Layla Hallberg in Buenaventura Gallery. Photo by Wana Klausen.

The Board of Directors for Buenaventura Art Association (BAA) is pleased to announce the selection of Layla Hallberg as their new Executive Director. A “Meet the Director” reception will be held on Tuesday, February 8 from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm at the Buenaventura Gallery. The reception is open to Buenaventura Art Association members as well as the general public.

Hallberg, a six-year resident of Ventura, has been an active volunteer with the Ventura Music Festival. For the last two years, she managed the festival’s visual artists.

Jim Black, President of BAA says, “I am thrilled that the BAA will have an executive director as capable as Layla. From an extremely qualified field of candidates, she was the very best. Her leadership style is based on mutual respect, collaboration and consensus building. The arts community in Ventura is already the envy of half of Southern California. Layla’s contribution will improve and strengthen our organization and further enhance the cooperative spirit of the Ventura arts community. We are fortunate to have her.”

Hallberg has a solid business background in art-related industries and gallery management. She owned her own custom-fabric design firm for over ten years. Her clients included Disney and various other theme-oriented properties. In addition, she was a Director with the Martin Lawrence Galleries in Sherman Oaks, Century City, Redondo Beach and Universal City Walk. Her duties there included art selection, artist liaison and exhibit creation.

Hallberg studied International Business through the UCLA Extension Program. She also has her B.S. in Environmental Health Science with an emphasis in Environmental Planning from Brigham Young University.
Buenaventura Art Association currently operates two galleries: The Buenaventura Gallery in downtown Ventura and the Harbor Village Gallery at the beautiful Ventura Harbor. In addition, Buenaventura Art Association curates and manages exhibits at Community Memorial Hospital (CMH) with the help of the CMH Foundation and Sue Pollack. Buenaventura Art Association was formed in 1954 by Ventura city leaders.

Buenaventura Gallery is located at 700 E Santa Clara St in downtown Ventura. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Friday from noon – 5 pm and Saturday from 11 am – 5 pm. For more information, visit them on the web at www.BuenaventuraGallery.org

Vocalist Nancy Osborne

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. - A concert of 1940s era big band music and love songs will be performed at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12, at California Lutheran University.

“A Valentine Concert: Elmer Ramsey, His Trumpet and Orchestra” will be held in Samuelson Chapel. With assistance from guest performers, Ramsey and the Conejo “Pops” Orchestra will perform music from some of the greatest artists of the big band era including Artie Shaw, Harry James, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie. The program will also include endearing love songs from World War II.

Dynamic vocalist Nancy Osborne will perform. The Westlake Village resident has performed with such bands as the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, Tex Beneke and Johnny Vana’s Big Band Alumni, with whom she made two CDS and a DVD. Osborne produced her own 17-piece big band CD, “Hot Swing, Cool Jazz,” which is played on more than 120 radio stations throughout the world. With experience in films and television, Osborne also brings acting skills to the stage.

Daniel Geeting, a member of the CLU music faculty since 1984, will be featured on clarinet. He has performed extensively as a recitalist, played on movie and television soundtracks, and recorded two CDs featuring the clarinet works of major English composers.

Ramsey, a CLU professor emeritus of music, began playing trumpet professionally at the age of 14, and three years later had his own 40s-style big band on a Washington radio station. Many members of his orchestra are CLU alumni and have also performed with Harry James, Glenn Miller and Tex Beneke orchestras.

Tickets, which will be sold at the door, are $10 for students and $20 for others. Only cash and checks will be accepted.

The chapel is located south of Olsen Road near Campus Drive on the Thousand Oaks campus. Additional parking is available in the lot at the corner of Olsen and Mountclef Boulevard.

For more information, call the Music Department at (805) 493-3306 or visit http://www.callutheran.edu/music.

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. - Internationally recognized sculptor and marble carver Béla Bácsi will exhibit recent work and lead a master class for the public at California Lutheran University.

“Scultura Marmo: Sculpture by Béla Bácsi” will be presented from Saturday, Feb. 12, through Friday, March 18, in the Kwan Fong Gallery of Art and Culture. The opening reception will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12. The exhibit will feature 17 extraordinary marble and bronze works and show how a sculpture develops from a maquette, or small preliminary model, to a finished piece.

