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NewTown's entire Board functions as the
programming body and staff for all events, as well as fulfilling
traditional oversight and governance functions.
Grace Amemiya - spiral32@sbcglobal.net
Ms Amemiya is a multi-faceted artist whose work has been widely exhibited throughout
California. As a professional designer she has brought her skills to bear
on commercial products, movies and other commonly seen icons and images. She
has taught at Junior Barnsdall Art Center Art Partners in Los Angeles, Laguna
Art Museum Children's Workshop and Comision de Femenil Gifted Children
Program at the 2nd Street School in Boyle Heights.
Richard Amromin, Artistic Director - akamromin@earthlink.net
Richard Amromin is an arts administrator, producer, grantwriter
and erstwhile composer. He was formerly Director of Development,
Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center; Administrative Director
and President, Filmforum, Inc.; President, Independent Composers
Association; Development Consultant and Grant Writer, L.A.
Shares; and is currently, in addition to his duties with NewTown,
Development Consultant for Highways Performance Space and Development
Director for L.A. Freewaves. His compositions, published by
Leisure Planet Music, have been performed throughout the United
States and in Europe. He has a Bachelor of Music Degree from
Berklee College of Music and an MFA Degree in Music Composition
from CalArts.
Joe Berardi
Joseph Berardi is a Los Angeles-based performer and composer.
As a percussionist, he politely sidesteps the traditional role
of mere timekeeper, bringing his own characteristic approach
to color, rhythm and texture to every musical situation. His
unique style and use of miscellaneous percussive objects and
found sounds within the traditional drum kit have made him
a fixture on the Los Angeles experimental and improvised music
scene.
Berardi first came to prominence as a member of the critically
acclaimed avant-pop group the Fibonaccis. This groundbreaking
Los Angeles band recorded several LPs and film soundtracks, and
performed countless live shows, building a large following of
devoted fans. Since this band's demise, he has busied himself
with a wide assortment of musical projects, from experimental
to pop to points between and beyond. Non Credo, his ongoing collaboration
with Kira Vollman, highlights his compositional and multi-instrumental
skills, playing marimba, keyboards, electronics and the occasional
accordion, cello and viola. He is also a member of surf-spy experimentalists
Double Naught Spy Car, the metal/found objects percussion group
The Obliteration Quartet, Weill/Eisler worshipers the Eastside
Sinfonietta and the bent blues band The Mentones.
Berardi has been the drummer/percussionist of choice for a diverse
group of notorious performers, including recordings, tours and
collaborations with such notables as: Megan Mullally's group
Supreme Music Program, ex-Bongwater/performance diva Ann Magnuson,
Rufus Wainwright, punk poetess Lydia Lunch, James White and the
Blacks, Congo Norvell (featuring ex-Cramps Kid Congo Powers),
folk legend Donovan, ex-Pixies Frank Black & Joey Santiago,
Algerian vocalist Rimitti (with Robert Fripp & Flea), chamber
ensemble Motor Totemist Guild and Los Angeles improvisers Nels
Cline, G.E. Stinson, Alain Johannes and microtonalist Kraig Grady.
Berardi has also been active in live theatre in the Los Angeles
area. In Feb/March 2000 he was musical director for the Museum
Of Contemporary Art (MOCA) production of Kurt Weill/ Bertolt
Brecht's "Happy End". In 1999 he performed in Megan
Mullally's one woman musicale "Sweetheart". In 1998
he was solo percussionist with the touring production of "The
Square Root Of Terrible" for the Mark Taper Forum.
Beth Block - kalianna@flash.net
Beth Block is multi-faceted media artist, traversing experimental,
documentary and commercial mediums. Her boldly personal, experimental
films, such as Just for Fun, Vital Interests, and Twelve have
been exhibited at festivals and museums throughout the country,
are included in the Library of Congress and toured internationally.
