00:01:12.630 - 00:01:33.060

Sonoma County, a dynamic county combining agriculture and industry, city and country, creating unique and varied challenges for its citizens join us as we present some of the information and services provided by the county of Sonoma to help us as we move into the 21st century. Welcome

00:01:33.070 - 00:01:49.910

to Sonoma County in the 90s with your host, Dana Jericho and Dina Lash. Welcome to Sonoma County in the 90s. I'm Gina Lash. And on this edition we're going to be talking about the Cultural Arts Council of Sonoma County. And with us we have Barbara Leone

00:01:50.230 - 00:02:05.330

who's a program coordinator, and Corinne Anderson, who is also a coordinated with the Sonoma County Cultural Arts Council. Welcome to both of you and Barbara. Did I pronounce your name? Right. Yes, Good. It's a beautiful name, Karine. How did you become a program coordinator at the

00:02:05.330 - 00:02:17.490

Arts Council on the Arts Council? Well, I started out my history and the arts as an artist. I was a professional weaver. I did craft fairs and I went to volunteer at a major festival up in Seattle and they asked me to be the coordinator of

00:02:17.490 - 00:02:30.470

the Craft fair and I discovered a love for producing the event rather than participating in it. So that's where I started. How long have you been with the Arts Council in Sonoma County? I've been with the Arts Council. Just about a year and a half. I

00:02:30.470 - 00:02:47.570

moved back here to Sonoma County from Seattle two years ago. It's great to have so many artists living under the roofs of Sonoma County. This is a rich county for artists and you're going to share with us who's here, Barbara, How did you come about being

00:02:47.580 - 00:03:05.200

a program coordinator at the Arts council? Well, I've been a volunteer in the arts community and worked a lot in the S. R. J. C. Art department and doing projects with them and their museum over there. And then I was an intern at the California Museum

00:03:05.200 - 00:03:20.260

of Art and heard about the opportunity at the Cultural Arts Council to be a program coordinator and curate shows. And that was pretty exciting for me. And and I began that about a year ago. Are you also an artist? Yes, I am. And what do you

00:03:20.260 - 00:03:41.830

do? I do, sculpture and collage assemblage. The Arts council has been in Sonoma County for some time. Barbara. How long has it been here? And basically who makes up the council? Uh it began in 1978. And uh we have a staff of five people and then

00:03:41.830 - 00:04:02.820

we have a huge staff of volunteers that work on various projects like first night and, and art trails, open studio tours and we have people that come in and work on the slide registry and there's many different ways to get involved and we welcome volunteers. Do

00:04:02.820 - 00:04:21.660

you actually have a council of people that volunteer? We have a volunteer coordinator who comes from the volunteer center comes over to cultural arts and interviews people that to make a good fit for the different projects that we have. It's everything from office support to curating

00:04:21.660 - 00:04:39.510

skills to um you know, a lot of computer skills or necessary graphic skills. You know, there's many different ways we also have right now. Two interns, one from the J. C. And one from Sonoma State, which is a good opportunity for students who want to pursue

00:04:39.770 - 00:04:55.500

the arts or non profits to come and get involved with us. I know that you put out or your agency puts out a calendar of events. Could you talk about the events throughout the year that you put on and how people can learn about finding out

00:04:55.510 - 00:05:09.990

about these events in the calendar? Well, first of all, the calendar is a bi monthly publication that we put out that covers the whole county, all dance, theater, music, art exhibits and all that kind of thing. So on a regular basis, almost everything that's going on

00:05:09.990 - 00:05:25.230

can be available to people. We have that calendar out in bookstores and coffee shops and we mail it to all our members and it's just libraries, that kind of thing. So it's available all over the county. We ourselves have a whole lot of different programs, all

00:05:25.230 - 00:05:42.980

of which are of course listed in that calendar. Um, my particular program is called Arts and Action. I work for the Cultural Arts Council to produce a program at santa rosa Plaza where I bring art to the public, basically various kinds of things happening there. Could

00:05:42.980 - 00:05:58.180

you talk a little bit about the art of the plaza? What types of exhibits you've had and where these people come from and basically how we can learn more about the artists. Okay. What we try to do is every week or every other week have an

00:05:58.180 - 00:06:14.280

activity either on saturday or sunday at the plaza and there's usually music. We've had harpists, we've had guitarists, we've had these clowns and jugglers. Um I often have artists there at the mall painting or doing whatever they do. We had a candle maker a couple of

00:06:14.280 - 00:06:28.140

weeks ago and I try almost every time to have some kind of project for Children where they can sit down and make something at the mall and we've had a lot of fun with that. This is one of our recent projects that was a, a um

