It's the on-air debut of Spark -- spotlighting what goes on behind the scenes at some of the hottest Bay Area opening nights and their last minute challenges. Become a part of San Francisco history with the gala celebrating the colossal new Asian Art Museum and see firsthand why it takes money to make money. Feel the tension and triumph as the staff of a small theater company, Teatro Visión de San Jose, defiantly mount their ambitious period production of a new work, "Conjunto," in the face of shrinking budgets and the deepening economic downturn. Finally, get the performers' view backstage at the San Francisco Ballet for a taste of the ballet classic "Don Quixote."
Rising stars in the art world reflect on the impact of sudden celebrity and the challenges of balancing commitment to their art with the temptations of fame and fortune. Dancer Rasta Thomas tries to parlay his success in the worlds of modern dance and ballet into a Hollywood career; Mission-based artist Chris Johanson dodges the spotlight while his colorful, kinetic installations attract audiences around the world. Then artists at both ends of the spectrum reflect on the lure of fame: Hear from Bay Area unknowns as they take their crack at stardom in open auditions for the Apollo Theatre's Amateur Night presented by Cal Performances; and go behind the scenes with classical music superstar Joshua Bell as he rehearses at Davies Symphony Hall.
Since the beginning of time, artists have been fascinated by the patterns of nature. Today, many artists are taking on nature -- not just as subject, but as medium -- employing natural materials, living organisms, even the wind itself, in their work. Sculptor Ned Kahn uses industrial methods to engineer vast machined installations, revealing the beauty of wind and water in motion. Engineer/artist Natalie Jeremijenko plants 100 pairs of cloned trees throughout San Francisco, rendering the pattern of differences between neighborhoods and microclimates. Bill Dan, also known as the "Rock Man of Crissy Field," takes on nature with his bare hands, creating improbable and striking rock sculptures that mesmerize bystanders.
Behind every truly great performer and artist is a great teacher. Spark visits with just a few of these inspiring mentors in the Bay Area. Ali Akbar Khan is one of the finest North Indian musicians in the world, and he has devoted his life to passing along his gift to several generations of musicians, young and old. Music instructor Helena Jack is working against all odds to bring jazz into the lives of hundreds of Oakland public school students. Michael Tilson Thomas talks about the teachers who helped shaped his career and why music education is one of his highest priorities as we follow members of the San Francisco Youth Symphony.
Contemporary art has left the gallery and now inhabits every nook and cranny of our world -- from digital ephemera appearing on video screens to temporary and fleeting events that occur in vast public spaces. Spark explores what it takes to be a collector of cutting-edge contemporary artworks, including works that may not exist as tangible objects. Explore for new art with Rene di Rosa as he collects the work of local artists for his extraordinary di Rosa Preserve in Napa Valley. Get an insider's glimpse of the world's largest private collection of video art, at the home of Pamela and Richard Kramlich. And experience the unique challenges of collecting conceptual and performance works, with artist and collector Ted Purvis.
Many contemporary artists have rejected traditional media like paint on canvas, opting instead to work with materials associated with traditional or applied crafts, like glass and fiber. These artists push their chosen material to the limit, creating works that are aesthetically unique and surprising. See how glass artist Nikolas Weinstein stretches the aesthetic possibilities of glass in his San Francisco studio, creating massive public art commissions and smaller works of exquisite and fragile beauty. Then, after years of enduring the physically demanding process of sculpting large forms from heavy clay, artist Ann Weber discovered that simple, lightweight cardboard and staples offer unlimited possibilities as materials for creating the organic forms she envisioned. Master ceramicist David Kuraoka throws enormous pots weighing 100 pounds and more, a process that requires an extraordinary level of skill, patience and strength. Watch him at work in his studio at San Francisco State University.
