The Salton Sea, photographed from the North Shore Yacht Club, is the subject of an awareness-raising film by a group of young local filmmakers. Image courtesy Steven Biller.
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
Modernism Week reveals 2019 program highlights (Palm Springs Life)
Tours, lectures, parties: Here are the must-see events during Modernism Week, which is set for Feb. 14-24, 2019, at homes and venues throughout Greater Palm Springs.
FESTIVALS & HERITAGE
Lorna Luft named celebrity grand marshal for Palm Springs holiday parade (Uken Report)
Author, singer, actress, and Palm Springs resident Lorna Luft will lead the 26th annual Palm Springs Festival of Lights Parade as celebrity grand Marshal for. Architect Hugh Kaptur and NBC Palm Springs anchor Gino Lamont will be community grand marshals.
Honor Thy Culture (Palm Springs Life)
Ruben Gonzalez’s never-say-die activism started alongside Cesar Chavez and continues with Coachella’s artistic set.
FILM
Local filmmakers raise awareness of Salton Sea health risks (KESQ Newschannel 3)
A group of young filmmakers who live near the Salton Sea (shown above) are raising awareness about the environmental and public health crisis they and thousands of others live around every day.
L.A. film festival to shut down after 18 years (Los Angeles Times)
Film Independent has announced that it will discontinue the L.A. Film Festival after 18 years. Instead arts organization will focus on year-round events, including several that traditionally occurred during the festival.
ISSUES
AFTA’s new tool to measure artists’ impact on social change (The Clyde Fitch Report)
Americans for the Arts’ Explorer tool addresses social change through the lens of individuals, groups, environments, and systems, locally and internationally.
Trump nominates Mary Anne Carter to lead NEA (Artforum)
Since being named acting chair of the agency, she has focused on the arts therapy program Creative Forces — which helps U.S. service members and veterans recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and other psychological health conditions — and on bolstering initiatives such as Shakespeare in American Communities, NEA Big Read, Poetry Out Loud, Jazz Masters, and the National Heritage Fellowships.
MUSIC
Stagecoach lineup announced (The Desert Sun)
Headlining this year’s festival will be Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt and Jason Aldean, all returning modern country favorites. But the big surprise among the rest of the lineup is Welsh power pop rocker Tom Jones, continuing a Stagecoach tradition of featuring British Invasion rockers including Eric Burdon and the Animals, and the Zombies. Southern rock giant Lynyrd Skynyrd, one of the most popular acts to play Stagecoach’s side stages reserved for more Americana-type acts, also returns.
Oaxacan musicians use rap and hip hop to fight for change (The New York Times)
A tight-knit group of women in Oaxaca, Mexico, are rapping as a way to draw attention to issues like poverty, gender inequalities and disenfranchisement of indigenous communities.
THEATER
Palm Canyon Theatre top winner at Desert Theatre League awards (The Desert Sun)
The Palm Springs-based Palm Canyon Theatre won 17 awards after leading all of the DTL’s 34 producing members with 67 nominations. The 32-year-old theater booster group presented 111 trophies (counting ties) in 100 categories, ranging from ballet to youth theater.
‘How I Learned to Drive’ confronts topic of sexual assault (CV Independent)
No driving skill prepares you for this play by Paula Vogel, critic VJ Hume says of the season-opening play at CV Rep. She says, “How I Learned to Drive is a thought-provoking work, no matter how distasteful the topic. We need to get real about this ongoing problem … only by facing it will we understand it.”
Coyote StageWorks opens its 10th season with ‘The Understudy’ (CV Independent)
There is truly something for everyone’s sense of humor in The Understudy, written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Theresa Rebeck, and your involvement with these very believable characters will grow as you giggle, says VJ Hume in CV Independent.
VISUAL ART
Xavier Prep senior creates app mapping public art across Coachella Valley (The Desert Sun)
The mobile app, created by 17-year-old Hunter Martin and ready for download this fall, helps residents and visitors locate art installations in all nine cities of Greater Palm Springs.
Finding truth in clay (Palm Springs Life)
Brian Bosworth and Jamie Poole came to the desert seeking a sustainable way of life and discovered an artful way to live.
A night of defiance and pride (Palm Springs Life)
An exhibition of photographs by Peter Palladino commemorates the Stonewall rebellion at Simeon Den Gallery in Cathedral City. He talked with Palm Springs Life about his memories from 1969 riots and the 25th anniversary that took place in 1994.
Database will feature historic works by hundreds of overlooked female artists (Open Culture)
A Space of Their Own, an illustrated online database of more than 600 female artists working in the United States and Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries, launches in the fall of 2019, courtesy of Jane Fortune’s nonprofit Advancing Women Artists.
