NEA appoints L.A.'s Ayanna Hudson as arts education director

 
The National Endowment for the Arts has named a new director for arts education, choosing an experienced cultural advocate from Los Angeles. Ayanna Hudson will assume the new position starting in July, the NEA said Thursday. Hudson comes from the L.A. County Arts Commission, where she led Arts for All, an initiative to return arts to schools' core curricula.

Hudson will manage all stages of the grantmaking process for the organization's arts education program, the NEA said. The program benefits students and teachers through grants intended to go toward training and development of the arts.

Hudson has worked as arts eduction director at the L.A. County Arts Commission since 2001. Her previous experience includes the School Arts Program at the Fulton County Department of Arts and Culture in Atlanta.

Hudson will replace Sarah Cunningham, who left the NEA in July. In a statement, Hudson said she has a profound belief in the mission of NEA, and is looking "forward to spearheading strategic efforts to impact the lives of millions of youth through the arts."

The L.A. County Arts Commission said it is planning a national search to find a replacement for Hudson.

RELATED:

'Hunger Games' ' Stanley Tucci to go to bat for arts funding

NEA-style community-building via arts has lost ground in state

Obama's 2013 budget calls for 5% increase for arts and culture

-- David Ng

Photo: Ayanna Hudson. Credit: Gregory Gilmer / L.A. County Arts Commission

LACMA, Getty among 134 museums joining Google's art site

 

Google knows something about the power in numbers, even in an art website.

Google Art Project, which launched last year with virtual tours and digitized artworks from 17 museums, has added 134 new museums to its site, including four from California.

Initially, no museums from the state were included in the project; now the Getty Museum, the L.A. County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the De Young Museum in San Francisco are participating.

Other newcomers in the U.S. include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., the Rubin Museum in New York, and the White House.
New partners from outside the U.S. include the Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art in Brazil, the Musée d’Orsay in France, the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico, Islamic Museum of Qatar, and the National Museum of Indonesia, just to name a few. Altogether, 40 countries are now represented.

This expansion addresses early complaints from cultural critics that the site was too Eurocentric and Old Masters-heavy, because of offerings from such venerable institutions as the Frick Collection and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Uffizi in Florence, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the National Gallery in London.

Art Center buys postal facility, plans to expand and renovate

A major redesign is in the works for Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design, which is gearing up for what its president says will be the largest fundraising campaign in its history to pay for an expansion of its south campus and renovations to its distinctive, elongated main campus set into a hillside about five miles to the north.

Art Center, often ranked among the nation’s top design schools, announced Tuesday that it has spent $7 million to buy a former U.S. Postal Service mail distribution center next to its existing satellite campus in south Pasadena, and has hired the Los Angeles firm Michael Maltzan Architecture to do master planning and design work.

Los Angeles Dance Festival to debut in a busy April

With the goal of highlighting local dance, Diavolo Dance Theater and Brockus Project are co-producing a new Los Angeles Dance Festival, April 14 and 15, at the Brewery Arts Complex just east of downtown.

So far, 16 contemporary dance companies have signed up to participate, including Barak Marshall’s dance company, Oni Dance, Kybele Dance Theater and Lula Washington Dance Theatre. Deborah Brockus, artistic director of Brockus Project, said she is awaiting word from several other groups.

“What I want to do with this festival is somewhat similar to the American Dance Festival in North Carolina,” said Brockus, speaking of the annual summer event that is an international leader for dance training of college students, and for presenting and commissioning contemporary work.  For the Los Angeles Dance Festival, “the companies are all going to be doing open classes in the day, and then there are performances in the evening.”

The classes will take place in Brockus Project’s two studios at the Brewery Arts Complex on Moulton Avenue, and the performances will be at Diavolo’s studio space, also at the Brewery, which can seat as many as 150. If the Saturday performance sells out, a later second show would be added, Brockus said. She based her selection on "strong working companies that tour to different places."

Chouinard, the influential L.A. art college, is revisited online

Chouinard Art Institute has come to life for the third time in 90 years -- this time on the Web, where the high overhead costs that eventually sank the original, highly influential school in 1972 and blunted an attempted revival during the 2000s no longer will be a factor.

The Chouinard Foundation website is devoted to telling the story and documenting the influence of the art college (pictured) that a war widow named Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (pronounced shuh-nard) launched near downtown L.A. in 1921, continuing for more than 50 years until it was contentiously consumed in the creation of CalArts. 