Especially in these turbulent times, young people have a lot on their minds, as this episode of Spark demonstrates. See how several innovative programs give young people powerful and eloquent ways to express themselves through the arts. Get a glimpse of the lives and emotion-packed poetry of several local teens as they make their way through the final tension-filled rounds of the Youth Speaks spoken word competitions. Follow East Palo Alto Mural Art Project's team of at-risk youth as they are trained to design and execute murals at one of the area's public schools. Then watch as Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company dance, sing and fly through the air to create a performance piece that expresses their power and beauty.
Some think of home as a place thousands of miles away -- even those of us who were born in the Bay Area. Spark highlights artists who are preserving traditional art forms and handing them down from one generation to the next. Meet five generations of the Healy family, who have shared Irish culture with thousands of students through the Healy Irish Dance Studio. Then catch the aloha spirit as it spreads across the mainland through the work of groups like Halau 'o Keikiali'i. And hear the Mexican Heritage Plaza's Mariachi Youth Program passing along mariachi music and rich history to South Bay students.
It's the high-wire act of the theater world: solo performance. Some of the country's most notable performers hone their craft in the Bay Area and perform nightly. Spark uncovers the years of effort that go into developing most original solo shows. Travel along the bumpy road of the creative process with monologuist Josh Kornbluth as he mixes humor, angst and the IRS in his latest one-man show, "Love and Taxes." See how the solo performer known as Derique has resurrected hambone, an art form that dates back to the time of slavery, and made it his own. And finally, go backstage with comedian Donald E. Lacy Jr. at the AfroSolo Arts Festival: An Explosion of Comedy.
Just as the development of oil revolutionized the art of painting almost a thousand years ago, advances in digital technology are now transforming the contemporary art scene -- giving artists new tools to explore virgin creative territory. In this episode of Spark, we travel the frontiers of artistic expression with some of the world's most innovative technology artists, who are living and working here in the Bay Area. Engineer artist Jim Campbell customizes the electronic sculptures in his installations to explore the very essence of movement and information in a group of LED pieces. Sound artist Pamela Z uses BodySynth to allow her to manipulate sound with physical gestures. Animator artist James Buckhouse parlays digital technologies over to traditional art forms, in which users can train an animated character on handheld PDAs to tap dance.
The thrill of performing on stage without a script or a score is undeniable. This episode of Spark gives you that taste of excitement and dread of winging it in front of an audience. Braving this high-wire theatrical walk, Rafe Chase, Tim Orr and Stephen Kearin of 3 For All turn suggestions from the audience into narrative stories that promise to amaze and amuse. Then we join the Rova Saxophone Quartet, a vanguard group 25 years in the making, as they improvise cutting-edge music art for series of musical pieces inspired by soprano saxophone legend Steve Lacy. Finally, we drop in on world-renowned master of improv Ruth Zaporah as she and her students take you through the sweat of her very ownAction Theater method of improvisation.
Spark visits the unsung heroes of the art world -- conservators, preservationists and fans who are breathing new life into art works created decades and even centuries ago. Since 1981, San Francisco's very own Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra is dedicated to historically accurate performances on period instruments, from expensively preserved harpsichords to a viola dating back to the American Revolution. Next, see the science behind the highly trained team of art doctors at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco's Conservation Labs restoring nearly 20,000 broken, torn, chipped and dirty art objects to their original splendor. Finally, Legacy Oral History Program merges with San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum to take on the challenges of documenting the temporal art form of dance as they incorporate oral histories, graphic notation, video and other ephemera to preserve the work of the Bay Area's great choreographers.
For thousands of years, women around the world have expressed their personal histories, societal values and individual eccentricities in the art of fabric, and this tradition now informs the work of many contemporary fine artists. Spark visits weaver and teacher Consuelo Jimenez Underwood as she constructs the history of indigenous and non-indigenous conflicts through her woven works. Then we observe the process of painter Andrea Higgins as she finalizes her canvas series "The Presidents' Wives," based on the wardrobes of American first ladies -- from Nancy Reagan's signature red to Lady Bird Johnson's diaphanous yellow chiffon. Lastly, we join curator of textiles Diane Mott at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco as she gives us a peek at Borneo textiles produced by the Iban women, whose dyeing and weaving skills were the ultimate achievement and thus the path to power in their tribes.
