ART HAPPENS ANYWHERE
In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and its devastating effects on the arts and culture community, the City of Glendale's Library, Arts & Culture department and the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission re-launched the Art Happens Anywhere (“AHA”) Program, featuring 17 individually unique projects that were launched from 2020 - 2022, with the purpose of encouraging the expansion of arts and culture activities to benefit the citizens of our community during these unique times.
Through innovative uses of digital technology, audience interactivity, and unconventional delivery methods, the AHA Program seeks to foster progressive attitudes toward art, art-making and performance, and to elevate the role of art in enhancing a community. The AHA Program was also an opportunity for artists to immediately begin working on a proposed project, resulting in the stimulation of the creative economy in Glendale and beyond during these challenging times.
The following temporary art installations of the Art Happens Anywhere (AHA) Program are
sponsored by the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission through funding from the Urban Art Fund.
Ride Like the Wind
Artist: Cathy Hrenda
Location: Central Library Drought Tolerant Garden
Installed June 2022
"Ride Like The Wind” alludes to the importance of sustainability through a playful artwork that engages with natural elements. The artwork includes old bicycle frames and used bicycle rims which were all found on the street in non-working condition. The frames and rims are combined with new steel and aluminum pipes and fittings to create a wall of black powder-coated scaffolding on which metal pinwheels, of various designs will be displayed.
Glendale Electric!
Event Organizer: Museum of Neon Art
Location: Downtown Glendale (various locations)
Saturday, June 11, 2022 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM
"Glendale Electric!" is a public festival aimed at providing live, bite sized, art and cultural experiences to viewers. The event will be the result of collaboration with a range of Glendale and LA based cultural organizations, artists, historians, and community members to bring us closer together over the wide geographical region of Glendale. The event taps into the spirit of neon, an art-form that developed along with the automobile, and was meant to be seen from a moving car. A digital map introducing each art project, location, and performance will be produced for attendees to download.
View schedule here.
Lernazang Ensemble: Concert of Traditional Armenian Music & Dance
Artist: Lernazang Ensemble
Location: Artsakh Paseo
Saturday, April 30, 2022 | 4:00PM - 6:00PM
Join Lernazang Ensemble for a celebration of Armenian dance and culture on Saturday, April 30, 2022 at 4:00PM. The event will feature master musicians from Armenia including folk singer Hasmik Harutunyan, Vardan Baghdasaryan on kamancha, Tigran Zakaryan on pku/zurna, Albert Ordinyan on dhol, and more…
As we continue to commemorate the Armenian Genocide throughout the month of April, Lernazang Ensemble will perform a rich repertoire of azgagrakan songs and dances from Western Armenia. Practicing and performing this repertoire is an act of resistance: to reclaim our heritage amidst a history of genocide and ongoing cultural erasure.
This event is generously sponsored by the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission through funding from the Urban Art Program with support from Glendale Library, Arts & Culture and Meztli Projects.
photo credit: Angela Pailevanian
Impending Storms
Artists: Blue Marble Art Collective
Location: Central Library
On display from March 4 - May 21, 2022
"Impending Storms" will put a spotlight on the reality of the impending dangers of significant loss of species and biodiversity, and by inference, the dangers looming over our biosphere. Many drawings depicting impressions of plant and animal species will be “captured” in the net. Visitors to the installation would walk through and around the net and other components of the installation, creating an experiential environment to consider problems related to species decline and environmental issues.
Artists of all ages are invited to submit grayscale drawings of plants and animals (especially the endangered or recently extinct species) on 6” x 6” white cardstock paper. During the exhibit, Central Library will have white cardstock paper and drawing materials alongside the exhibit for the first 2 weeks of March 2022 for patrons to submit artworks to the exhibit on-site.
Color in Dance: Hip Hop Dance Festival
Artist: Versa-Style Dance Company
Location: Verdugo Park
Saturday, February 26, 2022 | 1:00PM - 5:00PM
“Color in Dance'', serves as a response to the heightened injustices people of color endure from racialized political bureaucracies, especially within the last year. This event will exclusively pertain to Hip Hop repertoire and include performances, workshops, vendors, food, and moments of fun exchange on an open dance floor at Verdugo Skate Park during Black History Month.
Yoshito Meditating in the Forest
Artist: Ayumi Chisolm
Location: YMCA Glendale
On display through May 2027
"Yoshito Meditating in the Forest" by artist, Ayumi Chisolm, is portrayal of the inner peace and tranquility the community has sought for during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The mural will be installed on the exterior wall of the YMCA Glendale through May 20, 2027.
LIGHTWAVE
Artists: Lightriders & 11:11 Creative Collective
Location: Central Park Paseo
On display from October 9 - November 13, 2021
"LIGHTWAVE" by LightRiders and 11:11 Creative Collective, is an interactive light-art installation that reflects our new collective reality in function and form with two beautiful and elegant side by side waves of colorfully flowing LED tube lights.
Meter Pole Art
Artist: Jennifer Bentson-Gebel
Location: Broadway, Isabel St. & Glendale Ave.
On display through December 2023
"Meter Pole Art" is a project that brings pop-up artworks to be wrapped around parking meter poles in Glendale. The artworks feature over 6 designs intended to expand public art in Glendale.
California Love
Artist: Gooey
Location: Verdugo Skate Park (mural)
On display from September 2021 - September 2022
California Love" is a temporary mural along the rims of the Verdugo Skate Park which celebrates diversity and a community, and creates a safe, fun space for people to not only skate, but to bond as a community.