00:06:29.740 - 00:06:43.810

recycled art project. It's, it's just a piece of plywood with a whole bunch of little electrical components stuck on it and then painted with, with an acrylic paint and it's really charming little mirror and the Children just loved it. So did the Children, the Children get

00:06:43.810 - 00:06:58.370

to take these home and it's totally free. And one of the fun things that I like about it is because Children are there with their families, that whole families will sit down and make things together and that's been a surprise part of the job for me

00:06:58.370 - 00:07:11.640

is working with the public and seeing whole families have an art experience together. It's been really nice. Where do you do this at the mall? It's in center Court, usually right in the center of the mall by the fountain. And sometimes if it's a big celebration

00:07:11.640 - 00:07:24.290

that spreads out all over the place. But but center court is usually where it happens and they publish every month, a schedule of events. So if you're in the mall you can pick up that month schedule and find out what's happening. Is this free to the

00:07:24.290 - 00:07:38.690

public? It's free to the public. That is wonderful. It is wonderful. I told a friend in san Francisco I was doing it and he said, he said that's almost subversive and I think that's true bringing art to the public in the shopping situation. It is really

00:07:38.690 - 00:07:58.100

exciting. It is exciting to me. I didn't realize when I've seen this going on that the cultural council was responsible for it. So that's really nice. Barbara what goes on at the sofa gallery. Um well we did rotating art shows sometimes every two months. Sometimes their

00:07:58.100 - 00:08:16.180

30 day shows. We just um finalized or finished up the bra show which hit a public nerve. We had this outstanding reception. We had about 400 people show up to our reception. It was pretty exciting and people came in costume and um, it was just a

00:08:16.180 - 00:08:33.490

thrill. There was a lot of laughs and it was very tongue in cheek, you know the whole thing. And and we had found out once we started to do this bro, show project. Um, another organization down in Palo Alto had just finished one and they called

00:08:33.490 - 00:08:53.520

us and they were documenting, there's and it's going to go into a book and they asked to participate in ours and and document ours as well. Normally we provide services for Sonoma County exclusively, but occasionally we'll open up one of our exhibitions to all of California

00:08:53.530 - 00:09:11.390

and so we did it for this particular project since we got this incredible response and a lot of news coverage and a lot of excitement. We sold a lot of the pieces out of the show. It was just a real successful idea. I heard wonderful things

00:09:11.390 - 00:09:27.710

about it, unfortunately was out of town and I wasn't able to attend and I know when our viewers are seeing this, the exhibit will be over. But how did that happen? How did you happen to attain this exhibit and who participated and basically what promoted such

00:09:27.710 - 00:09:49.280

a, this type of exhibit, which is so unusual. Well, um, I let it be known in the art community that I'm open to artists submitting ideas and projects, especially for our new sofa gallery, which we moved into our new location this past september and it's a

00:09:49.280 - 00:10:07.190

beautiful space. It's an incredible, wonderful old building there that was retrofitted a couple of years ago, used to be an old restaurant and it's right down there in Wilson Street in Railroad Square. And uh, So this, this beautiful space that has, I think we have 2000

00:10:07.190 - 00:10:27.750

square feet. So we have the opportunity to do these amazing uh, pieces of work, really large pieces and um, Barney Alexander approached me, she's a printmaker local here in, in Sonoma County and she put one of her old bras through her print machine and it made

00:10:27.750 - 00:10:45.930

this beautiful print. And so she got real excited and started talking to friends and decided this is where the idea for the bra show was born and we did a lot of promotion and um, we were on the radio and we were on other programs and

00:10:45.940 - 00:11:02.410

gala barren covered it twice. She covered it before the show and then after she came and visited the show and she called uh, there was a bra on the show called the Mammal Ith and it was 99 ft bra made from nylon and metal stays And

00:11:02.420 - 00:11:18.690

she called it 30 ft in the paper. So we got a big laugh out of that and we wondered what she was doing that night to get a 30-foot impression. But um, just every imaginable idea from a lot of sculpture but there were also paintings and

00:11:18.690 - 00:11:39.730

prints and photography and it was varied and mostly uh Sonoma County artist, I would say the majority of the participants were women but we also had maybe 15% men participating in it. And mostly it was very funny ideas. Every woman had an amazing bra story to

00:11:39.730 - 00:12:03.720

tell about their experience of wearing bras all these years and now is this exhibit going to other locations in the state? We hope so. There's a woman Deborah trilling in um Palo alto who is coordinating that with barney alexander and um all participate as well. And

