Read the rest of Let The Good Times Roll at First Fridays in Bixby Knolls February 3rd

Photo by Jim Forest

Free eBooks and downloadable audiobooks from the Long Beach Public Library will be showcased next month when the Digital Bookmobile National Tour comes to town. Find the Digital Bookmobile at the Second Saturday Art Walk, Saturday, February 11, 2012 from 4:00 – 10:00 pm, on Linden Avenue between East Broadway and East First Street, Downtown Long Beach.

Read the rest of Public Library eBooks to be Showcased at Second Saturday Art Walk Feb. 11

Read the rest of Baba Ghanouj: Bixby’s Amazing Answer to the Middle Eastern Trend

Twilight Walk and Bike is a monthly event on North Pine Avenue.

Join Long Beach neighbors and friends at the “Twilight Walk and Bike” tonight Friday July 15, 2011 from 6pm to 10pm. Stroll down Pine Avenue from 3rd Street to 8th Street for a chance to see art, hear music, taste wine, shop jewelry, eat baklava, and more!

Read the rest of Take a Stroll Tonight At The “Twilight Walk and Bike”

Read the rest of 3rd Annual Acoustic Tidal Artwalk Saturday July 16th

Councilmember James Johnson

On Friday, November 5, 2010, join Councilmember James Johnson for First Books at First Fridays, a monthly event held at Dana Library. “Libraries had a great impact on my life and I look forward to sharing my love of reading with families throughout the 7th District,” Councilmember Johnson said.

Councilmember Johnson and his guest(s) read children’s books beginning at 5:30 pm. Live entertainment will be performed by Jules Music for Kids; light refreshments will be provided.

This Month, Councilmember Johnson Hosts:

Read the rest of Councilmember James Johnson Presents First Books at First Fridays

Read the rest of ‘Inside Long Beach’ Invites You to a Red Carpet Premiere Event on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010

No time to eat? Join the foodies from LB Food Review for cocktail hour in the Nino’s Art Bar and kick off First Fridays in style. Taylor Nelson and Chris Livingston, who founded a website of the same name, say that LB Food Review is about sharing a passion for the city by hosting gatherings at local culinary favorites. The duo will start at Nino’s then head north on the Big Red Bus. The group will make a stop along the way to sample a few microbrews, then continue on to their final destination just across from the Expo Building.

Head into the Gallery Expo (4321 Atlantic Avenue) to find out the answers to all of arts questions. Art reflects life? Or life reflects art? Or is it live art? Well, maybe not all the answers.

ArtistsAsArt will perform live drawing and artist collaboration at the Expo. Bring a sketchpad or camera and explore your creative side.

Read the rest of Foodies lead the exploration of art, music at First Fridays

That’s not to say that your honey won’t enjoy these events. In fact, many couples probably have a lot more fun holding hands and hanging out than stressing out over which fork to use in a high-class restaurant. If you’re into kilts, bird-watching, local architecture or jogging, then start here when planning your calendar for Valentine’s weekend. Who knows, you might just find that going to a car show is the most romantic gift you could ever give him.

And, if you’d prefer to get dressed up and hit the town, then try these links for fancy restaurants or Long Beach sunsets.

Read the rest of Valentine’s Weekend: Events in Long Beach that aren’t all about romance

“Cupid, draw back your bow and let your arrow go…” or at least the Knolls Ranger will do so on February 5 at the Bixby Knolls First Fridays event. “Universal Love” will be the theme woven throughout the participating venues this month.

First Fridays comes out of holiday hibernation with plenty of art, music, and the opportunity for you to show off your performance skills.

Long Beach’s own Held2Gether will provide the improv troupe for “Tea Room Comedy Night” taking audience suggestions and participation. Stop in at Elise’s Tea Room to enjoy some laughs or you can show us what you’ve got.

While you’re at it, come take the stage at the Back Room Theatre @ Expo where the Long Beach Shakespeare Company will give you the stage for one-minute monologues in anticipation of their opening weekend of The Exonerated.

