Euphrat 2006 Annual Report
EUPHRA T MUSEUM OF ART, 2005-2006 REPORT
THE CORE OF THE EUPHRAT IS ITS UNIQUE, TIMELY EXHIBITIONS. PUBLIC EVENTS AND
PROGRAMS, MEET-THE-ARTIST RECEPTIONS, AND EXHIBITION-RELATED
PUBLICATIONS. The year focused on collaborative exhibition and program development
working with art groups and other educational institutions in the Bay Area. In addition we
continued programmatic and architectural planning related to building a new Euphrat Museum of
Art on campus. The museum space was vacated in April as the total building was being
renovated. During Spring 2006. working from interim space, programming continued at various
campus and community sites.
EXHIBITIONS HELD AT EUPHRA T MUSEUM OF ART
Change 200512006 consisted of a fluid rotating exhibition with lectureldiscussions exploring
change in the arts and academic community, the Euphrat Museum of Art's move to a different
campus location, its new building design, and its expanding relationship with other campus
entities and the outer community. Different sections explored the themes: Artists as Catalysts for
Change, Designing a New Building on Campus, Activating a CampuslCommunity Cultural Space,
and Art and Civic Engagement Education.
Reflecting changes within the Creative Arts Division, two new art faculty members and a new art
staff member exhibited paintings, artist books, and a sculpture. Juliana Kang's recent work
involved mark-making, based on tracks. Moto Ohtake exhibited Stellar Motion. Tony McCann's
Reverse Blue painting projected an illusion of atmospheric and cosmic motion.
A major focus was the work of Nancy Hom, a catalyst for change - a multifaceted artist, writer,
organizer and arts administrator. She exhibited artwork she created for numerous political. social,
and community events in San Francisco. Highlighted also was artwork from Richard Godinez
who participated in Hom's Kearny Street Workshop exhibition War and Silence. In Godinez's
large painting Disciples, images of monks meditating are juxtaposed with a military training
exercise. Artist Tony May, another long-time catalyst, taught an Art in the Community class at
San Jose State University for many years and has over two decades of community involvement.
He exhibited models and drawings from a collaborative public art project with students and recent
graduates, a memorial to San Jose community activist and spiritual leader Father Mateo Sheedy.
Also on display were May's public art models commemorating the agricultural history of Silicon
Valley.
A prime example of Art and Civic Engagement Education was artwork from the California College
of the Arts' Center for Art and Public Life project, 100 Families Oakland. Materials relating to the
new civic engagement initiative on campus were shown in conjunction with a related lecture.
Preliminary plans for the new museum building and new De Anza entries and signage were
shown as part of Designing a New Building on Campus and Activating a CampuslCommunity
Cultural Space.
October 4 - November 23 and January 23 - February 23, 2006
De Ana Student Art Show presented artwork in a variety of media created by De Anza art,
photography, and graphic design students. The exhibition focused on the theme of "change."
The jurors gave added weight to artworks that addressed change, and an award was presented
in this category. Change was very encompassing, from personal change to global change,
planned change to imposed change. Ten artists received recognition awards.
January 23 - February 23, 2006
COMMUNITY OUTREACH (In addition to Arts & Schools Program)
Cupertino Jubilee booth and display of children's art in collaboration with De Anza's Community
Education Division, September 24-25, 2005.
Juror for National PTA Reflections Art Contest, January 8, 2006.
Seniors Group Tour from the Los Gatos Manor, January 25, 2006.
Juror for De Anza Photo Club contest, February 22, 2006.
International Fair booth in conjunction with Cupertino's Lunar New Year Unity Parade, included
a hands~n clay art activity. De Anza students, Euphrat ArtistlTeachers, and members of the
Orchard Valley Ceramics Guild staffed the booth. March 11, 2006.
Co-sponsored CATS (Contemporary Asian Theater) film A View from Topaz at festival,
March 25,2006.
Cherry Blossom Festival presentation in connection with the Cupertino Arts Commission,
April 29, 2006.
Community event MAn Afternoon of Art and Civic Leadership" jointly produced with APALI (Asian
Pacific American Leadership Institute) at a private residence. Boards of the Euphrat Museum of
Art and APALI collaborated in planning and implementation. This collaborative cross-cultural
friend-raiser included presentations, excerpts from a film about artist Maya Lin, A Strong Clear
Vision, and an exhibition of selected Arts & Schools Program collaborative pUblic art projects. We
distributed printed materials related to Euphrat's "Art and Civic Leadership" that were developed
for the event. June 3, 2006.
Attended/Participated in:
Civic Engagement Institute, September 14 - 15, 2005.
Creativity Matters - Inspiring Leaders to Act, conference, October 6-7, 2005.
Cupertino Community Congress, October 27, 2005.
Arts Education Leadership Conference: Advocacy in Action, May 7-8,2006.
Member of San Jose City Hall Exhibitions Committee, Winter, Spring 2006.
CAMPUSlCOMMUNITY PROJECTS
Collaborative mural project in Quinlan Community Center. The Euphrat was invited to create a
mural for its new Music Center. The project involved one De Anza art student and two Monte
Vista High School art students. The mural was painted as a community service and thank-you to
the Community Center for our ongoing partnership. Entitled Heda's Sonata, the opening lines
from a sonata float across a vast sky. Music Center students are encouraged to learn and
identify the melody, dynamics, and notes depicted. Dedicated 9/16/05.