The Chouinard alumni roster includes Robert Irwin, Ed Ruscha, Larry Bell, Allen Ruppersberg, Hollywood costume designer Edith Head, graphic artist John Van Hamersveld (designer of “The Endless Summer” film poster and the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” and the Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main Street” album covers) and the "Nine Old Men," the crew of animators who played vital roles in the triumph of Walt Disney.

The site offers videos, news articles and historical background on Chouinard’s initial run and the activities of the Chouinard Foundation, which began improbably in 1999 after Dave Tourje, an artist, guitarist and construction company owner, bought Nelbert Chouinard’s 1907 home in South Pasadena as a fixer-upper without knowing much about her, then became enthralled with the notion of restoring her legacy along with her former domicile.

Inner-City Arts names Joseph Collins as new CEO and president

Inner-City Arts, the nonprofit organization in downtown L.A.'s Skid Row that provides free arts education to disadvantaged youth, has named Joseph A. Collins as its new president and chief executive officer. Collins replaces Cynthia Harnisch Breunig, who left the organization in July after more than 12 years to become chief executive of the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio.

Collins, who assumes his role this week, previously served as the chief executive of the Kanye West Foundation, the nonprofit youth organization affiliated with the pop singer that shut down in March. Collins also has held positions at the New York City Department of Education and the University Settlement Society of New York.

In a phone interview Monday, Collins said that his goals for the coming year include expanding Inner-City Arts' evening and weekend programs for youth, and to increase teenage participation. 

He added that he wants to ramp up activity in the organization's performing-arts theater. "I want it to become a place for emerging artists and an incubator for new works in dance, theater and music,"  Collins said.

A spokeswoman for Inner-City Arts said that Harnisch Breunig left the organization in July after getting married and moving to the Inland Empire. During her tenure, she oversaw the organization's renovated campus designed by architect Michael Maltzan.

RELATED:

Prince William and wife, Catherine, drop in at Inner-City Arts

Michael Maltzan's Inner-City Arts project wins excellence award

Architecture review: Coming clean in the inner city

-- David Ng

Photo: Inner-City Arts in downtown L.A. Credit: Iwan Baan

Yvonne Mounsey, bringing Ballanchine to the Westside

During much of her celebrated career as a ballerina, which included performing with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and Colonel W. de Basil’s Original Ballet Russe, Yvonne Mounsey never imagined one day becoming a teacher.

“I was a dreamer and only wanted to dance. I thought of teaching as just saying ‘first position’ over and over again,” she says.

PHOTO GALLERY: Yvonne Mounsey and Westside Ballet's "The Nutcracker"

But working with George Balanchine during her decade as a dancer with New York City Ballet prompted Mounsey to rethink the vicissitudes of teaching. “Balanchine made you do this footwork that was about precision and attack, and I’d been in the company a couple of years before I got it,” she recalls. “He said to me one day, ‘Now you know what to do with your feet,' and I saw all those little details that went into my getting the footwork, with the heel coming forward and the toe going back.”

Discovering that teaching “came naturally,” Mounsey went on to co-found the Santa Monica-based Westside School of Ballet and pre-professional Westside Ballet company in 1967. For 39 years she has staged an annual production of “The Nutcracker." And she has also successfully channeled the Balanchine aesthetic of musicality and precision in her training of generations of students, many of whom continued on to professional careers in a number of ballet companies.

“Yvonne really brings the Balanchine technique and spirit to Westside Ballet,” says Rachel Schwartz, 16, who has studied at the school for 11 years. “It’s the way she teaches footwork, the way her hands curve. She’ll say, ‘This is the way Balanchine did it,’ and it’s so amazing to learn from her since she had firsthand experience with him.”

Obama to honor Harmony Project founder at White House

The Harmony Project is once again being honored at the White House.

Margaret Martin, who founded the L.A. organization that provides music education and instruments to disadvantaged youth, will receive the 2011 Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation's second-highest civilian honor, in a ceremony scheduled for Thursday.

Martin is one of 13 recipients of the annual award, which includes two other people from Southern California: military veteran John Keaveney of L.A., who founded the New Directions home; and Judith Broder of Studio City, who created the Soldiers Project.

President Obama is expected to present the medals at the ceremony.