00:12:03.720 - 00:12:20.140

we're hoping to move it um to other locations throughout California. Do you think this is going to put Snow my County on the map? It certainly puts sofa gallery on the map. People came for the first time that had never been to our location before and

00:12:20.140 - 00:12:37.800

didn't know where we were and it it was great for us. Do you have a lot of exhibits going on at the sofa gallery? This is just one of the few. Am I correct? Yes. Um Today, after our taping here, we'll go and hang a new

00:12:37.800 - 00:12:56.380

show um sponsored by Sonoma Land Trust. And it's called Vision A Day in the Life of the Lafferty Ranch. And it's to expose um the projects of Sonoma Land Trust which is to keep open space in Sonoma County. How long will that exhibit b there? Uh

00:12:56.390 - 00:13:10.380

It'll be there, it'll run for 30 days. It'll be through the end of april and then a jewelry show will happen after that. And that will be a 60 day show. And will the jewelry show be local artists? Uh There will be some local artists participating,

00:13:10.380 - 00:13:30.755

but we actually, we were approached by a group of metal smiths called out of hand and they're from mostly from northern California, mostly the humboldt area and they're called out of hand the ink people, that's their title and um they're metal smiths and there will be

00:13:30.765 - 00:13:49.095

lots of different things um having to do with that, but mostly jewelry and we've invited of course Sonoma County jewelers to participate as well. We're going to stop now for public service announcement. Will be back talking about activities and events specifically Kaleidoscope, which we haven't touched

00:13:49.095 - 00:14:33.470

on with two program coordinators from the Cultural Arts Council of Sonoma County. It is a test not just of strength but of the power of the and if you complete the journey will be changed forever the fuel. Welcome back to Sonoma County in

00:14:33.470 - 00:14:49.590

the nineties were learning about the wonderful exhibits in our county dealing with art and we have to program coordinators with us from the Cultural Arts Council of Sonoma County. Welcome back Barbara and Corinne Corinne, I know that we have something really special coming to Sonoma County.

00:14:49.600 - 00:15:07.400

It's called Kaleidoscope and it's a multicultural activity. Do you want to tell our viewers what Kaleidoscope actually is? Okay. Kaleidoscope is a festival that was started, this is his fourth year and it was to celebrate and recognize all the different cultures in Sonoma County with their

00:15:07.410 - 00:15:25.740

art activities and this year it will be a two day festival at the santa rosa Plaza which is as part of the arts and action program and we will have music and dance and art and um activities for Children, hands on craft projects, all that kind

00:15:25.740 - 00:15:41.740

of thing. Now who's going to participate in kaleidoscope? Um everybody in the county is eligible to participate. The theme of the festival is called Express Your Heritage and we are just looking for people who who express their heritage in various kinds of ways. We will have

00:15:41.960 - 00:15:57.850

a juried art exhibit where people will submit their pieces to possibly be hung in the show and then we'll have stage performances as well. So this is two full days plus, could you give our viewers the dates for that? The dates are May 31 which is

00:15:57.850 - 00:16:11.750

a Saturday and June one which is a Sunday and the activities, the art show will be up the whole weekend while the mall is open. The stage activities will be happening from noon to four on both days. Okay, now is there any fee for the Children?

00:16:11.810 - 00:16:25.970

There is no fee for anybody. Everybody is welcome to come and we will have as I showed you with the mirror, we have a lot of hands on craft projects for people to make. So they'll have some experience doing these kinds of things and I notice

00:16:25.970 - 00:16:54.430

you have something to show us. Yeah this is a piece that was made at LCL in high school by the art students, The teachers. There had everybody make a piece for um Day of the Dead which is the Halloween celebration in Mexico. And this is typical

00:16:54.430 - 00:17:09.160

of that kind of thing. So this would be the kind of art that people will see that expresses somebody's heritage of one sort or another. Are any of these pieces for sale? Yes, they will be for sale. That is really very unusual. Yeah, I think it's

00:17:09.160 - 00:17:22.000

beautiful. This particular piece was actually made by a southeast asian student. The theme in the class was to do these mexican pieces. But I think this is a wonderful example of how different cultures can interact with each other and learn new things. How long have you

00:17:22.000 - 00:17:36.840

been having a kaleidoscope type of activity? Well, as I said, this is our fourth year and it grows every year and this will be the first year that it's all focused in one location. Which I think is really exciting. So it's strictly a multicultural activity meaning

