The 2002 Green Music Festival at Sonoma State University, a summer celebration of music, arts and ideas, presents the Ansel Adams Centennial Exhibition in the University Art Gallery from July 11 through August 18.
Curated by long-time Ansel Adams associates Mary Street Alinder and Jim Alinder of Gualala, the Ansel Adams Centennial Exhibition brings together more than 70 original prints from the master photographer, selected as the very best examples of his art. The selection includes many of Adams' best-known images, as well as less familiar views of Northern California and Sonoma County.
The Ansel Adams Centennial Exhibition is open to the public Tuesdays through Sundays, July 11 through August 18. Reservations, tickets and information are available by calling toll-free (866) 54-ANSEL (866-542-6735), or online at www.greenmusicfestival.org.
THE EXHIBITION
The Ansel Adams Centennial Exhibition commemorates the centennial of Ansel Adams' birth in San Francisco in 1902, and honors the life and achievements of the influential photographer and passionate environmentalist. The exhibition takes viewers through a chronological tour of Adams' artistry, tracing the evolution of his aesthetic point of view and his mastery of photographic techniques.
The exhibition addresses the relationship between Adams' art and his efforts to protect and preserve the natural landscape, and his special connection to Northern California and Sonoma County. Stellar works on display include Adams' first visualized photograph, Monolith; the elegant five-print Surf Sequence, photographed along the San Mateo County coast; and some of his most popular images, such as Clearing Winter Storm and Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, which receives special attention in the exhibition. On view are images of Yosemite, the Sierra Nevada, the U.S. National Parks, and the California coast.
Central to the exhibition are rarely seen photographs by Adams of Sonoma County, one of the photographer's favorite places. Ansel Adams spent much time in the local area, especially in the 1960s (he owned a small piece of land on the county 's west edge), and he came to know the unique and wild nature of the Sonoma Coast.
All of Adams' photographs in the exhibition are signed originals that he produced personally in his darkroom.
The exhibition provides insight into how Adams worked with his negatives in the darkroom to achieve an image that could convey the emotional power of the scene as he felt it, and the qualities he desired in the final print. Also in the exhibition are photographs of Ansel Adams, a photograph by Edward Weston of Adams' darkroom in Yosemite, and Adams' well-worn Stetson hat.
Ansel Adams (1902-1984) is recognized as one of the finest and most influential American artists of the 20th century. He was a central figure in American photographic history, particularly as a photographer of nature's grandeur, and his images helped drive a national movement to protect the natural environment.
As a fourteen-year-old in 1916, the young Adams auspiciously received his first camera on a family trip to Yosemite, a place he continuously recorded with his lens and with which he would come to be identified. Trained as a concert pianist, Adams finally chose a profession in photography, and rose to prominence as a photographer and an advocate for acceptance of photography as a valid art form.
In addition to his prodigious output of masterpieces, Adams shared all he knew about his craft by writing books and teaching workshops, until just before his death in 1984. His enormous sensitivity to the natural landscape did not stop in the darkroom, but overflowed into political action as he worked energetically to protect the nation's wild places, serving on the board of directors of the Sierra Club (1934-1971), counseling presidents, and acting as a key activist for important environmental issues.
Exhibition curators Mary Street Alinder and Jim Alinder are experts on Adams? photography and worked closely with him during the latter part of his life and career. They have curated several exhibitions of Adams' work, including a major exhibition at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, and a 1982 exhibition honoring Adams? 80th birthday at the Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art and the California Academy of Sciences.
Mary Street Alinder was Adams? chief of staff for the last five years of his life and authored the definitive Ansel Adams: A Biography. She assisted Adams in writing his autobiography (a New York Times bestseller), completing the text after Adams? death in 1984, and selecting the 227 illustrations from among his 40,000 negatives.
She has lectured on Adams at museums and universities around the world. Jim Alinder, a fine art photographer, was a university professor of photography and served for eleven years as Executive Director of The Friends of Photography (an organization founded by Ansel Adams) in Carmel and San Francisco. He is the author or editor of more than thirty photography books.
Mary and Jim Alinder have lived at Sea Ranch in Sonoma County since 1990, and own the Alinder Gallery in Gualala, which is devoted exclusively to fine art photography.
Underwriters for the Ansel Adams Centennial Exhibition include The Press Democrat's Celebrate Community program and Buena Vista Winery.
INFORMATION AND TICKETS
The Ansel Adams Centennial Exhibition is open to the public Tuesdays through Sundays, July 11 - August 18. Exhibition hours are Tuesday-Wednesday, 12 noon to 6 p.m.; and Thursday-Sunday, 12 noon to 8 p.m. (closed Mondays).
The Sonoma State University Art Gallery is located in the Art Building next to parking lot A on the campus of Sonoma State University at 1801 E. Cotati Ave. in Rohnert Park, 40 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Reservations and advance tickets are recommended. Advance tickets are $8 adults / $6 seniors & students and can be purchased from City Box Office by calling toll-free (866) 54-ANSEL (542-6735), or online at www.greenmusicfestival.org. Advance tickets include free campus parking and express entrance to the exhibition.
