The Santa Cruz Art email list (SCART) is an email forum for announcing non-institutional art events, meetings and projects, ideas and news. It is a low-volume, moderated list sharing information about local Santa Cruz art topics only.

An artist friend once told me that if you don't document art, any newcomer in town is not going to know that Santa Cruz has a vibrant art community that exists largely outside of the gallery grind. Document, she said, and the artists in town, new and old, will have a sense of momentum -- a sense, that in spite of the lack of art galleries, art buyers, art patrons, art grants, art money, that this town has a lively habit of blurring the boundary between art and life.

To that end, we created the Santa Cruz Art Conspiracy. An attempt to document some of the non-institutional creative efforts of artists in Santa Cruz. We want your contributions and documentation of your creative endeavors in and around Santa Cruz.

But beyond documentation, this is about community and connection. The Art Conspiracy is really about connecting with other artists, to share a beer or a creative idea, or ask questions about process, or reach out from a North Coast studio or a South County warehouse to make new friends and alliances.

Will SCArt feature public guerilla art? Certainly. Public performance? Absolutely. Creative groups operating outside of the realm of commerce? Yeah, sure. Street art? Street music? Yes and yes. Announcements for gallery shows? Sure, though we wouldn't want that to be the bulk of what we're doing here. How about city-sponsored events? I hope not, but who knows. Awesome bands playing at Moe's Alley? Yeah, no.

This is less about "making it" as an artist, and more about making art. Its all about this elusive something that I'm having a difficult time describing. A bit of underdogism, perhaps, a sense of struggling together, of changing the world through art, of making the world a fabulous, beautiful, mysterious, and surprising place.
Need to announce an art happening? Is it local to Santa Cruz? Is it non-institutional? Non-commercial? Send an announcement to our moderated announcement list: scart@lists.riseup.net
 

---

Do you do performance? Conceptual art? Non-commercial music? Want to join a discussion focusing on the process of making art and building community? We prefer to focus on the cathartic process of creating art, collaboration and community, conceptional art and performance. We'd like to hear from you. Email us at scart@riseup.net
 
Santa Cruz Art Site: santacruzart.net

Dr. Sketchy's, the world famous alternative figure drawing cabaret, is coming to Santa Cruz for one night only... Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 7:00 PM.

Dr. Sketchy's is the little Brooklyn art event that became a movement. Founded in 2005 by artist Molly Crabapple, Dr. Sketchy's asked a simple question: Why can't drawing naked people be sexy? The answer is... it can.

Dr. Sketchy's branches have popped up in nearly 100 cities internationally, but there's still a whole lot of world out there, so the cast and crew of Dr. Sketchy's Los Angeles is hitting the asphalt to bring Dr. Sketchy's Roadshow to additional cities across America.

The Roadshow's inaugural haul will take place throughout California between November 2nd and 14th, with stops in Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Long Beach, Sherman Oaks, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Fresno, Monterey, San Jose, Sacramento, Burbank and Alhambra. Artist and art voyeurs need only bring a $10 donation and their favorite drawing supplies. Dr. Sketchy's and the Roadshow's art-centric host venues will provide everything else (top notch models, refreshments, casual networking opportunities, and an all around good time).

The Roadshow will be in Santa Cruz at Vets Hall in Studio A on Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 7:00 PM. More information can be found at http://www.vetshall.org.

The full Roadshow schedule can be found at http://www.drsketchyroadshow.com.

Night Ride wants your story.  In each episode, we look at a different subject in an aural collage of music and story.

In the next episode we look at Lies You Can't Escape From, the lies that have haunted you for years, those insidious seeds that have spun entire webs of deception, those lies that have changed your life.  We want to hear yours.

Right now, while you are thinking about it, pickup the phone and leave us your story.  831-704-6690.  Seriously. 

