BY SHELLY CONE

Who says Santa Maria doesn’t have it going on when it comes to arts and enter-tainment? This year, theatergoers didn’t have to travel to London or New York to see one of the most popular musicals. PCPA was one of six theaters

in the country given the rights to put on a production of Les Miserables—and it did so brilliantly. The community recognized the value of PCPA this summer by opening up wallets when the theater was in need. PCPA launched ACT NOW! a fundraising drive to raise money to fill a $200,000 budget gap needed to stay in existence. Unlike many other theaters that folded this year, PCPA was able to raise the money—and then some. Money became more of an issue for mom-and-pop businesses that produce children’s products. Already taking a hit from the economy, they faced a confusing law that went into effect in February that requires testing for toxins in any item that may come in con-tact with a child younger than 12. The law’s text is still getting sorted. This year, the city was kind to the Town Center Gallery, which finally found a new per-manent location after spending an entire year without a space of its own. The gallery moved from Town Center East to Town Center West and was even able to expand its offerings. And the Town Center Gallery isn’t the only new art locale in town. Coffee Diem moved to the lower level of the Town Center mall and began offering gourmet food and fine art. Summer was rocking with the city’s summer concert series, which attracted favor-ite local bands and bigger crowds than ever before, and La Guitarra California 2009 brought big crowds and some of the best classical guitarist from all over the world. m

Contact Arts Editor Shelly Cone at scone@santamariasun.com.

Year in review continued page 22

Bravo, 2009!The year was surprisingly good

to local arts groups

The string’s the thing: The beauty of dozens of classical guitars converged on PCPA’s Marian Theater this year for La Guitarra California 2009. Under the direction of Russ De Angelo, La Guitarra enjoyed its second run in Santa Maria, marking its most successful year yet. The event began as a small music festival at Cuesta College and continued to grow until 2007, when De Angelo brought the event to Santa Maria and the Marian Theater. The extra space allowed the event room to grow. Since its inception, La Guitarra has attracted the best classical guitarists from all over the world. This year, performers like David Tannenbaum, David Leisner, the Alturas Duo, and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet performed. Overall, 17 world-renowned artists played 14 events. La Guitarra California 2009 also offered three master classes, a free lecture, dozens of luthiers displaying their handmade instruments, and the Forderer Collection of Rare and Historic Guitars. De Angelo said the vision for the festival has always been to raise the awareness and appreciation of classical guitar, and he promises the event will get even better next year.

New space: This year brought joy to the artists and volunteers of the Town Center Gallery. In June, the gallery moved into a new home in the Town

Center West shopping center after a year of being homeless. The gallery lost its previous location in Town Center East when mall owners began the

remodeling process. As a nonprofit with a small budget, the gallery was hard-pressed to find something suitable that was also within its price range and that would also make sense as a gallery. Those criteria came together

with the gallery’s new space. And the move was actually a blessing in disguise. In Town Center West, the gallery could still carry the name Town

Center Gallery and have it make sense; the location is also high traffic, which the gallery’s board of directors hopes will make visiting the gallery easy for

patrons doing other shopping. With lots of windows and natural light, the gal-lery space is inviting, with plenty of space for artists to continue holding art classes there. It allowed the gallery to expand to include more three-dimen-

sional art and offer stuff like jewelry, which was prohibited in the prior lease.

Communication central: In late summer, 14 Central Coast students got the chance to be involved in a global discussion using art as a means to facilitate communication. The Momentus International project, spearheaded by Nipomo resident Anya Kandel, gave the youth aged 13 to 18 the oppor-tunity to find out about students in Nicaragua by creating a film about American culture and sharing it with the Nicaraguan students, who in turn reciprocated with their own film. The youth met for several days with local artists as mentors. To get the community involved, the group also started a flag of intention, which was displayed at Linnaea’s in SLO, along with works that relate to the project by artist Pacha and Santa Maria photographer Enrique Esguerra. The goal was to get the community to create and add their own piece to the flag and see how far they could get it to stretch. The entire process was also recorded and will be turned into a documen-tary. Kandel started the first project that would evolve into Momentus International in Ghana two years ago. She later realized the possibilities of cross-cultural communication through the use of art. Though the project was initially a one-time endeavor on the Central Coast, Kandel said she has plans to expand the project to more students and other cultures.

Keep it open: PCPA—which staged Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Les

Miserables, and Shakespeare’s Othello in recent seasons—fought to keep its doors open this year. Facing a $200,000 budget shortfall early in 2009, the theater lacked

the money for its scholarship fund that provides for actors and technicians. PCPA

traditionally relies on three main revenue sources, all of which dropped in 2009.