When available, tickets may be purchased at the door, on a space-available basis, for $10 adults / $8 seniors & students. Additional information is available at www.greenmusicfestival.org.
The Green Music Festival, now in its third year, presents a summer full of programs organized around the central theme "On Common Ground: Evolving Landscapes in Music, Arts and Ideas." Under the leadership of artistic director Jeffrey Kahane, the 2002 Green Music Festival also presents concerts, lectures, and children's programs. The Festival is expected to eventually attract more than 80,000 patrons every summer to a wide range of events.
Once built, the planned Donald & Maureen Green Music Center at Sonoma State University will become the permanent home for the Green Music Festival.
For tickets and information, call (866) 54-ANSEL or visit www.greenmusicfestival.org.
NOTE: Photograph of Ansel Adams, above, was taken by Jim Alinder in 1984.
A celebration and exploration of California's literature, art and history with a focus on Jack London's unique vision of the land is the theme of the second annual Jack London Lecture Series at Sonoma State University this summer.
To provide an interesting and provocative contrast to London’s vision of the land, the Green Music Festival at SSU is featuring musical depictions of European landscapes in its August 3 Midsummer Night concert, and the vision of another great Californian artist, Ansel Adams, in the Ansel Adams Centennial Exhibition.
The exhibition features 70 original prints, focusing on Adams’ landscape masterpieces, particularly his images of Northern California and Sonoma County. The exhibition is co-curated by Mary Street Alinder, Adams’ former Chief of Staff and biographer. Alinder gives the July 10 lecture of the Jack London Lecture Series, reflecting on the life of one of America’s greatest photographers and most influential environmentalists.
The free eight-part public series will run from 7-9 p.m. Wednesdays from June 26-Aug. 14 in the Evert B. Person Theatre on campus.
Called On Common Ground: Exploration of the Meaning of Place in Jack London's California, the series explores the meaning of California landscapes as expressed through various art forms including architecture, design and photography.
A field trip to Jack London State Park, film showings and performances are included in the series.
Renowned regional and national experts will present this year's series including:
June 26 - Gaye LeBaron, Valley of the Moon: London's Quest for a Place of Beauty
July 3 - Ed Castellini, Jack London: Naturalist?
July 10 - Mary Street Alinder, Celebrating 100 Years of Ansel Adams: A Great Northern Californian
July 17 - Robert Cherney, Jack London's Rugged and Radical Fin de Si-cle San Francisco
July 24 - Clarice Stasz, Place & Race in Jack London's Works
July 31 - Jennifer Golden, Interior Spaces: Jack and Charmian London as Decorators
August 7 - Gary A. Brechin, Wolf House: Architecture and Jack London's Spatial, Social and Literary Imagination
August 14 - Roberts Road Readers, Dramatic Readings from Jack London's Literature
For a tax-exempt donation of $50, those who join as a Friend of the Series can enjoy a reserved seat at all eight events and other lectures and benefits in 2002-03.
These events are co-sponsored by the SSU School of Extended Education, the Green Music Festival and California Cultural Studies program.
The series may be taken for academic credit and teacher workshops are also available.
For further information on the series, call Barbara Brooks, (707) 664-2691 or email barbara.brooks@sonoma.edu
An All-American program of Big Band music from the 1920s and 1930s, a local 14-year-old trumpet virtuoso, patriotic standards and Wild West film favorites will take the stage on July 4 in the third annual Independence Day on the Green concert at Sonoma State University. The event is expected to sell out at 4,000 people.
The concert is one of three outdoor Green Music Festival events this summer that offer picnicking, fine wines and food in a relaxing lakeside setting on the SSU campus. This year's theme, selected by Festival Artistic Director Jeffrey Kahane, is "On Common Ground: Evolving Landscapes in Music, Arts and Ideas."
At 7:30 p.m., Jeff Tyzik, Principal Pops conductor for the Rochester Philharmonic, returns to lead the Santa Rosa Symphony in an new program of All-American music. Reflecting this year's Festival theme of "landscapes," Tyzik honors our country with symphonic evocations of the countryside itself. Gallop across the plains; hide out in theBadlands. Rousing patriotic favorites are seasoned with a sampling of rip-roaring Wild West movie scores. Dazzling fireworks immediately follow the concert.
Gates open at 4 p.m. for pre-concert activities that include games and music for kids, roving Wild West and patriotic characters, a demonstration of landscape painting by the Sonoma County Museum, picnicking and fine wines.
At 5 p.m., the highly regarded 15-piece San Francisco Starlight Orchestra takes the stage to bring back the magic of the 1920s and 1930s with its swinging jazz style. The featured trumpet soloist is 14-year-old Joey Schneider from Novato. At thirteen, while still a seventh grader, Schneider won Downbeat Magazine's Student Music Award for best original song and released his first CD, which includes six of his original songs.