Night Ride is all about the narrative voice. Written as in literature, or spoken as in oral history. Human beings traffic in stories. Let me tell you about my day, my life, or something that happened to me once upon a time. Stories are dreamy. They take you to other places, other times, other lives.

Night Ride has aired on KUSP and Free Radio Santa Cruz at various times since 2001.

Yes, here it is.  The only film shut down by the cops (twice), this time we host a great film along with a late fall picnic in the park, challenging the laws that close this park after dark.



PLUS an intermission, suburban wasteland, and great company. 

BRING your friends, your family, and your neighbors.  Bring lawn chairs, blankets, pillows, friends, drink, & food to share for a late fall picnic. Donations are greatly appreciated and directly support the project.

SANTA CRUZ GUERILLA DRIVE-IN is an outdoor movie theatre under the stars that springs up in the fields and industrial wastelands.  Beyond showing great movies and bringing a broad community together, part of our mission is helping reclaim public space and transforming our urban environment into the joyful playground it should be.

SUBURBAN WASTELAND LOCATION:  Along the San Lorenzo River, the park is just over the pedestrian bridge from downtown.

BREAKING NEWS, updated schedule, discussion,  do-it-yourself, email list, the works.

What Is Art? was a tiny, 50-person-capacity venue run by a collective of people from the Santa Cruz art and music scene. It ran out of a North Pacific storefront from the mid-90's until 2000.

"I was flooded out of my studio and needed a place to sew," says Lopie LaRoe. "I started to have the Anarchist Coffeehouse here, which turned into open mic. Hardly anyone showed up at first, except for this annoying guy with a box on his head."


It offered a Wednesday open mic that sometimes had more empty seats than performers and audience. Other times, there were people sitting in the aisles, and standing room only in the back.




In 2000, developers condemned the space to make room for a building project. The space sat tantalizingly empty for years until wreckers tore the entire block down along with the original Bike Church and Ped-X space and numerous art warehouses. For ten years, the empty lot, former location of What? was an empty blight. Finally, just in time for the worst economic era in memory, developers built an entire block of ugly condos that no one could afford to buy.


For a few years after the original space was torn down, What Is Art? operated out of the 418 Project on Front Street again featuring a weekly Open Mic.


While What Is Art? no longer exists as the unique performance space that it was (the whole block was demolished), it still serves, like any former cultural hub, as a sort of looking glass that can magnify the strengths and weaknesses of the current local scene.

Next Underground Restaurant at Fairy-Tale Farm: Friday, October 23rd 6:00 PM
Come dine on vegetables in the vegetables! Menu and more info at:
www.fairy-talefarm.com

Art and performers for UnScruz, Santa Cruz's official Burning Man Decompression.  UnScruz, is only 19 DAYS AWAY!

We are looking for some more ART and live acts/performers for UnScruz. Belly dancers, hula hoopers, LED/glow poi/staff, short silly plays, who knows! NO DJ¹s or bands we are full up on space for them.

We are restricted as far as fire goes -- we can only have fire spinners and, hopefully, fire hoopers and they will be in a designated area (an adjacent parking lot off of Locust). No art cars with fire or any other fire on the street will be allowed.

If you have a performance piece that you would like to contribute please let us know by writing santacruz@burningman.com. THANKS!

Once again, here's the info about the event:

Date: Saturday, October 17, 2009
Time: 12:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: Downtown Santa Cruz
Street: Locust Street between Cedar and Center Streets
City/Town: Santa Cruz, CA
Email: santacruz@burningman.com
Web site: http://www.unscruz.com

It's a Burning Man Decompression street party, Santa Cruz style! Please invite everyone you know!

Bring your dusty selves at noon for ten hours full of fire, dance, music, art, performance, theme camps, DJs, and MORE!!!

Enjoy the creative expression that only Santa Cruz can provide for a cost of only $10.00 in Playa couture/costume; $15.00 in streetwear.

Our first annual Santa Cruz Decompression will be a a showcase for our community so please help us bring our enchanted Black Rock City magical home to the streets of Santa Cruz!