Bácsi will demonstrate his sculpture technique and processes from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26, in Room 13 of F Building. Using the machinetta di punti and other classical Italian tools, he will carve one of his works in progress. There will be a 30-minute break for a picnic lunch.
The Santa Barbara resident, who teaches drawing and sculpture at CLU, is one of the most accomplished sculptors in Southern California. Bácsi is known for his narrative skill, complex and fluid forms, and the exquisite detail finish of his work, in which the hand of the artist is readily apparent. His work is widely exhibited and is included in significant collections throughout the country and abroad.

In 1999, he won the National Sculpture Society’s (NSS) Gold Medal and Maurice B. Hexter Prize for his first submission to a national competition. In 2001, his fellow exhibitors at the California Art Club (CAC) 91st annual members’ exhibition awarded him the Gold Medal for sculpture. He is a fellow of the NSS and a signature member of the CAC.

Bácsi, who fled Hungary with his family in 1956, began sculpting in clay and hand carving a variety of materials as a child and later began working with alabaster and bronze. Drawn to stone carving, he apprenticed with master carvers in Italy in the 1970s. The marble for his projects is statuario crema, venata delicata, from the Cave di Michelangelo, the quarries established by Michelangelo 500 years ago. While making sculpture is his passion, he also feels compelled to pass on his knowledge as it was passed to him by Italian masters.

To RSVP for the master class, contact Randy Toland at (805) 493-3025 or toland@callutheran.edu by Feb. 19.

The gallery is in Soiland Humanities Center, which is located on the south side of Memorial Parkway near Regent Avenue on the Thousand Oaks campus. F Building is located near Pioneer Avenue just north of the Swenson Center for the Social and Behavioral Sciences.

CLU’s Art Department is sponsoring the free exhibit and class. For more information, call Michael Pearce at (805) 444-7716 or visit http://www.callutheran.edu/kwan_fong.

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Camarillo, CA. - The Art Program at California State University Channel Islands (CI) has announced a new exhibit, “Women Beyond Borders: What’s a Box Got to Do With It? Reflections on the Body” to be on display Jan. 31 through March 14 at the John Spoor Broome Library. A free public reception and guided tours will be held on Thursday, Feb. 24 from 6 to 8 p.m.

The exhibit will feature a selection of approximately 80 boxes from the “Women Beyond Borders” collection. Co-curated by Dr. Anette Kubitza, an Art lecturer at CI, and artist Lorraine Serena, founder and artistic director of “Women Beyond Borders,” this unique cross-cultural women's art project began in Santa Barbara in the early 1990s. It features small wooden boxes transformed by over 900 international participants into elaborate artworks that have become repositories for the personal, political, and economic realities of women across the world. The show will also include ephemera and a film documenting the international exhibition-journey of “Women Beyond Borders.”

CSU Channel Islands is located at One University Drive, Camarillo. The exhibit will be available for viewing Jan. 31 through March 14. Library and gallery hours are: Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 10 p.m. For additional information contact the CI Art Program at 805-437-8570, email art@csuci.edu or visit http://womenbeyondborders.org.

Limited parking is available on campus. A daily permit is $6. Free parking is available at the Camarillo Metrolink Station/Lewis Road parking lot in Camarillo with bus service to and from the campus. Riders should board the VISTA Bus to the campus; the fare is $1.25 each way. Buses arrive and depart from the Camarillo Metrolink Station every 30 minutes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. For exact times, check the schedule at www.goventura.org.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research.

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Three hundred and forty-six combined years of artistic experience and influence will be honored when the Museum of Ventura County presents Four Masters - Four Legends, a retrospective exhibition of work by Carlisle Cooper, William McEnroe, Norman Kirk and Gerd Koch, opening February 26. The exhibit’s free public opening reception will be held on Friday, February 25 from 5:30 -7:30 p.m. The exhibition continues through April 24.

A panel discussion with the four artists, moderated by artist and exhibit curator Hiroko Yoshimoto, will be held at the museum that same weekend, on Sunday, February 27 at 3:00 p.m. Admission to the Sunday event is $5 general public, museum members free. The following Thursday, March 3, 7:00- 8:30 p.m., Donna Granata will present a multimedia reflection on the honored artists, selected from Focus on the Masters’ archives. Thursday's presentation is $10 general public, $5 museum members. To attend either event, call 653-0323 x 315, as space is limited. Admission to galleries is included in event prices.

