Thursday, April 5, 7 pm Pre-performance Happy Hour, 5 pm
Suddenly Summer Somewhere is a duet that follows the relationship between two performers, Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass, who embody quirky, fallible, and familiar characters. This whimsical dance theater piece is set to live recordings of the Rat Pack and blends deadpan comedy, space-devouring choreography, and awkwardly strenuous partnering. Barnes’ work slips between comedy and tragedy as the performers struggle along their journey together.
Monica Bill Barnes & Co. will be performing at Center Stage Theater at 7 pm. We invite you to arrive early and join us for a pre-performance Happy Hour starting at 5 pm at CAF, featuring La Tour Wine, music by Warbler Records, and an opportunity to peruse the exhibition Flights from Wonder.
Support for Forum Lounge 2011-2012 is generously provided by: Endever Music Productions, the Franciscan Inn, KCSB, La Tour Wine, the National Endowment for the Arts, Santa Barbara Independent, Therese Schweidler, and Warbler Records. Forum Lounge is presented in association with the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization’s 1st Thursday.
Founded in 2006, casebolt and smith are a Los Angeles-based theater duo that skirt the proverbial line between the profound and the absurd, often siding with humor and irreverence. O(h)evolves from demonstrations of what they can, can’t, and won’t do into intricate movement phrases layered with pop culture references. Speaking directly to the audience while dancing and sometimes singing, they offer honest insights into their limitations as a duet company and their fear of becoming unoriginal. The result is a fast-paced, complex and hilarious glimpse into the minds and pants of casebolt and smith.
Support for Forum Lounge 2011-2012 is generously provided by: the National Endowment for the Arts, Andrea Lang Fund, Daniel Clark, Endevermusic Productions, the Franciscan Inn, KCSB, Santa Barbara Independent, Santa Barbara Winery, and Therese Schweidler. Forum Lounge is presented in association with the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization’s 1st Thursday.
Saturday, February 12, 8-11 pm Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum 14th Annual Valentine's Benefit Auction
Add a little heART to your Valentine’s Day and celebrate with the chicest, most avant-garde arts space in Santa Barbara, featuring art direction by Kat Trajano and loving grooves by DJ Jahi Sundance!
Brought
to you as a late-night, benefit extravaganza inspired by the romance
and sophistication of the holiday, this fundraiser for the arts offers
high-end live and silent auction lots including exceptional wines,
luxury items, and world-class artwork by internationally renowned
artists! Indulge your senses with the following pairings: fine wines
& cocktails, delectable cheeses & chocolates, and hip music
& dancing!
Black
Label, $175 per person: Open-bar privileges and one free entry ticket
for a chance to win a work of art by Ellsworth Kelly!
Red Label, $50 per person: Silent & Live Auctions, Cheeses, Chocolates & Cocktails, live DJ, and art raffle!
Tickets on sale now. For tickets, call 805.966.5373 or visit our website sbcaf.org.
As
a special treat this year, don’t miss CAF’s raffle for a chance to win a
work of art! Tickets will be sold at the event for $25. Winner does not
have to be present to win!
All proceeds from our 14th Annual Valentine's Benefit Auctionsupport CAF's highly acclaimed exhibitions and educational programs.
Sponsors: American Laser Centers, Arna Bee Photography,
Chris Bailey and Carolyn Glasoe, Ralph and Jan Baxter,19 Blue, Josh and
Suzanne Blumer, Boxing Kitten, Bridlewood Estate Winery, Buttonwood
Farm Winery, Cabana Home, Nell Campbell, Casa Magazine,
CMND-Z Clothing, Consilience, Chef Roberto Cortez, Cos Bar Montecito,
Alejandro Diaz, Dining with Di, D.J. Jahi Sundance, Candyce Eoff, Kim
Fisher, Michael and Nancy Gifford, Penelope Gottlieb, Saul
Gray-Hildenbrand, Imagine, Imagine Wine, Jane Deering Gallery, Barry and
Jill Kitnick, La Tour Wine Merchants, Lady E Photography, Lorraine Lim
Catering, MAKE.SMITH, Mark and Catherine Montgomery, Municipal
Winemakers, Natasha Boutique, Christine Nichols, Northern Trust,
Occhiali Fine Eyewear, Jo O'Connell, Patrick Painter, Inc., Marco
Pinter, Porch, Michael and Lorie Porter, Keith Puccinelli, Alex and
Eileen Rasmussen, RND Vodka, Richard Ross, Peter Rostovsky, Richard
Sanders and Ro Snell, Santa Barbara Independent, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Santa Barbara News-Press,
Danny Scott, Steven Sharpe, State Of Emergency, Straight Up Cocktail
Service, Sunset Towers Hotel, Sunstone Vineyards and Winery, The Supply
Room, Marc Swanson, Kat Trajano, Michael Trambert and Jacquelyn
Klein-Brown, Touch, Chef Tam Trinh, Tony and Nancy Wall, Geof and Laura
Wyatt, and Sam Zodeh and Yasmine Mohseni as of 02/11/11.
Categories:
Tags: Benefit, fundraiser, Auction, art, Dance, sbarts, sbart, party, fun
Thursday, December 2, 7 pm Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum FREE
Gravitational Forces explores technology as a medium for artistic expression by using dance and video to create a multi-sensory experience. This performance represents the emotions and struggles we face as humans through a fusion of dance, video, and generated sound. Dancers Anaya Cullen, Kaita Lepore, and Steven Jasso pull from the audience’s “kinesthetic sympathy” with the aid of Pinter’s direction and technological additions.
