Make Music Pasadena - A Fête de la Musique Event
SATURDAY, JUNE 21
Presented in part by Levitt Pavilions Free Music across America
Make Music Pasadena is a FREE musical celebration throughout the main districts in Pasadena, including Old Pasadena, One Colorado, the Playhouse District, and throughout the city. Make Music Pasadena takes place on World Music Day, the Summer Solstice, Saturday, June 21, 2008.
On that day, sidewalks, parks, courtyards, alleys, building lobbies and other unconventional performance spaces will become spontaneous musical stages and social gathering places. Amateur musicians will bring their musical talents to the streets of Pasadena and perform to new crowds.
Top selling and internationally known artists will perform at SIX themed main stages. What better way to jump start the summer than by dancing in the streets, throughout the day, to these wonderful music performances.
All performances are free and open to the public.
Make Music Pasadena is presented in part by Levitt Pavilions Free Music across America and is produced by One Colorado, Old Pasadena Management District, Playhouse District Association, Pasadena Arts Council, Pasadena Convention and Visitors Bureau, Armory Center for the Arts, the Alliance Française de Pasadena, French Cultural Services in Los Angeles and FLAX, France Los Angeles Exchange.
Please visit the Armory Center for the Arts' website,
www.armoryarts.org
for more information!
The Armory Center for the Arts is a community arts center that offers innovative approaches to creating, exploring, and presenting the visual arts to students of all ages. In addition to providing an outlet for contemporary art exhibitions and performances, the Armory offers studio art classes and a variety of educational outreach programs to schools and in the community.
The Armory Center for the Arts has been a leader in the field of art education since 1947 when it began as the education department of the Pasadena Art Museum. Classes were led by artists whose teaching concepts grew out of the museum's exhibitions of modern art.
When the museum closed in 1974, the education program became the Pasadena Art Workshops (The museum would re-open a year later as the Norton Simon Museum of Art ). With no space to present exhibitions, the Workshops' focus was on the continued involvement of professional artists as teachers and the development of arts programs which promoted alternative forms of learning. The Workshops brought the arts to new audiences by working in partnerships with schools, libraries, parks, neighborhood groups, community centers and city agencies.
In 1989, the name became the Armory Center for the Arts when the organization moved into the renovated National Guard Armory in Old Pasadena. The 20,000 square foot building, divided equally into studio art workshops and a gallery, provided the space for reintroduction of contemporary exhibitions and performances as an integral part of the Armory's programming. The unique floor plan encourages ideas to flow freely between exhibitions, classes, artists, teachers and students.
In 2002, the Armory completed a second renovation of the building interior. The architects for this $2.4 million renovation were Donna Vaccarino and Aleks Istanbullu. Vaccarino was also the architect on the original renovation 13 years earlier. With this renovation, new studio spaces for drawing and painting, digital arts, and photography were added, which created an additional 6,800 square feet for arts programming.
In 1989, the Armory had about 40,000 visits. After 2000, the number of visitors has increased to more than 60,000 per year. The Armory maintains its commitment to providing an accessible public space for the exhibition of contemporary art and experiences in art making.