“These four masters have profoundly influenced and continue to shape art and culture in Southern California,” said colleague Yoshimoto, who has chosen selected works that represent the range of their careers. The exhibition will also explore the artist’s seminal involvement in arts organizations in Ventura County, and their teaching careers at Ventura College, where they have influenced and nurtured generations of artists, from the 1950s to today. The four men were all born within a ten-year span of each other.

Carlisle Cooper (b.1919) is a figurative painter who explores the human condition as it concerns man’s relationship to truth. He describes his figures as symbolic of the progress mankind has made in developing art, religion, philosophy and science.

William McEnroe (b.1922) experiments continuously with the process of painting. An active painter, pastelist, teacher, art historian, stage set designer and poet, his book “La Grande Livre,” published in 2010, features his most recent pastels and poems.

Norman Kirk (b. 1924) is best known for his watercolors, which are in the collections of major museums in Southern California. He is a Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society, Watercolor West and the Gold Coast Watercolor Society (now part of the Buenaventura Art Association). Kirk painted the Lake Casitas event for the 1984 Olympics, and cover illustrations for the Ventura County Design House tour.

Gerd Koch (b. 1929) paints expressionistic abstractions and stylized interpretations of nature. Initially inspired by the chaparral around the artists’ commune he organized during the 1960s, his interests expanded to include the mystical, mythological and metaphysical character of nature in ethnic and primitive as well as Greek and Egyptian cultures.

The Museum of Ventura County is located at 100 East Main Street in downtown Ventura, California. Open from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, admission is $4 adults, $3 seniors, $1 children 6-17, free for members and children under 6. For more museum information go to www.venturamuseum.org or call 805-653-0323.

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. - California Lutheran University’s Theatre Arts Department has been invited to stage its production of “The Cherry Orchard” at the prestigious Region VIII Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

The Anton Chekhov play about a quirky family in early 20th-century Russia will be presented at the festival in Los Angeles on Thursday, Feb. 10. The public is invited to attend performances at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4, and Saturday, Feb. 5, in CLU’s Blackbox Studio.

Only 10 productions from Southern California, Arizona, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah were invited to fully mount their shows at the festival. This is the second time a CLU Mainstage Theatre production has been selected.

Judges will select four to six of the productions from the eight regional conferences to be showcased at the national festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The 42-year-old program is designed to encourage, recognize and celebrate the finest and most diverse work produced in university and college theater programs.

The CLU production was originally staged in November under the direction of theatre arts professor Michael J. Arndt. Assistant professor Nate Sinnott designed the evocative and symbolic set and the lighting that reflects the haze of time. Costume designer Val Miller, a new lecturer at CLU, captured the look and feel of the period; professional composer Chris Hoag provided a haunting score and sound design; and Barbara Wegher-Thompson coached the performers on movement.

The cast features the following: senior music major Kayla Bailey of Moorpark; junior theatre arts major Storie Blake of Encino; sophomore theatre arts major Jessica Butenshon of Astoria, Ore.; junior theatre arts major Alex Colello of Las Vegas, Nev.; senior theatre arts major Ryan Culbertson of Plainfield, N.J.; junior theatre arts major Alex Greene of Westlake Village; sophomore theatre arts major Jeremy Hanna of Newbury Park; sophomore Karolina Keach of Calabasas; freshman English major Dan Knierim of Puyallup, Wash.; junior Taylor Lampela of Bakersfield; senior theatre arts major Jeff Opine of Los Altos; sophomore theatre arts major Tommy Schofield of Edmonds, Wash.; junior theatre arts major Elyse Sinklier of Des Moines, Iowa; sophomore multimedia major Jordan Skinner of Phoenix; sophomore multimedia major Jordan Stidham of Westlake Village; and sophomore theatre arts major Catherine Widmann of Broomfield, Colo. Junior theatre arts major Anne Sherman of Agoura Hills is stage manager and freshman theatre arts majors Ashton Williams of Sparks, Nev., and Kaylin Mendoza of Los Alamos are assistant stage managers.

CLU’s Blackbox Studio is located in the Theatre Arts Building on the north side of Memorial Parkway near Pioneer Avenue on the Thousand Oaks campus. Limited seating is available. Donations will be collected. For more information, call the Theatre Arts Department at (805) 493-3415.

