March Events at Laguna Art Museum

MARCH EVENTS AT LAGUNA ART MUSEUM INCLUDE ARTIST TALKS WITH ALLISON SCHULNIK AND ANDRE WOODWARD, A PERFORMANCE IN THE GALLERIES BY LAGUNA DANCE FESTIVAL, A CONCERT BY DUO DEL SOL, AND THREE EDUCATIONAL LECTURES

In March Laguna Art Museum will host an array events including a Q & A session with featured artist Allison Schulnik on March 3; a dance performance in the museum's galleries by Laguna Dance Festival followed by Conversation With...Andre Woodward on March 7 during the Laguna Beach First Thursday Art Walk; a concert by Dúo del Sol on March 14 as part of the Live! at the Museum series; a lecture on Geroge Hurrell by Hurrell biographer Mark A. Vieira on March 17; a special event for art collectors interested in preserving the legacy of their art collection presented by U.S. Trust on March 19; and a One Hour / One Painting program led by Peter Clothier on March 28.

Q & A with Allison Schulnik
Sunday, March 3
1:00 p.m.
Free to museum members, free to non-members with museum admission

Artist Allison Schulnik will lead a walk-through of her ex•pose exhibition (currently on display in the lower level galleries at Laguna Art Museum) followed by a Q & A session. She will discuss her clay animation films and recent series of paintings. In addition, Schulnik will be signing books and posters, which are available for sale in the museum store.

Schulnik shows the same relish for visceral and surreal imagery throughout her work, whether paintings, sculptures, or clay animations. Her work is haunting, mournful, and beautiful all at once. This exhibition features a series of new paintings and sculptures in addition to three of her clay animation films.

Dance at the Museum: Our Rite
Thursday, March 7
6:30 and 8:00 p.m.
Free admission

Laguna Dance Festival celebrates the centenary of Stravinsky’s epoch-making ballet The Rite of Spring. Dancers will perform excerpts from UC Irvine’s The Sacre Project, choreographed by Jodie Gates (artist director of Laguna Dance Festival and professor of dance at UC Irvine), as well as complementary pieces alluding to Primitive Mother (Primordial Days in Palm Springs), a painting by Elanor Colburn in the museum’s collection, currently on display. This is the premiere of the Primitive Mother pieces, which were jointly commissioned by Laguna Dance Festival and the museum.

Conversation With...Andre Woodward
Thursday, March 7
7:00 p.m.
Free admission

The Conversation With… series brings artists and other creative minds to Laguna Art Museum to discuss their practice in a casual conversation with guests. The next participant in the series is Andre Woodward. The evening will begin with a brief presentation by Woodward, followed by the rare opportunity for museum visitors to engage with the artist in conversation.
.
Andre Woodward is a Southern California artist whose work focuses on the intersection between nature, technology, and humanity. He uses a mixture of manmade and organic materials. Born in Newport Beach, Woodward received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art from University of California, Irvine, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from California State University, Long Beach.  He was the recipient of the Visions from the New California award in 2011.  His art has been featured in My Green City and on the covers of Sculpture Magazine and the most recent Visions from the New California catalog. Woodward’s work has been exhibited at venues throughout California, including the 18th Street Art Center and the Torrance Art Museum, with solo exhibitions at the Huntington Beach Art Center, Whittier College, and Villa Montalvo.

Live! at the Museum: Dúo del Sol
Thursday, March 14
7:00-8:00 p.m.
Free to museum members, free to non-members with museum admission

Live! at the Museum is an ongoing series of early-evening concerts in the museum’s galleries presented by Laguna Beach Live! that take place the second Thursday of each month. In March, Dúo del Sol will perform. Deemed “avant sonic acrobats” by the L.A. Weekly, Dúo del Sol makes music that sparkles with kinetic energy. Their expansive style can be compared to the likes of Radiohead while their raw energy conjures up the spirits of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. Based in Los Angeles, violinist Javier Orman (Montevideo, Uruguay) and guitarist Tom Farrell (Chicago, Illinois) excite audiences and bring energy and passion to the stage with their original music.

From Laguna to Hollywood with George Hurrell: An Odyssey in Images and Anecdotes
Lecture with Hurrell Biographer Mark A. Vieira
Sunday, March 17
1:00 p.m.
Free to museum members, free to non-members with museum admission

George Hurrell was both creator and master of the Hollywood glamour portrait. His unique career began in Laguna Beach with mentors such as William Wendt, Edgar Payne, and “Pancho” Barnes. Visit the museum for an entertaining presentation of photographs and stories from Hollywood’s Golden Era. Hurrell biographer Mark A. Viera relates the previously untold story of how a movie company filming on the beach set in motion a chain of events that led an unknown landscape painter to invent a new photographic idiom.

