Next weekend The Arts Fund celebrates with a preview party for a group exhibit by the 2010 Individual Artist Award winners, Dug Uyesaka, Hilary Brace (nice website, Hilary!), and Linda Stewart-Oaten.

This event is a preview party and fundraiser for the exhibition. David Starkey will be handing out checks to the winners, SB writer Erin Graffy will be the Emcee and Justyna Kelley from LA will be the musical guest before she performs the following Tuesday at Soho.

This event benefits the IAA which benefits our local artists, so it is obviously worthy of your support, loyal readers. Tickets are $35 in advance and $45 at the door, so make sure to get your tickets in advance. They can be purchased by calling the Arts Fund at 965-7321 or going to our website at www.artsfundsb.org.

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There are loads of great events and exhibits to check out tonight whilst out and about for Santa Barbara’s First Thursday. Here are some recommendations for places you shouldn’t miss.

AG2 GALLERY @ THE FRENCH PRESS
1101 State Street
(805) 963-9800
Etch ‘N Sketch: Art Show and Art Swap. A back to the not so basics of drawing and rendering show featuring Peter Mengert and Roberto Morales, with highlighted local artist Holly McCay. Select art pieces will be on display from local high school students. Bring a black book or sketch pad to swap sketches with your fellow artists. Percentage of sales goes to youth art fund. Music and refreshments will be available.

SANTA BARBARA CONTEMPORARY ARTS FORUM
653 Paseo Nuevo, 2nd Floor
(805) 966-5373
Forum Lounge: Privacy is Dead Because We Said So. Artist James Gilbert will set up a temporary sewing shop and sew several hundred real size pairs of clear, industrial plastic see-through underpants, which will accumulate in huge sculptural piles. This project addresses ideas of privacy, anonymity and identity in relationship to the huge amounts of personal information posted daily on Facebook, youtube, Google and other mass media.

Elizabeth Gordon Gallery
15 West Gutierrez
(805) 963-1157

Viva Design in collaboration with Inga Guzyte present: Love to Read. The exhibit is an installation with the paper-cup characters in the window of the Elizabeth Gordon Art Gallery. We created Alphabet city, a New York (well sort of) right here in Santa Barbara.  The official opening for the exhibit will be Thursday, 9-9, 5-8pm. I hope all locals will sip a wine with us and celebrate the new Viva Design adventure.

UPDATE: This just in from FUZION! This is a big deal folks.

We are hosting a pop up art show by David P. Flores @ Fuzion Gallery 1115 State St.

The reception will be this Thursday the 2nd of September.
The show will hang for one week only so don’t miss this chance to see some of David’s art in person, trust us you will be impressed!!!
http://www.davidfloresart.com/

Reception starts 7PM and can be expected to close around 11PM

This event lies on a First Thursday so SB’s art crowd will be out in plenty!

If you come dressed to impress then the drinks and food are on us!

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This Saturday two amazing women are working together to raise money for a good cause. Andi Garcia, who founded Heart2Hand, should be no strange to readers of this blog. Vanae Rivera is a wonderful artist and designer who has an amazing studio space where this event will take place. It’s worth stopping by just to see this hidden gem, but make sure to bring your wallet too, as there is bound to be some really great art and other things to buy. This should be an really great event and I couldn’t be more excited that these two got together on this project. See you there…

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Ag2 Gallery is honored to have Vanae Rivera’s Space Invaders Craft Fair support the Heart2Hand Youth Art Fund with raffle and lemonade sale at this Saturday’s event at 4159 State Street .

Heart2Hand youth art fund was started July 30th , 2009 and has made their first donation in December 2009 to La Cuesta high school .

Founder of H2H youth art fund and owner of Ag2 Gallery, Andi Garcia, states ” We are very excited to work within the schools as a supplement of the arts programs for secondary school aged kids. As a native of Santa Barbara’s Eastside , I am thankful for the artists such as Manuel Unzueta and others who took the time and effort to broaden the cultural arts to us kids. We were borderline crime vs. creatively and I truly believe it was the artful efforts of outside support that kept some of us out major trouble.
Establishing H2H is a way for me to give back and contribute to our community
…Art Saves Lives ”

“We thank the current resident artists like Vanae Rivera and her Space Invaders event for their support as we enter the 10/11 school year fund raising efforts . ”

The fund continues to raise funds in conjunction with Ag2 gallery where a percentage of all art sales at the gallery spot benefits the fund.

Space Invaders Art Craft Fair is this Saturday, August 28th at 4159 State Street 11:00am to 7:00pm . Heart2Hand fundraiser of an old fashioned lemonade stand and sack lunches as well as a raffle of very artful artifacts that will be on display will be presented at Ag2 Gallery table .

For further information about how to contribute to the fund contact Andi Garcia 805.637.2521

Andi Garcia 805.637.2521
Ag2 Gallery @French Press
1101 State Street , Santa Barbara , Ca 93101

TheArtillerist.com http://theartillerist.com/Ag2admin
ARTiFAQZ Blog http://artifaqz.blogspot.com/
805-895-4804

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If you’re heading to the Jack Johnson concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl this fall make sure to stop by the Art From Scrap table, and think about helping them out with some donations. They are a great organization and an important Santa Barbara institution. See details below.

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Art From Scrap Teams Up With Jack Johnson SANTA BARBARA: Art From Scrap is teaming up with Jack Johnson on his 2010 To The Sea Tour and All At Once, a social action network that connects nonprofits with people who want to become active in their local and world community.

For over twenty years, Art From Scrap (AFS) has been a leading environmental education organization in Santa Barbara. The AFS Green Schools Program reaches 14,000 children yearly, through lessons and field trips covering the topics of Waste Diversion, Watershed Education, Gardening, and Composting. Art From Scrap promotes the philosophy of All At Once, that “Collectively, individual actions create global change. Your actions, your voice, and your choices, all have a huge impact.”

As part of this partnership, the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation (Jack Johnson’s new charity) is matching every dollar contributed to Art From Scrap, up to $2,500, between now and October 15th. Any contributions made at this time will double in value through this generous matching opportunity!

On October 13th, Art From Scrap will have a table at Jack Johnson’s Santa Barbara County Bowl concert. The table will be located in the Village Green, a collection of interactive booths where concert-goers can get educated, inspired, and connect face-to-face with Art From Scrap, All At Once, and other local and national non-profits.

Visit www.AllAtOnce.org and www.artfromscrap.org to check out what you can do before, during, and after the show to get involved.

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For the vast majority of locals, Fiesta is a time to do whatever it takes to avoid State Street. Tonight’s First Thursday is, hopefully, an exception to that rule. This month, Fuzion will be hosting a special event for the evening. Fuzion sells all kinds of urbanware on their main floor, but down stairs there is a secret kingdom-sized space where they show great urban and street art. I’m excited to see them getting on the First Thursday bandwagon and can’t wait to see what they’ve got on the walls. Between Fuzion and the new AG2 Gallery, the block between Anapamu and Figueroa on State Street has become the new hot spot for urban, street, underground, and pop surrealist art. I’ll see you there…

You can find more details on tonight’s event on Facebook.

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