We're looking for Art! Performers! Theme Camps! Volunteers! If you are a ranger, would like to be a team lead/manger, greeter, spin fire, perform, PARTICIPATE, please let us know!

If you're interested in becoming a part of UnScruz! Please send an email to santacruz@burningman.com for more information.

Stay tuned for a list of theme camps, DJs, etc. who will be participating!

And please remember...this is a LEAVE NO TRACE EVENT : )
---

If you are on Facebook, please join the Santa Cruz Burners page! You can find us here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Santa-Cruz-CA/Santa-Cruz-Burners/99500412157#/
pages/Santa-Cruz-CA/Santa-Cruz-Burners/99500412157?ref=ts

And here's the official event invite on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Santa-Cruz-CA/Santa-Cruz-Burners/99500412157#/
event.php?eid=152248787120&ref=mf

See YOU there!!!!

This is a call to artists to submit an artwork for a 5 part zine that
focuses specifically on new and underground artists.

Requirements:
The theme of the zine is 'The End'
1-2 pages at 5 1/2 " x 8 1/2" scale
Either B&W, Grayscale, or Full Color
Deadline for submission is October 31st, 2009

If you plan on doing a 2 page submission please keep in mind a small gutter space will be added in the middle (either black or white depending on the image). Feel free to send in multiple submissions if you have multiple pieces that fit the theme and aren't sure what will fit the zine best. Inserts such as stickers or patches that come in envelopes are more than welcome and are highly encouraged, just keep in mind that you will need to include one for each zine which is at the moment looking to be around 200 copies.

All accepted artists will be given a space for a blurb of about 10-20 words and a link to any website. Please feel free to email me gasmaskeatsnate@gmail.com if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

October 2009:  The Santa Cruz Anarchist Doll-Making Collective
The Dark Night of DIY Ragdolls and Monsters

On Friday, October 2nd, at 5pm, SubRosa is excited to introduce the recent work of the Santa Cruz Anarchist Doll-Making Collective. The show entitled The Dark Night of DIY Ragdolls and Monsters features the work of a dozen artists working individually and collaboratively to create homemade and recombined dolls and monsters.

The original Dark Night arose out of a series of Free Skool Santa Cruz workshops on doll- and monster-making. Artists built dolls and monsters by hand out of scraps from their workshops, items gathered at the city dump, and materials scavenged from Bargain Barn. During a series of Dark Nights, artists drank tea, made dolls, and stayed up all night sewing and watching dark doll movies from filmmakers the Brothers Quay, Jan Svankmajer,and Henry Selick.

Peering into the mad workshop of mad doll creators I saw feverish hands working away, some delightfully creepy movie playing on an old tv set, doll parts and needles strewn about the cutting floor, Frankenstein doll creations coming alive!

Historically, dolls are some of the oldest discovered toys, the earliest found in Egyptian tombs dating back to 3000 B.C.E. Dolls depicted humans, animals, and imaginary creatures and have been made of every conceivable material: bisque, celluloid, china, clay, cloth, corn husks, paper, plastic, polymer clay, porcelain, resin, rubber, vinyl, wax, wood, bone, ivory, papier-mâché, and leather.

Join us for an opening show and reception on this Dark Night.







703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz

Poet/Speak Open Poetry Reading with featured reader slam poet Devin
Murphy will take place at 2:00 pm on Sunday, September 27 in the Santa
Cruz Public Library upstairs Meeting Room, 224 Church St., Santa Cruz.
Free. Presented by Poetry Santa Cruz and hosted by Joyce Keller.
Website: www.poetrysantacruz.org. Contact: Len Anderson at
lenand_at_cruzio.com

FREAKSHOW Being a Diverse Collection of the Curious & Peculiar An independent publication of DIY adverts. Put forward your Services Offered, Stuff for Sale, Missed Connections, Barters and Trades, Unusual Possibilities, and Public Service messages to Freakshow. Send illustrations and submissions by the next deadline. FREAKSHOW c/o SubRosa 703 Pacific Ave Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060 freakshow@riseup.net

Pizza & Prose, Art & Lit Series
At Cava Wine Bar in Capitola Village
Monday – September 21, 2009

Guest Speaker – Steve Turner - journalist, author, and founding member of the National Writer's Union will read from his latest book -

Amber Waves and Undertow: Peril, Hope, Sweat, and Downright Nonchalance in Dry Wheat Country.

