ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
Palm Springs hosts preservation conference (Palm Springs Life)
Cindy Heitzman, executive director of the California Preservation Foundation, discuss the organization’s high-priority issues as well as the popularity of Modernism Week in Palm Springs.
10 things to notice while touring the Walker Guest House (Palm Springs Life)
In 1952, Paul Rudolph designed a compact vacation retreat on the West Coast of Florida for his client, Walter J. Walker. You can tour a full-scale replica in downtown Palm Springs. Here’s what you’ll see.
HERITAGE
How a small tribe of Cahuilla bounced back from near extinction (The Desert Sun)
For decades, the story of the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians had been shrouded in myth and lore, attracting national attention in the 1990s when Mary Ann Martin began expanding the reservation with a casino and a tribal government.
ISSUES & IDEAS
Investing in the arts yields great rewards (The Desert Sun)
As California celebrated its inaugural Arts, Culture, Creativity Month in April, Christi Salamone, president and CEO of the California Desert Arts Council, took time to marvel at the diverse offerings and staggering economic impact the arts have in Greater Palm Springs.
Coachella Valley as crucible of creativity? (KCRW)
Art fairs now are a dime a dozen in cities around the world but geniune art festivals — places where artists make work for the privilege of creative engagement— not so much. Where does this take place? In odd places around the desert.
About those temporary art installations at the Coachella festival … (Dezeen)
Critic Aaron Betsky questions the value of the Coachella festival’s temporary sets and large-scale art installations, and if the strain that their construction and destruction places on the planet is worth it.
The benefits of fiscal sponsorship en route to nonprofit status (Voice of San Diego)
For small arts organizations struggling to get off the ground, seeking tax-exempt status can be daunting. But the fiscal sponsorship model gives these organizations, as well as individuals in the arts, a solid ground to proceed.
Don’t do this when applying for a grant (Inside Philanthropy)
To improve your chances of winning a grant, foundation officers and professional grant writers say you should avoid making these way-too-common mistakes in grant proposals and applications.
Participating in the arts boosts kids’ self-esteem (Pacific Standard)
New research finds particularly positive results when parents and kids work on a creative project together.
MUSIC
Lisa Lynn Morgan: Coachella Valley’s country spitfire (CV Weekly)
The musician reflects on seven years of performing on desert stages and juggling songwriting with a day job, and reveals her summer performance schedule.
Reborn By The Sunshine releases first EP (CV Weekly)
Bandleader James Dorris discusses These Old Feelin’s, a newly released four-song EP that showcases the local band’s fol-Americana sound.
Here’s the Splash House lineup for June (Cactus Hugs)
Splash House return for two three-day weekends this summer in Palm Springs. The lineup includes a DJ set from French duo Justice, this year’s Grammy winner for dance/electronic album.
PEOPLE
Desert Sun entertainment reporter Bruce Fessier to retire (The Desert Sun)
After 40 years, the reporter who took us inside the lives of the Rat Pack, covered every single Palm Springs International Film Festival and Coachella music festival, and introduced us to almost every entertainer who performed in the desert will retire at the end of June.
Women Who Lead luncheon honors three creative talents (Palm Springs Life)
Architect Kristi Hanson (business leader), Makerville co-founder Debra Hovel (rising star), and Yaya Ortiz (nonprofit leader), co-founders of Culturas Music & Arts, will be feted May 20 at the annual Women Who Lead luncheon at the Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage.
THEATER & STAGE
Desert Theatreworks produces its first bilingual play at IPAC (CV Independent)
Since moving to the Indio Performing Arts Center in 2017, the company has been trying to diversify its range of productions. It presents its first bilingual play Real Women Have Curves — which examines the Latina immigrant experience in the United States — through May 19.
PS Underground goes above ground (Palm Springs Life)
PS Underground has been wowing audiences with spectacular dinners and cabaret shows at secret locations for almost seven years. That’s about to change. Starting May 31, they’ll take over the former Appetito restaurant location adjacent to the Ace Hotel & Swim Club in South Palm Springs.
Cathedral City Community Amphitheater makes progress (Uken Report)
About five months after breaking ground on the $4.5 million amphitheater park, the city council has voted to award a $1.7 million contract to Pasadena-based GKK Works/Cannon Design to construct the stage structure.
A different sort of theater company (Palm Springs Life)
Through July 1, a reading committee of Script2Stage2Screen, the performing arts organization founded in 2010 to showcase original plays, is accepting submissions from playwrights all over the country who are eager to see and hear their work read for the first time.
VISUAL ART
Coachella is the canvas; the art is the spectacle (Los Angeles Times)
Art has been a tradition at the festival from its 1999 debut. During its earliest years, most pieces were repurposed from the annual Burning Man gathering in the Nevada desert. The festival now commissions original work from around the world, while continuing to collaborate with several Burning Man artists.
Palm Springs celebrates 30 years of supporting public art (The Desert Sun)
Thirty years ago the Palm Springs Public Arts Commission was formed to fund public art and programs with money from development. More than 60 works of art have since been installed around the city, and a special exhibition of juried local art runs May 16 to June 6 at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Old Town Artisan Studio spreads healing power of the arts (CV Independent)
The organization’s La Quinta campus offers low-cost classes and workshops in wheel-thrown and hand-built ceramics, painting, fused and stained glass, fabrics, and mixed media. It aims “to provide a positive art experience for all people despite age, disability, or financial condition.”
Andrea Zittel’s Planar Pavilions stir curiosity in Joshua Tree (Palm Springs Life)
The artist built 10 modular structures (shown above) made of matte black cinder blocks on as many raw desert acres between Highway 62 and her home and studio. The installation is open daily from sunrise to sunset. Here’s what you need to know.
The museum that Noah Purifoy built (Palm Springs Life)
When the artist died in 2004, he left behind more than 100 sculptures and installations on 10 acres of land north of Joshua Tree. The Noah Purifoy Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Art is open every day of the year, free of charge, sunrise to sunset.
What artists should do with their work after they die (Hyperallergic)
Two experts sort out the realities facing artists and their loved ones.
Photograph: Planar Pavilions at A–Z West in Joshua Tree. Courtesy Steven Biller.