Her credits as a Senior Composite Artist, Optical Effects Supervisor
and Post-Production Supervisor include general release films
like The Last Action Hero, Toys, Terminator
2 and Ghost. She
has served as President of Filmforum and was the curator of
film/video for the CalArts Alumni Exhibition. She is a member
of the International Photographer's Guild and the Writer's
Guild of America, West. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree
from Kent State University, where she graduated Cum Laude,
with department honors in Cinema; and a Master of Fine Arts
Degree from California Institute of the Arts, where she was
the recipient of the prestigious Melnick Scholarship Award.
Susan Braig, Treasurer
Susan Braig, a visual and multimedia artist, is
a development consultant for artists and arts organizations.
She was the primary grant writer for the Los Angeles Cultural
Affairs Department from 1994-2000. She teaches "The Agony
and the Ecstasy" grant writing workshops
to artists and nonprofit art organizations. Her ongoing satirical
art project "COMA:County of Orange Museum of Art" is
a multimedia installation about a fictional art museum that was
established for all the wrong reasons. COMA's video "mock-umentary" and
installation have been shown at Sam Francis Gallery/Crossroads
School, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Women in the Director's
Chair Festival (Chicago), New Angles International Video Festival
(New York), California Works competition
(Sacramento, 1st prize in New Genre), the Fringe of the Fringe
Festival (Claremont), the 3rd Annual Woman's Video Festival (Tucson,
3rd prize), Fullerton Museum Center, John Wayne Airport Gallery,
The Woman's
Building (LA) and various NewTown Pasadena events.
Danielle Brazell
Over the past thirteen years, Danielle has creaqted innovative
performance works, taught performance workshops to the community
and contributed to the performing arts field through her curatorail
vision and administrative leadership. Whether as an artist,
teacher, curator or administrator, Danielle Brazell is a dedicated
member of the arts community who firmly believes in its power
to inform, inspire and initiate dialogue creating a more vibrant,
compassionate society.
Danielle began her career in performance as a founding member
of the expewrimental performance collective, Sacred Naked Nature
Girls. Their first performance piece, Untitled
Flesh (1993-94)
won support form the F;lintridge Foundation who commissioned
the emergign collective's next two performance works, The
Last Place I ran to Just a\About Killed Me…Home (1996) and
The Party (1997), all of which premiered at Highways Perforamnce
Space.
Danielle premiered her first solo work, Tales
From a Bitch Girl in 1997 at Highways Performanec Space. The piece then went on
to tour at Diverse Works in Houston, TX, Luna Sea Woman's Performance
Project in San Francisco, Ex Theresa in Mexico City, Belluard
Bollwerk inInternational in Fribourg, Switzerland, Theatre D'
Arsenic in Lausanne Switzerland, and La Batie Performance Festival
in Geneva.
In 1999, Danielle joined Tim Miller as C-Artistic Director of
Highways Performance Space. Following a six-month transitional
period, Tim stepped down and Ganielle became Artistic Director.
Under her direction, Highwyas gained new prominence as an active
participant in the Touring and presenting Field. She created
innovative programs that enhanced national visibility of local
artists, presented regional and international artists and revitalized
annual festivals incluyding "eccelesbo-eccehomo" and
the Woman's Festival.
In 2000, Theatre D'Arsenic (Lausanne) and the La Batie Festival
(Geneva) commissioned Danielle to create BLOOM, a multi-media,
full length performance work exploring social hysteria,, political
migration, pathological lineage and mental survival through the
Killer Bee hyysteria on the mid-1970's. After its premiere, Danielle
teamed with creative partner, Tre Temperilli in a project revision
debuted at Highways before traveling to the Nation al Review
of Live Art in Glasgow.
In 1998/99 Danielle was a California Arts Council artist-in-residence
at Highways, teaching performance workshops for queer identified
women. Additionall, Danielle has received support from the California
Community Foundation's Gay and Lesbian Fund, Liberty Hill and
City of Santa Monica. In January, 2001, Danielle was invited
to teach at Cal State Los Angeles and invited back three consecutive
year to teach and choreograph a piece with the students for the
annual spring concert.
