Strolling via the grounds of the Montalvo Arts Middle in Saratoga, it will be straightforward to say the place hasn’t modified a lot because the historic villa was constructed 110 years in the past for Sen. James D. Phelan. Nevertheless it has modified — particularly in the best way Montalvo’s management handles the legacy of Phelan, a racist who sought to maintain California white throughout his time.
After Phelan died in 1930, the 160-acre property — now 175 acres — was left to Santa Clara County with the situation the property be used to additional the event of artwork, literature, music and structure. The Montalvo Arts Middle’s latest outside exhibition, “Claiming Areas: Refiguring the Physique in Panorama,” is a stellar addition to the grounds that options work by a various vary of artists who present a counterpoint to the standard sculptures that fill most of our civic areas, together with Montalvo.
“We began searching for monumental works that might maintain the area and command a presence — and actually have a dialogue with the classical statues,” stated Kelly Sicat, director of Montalvo’s Lucas Artists Program, who curated the exhibition with Donna Conwell.
Mission achieved. “Claiming Areas,” which runs via Oct. 15, presents and represents our bodies and their options in methods we’re not used to seeing.
Alison Saar’s chic “Winter” and two marble sculptures by Oliver Lee Jackson problem our norms, whereas Wanxin Zhang’s “Coloration Face” represents an evolution of the standard busts on Montalvo’s “poet stroll” whereas additionally straight addressing Phelan’s biases (as he sought to maintain individuals who appeared like Zhang out of the state). Hank Willis Thomas’ beautiful “Strike” — a cultured metal arm greedy one other wielding a nightstick — appears to be like like one thing out of the social justice confrontations of the summer season of 2020, although it was primarily based on a 1935 lithograph.
Pilar Agüero-Esparza’s 20-foot-long set up, “Of Coloration,” will be the most subversive of all. The San Jose artist’s sculpture of leather-based woven like Mexican huarache sandals is painted within the “pores and skin tone” colours present in a field of crayons. It has a Diego Rivera vibe, seeming historical and trendy on the similar time, and stands out brilliantly among the many greenery within the Italianate backyard, urging dialog.
“That is what we do,” Sicat stated. “Letting artists have a public area to push the envelope. And Pilar did it.”
As a public park, Montalvo’s grounds are free to go to almost daily of the 12 months from 8 a.m. (9 a.m. on weekends) to five p.m., with some exceptions listed at www.montalvoarts.org. “Claiming Areas” is price a go to — or much more — and on this exhibition, you’ll undoubtedly see magnificence that Montalvo’s authentic proprietor couldn’t acknowledge for himself.
PETERS’ DESERVES BETTER: Peters’ Bakery on Alum Rock Avenue has been an establishment in East San Jose because the late Thirties, with its well-known burnt almond cake delivering the products at numerous birthday events (and much more so since Dick’s Bakery on Meridian closed after a 2016 fireplace).
So it was horrible to listen to that its workers had been robbed at knife-point by 5 individuals early Wednesday morning. Happily, nobody was damage within the theft, which was caught on video and is being investigated by San Jose police. However robbing Peters’ Bakery is like taking off with the poor field from the Sistine Chapel. There must be a particular place for these thieves someplace so much hotter than a bakery.
SUPERVISORS HONOR COMMUNITY HERO: Santa Clara County’s Board of Supervisors adjourned final Tuesday’s assembly in reminiscence of Jenny Do, an imposing determine in San Jose’s Vietnamese American neighborhood who died Aug. 4 at age 56. An legal professional, artist and activist, Do was in all probability greatest identified for the annual Ao Dai Competition, which she launched to have a good time Vietnamese artwork and tradition and which in all probability launched the elegant and ornate ao dai garment to many Silicon Valley residents.
The kid of a Vietnamese mom and an unknown American father, Do got here to the US in 1984 underneath the AmerAsian Homecoming Act and later went again to Vietnam to assist others do the identical. An legal professional by commerce and a philanthropist by nature, she helped individuals affected by the 2017 Coyote Creek flood in San Jose in addition to these damage by the COVID-19 pandemic via the Mates of Hue basis.
“Her philanthropic work has actually left us all higher and our neighborhood more healthy. She was a visionary, an activist and an artist who stuffed each room she got here in with unbelievable vitality and actually had a manner of lifting a room up,” stated Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who known as her a “boundary-crossing chief.” “She modified lives. She challenged outdated notions of race and gender and noticed that artwork was a option to convey individuals collectively and luxury them.”
SEASON OF CHANGE: Just a few Silicon Valley nonprofit organizations are updating their management rosters as we prepare to go away summer season and head into fall. The Castellano Household Basis has stated farewell to Angie Briones, who had been its director of grantmaking and strategic initiatives since 2012. Briones is the brand new managing director of Quinteto Latino, the music ensemble whose creative director is Armando Castellano (who has shifted to a job as emeritus trustee for the household basis).
Unity Care, which offers companies and housing for youth transitioning out of foster look after 29 years, introduced that Sheila E. Mitchell will succeed founder Andre Chapman because the nonprofit’s CEO. Mitchell had most just lately served as deputy chief of probation in Los Angeles County, and earlier than that served as Unity Care’s chief working officer and chief of probation in Santa Clara County.
And Subsequent Door Options to Home Violence has employed Colsaria Henderson as its new govt director, changing Esther Peralez-Dieckmann, who grew to become chief of workers for U.S. Rep. Zoe Loefgren’s San Jose workplace in April. Henderson is returning to Subsequent Door Options, the place she was director of applications from 2014 to 2018 earlier than leaving to develop into govt director of San Mateo-based Neighborhood Overcoming Relationship Abuse (CORA), a publish she held till 2020.