Ticket prices range from $7 to $52. Food, wine and picnic suppers will be available. Both lawn and reserved table seating are offered. For tickets and information, call (707) 546-8742 or visit the website at www.greenmusicfestival.org.
Other Green Music Festival outdoor concerts this summer are A Midsummer Night on the Green on August 3 featuring Festival Artistic Director Jeffrey Kahane conducting the Santa Rosa Symphony with guest soloist Jon Nakamatsu, gold medal winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and Cuban Jazz & Salsa on the Green on August 4 with GRAMMY-nominated Cuban composer-pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Cuban Son singer-songwriter Albita.
The Festival also features two chamber music concerts on July 20 and 21 with Jeffrey Kahane & Friends, Greenfarmfest, a youth festival weekend on July 27-28, and an eight-part Jack London Lecture Series from June 26 through August 14.
The Festival is also presenting the Ansel Adams Centennial Exhibition in the Sonoma State University Art Gallery from July 11 - August 18. Seventy original prints, with an emphasis on images of Northern California and Sonoma County, celebrate the great photographer's 2002 centennial birthday.
This year's events are expected to attract more than 30,000 people to the SSU campus in Rohnert Park, 40 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Festival will move to its permanent home, the Donald and Maureen Green Music Center at SSU, in a few years.
For more information:
http://www.greenmusicfestival.org.
Representatives of the building industry and environmentalists often eye each other suspiciously, assuming there is no ground to share...literally. But can there be development that offers healthy, beautiful, and planet-sustainable options?
"Building for the Future: Green Building Expo" hopes to answer those questions in a series of workshops and demonstrations to be held at the Environmental Technology Center on the Sonoma State University campus, Saturday, June 15 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free with online pre-registration or $10 at the door.
Keynote speaker is David Arkin, President of the Architects, Designers, and Planners for Social Responsibility, who will talk about the relationship between environmentally conscious and socially responsible design.
This event is for anyone interested and is particularly designed to provide resources for the building community. It features building and remodeling alternatives, with demonstrations of materials that have relatively little impact on either occupants or the environment, as well as design ideas.
Some of the topics include renewable energy and energy efficiency, alternative building materials such as straw bales and certified sustainable lumber, and earthen plasters, not to mention low-toxicity paints, stains and floor coverings.
On a larger scale, there will be presentations on local government green building initiatives, managing a green construction project, and a lecture on the integrated team-building design process. For Expo pre-registration, visit www.sonoma.edu/ensp/etc/registration/default.html.
For additional information, call the Environmental Technology Center, (707) 664-2577.
A four day residential "boot camp" for entrepreneurs is being offered by the Entrepreneurship Center of Sonoma State University from June 17-20 on the Rohnert Park campus.
"This is planned as a total immersion experience with the finest instructors so business people can really think about what their business is all about," says E-Center director, Dr. Armand Gilinsky. "We want them to unplug their cell phones, leave their regular lives behind and become immersed in thinking about their future direction."
This intensive Entrepreneurship Excellence Course is specifically designed for those thinking about launching the "next greatest venture", as well as those who have their business up and running and want to move it to the next
level, Gilinksy says. By focusing on the life cycle of the entrepreneurial business, from evaluating their market opportunity, positioning their venture, writing an effective business plan, financing, and presentations to investors, the course will be filled with valuable real-life learning opportunities, says Gilinsky.
Course participants may choose to have their business plan evaluated and receive detailed feedback on their venture plan presentations. The course fee is $2,495 and includes all curriculum materials, housing, and meals for the four-day program. Attendees will be housed on the campus in Sauvignon Village. A few scholarships for the course remain.
Guest instructors include:
Lesley Berglund, Ambrosia Wine. MBA from Harvard Business School, President, Chief Executive, and Co-Founder of Vintage Directions Inc., and Ambrosia.
Ray Kinnunen, Professor of Management at Northeastern University School of Business Administration.
Ron Star, expert in security law, financing and mergers for Howard Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, PC; teaching fellow at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
Karl Vesper, Professor of Business Administration at University of Washington and University of California, San Diego; author of New Venture Creation, a leading text in the entrepreneurship.
Joan Winn, Professor of Business Administration at the University of Denver and Daniels College of Business; former President of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Participants will also receive complementary invitations to the North Bay Lifetime Entrepreneurship Awards Dinner at Paradise Ridge Winery from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, June 20. This event will honor Don Green and Henry Trione as the first recipients of the NOBLE award, given to the person(s) who have demonstrated exemplary achievement in new business formation, job creation, economic development, and mentoring of other entrepreneurs to create sustainable ventures in the North Bay.
Guy Kawasaki, CEO of Garage.com and former Apple Fellow, will be delivering the keynote address. Cost of the dinner is $100.
For further information, contact the Entrepreneurship Center at ecenter@sonoma.edu or (707) 664-2387.
