Image from the Juno Project at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. / Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
The A x S Festival 2011 runs Oct. 1 through 16, continuing the Pasadena Arts Council’s biennial celebration of Pasadena’s unique heritage as a city of art and science. The festival, focused on the theme of fire and water, features two weeks of art, dance, music, theater, performance and conversation at venues throughout the city. Plus, beginning this month, many Pasadena arts venues are participating in the Getty’s “Pacific Standard Time” creative collaboration. Art Night (Oct. 14 from 6 to 10 p.m.) is your opportunity to experience “Pacific Standard Time” and the A x S Festival for free, with free transportation between 15 participating cultural institutions.
Some of the highlights of A x S include:
“WORLDS”: Experience the art and science of our solar system in “WORLDS” at the Art Center College of Design’s Williamson Gallery. The objects and images on display include contemporary art, sculpture and large-scale installations as well as NASA spacecraft imagery, meteorites and science fiction video. Also on view are high-resolution prints of historical astronomical book sketches by Galileo, Copernicus and other astronomers — scanned and drawn from the rare-book collection at the Huntington Library. The exhibit runs Oct. 14, 2011 through Jan. 15, 2012 (opening night reception Oct. 13).
“Sunflowers in Snow”: Boston Court Performing Arts Center partners with Red Hen Press in an evening of spoken word and poetry, focusing on the theme of fire and water and featuring Garrett Hongo, Jim Tilley and Evie Shockley, on Oct. 10 at 7 p.m.
“Beneath the Surface”: Experience the mystery of the Juno spacecraft’s visit to Jupiter before it actually gets there in 2016 with Jet Propulsion Laboratory Visual Strategist Dan Good’s interactive installation at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Oct. 16 will feature a full day of speakers and activities, as well as free admission. The exhibit runs through Jan. 8, 2012.
“Picturing the Bomb”: This exhibit at the Pasadena City College Art Gallery features photographs from the secret world of the Manhattan Project, curated by Rachel Fermi (granddaughter of physicist Enrico Fermi) and Esther Samra. Opens Oct. 5.
Among the many choices on Art Night are: Kidspace Museum’s activities with JPL Gravity Scientist Sami Asmar, the Norton Simon Museum’s “Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California,” and Armory Center for the Arts’ “Speaking in Tongues: The Art of Wallace Berman and Robert Heinecken.”
For a brief synopsis of “Pacific Standard Time,” read our recent post.