In 2000 Danielle was recoghnized by OUT magazien as one of the
most influential gay and lesbians working in theatre and in 2001
by The Advocate as an "Innovator" in the arts. She
is a 2002 recipient of the California Commuinity Foundation's
Getty Visual Arts Initiative and a 2003 recipient of the Lester
Horton Service to the Field award for her commitment to the Los
Angeles Dance Community.
She is one half of the duo SLANG, with Tre Temperilli. SLANG
creates whimsical, political, site-specific performances which
incorporate symbolic action, video, design and fashion. SLANG
premiered at Highway's 10th Year Birthday Party and has performed
at selected venues throughout Los Angeles. KneeCap (2001) premiered
at OutFest's Platinum Oasis. Their most recent work, TBD premiered
at Track 16 Gallery as part of Irrational Exhibits, curated by
Lida Abdullah and Deborah Oliver in April, 2003.
Currently, Danielle is working with the Screen Actors Guild
Foundation as the Director of Special Projects. She has begun
to create a full-length performance work, Acts
of Resistance and is gearing up for her third City of Los Angeles Cultural
Affairs Artist in Residency project at Cal State Los Angeles,
in June 2006.
Chusien Chang
Ms Chang is a visual and conceptual artist whose work has been
seen throughout the Southern California areas. Recently, her
site–specific installation have been featured at The
Arroyo Arts Collective’s “Riverwalk” and
in L.A. Freewaves’ 6th Celebration of Independent Media.
Pat Gomez, President
An artist and arts administrator, Pat Gomez has worked as a project
director for numerous groups and organizations throughout the
greater Los Angeles area, including the Foundation for Arts
Resources (FAR), and the City of Santa Monica Department of
Cultural Affairs. She is currently the Arts Manager for the
City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department responsible
for the private Arts Development Fee, City Art Collection,
and Murals Programs. She served as the Associate Director for
Self-Help Graphics & Art, and has held positions and directed
events for Otis College of Art and Design, the Huntington Beach
Art Center, and CalArts. She was a curator for the 2000 Freewaves
Media Festival. She is currently working on a project curating
an exhibition at 18th Street Art Complex in Santa Monica in
November of 2005. A visual artist working primarily in assemblage
and installation based approaches, she has exhibited throughout
Southern California and Mexico. She is featured in the U. of
Arizona and Smithsonian publication "Contemporary Chicana
and Chicano Artists", and was featured in the Santa Monica
Museum of Art's "East of the River" publication.
She is currently continuing work creating dialog between ancient
and contemporary images of body shape and beauty viewed through
the lens of Venus figures.
Leo F. Hobaica, Jr.
Leo F. Hobaica, Jr., Assistant Dean of the Film/Video School
(formerly Associate Director of Character Animation) at California
Institute of Art, completed the BA in Literature, Philosophy,
and Religion; and received the MFA in Fiber/Installation/Mixed-media
Sculpture from Fiberworks, Berkeley, Ca.
His extensive professional record reflects regional, national
and international exhibitions. His teaching experience includes
positions at Syracuse University, University of Hawaii, Earlham
College, San Francisco State, Grant Mac Ewan (Canada); and for
twelve years he was a member on the Visual Arts faculty for the
California State Summer School of the Arts.
He continues producing commissioned works for private and public
settings, has been awarded several public art projects, and has
completed temporary site specific installations in France, as
well as the United States. Mr. Hobaica was awarded an artist-in-residency
at the UCGJ, Paris, 2003-2004. He is presently an alternate for
a Fullbright Scholars Grant (2005) in Turkey.
At CalArts, in addition to his administrative responsibilities,
he teaches Color/Design I, II; Concept and Design in Animation;
Art Appreciation: Paris; and manages two CAP animation sites
one of which has produced 15 short animated pieces with 4-5th
grade students--the last three projects all of which have been
accepted into international film festivals for films made by
children.
Nancy Hotaling
Ms Hotaling is an artist who has worked in many mediums including
painting, sculpture, photography, textiles and, most recently
video, where she has reflected her dual interests in aesthetic
expression and environmental advocacy. She currently produces
Pulse: The Sierra Club, on Crown Cable system, an hour long,
live, issue-oriented program covering a spectrum of environmental
issues. She created and coordinated the first Pasadena Video
Art Festival and is the coordinator of Zone 11/12 Video Art
Group, a coalition of artists exploring alternative video at
Pasadena Community Access Corporation. She has a Bachelor of
Fine Arts Degree from California State University, Fullerton,
as well as specialized, studies in television production and
art at Pasadena Community Television, Pasadena Community College
and Otis Art Institute.
