right.”

Still, the massive property runs on a tight budget, and Adezio describes the nonprofit running the grounds as a small organization that does a lot with a little.

“We’re working to build our team and keep developing the garden for people to come and enjoy it but also to learn from it,” she says.

In light of the 75-year anniversary, Adezio invites Marin residents to look at the Marin Art & Garden Center with new eyes and to revisit the distinctive and charming gardens and buildings that were designed by mid-century master architects such as Thomas Church.

As the gardens remain open for foot traffic, the organization is also bolstering its presence online with its virtual art exhibition, “Rooted in Wonder,” featuring a video tour of works by painter Frances McCormack and interdisciplinary artist Miya Hannan.

“We have seen that during the pandemic it’s become more important to have a place like the gardens, and people are appreciating that they’ve been able to stay open and let people spend some time in nature,” Adezio says. “We want people to know that we are still here for them, they can visit and we hope to be able to gather again before long.”

Marin Art & Garden Center is located at 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross. Open daily, foot traffic allowed sunrise to sunset, parking lot is available 10am to 4pm. Free admission and parking. maringarden.org.

Guide Dogs for the Blind Has the Good News You Need

Charlie Swanson

Apr 2, 2020

Guide Dogs for the Blind Has the Good News You Need

It seems difficult to find any uplifting headlines in the news these days, and the coronavirus pandemic is not making things any easier for many who have already faced down fires, floods and other woes in the North Bay recently.

Fortunately, there is still good in this world. Case in point: Dogs exist.

No one knows the positive power of puppies better than the folks at San Rafael’s Guide Dogs for the Blind, and the organization aims to spread that positivity with a new Puparazzi Photo Contest.

The online contest is an interactive fundraiser, letting users submit their favorite photos of their guide dogs from GDB or just their favorite pooch. Users then vote for their favorite photos with a small donation that benefits GDB, and winners can earn a spot in GDB’s 2020-2021 calendar.

Head over to the contest’s website, and check out the complete rules and regulations. The contest runs from April 2 to 16. Vote now and vote often to support Guide Dogs for the Blind and those they serve.