On November 15, five Cal Arts  alums and faculty were named as 2007 USA Fellows as announced by the non-profit organization United States Artists. School of Art alumni Edgar Arceneaux (MFA 01), Daniel Joseph Martinez (BFA 79), Gary Simmons (90) along with faculty Charles Gaines and Allan Sekula are among the 50 artists named to receive $50,000 fellowships.

Graduation is show time in the CalArts animation program, with students vying for studios ready to hire them reports the Daily News. So the online success of Alex Hirsch’s six-minute video “Off the Wall” couldn’t have come at a better moment for the fledgling animator. Who knew that drawing a few squiggly lines would grab so much attention? Read it here: http://www.dailynews.com/santaclarita/ci_5930686

Actress Anne Archer will visit Santa Clarita today to present a Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Hero award to a program at California Institute of the Arts and its director reports Sharon Cotal of the Daily News.

Award recipient Glenna Avila is the director of CalArts’ Community Arts Partnership, which links the local art school to community art centers and public schools throughout Los Angeles County, providing college-level arts education to middle and high school students.

Read it here: MLK Award      

Daily News staff writer Alex Dobuzinskis reports that the who’s who of Hollywood and other major donors already have contributed the bulk of California Institute of the Arts’ $125 million fundraising campaign.

And now that CalArts has raised 84 percent toward that goal, the Valencia school is looking to the general public for support.

The fundraiser has been going on for five years and has raised $105 million. But the school only began the public part of the campaign on Saturday.

“This is a phase where, in a way, you head into unknown territory because it’s not your closest friends (donating), it’s the whole world,” CalArts President Steven Lavine said Monday.

Read the entire story at the Daily News web site at: http://www.dailynews.com/santaclarita/ci_4613884  

Tuesday Oct 24 

Apichatpong Weerasethakul: Syndromes and a Century

FILM/VIDEO: The heralded Thai filmmaker screens his latest work, Sang sattawat ( Syndromes and a Century ), a meditation on memory, love and reincarnation against the backdrop of goings-on at two provincial Thai hospitals.
CalArts, Bijou Theater, 7 pm. Call 661-253-7800 for ticket information.

Wednesday through Sunday Oct 25-29

Betontanc: Wrestling Dostoevsky
REDCAT: This high-velocity dance theater work from the acclaimed Slovenian company is driven by provocative texts by Dostoevsky and live music by the Ljubljana group Silence. Performing in the round, the six young dancers of Betontanc (”Concrete Dance”) amaze with their inventive and intensely physical sense for movement. Presented as part of The Sharon Disney Lund Dance Series.
Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater. Wed Oct 25-Sat Oct 2, 8:30 pm. Sun Oct 29, 3 pm. Click here for ticket info.