Projected Visions
Artist: Ryan Griffin
On display nightly from May 31 - June 4, 2021 at 8pm
Maryland Ave. Parking Lot 4 (back wall of Alex Theater)
What happens when an artist’s canvas reaches stories high beaming across the architecture? Artist Ryan Patrick Griffin engages in creative play and improvisation manifested through projected light, radically transforming the familiar. Here movements of the artist hand translate freestyle paintings and animations. Every night from May 31st - June 4th at 8:00pm, participants are invited to attend this live, interactive, digital art performance. To experience the work, viewers are invited to stand and/or bring a chair to sit in the Maryland Ave. Lot 4 Parking Lot to view the performance which will be projected on the back wall of Alex Theater. Please observe social distance and mask wearing guidelines.
USE IT TO DEFUSE IT (good luck with that)
Artist: Kate Sikorski
On display from March 15 - 31, 2021 (7pm-9pm)
With support from the City of Glendale Arts and Culture Commission and the University of California, Santa Barbara, artist Kate Sikorski will present USE IT TO DEFUSE IT (good luck with that) an interactive, site specific animation on the Reading Spa windows of the Glendale Central Library, March 15 - 31, 2021 (7pm-9pm). In this work, Sikorski treats site as form for metaphorical exploration; rendering some of the many cognitive distortions held by those in power. Sikorski's animated drawings hazard answers to how the violence of inequality is perpetuated by those with relatively more power. Viewers may recognize references to Derrick Bell’s Faces at the Bottom of the Well, Rainbow Bright’s Big Color Mix-Up episode, Alice and Wonderland, The Three Caballeros, Monty Python, Cinderella, and Little Nemo, and others. Her 12 act ballad of interactive animation will show nightly from 7 - 9 p.m., and is free to the public. To experience the work, viewers are invited to park in the library’s south parking lot as you would for a drive-in movie, or from the lawn of Central Park. Please observe social distance and mask wearing guidelines.
15,000 & MORE: A Plethora of Light & Darkness
Artist: Connie DK Lane
On display from February 12 - June 30, 2021
Central Library - 222 E. Harvard St. Glendale, CA 91205
15,000 & MORE: A Plethora of Light & Darkness is a memorial tribute to the lives lost from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Los Angeles County. The concept is based upon Chinese ancestral worship of deceased relatives and family members with a special ceremony. A mixture of silver and gold ingots differentiates the deaths of males and females from the coronavirus. Best viewed from the front windows of the Library at night, each ingot within the exhibit represents a life lost to COVID-19 in Los Angeles County. It is both a beautiful and poignant reminder that while numbers of new cases are currently on the decline, daily case counts are still three-times higher than they were in October 2020.
For more information, please click here.
GYO in Pieces by the Glendale Youth Orchestra, is a virtual concert that will break the orchestra up into smaller components where they can perform with enough space between each other. There will be units as small as duets, trios, sextets but none larger than 15 musicians while all having social distancing. The performances will also feature interviews with members of the orchestra telling their musical story. The members will share how studying music plays a part of their growth as young people in this current period of time. Henry Shin, conductor and music director, will also be featured giving short music history about the music played and what the audience should listen for in the music.
I Am A Small Business – Glendale by artist, Eric Axene, is an immersive virtual experience that can be viewed from any connected device. The project involves portraits of business owners taken in their shops, overlaid with audio interviews of the store owner, edited interactions with customers (if open), and ambient sounds recorded in and around the shop. The photos combine up to 1000 hi-res digital captures and are so highly detailed that the viewer can actually see all of the items in a store. The online experience will feature a “zoom in” function that allows the viewer to wander and explore around the image at 100% magnification.
365 Days of Voters
Artist: Deborah Aschheim
September 2020 - November 2020
365 Days of Voters is an online community engagement project focused on highlighting the importance of voter engagement for the 2020 election by artist, Deborah Aschheim. Any Glendale resident over age 18 (or over 16 with parent or guardian's permission) is invited to participate in “365 Days of Voters” and help inspire other people to vote. It’s easy! To be today’s voter, send Deborah an email at info@deborahaschheim.com, and she’ll explain how to send a headshot or selfie (at least 1 MB file size). She will send you a very short form to fill out, and then she will make an original hand drawn portrait of you and post her drawing of you and your inspiring quote about voting to help Get Out the Vote in 2020.
For more information, please visit:
Reflections by artist, Ashton Phillips, is a meditative, experimental sound art installation located at Central Park (216 S Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 91203) from September 15, 2020 – January 15, 2021. The virtual, sound art component will weave together the voices of a diverse range of LA County residents with other voices from quarantined regions around the world, all reflecting on their experiences living through this pandemic. These digital voices will be virtually tied to a physical installation of flat, durable reflective aluminum discs set into the ground in a mandala pattern, providing a visual marker of the activated space and a meditative environment in which to experience the sound installation.
For more information visit:
Watch the promo trailer here!
With Love From LA is a new online virtual offering conceived by musician, performer, composer and event producer Mark de Clive-Lowe. With Love from LA is a six-month series which will run from August 2020 through January 2021 featuring "In-Conversation" and "In-Concert" episodes of Los Angeles County musicians such as Jamire Williams, Jeff Parker, and Gretchen Parlato.
For more information, please visit:
https://www.instagram.com/withlovefrom.la/