Live Music & Pizza @6:30
Speaker Begins @ 7:00
Wine Raffle Immediately Following

Admission is Free

Pizza available for the first 2-3 dozen who arrive.

Visit www.pizzaandprose.com for more on this event & series.

Cava is located at 115 San Jose Avenue just off the esplanade in Capitola Village. Visit www.cavacapitola.com for more information on this & other Cava events or call (831) 476-2282.

Blending stories from the distant past and present Turner has painted a colorful picture of the people and farmlands of Adams County, Washington. Many years after his own time as a young harvest hand Turner returned to the land settled by pioneers and struggling to survive in modern day America. Unique in geography and rich with characters he tells the tale of rural life through this wheat and potato agricultural community. Weaving in his own personal experiences, he takes the reader on a journey from the nineteenth to the 21st Century and introduces us to a host of hardworking folks, some more eccentric than others.

The Collages of Michael Orick and Tom Calderone

On Friday, September 4th, at 5pm, SubRosa is excited to welcome collage artists Michael Orick and Tom Calderon.  Calderon and Orick have been hosting a weekly gathering of artists for more than three years, creating a wide variety of collage art.  Each, in distinct stylistic approaches to life and art, will be presenting pieces created at Collage Night,  and viewable on the walls of SubRosa and at CollageNight.com.

Orick applies values and guides meanderings with his jaunty approach to dismantling social interaction.  His claims of art for art’s sake, is couched in a literary tradition of blanched intellectualism mixed with pale understandings of things: things such as color and time, silly similies and woman’s underwear.  His past is yesterday’s now.  Orick is gliding gracefully, with limbs akimbo.

Calderon, with his understanding of politics and religion, attempts to create visions of the reality behind the accepted spectacle.  His imagery is savage and calm, shockingly beautiful and sadly real, steeped in water like a fine tea, flavored something excellent.

Collage, considered by some the premier postmodern art form, has remained as fresh as local produce, and a clear link to the time before Nike and Coca-Cola.  Weilding their exacto-knives and glue sticks, collagenight provacateurs Calderon and Orick, hope to push the agenda of dreamers everywhere.




703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz
http://subrosaproject.org
831-426-5242

The Santa Cruz Art Conspiracy email list (SCART) is an email forum for announcing non-institutional art events, meetings and projects, ideas and news. It is a low-volume, moderated list sharing information about local Santa Cruz art topics only.

Wanna get announcements of local art events? Subscribe to the Santa Cruz Art Email List

     

Need to announce an art happening? Is it local to Santa Cruz? Is it non-institutional? Non-commercial?  We prefer to focus on the cathartic process of creating art, collaboration and community, conceptional art and performance.

Send an announcement to our moderated announcement list: scart@lists.riseup.net

From Whitney:


Yesterday, Sept. 24, the Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra raised a rebellious ruckus and marched down Pacific Avenue (permits? We don't need no stinking permits!) to announce the performance of the San Francisco Mime Troupe in San Lo Park.

It was a BLAST! As we marched, people joined us from the sidewalks and we handed them trash to play. We had a lot of fun doing variations of marching like twirls and scattering. Grant Wilson, from Art and Revolution, acted as our drum major and marched ahead of us - he is always so much fun. At one point, a bike cop asked if we could make way for traffic and we complied. When we got to the park, we played 3 songs.