The Sultans Car Club will flex their car muscles at Melinda McCoy’s Flowers with 10 custom cars ranging from a 1940 Chevy to 1962 Chrysler. Automobile Art and man’s love for his vehicle.

When the businesses start to close, after hours begins at Nino’s Italian Restaurant for community eats, drinks and merriment accompanied by The Sit-Ins creating the fun vibe.

Dine on Art-Lantic Avenue at one of our tasty restaurants then grab the Big Red Bus to be whisked out of the rain and safely from venue to venue on Atlantic Avenue between Bixby Road and San Antonio Drive. (Click through for a complete list of venues!)

Read the rest of Universal Love takes over First Fridays in Bixby Knolls

We’ve rounded up some of the best celebrations in town, check them out and remember that some New Year’s Eve parties require reservations so call ahead.

Read the rest of New Year’s Eve parties: Where to celebrate 2010 in Long Beach

Just after sundown on December 5, Phantom Galleries L.A. switched on Let There Be Light, a stellar display of artists and art installations, including video, neon, and kinetic light sculptures. Each exhibition and site-specific installation is accompanied by a Guide by Cell Audio Tour, allowing viewers to listen to an illuminating description of the art on view.

Seven days a week, from dusk till dawn, Long Beach locals and visitors, holiday shoppers, and art-minded and art-curious alike can embark on a self-guided Art Walk and Audio Tour of Let There be Light.  At each storefront, viewers can connect via cell phone with a personalized message from the exhibiting artist or curator through the Guide by Cell Audio Tour, presented in partnership with The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency.

Trifold map of the exhibition sites are available at various Downtown Long Beach restaurants, vendors, hotels, as well as at various exhibition locales.  Maps may also be downloaded from  DowntownLongBeachArtWalk.com  or PhantomGalleriesLA.com.  The exhibitions are on view 24/7 however, it is recommended  that the exhibits be viewed  from 5 pm- 1am order to see all the works turned on and at its best and brightest.  Richard Godfrey and Susan Chorpennings work is best viewed at various times of the day.

Highlights from the Let there Be Light installations include:

Returning Phantom Galleries L.A. artist Richard Godfrey’s TwentyFourSeven installation is an exciting integration of light, space, and motion.  His piece, TwentyFourSeven, is in constant rotation  and infuses the storefront in a vibrant hue. (on view thru March 1, 2010)

Susan Chorpenning will present Fiat Lux IV, her most ambitious installment of her series Fiat Lux (“Let There Be Light,”), three in the series presented through Phantom Galleries L.A.  The dazzling new work expands 11 ft x 35 ft, and will invigorate the space with the joyous commingling of numerous brightly-colored twinkle lights, lava lamps, collored bulb and light based works, both wall-bound and strung. (On View thru March 1)

Known for his iconic neon sculpture set atop the Hayward Gallery in London, Philip Vaughn will present the West Coast debut of “Color Chart 1” featuring a colorful cascade of neon tubes.

Nancy Braver will display an enchanting mobile-like piece comprised of die-cut luminous butterflies, made of mirror that float, swirl, and cast a warm glow.

Laddie John Dill, a Los Angeles native, who was born in Long Beach, creates a new site-specific work of silica sand mix and neon.

Phantom Galleries L.A. is a Los Angeles County-based organization that transforms properties in transition into 24/7 public art galleries. Each installation forms a unique collaboration between the participating artist, curator, and property owner. Exhibits are curated by local arts organizations, galleries, independent curators, and artists.

For more information on Let There Be Light and Phantom Galleries L.A., please visit www.PhantomGalleries LA or  DowntownLongBeachArtWalk.com.

