Art in the Adobes Festival: Rediscovery Monterey Peninsula Artists at Home & Abroad
The Art in the Adobes Festival is the first annual event to spotlight both the tradition of the adobes and the impressive art of this region. This important new cultural festival features treasured paintings and sculptures, rarely available for public viewing, on display in small thematic exhibitions, staged in historically significant buildings across a four-block area of scenic downtown Monterey.
This year’s theme – “Rediscovery: Monterey Peninsula Artists at Home & Abroad” – reconsiders the multi-faceted scenic beauty that drew artists from around the nation and the world to this area, as well as the accomplishments of regionally-based artists who were able to travel far and wide for additional inspiration.
One of the most beautiful of the City's treasures has been chosen as this year's iconic image: "Paris Studio” by renowned artist Abel Warshawsky, who lived and painted in Monterey. Additionally, seventy paintings by 30 artists born between 1844 and 1948 (six of them born abroad) have been selected for display in the Curated Venues.
“Rediscovery” also refers to one of this year’s new features – three “Rediscovered Artists” whose talents and connections to this region are worthy of a return to the spotlight.
- Abel Warshawsky was raised in Cleveland and spent three decades in Paris before relocating to Monterey for another three decades of creativity.
- Native New Yorker Lockwood de Forest was in his sixties before relocating to California. From his home in Santa Barbara, he made dozens of painting excursions to the Monterey and environs, warranting our two separate exhibitions of his small-format paintings – “Moods of Monterey” and “Collecting Moonlight.”
- Henry A. Alderton did not take up painting until after retiring from his Palo Alto medical practice; his talent and zeal soon won him membership in the National Academy of Design, the highest institutional accolade.
A special Opening Reception & Preview will launch Art in the Adobes Festival 2012 in historic Monterey on Thursday evening, September 13. The Opening Reception will allow attendees the opportunity to preview the exhibits at the Cooper-Molera Adobe before the public opening of the exhibition. Attendees will enjoy music, hors d'oeuvres, wine and soft drinks in the lovely historic gardens.
Friday, September 14, is 'Discovery Day' at the Robert Louis Stevenson House for student group tours. There will also be an afternoon lecture followed by a Wine & Hors d'Oeuvres Reception for All Access Ticket holders at Monterey Museum of Art - La Mirada.
On Saturday and Sunday, September 15 – 16, ticket-holders will choose their own itinerary as they stroll through a four-block area of the Old Monterey National Historic Landmark District. Tickets for the walking tour include admission to 13 historic buildings. Four Primary Venues belonging to California State Parks (Diaz Adobe & Casa Cooper at Cooper-Molera Adobe, Casa Gutierrez, and Stevenson House) will be hosting eight weekend-only exhibits developed specifically for Art in the Adobes Festival 2012. Weekend-only exhibitions include:
- Painters’ Paradise (Cooper-Molera Adobe)
- Magnificent Murals (Stevenson House)
- Monterey Artists Abroad (Casa Gutierrez)
- Moods of Monterey (Casa Gutierrez)
The seven Affiliated Venues including galleries at the Monterey Museum of Art - Pacific Street and Museum of Monterey as well as Casa Serrano, Casa Amesti, Larkin House, Colton Hall Musuem and Few Memorial Hall feature more long-term displays. Expert lectures will be held twice each day.
These historic buildings are a link to the setting that drew some of California's greatest artists to Monterey in the late 19th century. Painters, sculptors and photographers were attracted to the dramatic and varied natural setting, enticing climate, and picturesque vestiges of a storied past, and enjoyed rollicking good times in the company of other artists. Their work is among the most important in the cultural history of the West Coast.
Other new features of this year’s festival include:
- Polk Street Paseo, a traffic-free space for snacking and socializing and enjoying competitions of the Youth Arts Collective on Saturday and plein air painters on Sunday
- Parade of Round-the-World Dance Costumes
- "Californio Arts of the Rancho Era," with "hands-on history” demonstrations in the garden of the Cooper-Molera complex.
MORE INFORMATION
info@artintheadobes.org
Tel (831) 241-5504
MEDIA CONTACT
Spencer Critchley
Boots Road Group LLC
(831) 612-9200 ext 3
contact@bootsroad.com