Marco Pinter (Creator/Director) received a B.A. from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY and a M.S. from the University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA. He has produced many performances including RUCKUS with Cloud Eye Control, Pamela Z, and his company’s Dichotomous as well works for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA with dancers from Company XIV, String Theory, and the State Street Ballet. A developer for Disney Imagineering and Mattel, Pinter has 7 issued patents and 23 pending patents in live video technology, robotics, interactivity, and telepresence.
Support for Forum Lounge is generously provided by: Endevermusic Productions, the Franciscan Inn, KCSB, Santa Barbara Winery, and the Santa Barbara Independent. Forum Lounge is presented in association with the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization’s 1st Thursday.
Curator's Notes:
This month's Forum Lounge explores the genre of dance and movement in an interactive multimedia format to feature the original work Gravitiional Forces. The performance piece was conceptualized and produced by Marco Pinter, a local software engineer and MAT (Media, Arts & Technology) PhD student at UCSB, whose passion for merging art (specifically movement/dance) with technology has resulted in various local projects. For this piece, Marco used his broad base of software and technological knowledge to collaborate with local choreographers and dancers Anaya Cullen, Steven Jasso and Kaita Lepore to produce a series of small vignettes, all tied together by multimedia interactive components. As a result, the dancers use sensory equipment as an extension of their movements, creating a visual and audio component to the piece that is based on real-time experiences.
The integration of dance and movement into a multimedia format has gained considerable traction over the last few years to advance technology as a means of artistic expression. And while traditional dance companies might integrate multimedia components to enhance their choreography, Gravitiional Forces was created to feature the technology. With this particular work, it also features the talents of local artists who demonstrate the same high levels of professionalism and talent that traditionally define Forum Lounge. As the curator of the program, I am proud to highlight the breadth of talent we have in our own community with this presentation.
--Heather Jeno Silva
Categories:
Tags: Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Marco Pinter, Forum Lounge, sbarts, sbart
Thursday, November 4th, 7 & 8 pm Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum FREE
Derived from an earlier video of the same name,WithoutSun is an edited compilation of “found online performances” of people on psychedelic substances. Utilizing the video as a choreography script, Condon worked with dancer Linda Austin and actor Russell Edge to re-interpret the erratic movements and verbalizations of self-published “trippers” through the precision and expressivity of contemporary dance. This treatment creates a rigorous and exquisite set of gestures that provide an intriguing interpretation of the video’s authentic experiential movements.
Parental discretion advised. This performance may not be suitable for children.
Brody Condon received an M.F.A. from the University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Biennial 2004, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY; Santa Monica Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; and Machine Project, Los Angeles, CA.
About the Forum Lounge Series: Forum Lounge is a series of free, unique, performance-based events, ranging from the theatrical to the avant-garde that are normally found only in large metropolitan venues, and that reflect CAF’s mission to sustain and encourage the artistic process by presenting art in the form of exceptional music, dance, video, and other multi-media to our community.
Support for Forum Lounge is generously provided by: Endevermusic Productions, the Franciscan Inn, KCSB, Santa Barbara Winery, Santa Barbara Independent, and Therese Schweidler Photography. Forum Lounge is presented in association with the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization’s 1st Thursday.
About the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (CAF) : CAF is a non-profit, non-collecting alternative art space dedicated to the exhibition, education, and cultivation of the arts of our time. Celebrating its 34th anniversary in 2010, CAF is the premier venue for contemporary art between Los Angeles and San Francisco. CAF is located at the Paseo Nuevo Mall Upper Arts Terrace in downtown Santa Barbara, CA.
CURATOR's NOTES:
I first became aware of Brody Condon's work when he premiered Without Sun at the prestigious Portland Institute of Contemporary Art's TBA (Time-Based Art) Festival in 2009 and then subsequently, as part of New York's Performa, one of the art world's most renowned showcase of contemporary performance art practices. In addition to his impressive performance pedigree, Condon's work has been reviewed in numerous publications, including Art in America and Modern Painters Magazine. As Forum Lounge's curator, it is important to me that the program features artists of such excellent caliber; to have CAF on Condon's list of performance venues not only increases the prestige of the organization, but more critically, offers the Santa Barbara public a unique opportunity to take part in groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed performance artworks. Condon's piece is an excellent example of taking multimedia to the next level: he re-approrpriates accessible forms of media (in this case, found videos from YouTube and other video internet sites plus contemporary dance) to create works that challenge our perception of technology's influence on our culture. In his seamless duplication of the found material, we begin to question our objective ability to perceive ourselves in the digital world.
--Heather Jeno Silva, Forum Lounge Curator
Categories:
Tags: Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Brody Condon, Forum Lounge, sbarts, sbart
Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB), formerly the Contemporary Arts Forum (CAF), is a non-profit, non-collecting institution dedicated to exhibiting the highest quality of contemporary art while recognizing "the artists of tomorrow," and was founded in 1976 by artists and art supporters seeking a venue dedicated solely to contemporary art. What once began as a grassroots, artist-run organization with nominal funding now serves as the leading contemporary arts presenter in Central California. MCASB offers its innovative education and exhibition programming to the region primarily free of charge. There is no admission fee because MCASB believes that the arts should be accessible to all audiences of all persuasions.
MCASB advances creativity and inspires critical thinking through meaningful engagement with the art of our time.
