Five artists honored for contributions to Contra Costa
County Cultural Life
Five artists who have significantly enriched the cultural
life of Contra Costa
County have been selected to receive
the County Arts and Culture Commission's Arts
Recognition Award at a public ceremony on Sunday, October 21st.
The awardees were selected by an independent panel of judges
following a month-long nominating process.
Awards will be presented by The Honorable H. Abram Wilson, Mayor of San
Ramon, who will serve as Master of Ceremonies. The Recognition Ceremony takes
place at the Soda Center, St. Mary's College in Moraga.
The public is invited to this free event. Reserve space at ac5@ac5.org
or by calling 925.646.2278.
These include multi-faceted artist and teacher Robert Chapla
of Crockett; musician and orchestral conductor Joyce Johnson-Hamilton of
Atherton; teacher and cartoonist Bill Leach of Oakley, author and Richmond Arts
and Culture Commissioner Sydney Metrick, PhD, of El Sobrante, and photographer
John Spence Weir of Oakland.
Chapla has used his plein air painting to emphasize the
beauty of nature and open space. Such
organizations as Preserve Lamorinda Open Space, Save Mount Diablo, and the
Yosemite Association have benefited from his generosity, both in terms of his
time and donating a portion of the proceeds from his artwork sales. He has illustrated "Across Currents," a book
of poetry on Contra Costa themes and again supported with his time and his art
work projects associated with Art in the Courthouse. Chapla is active in Walnut
Creek Civic Arts Education, teaching and coordinating the drawing and painting
program and serving on the Arts Education Advisory Council.
Joyce Johnson-Hamilton is distinguished both as a woman in
the male-dominated world of orchestral conducting as well as a specialist in
two musical instruments dating back to the Renaissance - the cornetto and the
Baroque "valveless" trumpet. In addition
to serving as conductor of the Diablo Symphony Orchestra for some 28 years, she
is a member of the applied music faculty at Stanford University
and teaches trumpet students privately.
She has served as conductor and music director for several musical
groups throughout California
and performed with a number of period instrument ensembles.
Visual Arts professor, musician and cartoonist Bill
Leach is chair of the of Visual and
Performing Arts department at Deer Valley High School
in Antioch. The Oakley resident has volunteered his time
to bring "live" cartoon demonstrations to school-age children and developed a
public TV show, Education Alive, highlighting activities of the Antioch Unified School District. His after-school Cartoon Club opens up new
avenues of creativity for students, helping to instill in them a sense of pride
and accomplishment. Prior to his
teaching career Leach was a touring drummer playing with a variety of musical
groups. A guest spot on Creature
Features led to long run as "our artist friend Mr. Bill" on KTVU's
Romper Room children's show. This interaction
with kids and children's enthusiastic response inspired Leach to become a
teacher.
Leach has been recognized as the 2007 Teacher of the Year by
the Antioch School District. Evenings find Leach teaching cartoon
illustration at Los Medanos College
in Pittsburg. His art and writing has been published in a
variety of art magazines. And, just to
add a little more zest to his life, he competes annually in the World's Fastest
Drummer competition, a nation-wide contest that he also hosts annually for the
students at Deer Valley High School.
Sydney Metrick, PhD, earned her doctorate in expressive art
therapy and has authored four books on art and ritual, including "Art from
Ashes," documenting the response to the 1991 East Bay Hills fire. She has been a "dynamo" on the Richmond Arts
and Culture Commission, according to Virginia Rigney, retired manager of the
City of Richmond's
Arts and Culture Commission who nominated her for the AC5 award. It was Dr. Metrick's idea to participate in
Arts Millennia, a year-long festival of the arts, by creating Millennium
Columns as a project for Contra Costa arts organizations. Taking the lead on this project, Metrick
invited participation by arts organizations in every Contra Costa city and
conducted workshops to develop the concepts for the columns to reflect each
city's unique role. Nineteen columns
were developed and exhibited throughout the county as well as at a performance
at the Concord Pavilion (now SleepTrain Pavilion). Among Metrick's other efforts is the Hands
for Peace project featuring handprints of Richmond residents and others around
the world which is currently featured in the Superior Court Building in
Richmond.
John Spence Weir served for 35 years as a professor of
photography at Diablo
Valley College.
His influence on generations of students is evidenced by many of them going
into professional photography as teachers and exhibiting artists. "Weir was a
pioneer by founding the photography program at DVC years before the art world
acknowledged the photography as an art form," states Darwin Marable, a photo
historian, who nominated Weir for the award.
Not content to rest on his laurels as a college professor,
Weir maintained his own creative activities, primarily focused on his love of Mexico-its colors,
forms and people. Weir's early portfolio of black and white photographs, Mexico, carries an introduction by Mexico's
internationally recognized artist, Don Manuel Alvarez Bravo. Weir's photographs
have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and his photographs were included in the recent exhibitions, Advancing the
Moment, Recent Work by Photographers in the Norton
Simon Museum
at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and The Collectable Moment at the Norton Simon
Museum, Pasadena. Weir's photographs are included in
major museums including SF MoMA, Oakland
Museum, MoMA,
NY, and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris among others.
"Not only are we pleased with the diversity of talent among
these five people, we are especially impressed with their commitment to
community, to mentoring the next generation, and to the generosity of spirit
that imbues each one," said Sarah Michael, chair of the AC5 commission.
A New Park for Contra
Costa County!
Celebrate the launch of the Rosie the Riveter World War 2
Home Front National Historical Park by attending Richmond's Home Front Festival By-the-Bay September 28, 29, and
30. For event information, visit www.homefrontfestival.com.
The Richmond Arts & Culture Commission is participating
in the event by presenting an Arts Pavilion, featuring performances and talks
by notable artists and celebrities, WWII home front artifacts, and lots more (schedule).
Artist Opportunities:
Are you an outstanding art, music, drama, dance, or creative
writing teacher at a Bay Area public/charter middle or high school? Are you in
need of artistic revitalization? Would you like the opportunity to participate
in an arts institute, immerse yourself in a residency at an artist colony, or
self-design some other course of study to expand your artistic and interact
with other professional artists?
If yes, consider this exciting opportunity, supported by
East Bay Community Foundation:
The Fund for Artists Art Teacher Fellowship (FFAATF)
FFAATF supports the artistic revitalization of outstanding
arts teachers in Bay Area middle and high schools. Through a competitive
application process, eight Bay Area arts teachers will be selected to receive
fellowship awards of up to $5,000. Fellowship awards will be used to defray the
costs associated with a self-designed course of study enabling arts teachers to
expand artistic range and abilities in the making of art, and interact with
other professional artists in their field. Applicants must be permanently
assigned arts teachers employed by Bay Area public/charter middle and high
schools. Teachers of the visual and media arts, theater, music, dance and
creative writing are strongly encouraged to apply.
For Alameda and Contra Costa
County arts teachers,
applications are currently available at the East Bay Community Foundation
website at www.eastbaycf.org .
Applications are due January 10, 2008.
Voices of Musica Sacra, directed by John Kendall Bailey,
currently has openings for all voice parts.
Call (925) 680-7089.
Voices of Musica Sacra is a choir of 45-plus singers from
throughout the Bay Area. To quote their web site, "It is one of Central Contra Costa
County's finest choirs
and a premier resource for continuing education in sacred music. Formed
originally by inspirational and talented musician in the early 1990's, it has
been an independent, non-profit organization since 1998, giving concerts and
collaborating with many fine performing arts groups, including the Diablo
Symphony and the Walnut Creek United Methodist Church Choir." www.voicesofmusicascara.org
Contributors to ArtBeat:
Joan Trezek, Robin Moore
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