00:17:36.850 - 00:17:52.930

people are supposed to bring their artwork from their different heritages, ethnic groups and things like that. And that includes you know that Euro american background of a lot of Sonoma County residents to um there are kinds of art that are particularly american. I think Barbara was

00:17:52.930 - 00:18:14.560

saying that that weaving braiding braiding, what else doll making all making? Let's see uh of course the shaker furniture and there are different crafts that that came to the United States from europe. And then americans put their own twist on it. Especially rug braiding I think

00:18:14.560 - 00:18:32.540

and quilt making as well where american things because we were producing cotton here and a lot of those kinds of crafts came from cotton and wool came later and those sorts of crafts, american crafts, just those kinds of facts. Say something about our culture in the

00:18:32.540 - 00:18:52.160

same way that this says something about the mexican culture and it's it's really fun to see, get exposed to all those different things. Now will you have professionals or strictly amateurs participating in showing their art? Everything is Children, you know teens. Um it is juried but

00:18:52.160 - 00:19:11.080

we accept um we'll take a look at everything. As long as people are really expressing their heritage, that's what we're looking for and to express ethnic diversity in the county. If people want to volunteer or apply, what do they do? They should call the Cultural Arts

00:19:11.080 - 00:19:26.030

Council and just mention to the receptionist or leave a message on the phone that they'd like to be a volunteer. And we will get back to them. And what is that phone number? It's 579 Arts A. R. T. S. Which is 5792787. Do you need volunteers?

00:19:26.420 - 00:19:42.580

We always need volunteers Now Barbara, I know that you also through the Cultural Arts Council have exhibits throughout this county. Do you want to share with us some of the locations of those exhibits and let our viewers know where they can go to find those? Yes,

00:19:42.580 - 00:20:01.930

there's um santa rosa City Council Chambers has rotating art shows every uh two months and that's open to the public and we have receptions on friday nights from 5 to 7 p.m. And those are advertised in our calendar there also advertised in the press democrat and

00:20:01.930 - 00:20:24.520

the Independent. And um, those are open. We do open entry calls uh and in the newspaper and those are open to Sonoma County Artist and currently hanging at the santa rosa City Council chambers is gateways, which is a theme of entrances and doorways and things like

00:20:24.520 - 00:20:41.550

that. Also, we have an example of that exhibit in Sawyer's news window, which is also one of our public spaces that we do rotating shows recently. A big hit was the barbie doll exhibit and that as in Sawyer's news window and that was up for about

00:20:41.550 - 00:21:00.510

about six weeks and we left a notebook up at the desk for comments. It was very exciting. We, there was almost as much interest in the barbie dolls as there was in the bra show. And then we have uh Sonoma offices of Sonoma County offices and

00:21:00.520 - 00:21:21.940

Education. We have Valerie Brown's office, the supervisor's office and let's see what's the other one, I think. I think I hit them all. No, no, no, we don't have that one anymore. Um We also one of the wonderful things that we provide a service that we

00:21:21.940 - 00:21:41.090

provide is uh, the artist slide registry. So all artists that, that are members of the council can submit slides and we have a library of their work and anybody, it's open to the public. You can call and ask to make an appointment and come in and

00:21:41.090 - 00:21:57.670

see all the different work that's in our registry. We have a beautiful light table and you pull out slides and you can see pages of artists work and if you're a restaurant or a business or have a reason to want to display art. Wineries come and

00:21:57.670 - 00:22:14.810

visit hotels, come and visit and, and sometimes we've had people come in who want to intern or apprenticeship under an artist and they'll come in and take a look and get names from the registry, you know, you know, were talking earlier about some well known artists

00:22:14.810 - 00:22:40.180

in Sonoma County. Sonoma County is so rich with artwork. Do we have some people locally that are world renowned living here? Um, Well Michael Hayden who um, one of his most famous pieces is uh, light sculpture on the ceiling of the O'Hare airport in Chicago and

00:22:40.190 - 00:23:00.310

uh, he is internationally known and he travels all over the world doing light sculpture And uh, Bruce Robinson is also his uh, Redwood sculptor and he makes beautiful, they're very, um, he spent a lot of time in Japan. So that has sort of an asian feel

00:23:00.310 - 00:23:20.700

to it and he uses pounded copper and different things on these sculptural pieces and they're very architectural exciting. Sharon Spencer who is a stone sculptor, is becoming internationally known and as well as Carol Sutherland who was also a sculptor. Now I know that's something that you

00:23:20.700 - 00:23:38.300

sponsor throughout the year is something called art trails so that people can actually go to the artists residents or their galleries to see some of the work Barbara, you want to talk a little about art trails are trails happens to be my program. And so I'm