Santa Paula Art & Photography Show, Tuesday, March 15 - Wednesday April 6, 2011.

The prospectus has been sent to those who have participated in the show in the recent past, but a new artists may get on the mailing list by calling our number to leave their name, address, and phone number/ repeating it slowly the second time. Please call 805-525-1104. Prospectus will also be available at Camarillo Art Center, Buenaventura Art Assn., 700 E. Santa Clara St., Ven., Santa Paula Art Museum, 117 . 10th SP, Blanchard Memorial Library, 119 No. 8th St., Santa Paula. The Studio Gallery, 2741 S. Victoria Ave. Channel Islands Harbor and the SP Chamber of Commerce, at the SP depot.

Entries will be accepted at Blanchard Memorial Library, North Side, 119 North 8th St., Santa Paula Thursday, March 10th. from 12 - 8 p.m. and Saturday Mar. 12th from, 10 - 2 p.m. Please do not call the library - call 805-525-1104. Artists are asked to follow restrictions on the prospectus re: hanging wire, size, category and days of entries. Artists Reception and presentation of awards will be held on Saturday, Mar. 26st., from 3 - 7 p.m. Jury of Peers (Artists’ balloting ) and the Peoples Choice balloting will close at 4:30 p.m. - please note
the change to an earlier time.

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. – Jan. 19, 2011) California Lutheran University will screen a documentary that investigates allegations of child trafficking and forced labor in the international chocolate industry at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9.

“The Dark Side of Chocolate” will be shown in the Roth Nelson Room on the Thousand Oaks campus as part of the Reel Justice Film Series. Screenings of the 2010 documentary are being organized throughout the country in the days leading to Valentine’s Day.

In 2001, consumers were outraged to discover that child labor and slavery, trafficking and other abuses existed on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, a West African country that produces nearly half of the world’s cocoa. Demands for solutions followed. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-New York) added a rider to an agricultural bill proposing a federal system to certify and label chocolate products as “slave free.” To avoid this legislation, the industry eventually agreed to a voluntary protocol to end abusive and forced child labor on cocoa farms by 2005. The terms of the protocol still hadn’t been met by 2008 and a new deadline was set for 2010. In this 2010 documentary, filmmakers Miki Mistrati and U. Roberto Romano examine whether anything has changed in the decade since the abuses were discovered.

The Reel Justice Film Series, which examines the themes of equality and social justice, will continue with “The Lottery” on Feb. 23, “The Stoning of Soraya M.” on March 7, “8: The Mormon Proposition” on March 30, and “Living Downstream” on April 6.

The Roth Nelson Room is located on Mountclef Boulevard between Olsen Road and Memorial Parkway.

CLU’s Center for Equality and Justice, Not for Sale club, and Action Abroad Alliance are sponsoring the free event. For more information, contact Sam Thomas at sthomas@callutheran.edu or (805) 493-3693.

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. - Award-winning writer Christopher Howell will read his poetry at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9, in California Lutheran University’s Lundring Events Center.

A military journalist during the Vietnam War, Howell has published nine collections of poems. The University of Washington Press published his most recent collection, “Dreamless and Possible: Poems New and Selected,” in May. His poems, translations and essays also have been widely published in anthologies and journals including Crazyhorse, The Gettysburg Review and Harper’s Magazine.

Howell has received three Pushcart Prizes and numerous fellowships, including two from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has been awarded the Helen Bullis, Vachel Lindsay and Vi Gale prizes, and he has twice received the Washington State Book Award. A native of the Northwest, Howell is a professor at Eastern Washington University’s Inland NW Center for Writers in Spokane, senior editor for Eastern Washington University Press and director of Willow Springs Books. He is also director and principal editor for Lynx House Press.

Lundring Events Center is located in the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center, which is north of Olsen Road near Campus Drive on the Thousand Oaks campus.

For more information on the free public event, e-mail Jack Ledbetter at ledbette@callutheran.edu. Lundring Events Center is located in Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center.

In honor of Presidents’ Day, the museum will display this special exhibit for the month of February only. Opening February 2 and closing February 27, 2011, this exhibit of portraiture will explore one of the most famous presidents in U.S. History.