Stanton Hunter
Stanton Hunter has worked in clay and other materials for over
eighteen years. He exhibits his work nationally, is in public
collections on both coasts, and has been a guest lecturer/teacher
at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He teaches
beginning and advanced ceramics at Scripps College, Claremont,
and has taught beginning and advanced ceramic sculpture at
Citrus College, Glendora. His work includes vessels, sculpture
and installation, both indoors and outdoors.
Adam Hyman
Mr. Hyman is a filmmaker and writer. A native Angeleno, he has
a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Harvard College in History and
Science, and an Masters of Fine Arts from the USC School of
Cinema-Television. He is a producer, writer and director of
documentaries, primarily historical but also on cultural topics
and contemporary events. He is director and programmer of Los
Angeles Filmforum, the city's longest running venue for experimental
and avant-garde film and video art. He also happens to be a
native Angeleno.
Arthur Jarvinen
Arthur Jarvinen has been a featured composer and performer on
prominent concerts, festivals and broadcasts internationally
for well over two decades. He was a founding and longtime member
of the acclaimed California E.A.R. Unit and has led several
of his own bands and ensembles of various kinds. His musical
activities both as composer and performer range from contemporary
chamber and experimental music to songwriting, surf music,
electronics, improvisation and multimedia, and his creative
output includes visual art, word works, and experimental theater.
His theatrical experiments have generated a unique body of
work he calls "physical poetry", non-narrative audio/visual
compositions for the stage, incorporating sound, text, movement,
lighting, and props.
Jarvinen's works have been performed by the California E.A.R.
Unit, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, New York
New Music Ensemble, Icebreaker (England), Relâche, Bang
On A Can All Stars, Essential Music, Xtet, Zeitgeist, Contemporary
Chamber Players, Ensemble '88 (Netherlands), the San Francisco
Contemporary Music Players, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble,
New Performance Group, Twisted Tutu, Bosso Bongo, Magnetic Pig
(Australia), New World Ensemble, Synchronia, Ensemble Green,
Dinosaur Annex, Firebird Ensemble, Alea III, as well as numerous
solo artists.
Major performances include the Ojai Festival, Tanglewood, CalArts
Contemporary Music Festival, New Music America, Ars Musica (Brussels),
the Meltdown Festival (London), de Ijsbreker (Amsterdam), the
Kennedy Center, Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), Bang On
A Can, Merkin Concert Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kitchen, and
Essential Music (NYC), American Inroads (San Francisco), the
Overtones Series and Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), North American
New Music Festival, the Kenneth Patchen Festival (Ohio), the
Louisiana Museum for Modern Art (Humlebaek, Denmark), and Music
Fest Kiev.
Mr. Jarvinen is currently on the composition faculty at the
California Institute of the Arts.
Gregg Johnson, Secretary
Gregg attended CalArts as an Ahmanson Scholar from 1973 – 1979,
completing a BFA and MFA in World Music Performance with specialization
in the classical music of India. He studied and performed extensively
with the great tabla maestro Pandit Taranath Rao (late) both
during Gregg's time at CalArts and for 11 years afterward until
Taranath-ji's passing in 1991. In 1990 Gregg toured India with
Taranath -ji presenting solo and ensemble recitals on the tabla and pakhawaj. Then, from 1991-2005, Gregg continued an intensive
study in the Guru-Shishya system with Pandit Taranath’s
nephew, Pandit Ravindranath Bellare (late), specializing in the
Farukabhad Gharana which emphasizes recitation of rhythmic Sanskrit
poetry and ancient Hindu prayers set to the intricate rhythmic
cycles known as Tala in settings for Kathak Dance.