Mark A. Vieira is a photographer and writer specializing in Hollywood history. He is the biographer of George Hurrell, and his book Hurrell’s Hollywood Portraits (Abrams 1997) was the first to show Hurrell’s work in accurate chronology, describe it in the context of the personalities he captured, and analyze it in accessible photographic terms. Vieira is completing a sequel, which will be published by Running Press in October 2013. Vieira is the only American photographer making portraits and prints with Hurrell’s exact technique. He executes the portraits with Hurrell’s own camera in the historic Granada Buildings, where Hurrell opened his original Los Angeles studio in 1927. His other books include Sin in Soft Focus (Abrams 1999); The Making of “Some Like It Hot” with Tony Curtis (Wiley, 2009); and Harlow in Hollywood  with Darrell Rooney (Angel City Press, 2009). In 2009 Vieira guest-curated the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences exhibition: Irving Thalberg: Creating the Hollywood Studio System, 1920-1936.

What Every Art Collector Needs to Know
Tuesday, March 19
4:00-5:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public

Presented by U.S. Trust, Laguna Art Museum hosts a discussion with Ramsay Slugg, Managing Director, National Wealth Planning Strategies Group, U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, about what art collectors need to know about the future of their collection. Topics include taxes, passing your collection on to your family, and donating to charitable organizations. Guests will enjoy complimentary refreshments. Please RSVP to Membership Manager Valerie Tate at 949.494.8971 x203 of vtate@lagunaartmuseum.org. 

One Hour / One Painting with Peter Clothier
Thursday, March 28
7:00 p.m.
Free to museum members, free to non-members with museum admission

In One Hour/One Painting, author and critic Peter Clothier invites small groups of participants to sit in front of a single artwork for a full hour. For this series, he will select works from the museum’s permanent collection. Clothier begins with a brief introduction to the principles of closed-eye breath meditation, encouraging participants to relax and refresh the eyes. This leads to an alternation of closed- and open-eye work, with the facilitator guiding the process with brief instructions and directions.
.
Clothier is a long time observer of the contemporary art world and a widely published writer.  His publications include fiction, poetry, and a memoir, as well as David Hockney (a monograph), and a collection of political essays, The Bush Diaries.  His most recent book is Mind Work: Shedding Delusions On The Path To The Creative Core, a series of essays examining the importance of self-examination to the creative process.  His other recent publication, Persist: In Praise Of The Creative Spirit In a World Gone Mad With Commerce, addresses the predicament of the creative individual in a culture in which celebrity and money trump talent and quality of work. A graduate of Cambridge University, Clothier came to the U.S. in 1964 for the Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa.  Graduating with a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, he came to L.A. in 1968 to teach at USC.  He became Dean and Director of Otis Art Institute, and was Dean of Fine and Communication Arts at Loyola-Marymount University before leaving academia in 1986 to devote himself full time to writing.  He has been happily unemployed since then and describes himself as a recovering academic.


ABOUT LAGUNA ART MUSEUM
Laguna Art Museum is a museum of California art. Its mission is to collect, care for, and exhibit works of art that were created by California artists or represent the life and history of the state. Through its permanent collection, its special loan exhibitions, its educational programs, and its library and archive, the museum enhances the public’s knowledge and appreciation of California art of all periods and styles, and encourages art-historical scholarship in this field.
Laguna Art Museum stands just steps from the Pacific Ocean in the beautiful city of Laguna Beach. The museum is proud to continue the tradition of the Laguna Beach Art Association, founded in 1918 by the early California artists who had discovered the town and transformed it into a vibrant arts community. The gallery that the association built in 1929 is part of today’s Laguna Art Museum.

LOCATION
Laguna Art Museum is located at 307 Cliff Drive in Laguna Beach, on the corner of PCH and Cliff Drive, next door to Las Brisas restaurant.

HOURS
Monday-Tuesday, Friday-Sunday: 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Thursday: 11:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Closed Wednesday
Closed New Year’s Day, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day

PRICES
$7.00 general admission
$5.00 students, seniors, active military
FREE for children under 12 and museum members
FREE the first Thursday of every month from 5:00-9:00 p.m. during the Laguna Beach First Thursday Art Walk

TOURS
The museum offers complimentary docent-led tours every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 11:00 a.m. one week after an exhibition opens. No reservations are necessary. Audio tours can be accessed on any smartphone at www.LagunaArtMuseum.org. Patrons without smartphones can rent an iPod Touch for free at the museum's front desk.