The California Oil Museum is located at 1001 E. Main Street, Santa Paula. Admission is $4 Adults, $3 Seniors, $1 Students 6-17, 5 years and under are free as well as members. Open Wed – Sun 10am to 4pm.

From the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), this is a special portfolio version of the National Portrait Gallery exhibition, One Life: The Mask of Lincoln. The exhibition, which commemorates the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, was displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in 2009.

Drawn from the Portrait Gallery’s unrivaled collection of Lincoln portraits, it charts Lincoln’s passage from a fresh-faced Illinois congressman to a troubled visage as he led the fight for the Union, culminating in his grizzled isolation as president. The exhibition shows how Lincoln used the new art of photography to convey his image to Americans, letting them see in him what they most desired.

These portraits invite the viewer to examine closely the complex and mysterious man who came from nothing and was nationally unknown almost to the moment of his nomination for the presidency. Shaping himself to the uncertainties of the present, mindful of his role as the heir to the Founders, it was Lincoln’s ability that led the nation where it never intended to go: from a political crisis over states’ rights to the revolutionary act of abolishing slavery.

After February, the California Oil Museum would like to donate this exhibit to a school or library. If you are interested, please contact Julie Cluster, Assistant Museum Educator, at 805-933-0076 ext 294, or by e-mail at jcluster@spcity.org.

Who: California Oil Museum
What: One Life: The Mask of Lincoln
Where: 1001 E. Main Street, Santa Paula, CA
When: February 2 to February 27, 2011
Why: To educate the public on the leadership and heroism demonstrated by President Lincoln, through portraiture

Tina O’Brien’s solo exhibition “Gone Surfing” is showing at the Buenaventura Galley from February 1 to February 26, 2011. Opening reception is Saturday, February 5 from 4-7pm.

Over the past decades Ventura has been known for many things. A tangible part of California history, locally inspired chefs, nature based adventures and even its thrift store and antique shopping. As the trends boom or ebb, there is one constant as honored to her residents as is intriguing to its visitors and that’s surfing. Early morning locals and international athletes have surf the waves off Ventura’s picturesque shorelines, but O’Brien combines the beauty of the sport with her artistic talents.

O’Brien’s love for the beauty in her backyard, the natural splendor of the Ventura beach scene, has taken over as prime subject matter for her images. Painting for over 20 years, and surfing for just as long, the days spent with her family at the beach or on the waves help bring fodder to the canvases she creates.

Sunny days, good surf and new board made by local shaper Mel Kelly, are latest inspirations for transforming the fortune of “living in a little piece of heaven” into the poetic realism of O’Brien’s acrylic and oil paintings. The hues of Ventura’s iconic blue and grays gently blend into wet sandy mornings and golden days when the boarders have gone surfing.

This is O’Brien’s second solo show with the Buenaventura Art Association.

The Buenaventura Art Gallery is located at 700 E. Santa Clara Street, Ventura, CA 93001. Hours are Tuesday-Friday from noon-5pm and Saturday from 11 am to 5pm. Please call (805) 648-1235 or visit www.buenaventuragallery.org.

Camarillo, CA. - The Channel Islands Choral Association is currently holding auditions now through end of January for the CSU Channel Islands (CI) Choir, a class held at CI which is open to students, faculty and members of the community.

The class meets on Monday nights from 7 to 9:50 p.m. in Malibu Hall Room 140 on the CI campus. Enrolled students receive credit for the class and faculty and community members are volunteer singers. Membership in the choir is free for students. Non-students pay a membership fee of $75, which covers costs incurred by the choir.

This semester the group will be performing The Requiem by John Rutter and Serenade to Music by R. Vaughn Williams with the Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra on March 20, as well as a second concert in May.

Auditions may be scheduled by calling Dr. KuanFen Liu, Artistic Director of the Channel Islands Choral Association, a member of CI’s music faculty and conductor of the CSU Channel Islands Choir. Liu can be reached at 805-278-0375. For more information about the choir, visit http://choir.csuci.edu.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research.

Kyle E. Johnson

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. - California Lutheran University’s new organist will present his first recital on campus at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 6, in Samuelson Chapel.

Kyle E. Johnson will perform pieces by German composers including Bach, Buxtehude, Bruhns and Mendelssohn at the free Faculty Organ Recital.

