Read the Downey Beat’s article about the new Bumblebee mural on 2nd Street.
Visit the work in 2nd Street just west of Downey Avenue.
Come to the Bumblebee Short Film Screening August 19th
Photo courtesy Downey Daily Photos
Author: Downey Arts Coalition
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Downey Arts Coalition Meeting Saturday July 28
The monthly Downey Arts Coalition meeting will happen this Saturday July 28th, Noon, at the Wahlquist home.
Join us as we’ll be discussing how joining the Downey Art League affects the group going forward and the decisions that need to be made. There are also lots of new things going on, including the opening of the downtown gallery, the Bumblebee short film screening, Art on the Vine anniversary show, and more.
12 Noon, Saturday July 28th.
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Poetry of Brigit Treux, Thursday night
This Thursday’s Poetry night features Brigit Treux. The evening starts earlier this time, 7:30PM for the open mic, at Mari’s Wine Bar, 8222 Firestone Blvd., Downey, across from Porto’s.
Brigit Truex has lived in the Sierra foothills of northern California for a dozen years, and her newest book, Strong as Silk: The Gold Hill Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Company, Prose and Poems, has just been published by Lummox Press. Through letters, journal entries and poems, Truex weaves the true story of the rise and fall of a Japanese colony in Gold Hill in the 1860’s, a group of samurai-class men and women who fled Japan after a civil war hoping to grow silk and tea in California. Strangers in a strange land.At dawn’s edge, heron
steps into pond of black silk.
Water heals itself.
~*~
Line by line, wild geese
inscribe farewell notes on sky.
Wind fingers their nests.
~*~
Brigit is part Abenak-Cree and part Irish. Her Native American name is Cedarwoman. When not writing poetry, she can be found at pow-wows, performing dances. She has founded workshops in Massachusetts and California. Her newest group is Red Fox Underground. -
Moravian Trombone Choir Performs Monday July 16
Monday July 16, 7:30PM @ Moravian Church of Downey
Monday night will be a special free concert of the Moravian Trombone Choir of Downey, and featuring organist Christopher Martin.
Martin has served the Downey area churches for over a decade with his musicianship, first at the First Baptist Church, then the First Presbyterian Church and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. A graduate of USC Thorton School of Music, he is currently the organist, choir master and music director at La Purisima Catholic Church.
The Moravian Trombone Choir of Downey was founded in 1965 by the legendary bass trombonist Jeff Reynolds, longtime bass trombonist of the LA Phil. It is founded on a centuries old tradition of trombone music in the Moravian Church (which developed primarily based on common translations of Psalm 98 which say to praise him ‘with the trombone’). It is a truly outstanding tradition, and features the entire trombone family. Most listeners to symphonic music will be acquainted with the alto, tenor, and bass trombones, but soprano trombones are rarely seen except in Moravian trombone choirs. Together, the 4 voices of the trombone choir can function in the same way as historic sackbutt ensembles or as a modern brass ensemble, but possess a spectacular unity of tone.
Some of the works will be for brass alone, but there are three works for brass and organ: a piece by Benedetto Marcello that is an organ concerto accompanied by brass, and two antiphonal sonatas by Gabrieli, originally scored for two brass choirs but featured in arrangements tomorrow for brass and organ, the organ functioning as the second brass choir.
The address of the church is 10337 Old River School Road, Downey, CA, 90241. To listen to a preview of the selections, visit http://www.thechristophermartin.com/listening.html
Follow the Moravian Trombone Choir on facebook.
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Downey Symphony Guild Country Western Barbecue July 10
Come join a fundraiser for the Downey Symphony Guild, which helps pay for their music program in schools as well as the concert season.
There will be a “Country Western Barbecue” on Tuesday, July 10, 6PM at the Rio Hondo Event Center at 10627 Old River School Rd.
Tickets are $22 ($12 children 4 to 11) if paid in advance. $25 at the door. Please RSVP by mailing a check with attendees’ names to the Downey Symphony Guild, 9700 Garnish Dr., Downey, CA 90240.
For questions you can call the number in the picture below:
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Friday Night Fright Flicks – July 13
The Epic Lounge is hosting a Horror film night produced by Tony Lucero, dubbed “Friday Night Fright Flicks.” Doors open at 7PM, tickets are available at www.latenighthorrorfilmfest.com.
New films, filmmaker Q&A, dinner by LA Buns, After-party, and more.
We don’t get a lot of unique film screenings here in Downey, let’s support a new locally grown film festival.
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Downey Arts Coalition joins forces with Downey Art League
On Tuesday night, June 26, a new board of directors was installed at the fiscal year-end meeting of the Downey Art League. With the election of Downey Arts Coalition founder Andrew Wahlquist as board president, as well as other active DAC members joining the board as well, the two organizations have effectively merged. The Downey Arts Coalition, which has been operating informally since early 2011 now has a foundation of a California non-profit corporation, as well as 501(c)3 tax exempt status.
The Downey Arts Coalition is committed to continuing the current operations of the Downey Art League, which includes meetings every other month with an artist demonstrating their work. They are also partnered with the Paramount Traditional Artists Guild, who they share meetings with. For the past fourteen years, outgoing president Edward Aguirre has led the group and faithfully kept i’s legal status intact. He is excited about the work of the Downey Arts Coalition, and has long hoped for a resurgence of interest in the arts in Downey. What kept him going was the idea that future generations may need what the Downey Art League had built.The Downey Art League began in 1955 with a husband and wife meeting with amateur artists in their home, and grew over the course of the next two decades into a large organization with over 200 members. Declining membership in recent years has challenged the organization to sustain itself. Under Wahlquist’s leadership, he hopes to bring some of the initiatives started by the Downey Arts Coalition and continue them with the Downey Art League considering other areas of the arts besides visual arts.
For more, read the article by the Downey Beat, Generation gap bridged with ‘merger’ of two Downey arts groups.
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Art on the Vine presents Manuel Barillas & Asha Kamali July 14
Art on the Vine moves to Saturday July 14th this next month, and features artists Manuel Barillas and Asha Kamali. More information about the artists coming soon. The opening reception event begins at 7PM at Mari’s Wine Bar, 8222 Firestone Blvd in Downey.
There will be special live music provided by students of the Los Angeles City College music program.
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Lorine Parks featured at Wine+Words Poetry
This Thursday night features DAC member and curator of the Wine+Words poetry series Lorine Parks reading from her new book of poetry Catalina Eddy. The open mic begins at 8PM at Mari’s Wine Bar, 8222 Firestone Blvd in Downey.
“Lorine Parks’s Catalina Eddy is one of the most surprising and hilarious poetic romps I have ever read. Weather is “the Family business” of these meteorological guys and dolls, molls and mobsters, of whom Eddy is only one of a charming and somewhat disreputable array of nourish figures…Yet the elegant music of these poems and their shifting emotional “eddies’ remind us that there is as often as not a dark and somber (not silver lining) to these particular clouds.”
—David St. John
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Downey Arts Coalition Meeting June 23
Join the Downey Arts movement by coming to our monthly meetings, on the 4th Saturday of the month at Noon. On June 23, the meeting will be held at the home of Andrew & Lana Wahlquist. Contact us on the email contact@www.downeyarts.org if you need directions. The meeting will be followed by a summer potluck barbecue celebrating the recent success of the staged reading series and other exciting things going on.