The Harmony Project was recognized at the White House in 2009 when First Lady Michelle Obama presented the group with the Coming Up Taller Award, which recognizes youth-oriented arts and humanities programs nationwide.

Founded in 2001, L.A.'s Harmony Project provides classical music education for low-income children. The organization is based in Hollywood but does much of its work with youth from the South Central area of L.A as well as other regions.

The Harmony Project is also one of the partners involved in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's YOLA Expo Center Youth Orchestra.

RELATED:

L.A.'s Harmony Project honored at White House

They needn't pay for music lessons

-- David Ng

Photo: A flute student practices as her friends watch before the first recitals of the Expo Center Children's Orchestra, which is a partnership that includes the L.A. Phil, the Harmony Project and others. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Monster Mash: Ai Weiwei tops power list; stolen paintings tossed?

Influential: Ai Weiwei has taken the top spot in the annual art-world power list from the magazine ArtReview. (Reuters)

Rubbish: A suspect in the theft of paintings by such artists as Picasso and Matisse from the Paris Museum of Modern Art claims that in a panic, he threw the paintings into the garbage. (Los Angeles Times)

More trouble: A Washington, D.C. educator has abruptly pulled out of the top job at the troubled downtown L.A. arts high school. (Los Angeles Times)

Unusual: The London Philharmonic is releasing an album called "The Greatest Video Game Music," featuring classically arranged scores from Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft and more. (CNET)

Billionaire: Victor Pinchuk discusses his plans to build a new contemporary art space in Kiev, Ukraine. (The Art Newspaper)

Under the weather: Buckingham Palace said a cold has forced Queen Elizabeth II to cancel a visit to the British Museum in London. (Associated Press, via Washington Post)

Back home: A stolen Jules Breton painting has been returned to France after a century. (Agence France-Presse)

Cameo role: The new Mob Museum in Las Vegas will make an appearance on the CBS series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." (Los Angeles Times)

Famous face: The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory has unveiled a new sculpture of New York Yankee Derek Jeter. (WLKY)

New leader: The Colorado Symphony Orchestra announced Thursday that Jim Copenhaver has been named interim chief executive. (Denver Post)

Also in the L.A. Times: Music critic Mark Swed reviews Andreas Scholl with the English Concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

-- David Ng

Photo: Ai Weiwei in 2010. Credit: Andy Wong / Associated Press

The Arts on TV: Dale Chihuly; Plácido Domingo; Ramsey Lewis

 
   
“Chihuly Fire & Light” 8 p.m. Friday, KLCS: The De Young exhibit has 11 galleries of new and archived works by glass artist Dale Chihuly.

“Great Performances” 9 p.m. Friday, KOCE; 3:30 p.m. Sunday, KVCR: "Plácido Domingo: My Favorite Roles:" Tenor Plácido Domingo recalls his favorite roles in opera houses around the world.

“The Artist Toolbox” 8:30 p.m. Saturday, KLCS: Jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis.

“Latin Music USA” 11 p.m. Saturday, KVCR: "Bridges/The Salsa Revolution": Latin jazz, mambo and the cha-cha; Latin music through the 1960s; Puerto Ricans and other Latinos in New York reinvent the son cubano and the plena.

“Latin Music USA” Midnight Saturday, KVCR: "The Salsa Revolution": Puerto Ricans and other Latinos in New York reinvent the son cubano and the plena by adding soul and jazz elements to create salsa.

“Live From Lincoln Center” Noon Sunday, KOCE: "New York Philharmonic Opening Night With Deborah Voigt": Soprano Deborah Voigt joins the New York Philharmonic in works by Barber, Wagner and Richard Strauss.

“Vine Talk” 10:30 p.m. Sunday, KVCR: Navigating Napa Valley Cabernets: Actors John Lithgow and S. Epatha Merkerson; author Nora Ephron; chef Jonathan Waxman.

“2501 Migrants: A Journey” Midnight Sunday, KOCE: Oaxacan artist Alejandro Santiago creates 2,501 life-size clay sculptures, with each statue symbolizing migrants who left their native homes.

“Diego Rivera” 4 a.m. Monday, Biography: The life of the Mexican painter, muralist and architect.

-- Compiled by Ed Stockly

Photo: Veronica Villarroel and Placido Domingo in the 1995 Los Angeles Opera production of Manuel Penella Moreno's "El Gato Montes." Credit: Los Angeles Times.