Johnson, who started at CLU on Nov. 1, also serves as coordinator of chapel music and a music lecturer. Prior to his appointment at CLU, Johnson was director of music and community arts at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church of Logan Square in Chicago for three years. He oversaw the church’s efforts to become a center for community building through the arts. He has also served on the music faculties of University of Missouri - Kansas City, Missouri Valley College and State Fair Community College.

The organist has presented concerts in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. He holds a doctorate in musical arts from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance and also holds music degrees from Indiana University and Bethany College in Kansas.

Samuelson Chapel is located south of Olsen Road near Campus Drive on the Thousand Oaks campus. Additional parking is available at the corner of Olsen and Mountclef Boulevard.

For more information, call the Music Department at (805) 493-3306 or visit http://www.callutheran.edu/music.

Camarillo, CA. - The Center for Multicultural Engagement at California State University Channel Islands (CI) will host the performance “New Faces of America,” on Wed. Jan. 26 at 6 p.m. in Malibu Hall, in recognition of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The free event is open to the public.

The performance examines current issues that relate to people all across the country through a multi-media experience that merges video presentation with a live performer. The campus’ annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration reflects the spirit and principals of Dr. King as well as thought-provoking subject matter and student reflective speeches.

Limited parking is available on campus. A daily permit is $6. Free parking is available at the Camarillo Metrolink Station/Lewis Road parking lot in Camarillo with bus service to and from the campus. Riders should board the VISTA Bus to the campus; the fare is $1 each way. Buses arrive and depart from the Camarillo Metrolink Station every 30 minutes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. For exact times, check the schedule at www.goventura.org.

For more information contact Jennifer Chapman, Coordinator of Multicultural Programs at CSU Channel Islands at 805-437-3243 or jennifer.chapman@csuci.edu.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research.

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Camarillo, CA. - The Art Program at California State University Channel Islands (CI) has announced “Caring for Calves: The art and science of understanding Hawaii’s humpback whales” to be on exhibit Jan. 27 through Feb. 25 in the art gallery of Napa Hall. A public reception will be held on Thursday, Jan. 27 from 6 to 8 p.m.

The exhibit will include photographic work by:

· John Cesere, Dan Cesere - photographers and founders of C3 Submerged Photography

· Scientists: Rachel Cartwright, Ph.D. – Marine Mammal Scientist, and founder of the Keiki Kohola Project, Blake Gillespie, Ph.D. – physical biochemist

· CI students: J. Blair, R. Cano, A. Domingo, T. Dominicello, H. Martin, C.Mehlberg, L. Nguyen, A. Wall, B. Warmuth, A. Bonneau, L. Armstrong, K. Eden, J. Remonida, J. Perez, J. Warren, J. Penland, I. Espinoza, B. Villalta

This exhibition is a photographic essay focusing on the Hawaiian humpback whale population and like many of our great whale populations, is a conservation success story. By the end of commercial whaling in the seventies, the numbers of whales to be seen in Hawaiian waters each year had fallen to below 500. Today, it is estimated that over 10,000 humpback whales from across the North Pacific congregate in the warm, protected waters of Hawaii each winter, to breed and raise their young calves.

The Keiki Kohola Project aims to protect these critical nursery waters by providing up to date, accurate and new information on the behavior of mother-calf pairs in the region. The core of this mission is the development of science-based wildlife management strategies. An essential part of this goal is to reach beyond the scientific community and bring the research into focus for a wide and inclusive audience.

Over the last two years, professional photographers John and Dan Cesere have joined the research team to assist in the documentation of the underwater behavior of whales. The Cesere brothers of C3 Submerged bring to the project the technical underwater imaging expertise and experience required for research-grade photography. They bring an uncanny ability to capture those moments, so fleeting in underwater encounters, which link the whales’ grace and beauty to the behavioral details that allow us to know them better and manage them more effectively.

CSU Channel Islands is located at One University Drive, Camarillo. The exhibit will be available for viewing Jan. 27 through Feb. 25 in the art gallery of Napa Hall. Exhibit hours are: Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For additional information, contact the CI Art Program at 805-437-8570, or e-mail art@csuci.edu or visit http://art.csuci.edu.

