|
“Dama Fuerte,” a work by Santa Paula-based artist Sylvia Huerta is among those featured in Women in the State of Grace: Transforming Adversities to Resounding Victories exhibit at the Ventura Community College Santa Paula Campus, that opens March 17.
|
State of Grace celebrates Women’s History Month at VCSP Campus
March 14, 2014
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
By Peggy Kelly Santa Paula Times Women in the State of Grace: Transforming Adversities to Resounding Victories is an upcoming exhibit that will feature renowned female artists showing works inspired by real life experiences.
The March 17 to May 16 exhibit is being presented by the Ventura College Santa Paula Campus in recognition of Women’s History Month and features 18 women artists from throughout the state including Santa Paula, Ventura, Ojai, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, March 21, 6 to 9 p.m. at the campus, located at 957 Faulkner Road.
There is no admission to the reception; appetizers will be served and guests will be able to meet artists Sylvia Huerta of Santa Paula as well as Dr. Judy Baca, Juliane Backmann, Jacqueline Biagg, Gayel Childress, Lynn Creighton, Paty Diaz, Lois Freeman-Fox, Margaret Garcia, Pola Lopez, Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta, Isabel Martinez, Christine Morla, Angela Ortiz, Sylvia Raz, Marianne Sadowski, Cola Smith and Jenchi Wu.
Guests will also enjoy poetry readings by Luzmaria Espinosa of Santa Paula, Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta of San Francisco and Brittany Torrez, an Isbell Middle School student, and musical entertainment by Carmelita Moraza-Peralta, Lencho (Lorenzo) Moraza and Xavier “Big X” Montes, who will also accompany the De Colores Young Women Ensemble.
Vanessa Acosta of Cultural Arts Tours and Workshops, an Avenue 52 Studio Northeast Los Angeles board director, is the curator of the exhibit.
Costa worked for the Southwest Museum as an education program coordinator and assistant to the executive director as well as a staffer and volunteer in the museum’s famed Botanical Garden.
She also started the Southwest Museum travel program in 1992 before, “I took it home and named it the Cultural Arts Tours and Workshops,” 14 years ago to service nonprofit organizations.
A resident of Santa Paula since September, Acosta said the tour program offers, “Peace, culture and education,” through an understanding of other cultures.
Understanding is also a strong component of the art exhibit “Based on the personal experiences of the artists... we women influence our environment, we are the ambassadors of health.”
Acosta also noted “Women assume activist roles while holding together their families and communities on a grassroots level... women weave together the shattered fabric of society,” and help “transform society.”
The artists’ personal statements take the place of titles for the mixed media works featured in the exhibit that include paintings, photographs, ceramics and sculptures.
The artists’ works, said Acosta are, “All defining pieces... I made this exhibit primarily for Santa Paula,” a city she admires for its beauty as well as the rich cultural arts atmosphere.
Although Acosta is a member of the Museum of Ventura County’s Los Contemporaneas advisory board, it is her first exhibit in the county.
She said the “Main featured artist in the exhibit at Ventura College’s Santa Paula Campus is Dr. Judy Baca,” a UCLA professor who will speak at the Ventura County Museum later this month.
Baca, whose own artwork includes a commission for the 1984 Olympics, is the founder of the UCLA Social and Public Arts Resource Center.
Acosta is looking forward to the March 21 opening reception and noted, “I want to give special thanks to Xavier Montes who introduced me to this wonderful community of Santa Paula, and Ventura College Santa Paula Campus-especially Sabrina Canola-for their invitation as guest curator and wonderful support to help celebrate Women’s History Month.”
Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