Ticket sales declined about 10 percent. Funds from Allan Hancock College waned

as the state education system grappled with its own troubles. And foundations that had given to the conservatory for years—or

even decades—stopped giving this year because of hard times of their own. And

PCPA wasn’t alone. The economy forced the closure of several theater groups

across the country, but the local group did prevail. Launching the ACT NOW! scholar-ship campaign, which ran through the end of its fiscal year in June, PCPA was able to fill the financial gap. The scholarship fund

provides more than $500,000 a year to the actors and technicians, and PCPA was

able to even surpass the $200,000 shortfall with the support of the community.

PHOTO COURTESY LUIS ESCOBAR/REFLECTIONS PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO

PHOTO BY SHELLY CONE

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20092009Year in Review

24601! PCPA pulled off a coup when it became one of six theaters in the country to get licens-ing to produce Les Miserables. The show had people all over the state jumping from their seats to get tickets. The production featured the star power of Erik Stein as Inspector Javert, the man intent on recapturing the convict Jean Valjean. Sam Zeller played the fugitive convict desperately tying to escape the mark of his past indiscre-tions. With stirring vocal performances and heart-wrench-ing songs, each performance had patrons reaching for the tissues. The tale of redemption, love, rebellion, and familial ties had pre-viously been seen by more than 50 million people in 38 countries. It was a dream for the cast and crew of PCPA. Stein and Zeller both desired to play their roles since they were teens. Fred Deeben, costume director and resident designer, said he had vowed to design Les Mis even before it was a possibility.

Toxic law? In February, a broadly written law requiring lead and phthalate testing on all children’s products went into effect. The text of the law was so vaguely written it caused

confusion as to who had to test what. Written primarily to regulate large manufactur-ers that outsource overseas, the law also applied to mom-and-pop shops, making the

costly compliance an insurmountable burden to some small businesses. As of Dec. 18, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission voted unanimously to extend a stay of

enforcement on testing and certification of many regulated children’s products, though the products must still comply with all applicable rules and bans. The stay of enforcement will remain in effect while the commission works toward recognizing labs for accreditation

to do independent third-party testing and certification. The stay of enforcement covers children’s toys and child care articles with banned phthalates, caps and toy guns, clacker

balls, baby walkers, bath seats, other durable infant products, electrically operated toys, youth all-terrain vehicles, youth mattresses, children’s bicycles, carpets and rugs, vinyl

plastic film, and children’s sleepwear. The commission also voted to extend the stay on certification and third-party testing for children’s products subject to lead content limits

until Feb. 10, 2010. Other aspects of the law remain unchanged.

Rock on: The Santa Maria Parks and Recreation Department’s Summer Concerts in the Park enjoyed renewed success as a rough economy sent families searching for ways to have fun without spending a lot of money.

The free Sunday afternoon concerts were held at Rotary Centennial Park and brought local band favorites like Soulamente and Unfinished Business. Bands played a variety of music, including jazz, blues, classic rock, mod-ern rock, salsa, and reggae. The program had been around for six years, but according to organizers, this was

the first year it drew such large—and varied—crowds, everyone from babies to seniors. Couples with picnic bas-kets sat on the lawn sipping wine, while children ran and played at the park’s playground. The location proved to be an excellent choice with enough space for the mobile stage, while still giving families enough room to spread

out, play, and even dance. Organizers plan on growing the event next year by adding nonprofits with food booths and maybe moving the mobile stage to various parts of town each month to reach an even bigger audience.

Cuppa art: Artists in the Santa Maria Valley have found unending inspiration, beauty, and even plenty of art lovers in the area, but they’ve long had one major complaint: a lack of venues. The addition of one more venue this year will perhaps alleviate some of that problem. Coffee Diem in the Santa Maria Town Center got creative in finding a solution. The shop became a bistro and art gallery this summer, featuring local art-ists and fine foods. Owner Carmen Jenkins teamed up with artist Mel Felix to feature high-end art for bistro patrons to view—and buy. Jenkins said she worked for years at Coffee Diem’s former location to incorporate art and music, but it never came together. At the new location in Town Center East, the situation simply “fell into my hands,” she said. Jenkins worked toward raising the standard of breakfast offerings, while Felix, working as artist in residence and art director, has taken great care to emphasize juried and professional-quality art, treating the space like a traditional gallery. So far, the combination has worked, and Jenkins and Felix are hoping to increase foot traffic in the coming year.

PHOTO COURTESY LUIS ESCOBAR/REFLECTIONS PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO

PHOTO COURTESY CRAFTSBURY KIDS

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TO COURTESY YVETTE FUENTES

PHOTO COURTESY MEL FELIX