Montalvo Arts Center Will 'Rock the Garden' This Friday Evening

By BAY AREA ARTS INFO 

A wide range of performing and visual artists will be on hand at Rock the Garden atMontalvo Arts Center on July 24, when the public is invited to a free multidisciplinary outdoor performance festival and alumni celebration.

From dancers to DJs, and ukulele players to acrobats, this diverse lineup will offer something for everyone as Montalvo celebrates two important anniversaries—the 75th year of its artists residency program and the 10-year jubilee of its distinguished Lucas Artists Residency campus.

Rock the Garden will give the public the opportunity to engage with current and former Artists-in-Residence such as internationally renowned body/performance artistHirokazu Kosaka and 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award-winning composer/performer/media artist Pamela Z. Guests can also explore Montalvo’s historic grounds and enjoy visual art installation by such artists as beloved Bay Area artist Susan O’Malley and distinguished sculptor Stephen De Staebler.

Dining options from gourmet food trucks will also be available.

Rock the Garden takes place 6pm-10pm, Friday, July 24 at Montalvo Arts Center, 15400 Montalvo Road, Saratoga, CA. Admission is free. Parking on-site is $10; free shuttles from West Valley College.

Rock the Garden 2015 participating artists will include:

• Lauren Baines, a choreographer and performer, who has created and self-produced theatre and dance throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Songwriter and acrobat Nikki Borodi, who dazzles audiences by combining unique vocal arrangements and ukulele music simultaneously with acrobatic performances.
• Dahlak Brathwaite, a multi-faceted hip-hop artist whose talents as musician, actor, poet, and educator meld within the transformational space of the theater.
• Acrobatic partner-balancing and acro-yoga practitioner Glenn Easley, who leads classes and workshops in Seattle as part of the performance duo Bohemian Acro.
• Joanna Haigood, co-founder and Artistic Director of the Zaccho Dance Theatre, who has taught at such institutions as the National École des Arts du Cirque in France, the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in England, Spelman College, and the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University.
• Pianist, composer, and sound artist Motoko Honda, whose distinctive approach to music showcases exceptional creativity as she blends art forms, technologies, and musical styles ranging from jazz to Indonesian music to contemporary piano.
• Performance artist Debby Kajiyama, who, as co-director of the Oakland-based NAKA Dance Theater, has created five full-evening programs and numerous shorter works that have been presented nationally and internationally.
• Choreographer and performance artist Nehara Kalev, whose work, combining experimental dance-theatre, improvisation, and aerial imagery, has been performed all over the world.
• Zoë Klein, international performer, teacher, aerialist, and acrobat, who has toured 26 countries and six continents.
• Ordained Shingon Buddhist priest, master archer, and internationally-recognized performance artist Hirokazu Kosaka, known for his large-scale performative pieces that use publicly accessible space as a platform for dance, performance, and visual art practice.
• Performance artist José Navarrete, also co-director of the NAKA Dance Theatre, who leads the Guerilla Performance Group at Oakland’s Eastside Arts Alliance.
• Internationally-acclaimed dancer Oguri, currently artist-in-residence at the Electric Lodge in Venice, California.
• Multi-instrumentalist Adria Otte, who has performed in musical ensembles ranging from string quartets to rock bands to free improvisation groups.
• Adonis Damian Martin Quiñones, soloist for Danza del Caribe and Locomotion—an interactive audio-visual dance company.
• The Real Vocal String Quartet, whose broad repertoire embraces the diverse influences of all four players, from classical, jazz, and rock, to songs and styles from West Africa, Brazil, and rural America.
• California-based trumpet-player, composer, and improviser Kris Tiner, who was recently featured on NPR Music as one of a handful of new trumpet voices impacting modern music.
• Celebrated artist Pamela Z, a San Francisco-based composer/performer and media artist who works primarily with voice, live electronic processing, sampled sound, and video.

Visitors will also be able to enjoy the various art works on display throughout Montalvo’s grounds, including:

• A new permanent seating element in Montalvo’s Italianate Gardens by artist and designer Christopher Loomis, who specializes in heirloom quality furniture, sculpture, and home accessories that blur the lines between art, craft, function, and form.
• The premier of the permanent installation of Susan O’Malley’s A Healing Walk, nine signs installed along Montalvo’s nature trails inviting visitors to practice mindfulness.
• A stunning outdoor installation of bronze works by acclaimed American sculptorStephen De Staebler.
• An installation of electrical conduits and fixtures made entirely out of white cotton paper by Imin Yeh, an interdisciplinary project-based artist, working in sculpture, installation, and print.

Rock the Garden is one of a total of 16 international celebrations taking place in July, honoring Montalvo’s residency program. Led by alumni artists, these events will celebrate both Montalvo’s residency program and the value of time and space for artists to devote to their creative practice. Artist Fellows will come together in such wide-ranging cities as Havana, Kyoto, Cairo, London, Marrakech, and Rotterdam.

These international celebrations will include an improvisational performance by Andres Solis in Mexico City; a picnic in the park of the Kyoto Imperial Palace hosted by artist Misako Inaoka; a “Rotterdam Pantry Party” hosted by artist Wapke Feenstra (inspired by the city of Rotterdam’s free urban farms) where artists will sit around a large table, eat together, and share their recent work; a reading from the book, A Road to Tahrir Square, which tells the tale of former LAP Fellow Nagat Ali’s experience in the Egyptian Revolution, followed by a walk through Tahrir Square; and an evening at Tadioto in Hanoi hosted by writer and radio producer Nguyen Qui Duc, including a reading of poems and an excerpt from his novel set in Morocco and written while in residence at Montalvo.

Photos, videos, writings, and more from these celebrations will be posted onblog.montalvoarts.org for the public to enjoy.

Montalvo is home to the oldest artists’ residency west of the Mississippi and the third-oldest residency program in the US. Since it opened its doors in 1939, over 1,000 artists from a diverse range of disciplines have spent time at Montalvo developing and honing their practices and producing culturally significant works of art.

Construction of a new architecturally distinguished multidisciplinary artist residency, the Sally and Don Lucas Artists Program (LAP), was completed in 2004. The campus opened to artists in 2005. As a space for creative incubation, the LAP is designed to offer artists an environment conducive to individual and collaborative creative practice. Stimulating an energetic exchange of ideas between culturally diverse Fellows across varied artistic fields and scholarly disciplines, the program has garnered international recognition for its support of the development of new and challenging contemporary artwork.

Montalvo Arts Center is a member-supported nonprofit institution, whose mission is to create and present art of all types, nurture artists, and use its historic buildings and grounds in innovative ways that engage people in the creative process.

Located in Silicon Valley’s Saratoga Hills, Montalvo occupies a Mediterranean-style Villa, built in 1912 by Senator James Duval Phelan and surrounded by 175 stunning acres. Senator Phelan bequeathed the Villa and grounds to the people of California for the encouragement of art, music, literature, and architecture, a mandate Montalvo has carried forward ever since its founding.

The grounds include the campus of the Sally and Don Lucas Artists Residency Program (LAP). For more information about Montalvo Arts Center and its programs, the public can call (408) 961-5814 or visit montalvoarts.org.

For more information, please visit montalvoarts.org/events/rock_the_garden_2015 or call (408) 961-5814.