Gregg is an innovator in modern hand drumming and percussion
styles which synthesize the austere musical traditions of India
within contemporary classical contexts of ‘junk’ and ‘found
object’ percussion. Gregg is a founding member of the Repercussion
Unit, an internationally acclaimed percussion ensemble that Downbeat magazine described as the “genesis of a new music.” In
1976, the Repercussion Unit recorded its first LP, Repercussion
Unit Strikes Again at CalArts and in 1989 released In
Need Again for CMP records. The Repercussion
Unit is active to this day
with 29 years of international performance credits ranging wildly
from two smash hit European tours to venues as diverse as the
Lincoln Center and the Knitting Factory in New York City. The
R.Unit is known for its affinity with the music of John Cage
and Lou Harrison having headlined the Los Angeles Festival’s
Tribute to John Cage at MOCA and LACMA and performed for Lou
Harrison’s 65th Birthday Celebration.
Gregg is an award winning composer for theatre and film, having
received a Dramalogue Critic's Circle award for sound
design and
performance in a score for Steven Berkoff's adaptation of
Kafka's Metamorphosis at the Mark Taper Forum. He composed and
performed for multiple seasons of the LA Music Center’s
Improvisational Theatre Project and for THEATREWORKS’ Pericles,
Prince of Tyre and A `Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Gregg has led a distinguished career as an artist in community
settings, performing with the Sound Idea, the Alive
Ensemble,
and the Repercussion Unit in programs nationwide through Young
Audiences, Performing Tree and the Music Center Education Division.
His solo workshop and residency program, Instant
Ensemble, was
featured as the premiere music composition workshop for MCED’s
Music Center on Tour throughout Los Angeles area schools from
1985-95. Gregg has collaborated with artists around the United
States on creative program design for educational settings through
an extensive association with Young Audiences, Inc. in New York
City. In this capacity, he is currently developing the www.arts4Learning.org initiative with Larry Stein (MFA Music 1974) and lives in Lake
Hughes, California with his wife, Vivian (BFA Music 1982) and
son, Ravindranath G. B. Johnson.
Lisa Mann
Lisa Mann is a socio-political artist whose works encompass installation,
film and video, and performance art. Her film, Seven Lucky
Charms, won a student Academy Award and Best Experimental Film
award at the Atlanta Film Festival. Mann is a Rockefeller Foundation
Media Arts Fellow. Since 1998, she has taught animation in
the Division of Animation and Digital Arts at USC School of
Cinema-TV. She received her MFA in Experimental Animation from
CalArts and a BA in Art from Brown University. She served as
a curator and projectionist at Filmforum from 1991-’94
and she has been a NewTown Board Member since1996.
Louisa Miller
Louisa Miller comes to the visual arts through a career in theatre,
begun after receiving her MFA from CalArts in 1974. In 1996,
she returned to school, eventually earning an MFA in Art from
Claremont Graduate University. Her most recent solo exhibitions
have been at Peggy Phelps Gallery and Installation Gallery
in Claremont. Recent group shows include: 2002, The Installation
Project at Los Angeles Mission College, Sylmar; 2001, The Corridor
Show in Culver City; and participation in the Inland Specific
exhibitions at Narris Gallery, University of La Verne. This
is her third appearance in a NewTown show, starting in 1996
as part of the organization’s New
Windows on Old Pasadena.
That was followed by Nine Trees, a collaboration with Gina
Kuraner, for NewTown's Trail Markers show in 2001.
January Nordman
For over 30 years, January Nordman has been an effective artist
and artist/activist, working in event organization, photography,
costume design, film/video and installation art. Among her
accomplishments, in 1971 she organized the first Earth Day
celebration in Jackson, MI. In 1972, she co-organized, produced,
photographed and edited with Bread and Roses Productions, a
women's video collective in Ann Arbor, MI. We were responsible
for a weekly cable show based on interviews, documented events,
and investigative documentaries. In 1991, she curated a group
show at Film Roman Gallery under the auspices of Phyllis Craig,
including exhibition of her own mixed media reliquary boxes.