Spark unveils the rhythms of life at several artists-in-residence programs, from the Marin Headlands to the San Francisco Bay. Resident artists at the Headlands Center for the Arts explain why the program represents a rare opportunity for experimentation and interaction among the lucky few chosen to participate. At the Creative Growth Art Center, the miracle of creative voices comes alive as artists with developmental, emotional and physical disabilities are given the tools and guidance to develop their talents. Meanwhile, innovative and offbeat, Artship navigates the Bay Area searching for a new home.
Spark unearths the cultural richness in the Bay Area as immigrant artists transplant their cultural traditions. Chinese classical painter Li Huayi, from the first generation of Cultural Revolution artists, reinvigorates Chinese landscape painting with his modern abstract vision. Striving to keep the pure form of danzón alive, Roberto Borrell and his band, Orquesta La Moderna Tradición, enliven the scene with passion and dedication to the performance of classic Cuban dance music. Continuing a tradition that dates back to his Moorish ancestors, Algerian artist Khalil Bendib paints ceramic tiles using methods that evoke another time and place.
Engineering ingenuity can elevate ambitious artworks to a different level. Spark gets you an inside look at the fire-breathing dragon and flying monkeys in Best of Broadway's "Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz" as this brand-new, multimillion dollar musical production hits the Curran Theater. Then defy gravity with sculptor Richard Deutsch, who pushes the physical limits of stone and metal forms weighing several tons each. And fly to new heights with Project Bandaloop as they test out their vertical trampoline.
Break new ground with Bay Area artists as this episode of Spark gives you a firsthand introduction to their thoughts and processes. Meet conceptual artist Paul Kos, who was among the first artists to incorporate video, sound and interactivity into sculptural installations. Then go behind the scenes, from the initial concept to the opening night, with choreographer Joe Goode and his loyal company as they develop a brand-new performance piece -- synthesizing text, gestures and humor with high-velocity dancing. Finally, break the sound barrier at Mills College Center for Contemporary Music as we drop in on their annual open house to check out the latest from students and faculty members.
Spark reveals the many creative ways Bay Area artists collaborate to share their craft. Join forces with Campo Santo and writer Denis Johnson in their series of soul-searching theatrical experiences as we document the phases of their ongoing collaboration from first reading to final performance. Next, get an inside look at collaborative duo Charlie Castaneda and Brody Reiman, known as castaneda/reiman, as they prepare a new series of conceptual sculptures for an upcoming New York gallery installation. Then meet painter Mary Lovelace O'Neal and composer Olly Wilson as they create an audio-visual chamber music experience called "Call and Response" with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (sfcmp.org).
Artists have found inspiration in everyday life, as this episode of Spark highlights. Grandfather of the art car, David Best transforms more than 30 vehicles into fantastical works of art, include cranking out a new masterpiece from an old Cadillac. Next, artist and rapper Keith Knight re-channels his own life experiences into his comic strip, the "K-Chronicles," a poignant combination of urban politics, race, love, family and offbeat humor. Finally, the Surf Style art show at the 111 Minna Gallery opens a contemporary window into the influence of 1970s surfing subculture in retail, fashion, art, design and advertising.
Discover the challenges and the magic behind translating the written word into a theatrical performance. In this episode, Spark documents the creative process in three Bay Area acts. Act I: Watch Word for Word turn the printed pages of Angela Carter's gothic deconstruction of the infamous Lizzie Borden murders in "The Fall River Axe Murders." Act II: Try justifying the brutality and blood in political murders as California Shakespeare Theater's artistic director Jonathan Moscone directs the climactic assassination scene in "Julius Caesar." Act III: Witness the efforts of African American Shakespeare Company to update the classic story of "Beauty and the Beast" for a contemporary audience.