The SF Mime Troupe put on a really great show called "Making a Killing" - political satire at it's best. They have look-a-likes for Dick Cheney and Condi Rice... doing evil deeds in the name of charity and "a feel good story". The Mime Troupe was especially good this year.

I love when our leaders solicit us for our opinions! It helps ensure that they are fully informed when they completely ignore them as they make decisions that effect us. However, who doesn't like a survey? I filled it out anywho.

The City of Santa Cruz Arts Commission invites you to participate in a community-wide survey, and to spread the word to your audience.

You can help determine what the ARTS will be like in Santa Cruz, 5 or 10 years from now.

The City Council has approved the development of an Arts Master Plan, in recognition of the contributions the arts make to our city's quality of life and economic vitality.

The Arts Commission has just released this Arts Master Plan Community Survey to ensure that the proposed plan reflects community opinions.

We invite you to complete this survey and share it with others.

Check out the survey, fill it out if you have the stomach for it. I'm skeptical, of course, but all those "Other, Please Specify" questions do bring up some thoughts for me:

Art is a process of discovery. It is a window into the magic and mysterious world of the creativity of the human mind. It helps open us up to possibilities and allow us access to other perspectives. It connects us with others, and for those engaged in making it, the cathartic process of making art can be life-changing.

Santa Cruz has has changed my life in a lot of ways, but nothing has been as influential and mind altering than the art experiences I've had here.

However, it is a depressing state of affairs that in the last 20 years I've been here, I've seen the number, quality, and variety of independent artists here decline.

I hope this survey indicates that Santa Cruz is taking the problems of artists seriously, but until I see otherwise, I wonder if it isn't perceived as merely a marketing problem.

This problem isn't about better marketing of the arts. One cannot market what one does not have. Simply put, Santa Cruz is currently NOT an arts destination. Rather than art hospitable, Santa Cruz is art hostile.

High rents, aggressive laws thwarting street performance, aggressive noise ordinances, limits on where one can stand, sit, and perform, decreasing numbers of independent artists, and increasing numbers of high-end art boutiques will be the death of art in this town.

Constructive suggestions? Just to start. What would be helpful would be informational kiosks where anyone could post art-related information. What would be helpful would be loosening the stranglehold on downtown aesthetics to include murals, street art, stencil, guerrilla performance, and public sculpture. What would be helpful would be rent-control for artists or low-end galleries. What would be helpful would be a rollback of all of the repressive laws that make life downtown uncomfortable for anyone except those shoppers with fat wallets.

I'm hoping the city begins to view art as a creative tool to solving other problems as well. For instance, the city clearly believes there is a serious homeless problem, and solutions are currently limited to pushing them to the fringes. While there are 160 beds for the 1500 to 2000 homeless in town, are there any programs offering art skills and practice to the poor and homeless people in town? Is there support for art and artists' tool co-ops for poor artists who do not have the wherewithal to own their own tools and facilities?

The survey is asking some of the right questions. Consider that innovation comes from small efforts. Small-size performance spaces and outdoor spaces. Rehearsal spaces, community gardens with small stages, places to paint, places to play music, quiet places to write, places to practice. Places tucked away and places in plain view. Art has to be woven and integrated with life to make it relevant and important. Closing Pacific Avenue to cars from one end to the other would be a great start.

Support people doing things themselves, support self-organization, such as art co-ops , community performance groups, and writer's groups. well-funded venues are less important than connections between people and collaborative efforts.

Anything the city can do to support the arts and artists is great. I'd love to live in a town awash in art and artists. However, what we don't need is more centralized art administration, unified marketing efforts, art districts, and official festivals and art events. The words "official," "public," and "qualified" are always the death of art.

Rather than the city "fostering," "providing," "offering," and "organizing," how about the city do what it can to support artists self-organizing, providing for themselves, and fostering their own collaborations. How about the city start by not standing smack in the way of art.