More recently, in 1997, Ms Nordman participated in the "Without
Alarm II" show sponsored by Arroyo Arts Collective, designing
and constructing a site-specific piece entitled "Authentica",
concerning breast cancer survival, a collaboration with Lizbeth
Williamson, Linda Gero and Rena Wander. In 2003, she designed
and constructed "Gnomeland Security" for thee Trail
Mix show sponsored by NewTown. This was a site specific piece
concerning land use issues in Arroyo Seco, as told by gnomes.
Christine Panushka (on leave of absence)
Ms Panushka's animated films have won numerous awards at festivals
throughout the world. She currently is a Professor in the animation
department at University of Southern California. Prior to that,
she was Associate Director of Experimental Animation at Cal
Arts. Her most recent project, commissioned by Absolut Vodka,
has brought 12 of the finest experimental animators in the
world to over 750,000, via her Web Site, Absolut
Panushka (http://www.absolutvodka.com).
In addition to her many artistic accomplishments, she is a
tireless crusader for arts education for young people.
Pat Payne
Pat Payne is a Caribbean-American multi-media installation/performance
artist, poet, visual artist, reluctant shaman, and self-avowed
troublemaker transplanted from Brooklyn to L.A. 'The Velvet
Hammer’ holds the 2002 and 2003 World Poetry Bout Association’s
World Heavyweight Championship Titles, besting Saul Williams
and Willie Perdomo, consecutively, in Taos, N.M. Among the
11 poets holding the Championship over two decades of the event,
Payne is the third woman to take the Championship, and the
second woman, after Anne Waldman, to retain the Title for 2
years. Her one-woman shows (Xipe/Skin;
A Body Condensed Light; Clearest, Brightest Blue Eyes You’ve Ever Seen; & Perfume)
have been presented at The Los Angeles Children’s Museum,
Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival 2000 and 2003, Sushi
Performance Space and Gallery (San Diego), Dixon Place (New
York), the Electric Lodge and Highways Performance Spaces (Santa
Monica). She has been a featured poet at numerous venues and
events, including the Austin International and Seattle Poetry
Festivals, UCLA Hammer Museum, Expresso mi Cultura, J. Paul
Getty Museum, La Pena Cultural Center, Gene Autry Museum, Self-Help
Graphics, World Stage, and the Nuyorican Poet’s Café.
She currently a mentor for WriteGirl, a Los Angeles-based non-profit
organization that mentors high school girls with a passion
for writing.
Sara Roberts
Sara Roberts received her MFA from California College of Arts
and Crafts in 1988. Her large scale interactive installations
have been shown in L.A. at Art Center's Williamson Gallery,
Fisher Gallery at USC, Yerba Buena Center and Arts Commission
Gallery in San Francisco. She has shown in Germany, Denmak,
Finland and France. She was founding director of the Integrated
Media Program at Cal Arts, 1996-2001 and continues there in
the Composition/New Media Program. Her work has turned in recent
years toward performative games and devices making them possible.
With that interest in mind, she was a senior research fellow
in the Studio Narrativity and Communication, Interactive Institute,
Malmo, Sweden in 01/02, working on her ’20 to 20 project’,
for which she received a Rockefeller Media Fellowship.
Lisa Schoyer, Vice President- taos@earthlink.net
Ms Schoyer is an experimental installation artist whose work
investigates the relationship between perception and conception.
Born in Hong Kong, she received her Bachelors Degree from Yale
and MFA from CalArts. To date she has had 11 solo shows and
been in over 60 group exhibitions in Arizona, California, Louisiana,
Michigan, Oregon and Texas, London and Germany.
Steve Shoffner, Web Master - www.steveshoffner.com , steve@steveshoffner.com
Steve Shoffner is a native artist born in Redding California.
He traveled out of state to obtain his BA in Art from Linfield
College in McMinnville Oregon where he focused his interests
on photography and mixed media. He returned to California to
earn his MFA from Claremont Graduate University in 2003 where
he explored the combination of performance, video, and installation.
After graduate school, he began his career in exhibiting and teaching in the Los Angeles area where he now resides.
Steve is currently teaching art courses at Santa Monica College and at Pierce College.
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