Let There be Light hosts an impressive array of 28 artists, both emerging and renowned, including: Richard Ankrom (neon sculpture),  Kent Anderson Butler (video), Laddie John Dill ( Neon and Sand installation), Nancy Braver (sculpture/installation), Enrique Chiu (neon), Susan Chorpenning (site-specific installation), McLean Fahnestock (site specific installation) , Candice Gawne (neon), Richard Godfrey (Sculpture of light and Movement), Parichard Holm (video installation) Beth King (glass sculpture), Helen Lessick  (site specific intallation) Karen Lofgren (light based sculpture) Justin Lui  (light based sculpture) Joella March (neon), Eric Medine (video), Uudam Nguyen (Light Based Sculpture) , Rebecca Niederlander  (Light based Sculpture),  Christina Pierson (video instllation) Astra Price (video installation),  Jeremy J Quinn (video), Deanne Sabeck (ligh based sculpture),  Ben Shaffer (site specific installation),  Klutch Stanaway (sculpture)  Kazumi Svenson, David Svenson (neon), and Philip Vaughan (neon works and installation), Meeson Pae Yang (site specific installation).

Under the auspices of Phantom Galleries LA, and working in tandem with local property owners, artists, and curators, numerous storefronts along Downtown Long Beach’s Pine Avenue, East 3rd Street, The Pike at Rainbow Harbor and Promenade are host to dozens of exciting art exhibitions and site-specific art installations.

Read the rest of Phantom Galleries launch guided cell-phone tour at Downtown Long Beach Art Walk

So far, the Mayfair High School music department has received more than $8,000 in cash donations and more than 15 various instruments. Donors have been everyone from former students and teachers to L.A. County Board Supervisor, Don Knabe.

The rapid and generous response is fueling Carmichael and Mangione to continue their efforts until no student is turned away from the music program.

Read the rest of Save Mayfair Music collects instruments for high school

Last Saturdays highlights include:

Read the rest of 4th Street Businesses Stay Open Late for Last Saturdays

This month the art walk, which includes outdoor music and gallery receptions, will take place November 14.

Read the rest of Second Saturday Art Walk

The celebration at 430 E. 1st Street also coincides with the Latin American Parade & Festival happening on the same street right in front of the new Catalyst Space, and also coincides with the 2nd Saturday Art Walk happening on the cross street on Linden Avenue.

Catalyst Community is a grassroots non-profit organization working to inspire a greater sense of community,

Read the rest of Catalyst Community opens space for neighborhood networking, inspiration

The Long Beach ARTWALK fine arts festival will feature artists and craftsmen presenting their original work in all mediums of two and three dimensional fine art, including paintings in acrylic, oils and watercolors, photography, etchings, sculpture in clay, glass, metal, stone and wood. Each artist will be present to meet with the public and discuss their work. All work is available for purchase.

Read the rest of The Pike welcomes national artists to Long Beach Artwalk

Come out and enjoy a fun filled day for all ages. Stroll along the tree-lined art walk and see a wide selection of works from a variety of local artists. This free art walk will promote artists, craft makers, musicians, students and performers by providing a neighborhood venue to show and sell their work.

The Top of the Town Arts Festival will feature hands-on art stations to encourage kids of all ages to create their own works of art to take home.

Read the rest of Top of the Town Arts Festival in Houghton Park

Viredo presents The Colors of Cuba at 350 E 3rd Street.

As one of a group of artist known as “The Eleven” Viredo Espinosa influenced a generation of contemporary Cuban painters in the 1950′s with his abstract expressionist works. But recognition has largely elude him. So the painter, now 70 and living in Irvine, has turned to the internet to bring his works to the world. Only recently have his works attracted the attention of the art community at exhibitions in Florida, New York and California. The internet has heightened that recognition. “We’ve received E-Mail from unbelievable places… places in Spain, Australia. It’s incredible,” Viredo said.

“Spectrum” with Serge Armando, Kristina E. King, Lino Martinez and Erica Steiner at 170 North Promenade

Over his thirty-year residence in Laguna Beach, Serge Armando has played a decisive role in the careers of significant area artists and gallery owners. His works have exhibited in key local galleries and Museums, and have sold to some of Southern California’s most distinguished collectors of contemporary art. His recent, 2005, first place showing at Laguna Art Museum’s twenty-third annual art auction is testimony to his continued impact and import on the local art scene.

Lino Martinez currently works as a master printer in silkscreen and lithography. His own work is abstract contemporary and surrealistic in nature. Lino has been shown in various galleries throughout California and Mexico with over 15 shows in the past 3 years.