Limited parking is available on campus. A daily permit is $6. Free parking is available at the Camarillo Metrolink Station/Lewis Road parking lot in Camarillo with bus service to and from the campus. Riders should board the VISTA Bus to the campus; the fare is $1 each way. Buses arrive and depart from the Camarillo Metrolink Station every 30 minutes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. For exact times, check the schedule at www.goventura.org.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research.

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. - California Lutheran University will host its annual Chinese New Year celebration from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, in Soiland Recreation Center.

The popular celebration, which last year attracted more than 400 people, falls on the first day of the Chinese New Year this year.

The festive event will celebrate the Year of the Rabbit with a traditional Lion Dance, Chinese acrobats and tai chi demonstrations. There will be dancing, singing and traditional Chinese music such as Er-Hu and Pi-Pa. Authentic Chinese food will be served, vendors will sell Chinese items and volunteers will write people’s names in Chinese. The event will also feature exhibits on history and art, including Chinese brush paintings and other works by local artists. Door prizes and traditional red envelopes will be distributed.

Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. This is year 4709 in the Chinese calendar. The holiday traditionally lasts 15 days and focuses on bringing good luck for the new year.

According to legend, Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian. To protect themselves, villagers originally put out food to satisfy the Nian. Later, determining the beast feared the color red, they hung red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. Today, adults give red envelopes, often containing money, to children to symbolize wealth and prosperity in the coming year. Lanterns symbolize the brightness of spring. In dragon and lion dances, a group of dancers parade under an elaborately decorated dragon or lion costume to scare away bad luck.

CLU’s Languages and Cultures Department and Multicultural Programs are sponsoring the free event.

Soiland Recreation Center is located in the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center, which is near the corner of Olsen Road and Campus Drive. For more information, contact Ashley Patterson at (805) 493-3489 or aapatter@callutheran.edu.

Liv Arnesen

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. - Due to the popularity of the 2010 Nordic Spirit Symposium dedicated to explorers, the 2011 event will delve into the lives of several other adventurers.

“Nordic Explorers: Voyages, Expeditions and Discoveries” will be held Feb. 11 and 12 at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. Nordic adventurers and explorers from the 18th to the 21st centuries will highlight this dynamic symposium featuring distinguished speakers and polished performers. The public is invited to share the time-honored spirit of a symposium, blending music, dining and the free exchange of ideas to enhance the pleasure of learning.

A reception will kick off the event at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11, in the Scandinavian Center. Admission is $10. Reservations are requested.

In the Samuelson Chapel at 7 p.m., an archeologist who served as Thor Heyerdahl’s right-hand man for seven years will discuss the life of the creative thinker, global citizen and environmental activist. Baritone Christian Nova and pianist Frank Garvey will then present “The Andrée Expedition: A Song Cycle by Dominick Argento,” a dramatic musical telling of the 1897 true story of three Swedish explorers on a journey to the North Pole in a hot air balloon. Admission is $20.

On Saturday, Feb. 12, the program begins at 9 a.m. in the Preus-Brandt Forum. A University of California, Santa Barbara professor will discuss Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach the South Pole. Modern-day explorer Liv Arnesen, who became the first woman to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole in 1994, will share her plans to follow in Amundsen’s footsteps on the centennial of his historic feat. Other presentations will include “Vitus Bering: Hero, Wimp, or Somewhere in Between” and “A. E. Nordenskiöld – Explorer and Gentleman.” Swedish guitarist Celia Linde will present a Nordic musical program with a Latin flavor.

Admission to the Feb. 12 program is $40.

Dinner and entertainment will start at 7 p.m. in the Lundring Events Center in the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center. Admission is $33. Reservations are required by Jan. 28.

The Scandinavian American Cultural and Historical Foundation and California Lutheran University are sponsoring the event. The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, the Norway House Foundation, the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in San Francisco and the Consulate General of Finland in Los Angeles provided grants.

For more information and early registration fees, visit http://www.scandinaviancenter.org, call (818) 788-4552 or e-mail seeallan@sbcglobal.net.

Come Fiddle Around!
California State Old Time Fiddlers, District 8, meet Sunday, January 23 from 1:30 to 4:30 at Oak View Community Center, 18 Valley Road, Oak View. Music for listening or dancing. No parking or admission charge.
Refreshments available, info: 640-3689, 661-513-9000, or visit our website calfiddlers.com