First Thursday is now only two days away. With Halloween behind me I can finally start to focus on this month’s offerings. November is music month in Santa Barbara, highlighted by the New Noise Music Conference and Festival, which brings in a bunch of great bands and music professionals.

One of my favorite parts of this festival is “Pianos on State“.  Throughout the week pianos will be placed at strategic locations on State Street for anyone to use. These pianos have been decorated by local artists and have an uncanny ability to spawn serendipitous moments of audio bliss. It is not uncommon to see bands that played at SOHO or Velvet Jones the night before, jamming on one of these pianos the following afternoon.

Another music related 1st Thursday event will be taking place at Santa Barbara Sheet Music (1036 Santa Barbara St.). This will be their first time putting on an event during 1st Thursday and you can expect live music from a variety of different groups and a suite of work by local artists on the wall. I will admit, I’ve never been to Santa Barbara Sheet music, but I have intrigued by the place for a long time and I’m glad I finally have a proper excuse to go up and check the place out.

You will find more information on both events below.

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Music to your ears” Anyone can play and all are encouraged to listen!

Pianos on State, a collaborative and interactive musical experience coinciding with the 2011 New Noise Festival (www.newnoisesb.org), kicks off downtown during First Thursday November 3rd. Sponsored in part by Santa Barbara Beautiful and Cox Communications, this is the second annual event made possible by the collaborative efforts of the Santa Barbara Bowl, Notes for Notes, Santa Barbara Education Foundation, Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative, Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, and New Noise Festival Nov. 3-6. Each piano will become its own piece of art as local professional Santa Barbara artists create unique looks. Pianos will be available for musical exploration, impromptu play and planned performances morning, afternoon and evening over two weekends (10am – 9pm per piano). Amateur and professional musicians alike will be scheduled to perform and the public is invited to sit down and play during non-scheduled hours.

http://notesfornotes.org
http://newnoisesb.com
http://sbbowl.com
http://granadasb.org/education.html
http://sbartscommission.org
http://sbefoundation.org

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New store manager, Kristen Reed, comes to us by way of New York and Paris, to breathe some new life into a business that has been a fixture in our community for over forty years.  “I see a great opportunity here to reach out, support, and encourage the next generation of musicians here in Santa Barbara. With all that this community does for its music and art organizations, we can’t help but want to be a part of it!”

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Alvaro Suman -
“Alvaro has exhibited his work in the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City; Cuernavaca, Mexico; Casa de la Raza, Santa Barbara; Los Angeles Art Museum; San Francisco Art Museum; among others. Alvaro’s art reflects a style that varies from magical realism to fantastic surrealism and one can clearly see his indigenous Mexican background.”

Molly Hahn -
Mollycules™ is the brainchild of multimedia artist Molly Hahn.

http://www.mollycules.com/

I usually save all of my First Thursday previews until right before that evening so that things are fresh in your heads as you hit the street for the night. However, this month there is a specific, one-time-only event that is so awesome that I wanted to make sure to give it its own post. “Pianos on State” will place pianos up and down State Street for the weekend to coincide with the New Noise Music Festival. The pianos have been donated, painted by local artists, and will be out in public for some scheduled and hopefully many impromptu performances. Many of the major arts organizations in town collaborated on this, and I can’t wait to see what kinds of performances will ensue.  You can find more details below.

If you are going to be part of the Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative Art Crawl (led by yours truly), this will be a major stop along our route.

I’ll see you out there.

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“Music to your ears” Anyone can play and all are encouraged to listen!

Pianos on State is a collaborative musical experiment coinciding with the 2010 New Noise Music Festival and Conference. Pianos will be placed at various locations up and down State St. from November 4-7th. Amateur and professional musicians alike will be scheduled to perform and during open times anyone is welcome to sit down and play. Pianos on State will be an event not soon forgotten. In addition to entertaining all who walk the streets, the event will raise awareness for the 2nd Annual Instrument Drive 4 Youth taking place on December 31, 2010 that collects new and used music instruments and equipment for disbursement through the school district and other not-for profit organizations like Notes for Notes-a non-profit dedicated to providing youth with free access to music instruments, equipment and recording studio environments so that music may have a profoundly positive influence in their lives. Pianos on State is made possible by the collaborative efforts of the Santa Barbara Bowl, Ed Outreach at the Granada Theater, Notes for Notes, New Noise, The Santa Barbara Education Foundation and Santa Barbara Arts Commission.

http://notesfornotes.org
http://newnoisesb.com
http://sbbowl.com
http://granadasb.org/education.html
http://sbartscommission.org

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.

Last night I got an email from Rod Hare (of Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation’s Education Outreach Committee and Notes for Notes) about a new artist organization that he is co-chairing with Ginny Brush, Executive Director of the SB County Arts Commission. The group, called Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative, had their very first meeting last night at the Contemporary Arts Forum. Unfortunately I didn’t get the email in time to get the word out, or to make it to the meeting myself. However, I did find the time to their strategic plan and check out their new Facebook page, which gives a comprehensive and concise outline of their objectives. It sounds like a wonderful non-profit organization, with the goal of nurturing the arts in Santa Barbara County by helping artists of all shapes, sizes, kinds, and types. I highly suggest you artists spend some time reading their strategic plan and join the 200 plus members who have already joined the group on Facebook.

The meeting last night brought in nearly 100 artists and art lovers. The next meeting will be on July 8th at 5pm. The location has yet to be decided. Check in to the blog over the coming weeks, and I’ll post the information here as it comes in.

If you were at the meeting last night and would like to let us know how it went, please add your comments to this post by clicking here.