00:23:38.300 - 00:23:54.940

pretty fond of it and excited and this will be my second year directing that program and it's a year around program. Once you get the photo index and have all the artists names and their addresses and their studio numbers, you can call them any time during

00:23:54.940 - 00:24:13.860

the year and make an appointment to go out and take a look at their work and and purchase art. And uh, it's an education program. This is the 12th year of our trails. And um, it's an opportunity to see the individual artists in their environment doing

00:24:13.860 - 00:24:31.260

their work. They do demonstrations during uh, the open studio tour, which happens in october and um, people come from all over the United States that time of year. Of course it's the most beautiful time of year in the wine country to see all the vineyards in

00:24:31.270 - 00:24:49.940

orange and yellow and all the beautiful fall colors and to visit the open studios and it's very exciting and um, it's very also very profitable for the artists. It's a, it's a good business and, and we contribute, or the artists contribute a lot to the economy

00:24:49.940 - 00:25:05.170

of Sonoma County and this is a big art enclave. I think that it's important to know that we are really rich with talent and that, that is a major contribution to what makes Sonoma County such a wonderful place to live. Getting back to our trails, isn't

00:25:05.170 - 00:25:20.690

it rather a structured event where you divide up the artists based on what part of the county you live in. Well, it's open to all of Sonoma County and we have uh, participants in hills berg and uh, to the north and Windsor and then of course

00:25:20.700 - 00:25:38.570

West County is rich. It happens to be a really popular spot because it has a country setting and there's a lot of privacy and quiet and which is really conducive to art make for artists. And then we also have artists in santa rosa in the community

00:25:38.570 - 00:26:03.540

of santa rosa, Rohnert Park, Petaluma, that's our most southern point, Pen Grove. And then ST Helena. No not ST Helena County. Uh, well I was trying to think of Boise hot springs and um, the little towns all in Sonoma as well are included and it's two

00:26:03.540 - 00:26:20.320

weekends. So all studios are open both weeks. They are, that's what I was wondering about. They used to, they used to divide it up, but they don't anymore. It gives, it's a better opportunity for the public to, you know, you get your map and your index

00:26:20.320 - 00:26:37.030

and you sort of choose who you want to visit and then you have two weekends, four days in which to see all these artists and I usually see 12 each weekend. I try to make, that's about as much as I can do and really spend some

00:26:37.030 - 00:26:53.070

time looking at the art. So people really get one on one information from the artist. That's wonderful. How many people and I don't know if you know this actually come to Sonoma county from outside the area just for the art trails weekend we get a lot

00:26:53.070 - 00:27:10.890

of telephone calls. The about three months prior to the event we start getting calls and people are saying we're making our reservations at our favorite bed and breakfast and we want to be there. We want to know what, what weekends you're going to be open And

00:27:10.900 - 00:27:29.500

um from the east coast, you know, people come from everywhere everywhere. That's great. Barbara, do you want to give the phone number to our viewers in cases they want to participate in the art trails. Yes. And by the way where applications are now available if you

00:27:29.500 - 00:27:48.440

want to be a participating studio artist and the number is 579 Arts 5792787. Now one of the other events that I know that you're very well known for is sponsoring first night and we're not going to go into that in great detail. We have some time

00:27:48.450 - 00:28:06.300

about that. But Barbara, you want to share with us a little bit about your role or your agency's role in First night. Um, First night was of course last year was the or this past New Year's was the second year and we will uh, the council

00:28:06.300 - 00:28:27.730

has taken on the responsibility of the whole program. Um, it's mainly run by volunteers and it's really exciting. Green could tell you about some of the talent that is that happens during that a lot of performing arts mostly. And there was a couple of visual programs.

00:28:27.730 - 00:28:46.130

There was what's good in your hood, which is now out of the offices of education and that was local Children went out into their neighborhoods and photographed their neighborhoods. That was underwriting by Andrew's photography and they took shots and then they were developed and blown up

00:28:46.140 - 00:29:02.200

and we did a nice little display of all the local neighborhoods. And that was one of the visual projects that was shown at first night and there's dancing and you know, clowns and jugglers and you know, we We have a show the first night that we

00:29:02.200 - 00:29:14.470

do prior to that. So I'll be sure and have you both back talking about. I want to thank you both for coming. This is very informative and I'm excited to know that we're doing that much with art. Thank you for watching Sonoma county in the 90s.

00:29:14.480 - 00:29:18.850

I invite you to watch us each and every week and have a great week. Thank you.