Spark takes a look at the business of art. Irving M. Klein International String Competition has $10,000 up for grabs -- young competitors vie for this grand prize and the opportunity of a lifetime to headline a series of prestigious concerts. Get real-life money-management lessons in the contemporary world of art dealing from Linc Art Gallery owner Charles Linder. Then join graduating young artists from the San Francisco Art Institute (sanfranciscoart.edu) as they stand on the precipice between art school and the real world.
Spark visits with three women who use their art to explore questions of history, time and memory. Driven by a need to explore family memories and the Chinese American experience, South Bay artist Flo Oy Wong has embarked on a creative path in her provocative artworks that record the human impact of violence and racism in America. From bleak hospital wards to gray government buildings, mixed-media artist Ann Chamberlain works wonders transforming intimidating public spaces into welcoming, inspirational environments to evoke personal stories and recollections of the past. After the death of her young son, sculptor Virginia Harrison has been working with others who have experienced personal loss to create unique memorial markers, plaques and urns.
To be an artist is one thing, but to lead groups of other artists is a fine art in and of itself. Spark gets an inside look into the hectic and enriching lives of extraordinary arts administrators. Try to keep up with the Oakland East Bay Symphony's Michael Morgan -- from middle school visits and young musician tutorials to symphony and opera rehearsals. Then, be inspired by Oberlin Dance Company's Brenda Way, who in the three decades since she founded ODC has directed her dancers and staff to accomplish more than they ever dreamed possible. Finally, sit in as the founder of Palo Alto's TheatreWorks, Robert Kelley, directs a rehearsal of "Proof."
Funding for arts education in public schools continues to dwindle at a shockingly steady rate. Spark bears witness as artists and arts organizations throughout the Bay Area are forced to take matters into their own hands to ensure that children are exposed to arts in school. Explore the halls, stages, classrooms and studios of School of the Arts (SOTA), one of the few public high schools in California where arts disciplines don't play second fiddle to academics. Then travel to schools all over the Bay Area with members of Young Audiences as they reach more than a quarter of a million students each year with a variety of cultural, visual, performing and literary arts. And listen as SFJAZZ Jazz in the Middle brings outstanding jazz musicians, the Poet Laureate of San Francisco and local middle school students together to create and perform original poetry set to jazz.
Spark explores the boundaries of what is considered art. Meet Jon Brumit and Marc Horowitz as they take over New Langton Arts and reinvent themselves as the business team of Sliv & Dulet Enterprises. They collaborate with 25 other artists to "develop new products and services" within an experiential installation that comments on conventions of office life and the art world. Then join sound artist Loren Chasse as he activates the sounds of nature and architecture with youth from Julia Morgan Center for the Arts' summer camp. Lastly, smart mobs like FlockSmart are sweeping the world -- is it a passing fad or a major technological trend? Judge for yourself.
Spark visits with arts organizations that have been supporting the Bay Area art community for decades and the people that keep them alive. Founded in 1973, Ashkenaz is an East Bay music and culture venue that specializes in live roots music and international folk dancing every night of the week. Every summer since 1967, Harriet and Jim Schlader have produced and directed classic American musical theater for the Woodminster Summer Musicals in Oakland's Joaquin Miller Park. Then head south to Santa Cruz's Kuumbwa Jazz Center (kuumbwajazz.org), celebrating its 28th year as the West Coast's oldest year-round jazz performance venue and education center.
From stage to street, Spark goes behind the scenes with artists who aren't afraid to talk politics. Activist Michael Franti takes on corporate America, the criminal justice system and the cause of disadvantaged people everywhere to the tune of a funky, soul-driven hip-hop beat. With his two-play cycle, Continental Divide, acclaimed British playwright David Edgar along with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre take aim at American politics. Then go undercover with the renegade artists and copywriters of the Billboard Liberation Front (billboardliberation.com) as they use wit to conduct guerrilla attacks on corporate signage.