Erica Steiner is a professional artist living and working in the Bay Area. Having grown up on rural California farmland and lived much of her adult life in San Francisco, her work reflects both a passion for urban culture and aesthetics and an enduring love affair with the organic forms that compose the natural world.

Rebecca Hamm presents paintings at 344 East 3rd Street

Rebecca Hamm is particularly drawn to places where nature overcomes and reclaims — gradually or dramatically — imposed human constructs. These images are selected for the paintings because they are autobiographical metaphor.

Helena Pasquarella and Raleigh Souther present “Cuba Hoy” Photographs of Cuba at 390 East 3rd Street

Meeno Peluce presents Cuba Now at 390 East 3rd Street

Edgar Varela Fine artist is proud to present 18 large scale photographs of modern Cubana life as documented by the unique eye of Peluce. Big breasts, decaying American metal 8′s, chickens in pots, the stolen electricity of street carnivals, a reverence for the daily news and health care and education and the human beauty that’s turned out on conveyor belts as Graham Green said. All of it as seen by Meeno.

Anelia Lazaroff presents Twilight at 122 East 3rd Street

Rob Padilla and Mike Rivero present paintings at 346 East 3rd Street

In recognition of the Havana Biennial and the recent lifting of certain restrictions by President Obama for Cuban Families, Phantom Galleries LA presents several shows related to Cuba including Viredo, Photography of Cuba from Meeno Peluce, Helena Pasquarella and Raleigh Souther Long Beach native Rob Padilla and Cuban born Mike Rivero.

About Phantom Galleries LA May Art Walk Night

Phantom Galleries art in downtown Long Beach is part of a partnership with the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency. “The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency is proud to partner with Phantom Galleries LA, not only to revive empty storefronts along our major corridors, but also to showcase the arts and build a sense of community and culture in our Downtown,” said Craig Beck, Executive Director of the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency.

Don’t miss these awesome green events in the East Village:

• The Village creative landscape transformed!
• Main stage entertainment with bands & musicians!
• Local artists showcasing their work!
• Organic foods & Farmer’s Market!
• Workshops and classes held throughout The Village!
• Green community groups & businesses!

Green Long Beach! serves as a place of commerce, arts & entertainment, networking, and education. The event is being held in conjunction with the East Village Farmer’s Market and 2nd Saturday Art Walk on Saturday, May 9, 2009. The sponsors include the individuals, businesses and business associations that are financially contributing to the Festival. The festival hosts include Raw Inspiration (East Village Farmer’s Market), DeAvy Art Gallery, T’s Space, Catalyst Community, The Long Beach Depot for Creative ReUse, East Village Arts District, Inc., and 2nd Saturday Art Walk.

The Green Long Beach! Festival is just the beginning. We want to catalyze a conversation about ongoing citywide collaboration between local green groups. Let’s coordinate together to Green Long Beach!

For more information visit GreenLB.org.

May Day!  First Fridays, May 1

Some venues open at 6:30 pm.  Big Red Bus arrives at 7:00pm. Venues can be found on Atlantic Avenue between Bixby Road and San Antonio Drive.

Read the rest of First Fridays Creates “Art Amongst the Rubble” on Atlantic

Hands-on displays will also be established at this fun filled family event providing opportunities for kids of all ages to learn and create their own works of art. At these hands on booths attendees can experiment with a wide range of media such as stone carving, painting and musical instruments.

Booth spaces will be sold on a first come basis. Deadline to reserve a booth is May 1, 2009.

Each space will be approximately 10′ x 10′. An artist may purchase up to 2 booth spaces, or several artists may share a space. Cost to participate is $35.00 per booth.

Artists living in or with ties to North Long Beach are strongly encouraged. We hope to have between 35 and 45 booths for this first event.

The Top Of The Town Arts Festival
Saturday May 9th, 2009
11-4pm
Houghton Park,
6301 Myrtle Ave
Long Beach, CA 90805

For More Information visit the Top Of The Town Arts Festival website.