The Palo Alto Art Center & Djerassi Resident Artists Program Present..."Where Art Originates: Artists & The Creative Process"
Lecture Series to Feature Artist Performances and Insights to Their Work At the Palo Alto Art Center Auditorium; Series runs April 3 to October 30, 2008
The public is invited to explore the creative process and personal approach to artistic growth in a series of five evening lectures featuring nine 2008 Djerassi Program resident artists. Held at the Palo Alto Art Center Auditorium, the "Where Art Originates: Artists & the Creative Process" lecture series starts on Thursday, April 3, 2008 and will conclude on Thursday, October 30, 2008.
Participating artists represent a wide range of artistic expression and will perform and speak about their work. Each program will conclude with a Question and Answer session with the featured artist(s). Admission is free; reservations are required. Please call 650-329-2366 for more information.
The series kicks-off on Thursday, April 3, 2008, 7:00 p.m. with Djerassi Program Founder, playwright and Stanford Professor Emeritus Dr. Carl Djerassi (San Francisco/London), in a multimedia presentation with three internationally recognized artists who are collaborating with him on a new opera based on his play "OXYGEN," co-authored with Dr. Roald Hoffman (Cornell University, NY), a poet and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. Composer Dr. Wolfgang Mastnak, Chair at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Münich, and writer/director Isabella Gregor (Münich), who trained as a director at the Opera House in Zurich, Switzerland, will join them on the program, which will include live music and video.
FOUR ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS
- Literary Reading & Film
Thursday, May 1, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Viet Nguyen (Los Angeles) is Associate Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. Nguyen's work was included in Best New American Voices 2007 (Harcourt Brace, NY) and he is the author of "Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America" (2002; Oxford Univ. Press).
Filmmaker Vanessa Woods (San Francisco), a recipient of an MFA Film Fellowship from the San Francisco Art Institute, will show clips from various works, including "Memory Box, Tomako's Letter."
- Live Jazz!
Thursday, July 10, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Drawing from his study of African, Japanese, Indonesian, European and American music cultures, trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith (Los Angeles) has developed a world music and jazz theory that he calls "Ankhrasmation." At Djerassi, he will work on new compositions that draw their inspiration from "the issues of borders and the growing reality of refugees and immigration in the world." Smith is an instructor and coordinator, African-American Improvisational Music, at the California Institute of the Arts.
- Contemporary Miniature Painting
Thursday, September 4, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Sabeen Raja (Lahore, Pakistan) will show slides of her miniature paintings and discuss her work. Raja received her BFA from the National College of Arts in Pakistan and her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She says of her work's sensual imagery and contemporary themes that she "makes demons of our own personalities who blind us to the possibilities of change…miniature painting is a parallel or analogy to the perceived non-freedom of woman in Pakistani society."
NOTE: Adult subject matter will be presented.
- Literary Reading
Thursday, October 30, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Afro-Guyanese writer Karen-King Aribisala (Lagos, Nigeria) received her PhD in African and West Indian Literature from the University of Sussex in England. Currently a Professor of English at the University of Lagos in Nigeria, her work has been widely published in Africa, Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia. While at Djerassi, she plans to work on "Shakespeared Black," which "reacts to the history of colonization and the insidious use of education of the colonized…"
Please note that programs are subject to change.
ABOUT THE DJERASSI RESIDENT ARTISTS PROGRAM
Now in its 29th year, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program is regarded as one of the eminent artist residency communities in the United States. The Program's mission is to support and enhance the creativity of artists by providing uninterrupted time for work, reflection, and collegial interaction in a setting of great natural beauty, and to preserve the land on which the Program is situated. The Djerassi Resident Artists Program is a nonprofit organization that receives support from the James Irvine Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Alliance of Artist Communities, and numerous other private foundations and individual donors. The Djerassi Resident Artists Program is located at 2325 Bear Gulch Road, Woodside, CA 94062. Phone: 650-747-1250 / Fax: 650-747-0105 / Email: drap@djerassi.org / Website: www.djerassi.org
ABOUT THE PALO ALTO ART CENTER
The Palo Alto Art Center (founded 1971) is a nationally acclaimed, regional visual art center whose exhibition program focuses on documenting - and celebrating - the art and artists of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Center's mission is to foster creative process and thought by forging a greater appreciation and understanding of the visual arts through exhibitions, studio experiences, and related educational programs. The Palo Alto Art Center, Division of Arts and Culture, City of Palo Alto, is funded in part by support from the Palo Alto Art Center Foundation and the Arts Council Silicon Valley, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara and the California Arts Council. The Center is open to the public without charge from 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 1:00-5:00 p.m. Sunday; and 7:00-10:00 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday. The Center is located at 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303. For further information: Phone: 650-329-2366 / Email: artcenter@cityofpaloalto.org / Website(s): www.cityofpaloalto.org/artcenter and www.paacf.org
Contact:
Anna Weldon, Publicist
Phone: 650-329-2605
Email: anna.weldon@cityofpaloalto.org