Grand Opening of collaborative mural project entitled Endless SpacelBoundless Knowledge,
Braly Elementary School. Braly students participated in a drawing contest and the winning
drawings were used to create a composite design. Three De Anza art students, with guidance
from the Euphrat Museum of Art, designed and painted the mural. Included ribbon-cutting
ceremony with Santa Clara Unified School District Superintendent Rod Adams, Sunnyvale Arts
Commission Chair Monica Draganowski, and others. 12116105
2006 Euphrat Collaborative Public Art Project, a series of art projects celebrating Lunar New
Year and crossing cultures. Elementary school students worked with four Euphrat
ArtistIT eachers and four De Anza student interns. The collaborative projects included a larger
than life dog sculpture, a large Feliz Ano Nuevo de Luna (Happy Lunar New Year) sign, and
smaller Happy New Year signs in over twenty different languages. These projects were funded
by a grant from the Lunar New Year Unity Parade Committee. January - March 2006.
Collaborative Cover illustration for the City of Sunnyvale's 2005 - 2010 Consolidated Plan
created by Sunnyvale students in the Euphrat's After-School Art Program. The project was
created for a Fair Housing Month Poster Contest sponsored by Project Sentinel. May 2006.
EUPHRAT MUSEUM OF ART, ARTS Be SCHOOLS PROGRAM 2005-06
AFTER-SCHOOL ART PROGRAM
Professional artists conducted year-long art classes for third through fifth grade students at Braly,
Lakewood, Nimitz, Fairwood, and San Miguel Schools in the city of Sunnyvale. These schools were
identified as having high numbers of at-risk youth. Over 2,800 student-hours of free after-school art
Instruction were provided.
FEE-BASED AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM
The Euphrat Museum of Art offered after-school fee-based programs at nine schools in the
Cupertino Union School District (Blue Hills, Creekside Park, Faria, Lincoln, Portal Park, Regnart,
West Valley, Miller Middle. and Hyde Middle). Over 4,300 student-hours of after-school fee-
based srt Instruction were provided.
QUINLAN COMMUNITY CENTER PROGRAM
The Euphrat Museum of Art offered fee-based after-school, evening, and Saturday art classes for
children at the Quinlan Community Center. Over 5,600 student-hours of art instruction were
provided.
TEACHING TOURS
Hands-on Teaching Tours of the Euphrat Museum of Art are arranged for school children during
major exhibitions. Over 300 student-hours of hands-on Teaching Tours were provided by
Euphrat artistlteachers on site at the Euphrat during the school day.
EXTENDED YEAR PROGRAM
Summer 2005 program offered Extended Year classes at two elementary and one middle school
in the Cupertino Union School District (Eaton, Regnart, and Miller Middle). Over 13,840 student-
hours of during-school fee-based art instruction were provided.
PRESENTATIONS
Art Assembly at Nimitz School, 3/06
De Anza College Art Day for Arbuckle School, included an Art on Campus tour, visits to
ceramics, sculpture, and Hip Hop dance classes, and hands~n art activities, 5/06
COMMUNITY EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS TIED INTO EUPHRAT ARTS & SCHOOLS PROGRAM
Community exhibitions have been a way for elementary school students to grow in self-esteem
through recognition of their work and a way for staff, families, and the community to be more aware of
student work and the art program. We have placed rotating exhibits throughout the year at these
locations: Braly, Eaton, Fairwood, Lakewood. Lincoln, Miller Middle, Nimitz, Regnart, and San Miguel
schools, the Qunilan Community Center, the Sunnyvale Ubrary, and the Sunnyvale Creative Arts Center
in conjunction with the Hands on the Arts festival. The Euphrat children's art exhibition Mixing Colors;
Studies in Colors and Cultures was sponsored by the Cupertino Fine Arts Commission and held in
conjunction with the Cherry Blossom Festival. Children's artwork was also displayed at the Euphrat's
International Fair booth in conjunction with the Lunar New Year Unity Parade, and at the Cupertino
Golden Jubilee. An estimated 18,000 people viewed these exhibitions.
Calendar listing for exhibition
For Immediate Release: February 6, 2007
Euphrat Museum of Art
De Anza College, Cupertino, CA 95014
http://www.deanza.edu/euphraU
408 864-8836
Art exhibition:
Material Culture
March 7 - April 19, 2007
Closed Spring Break April 2-6, 2007
Reception: March 20, 5-7 pm with artist presentation
Museum Hours: M - Th, 10-4
Open to tour groups by appointment.
Artists shown:
Renee Billingslea, Hector Dio Mendoza, Corinne Okada, Nazanin Shenasa,
Kerry Vander Meer
Artist community collaborators include Chike Nwoffiah, Oriki Theater
Material Culture connects a focus on textiles, both traditional and contemporary
practice, with a focus on our culture of materials/materialism. In anthropology
and archaeology, material culture (physical objects as opposed to documents)
enables researchers to better understand a culture. Playing off several different
title interpretations, we highlight six artists with content relevant to the times and
the community.
Contemporary textile art is wide ranging. Artist Renee Billingslea uses clothing
to create an impact in her installation Fabric of Race: Lynching in America.
Stained shirts, hanging, with hand-embroidered nametags, represent cases she
researched. A hand-sewn quilt includes appropriated images from "lynching
postcards." Here clothingltextiles stand in for the person and draws one into an
important but rarely discussed part of U.S. history and a horrific part of human
interactions that continues. Billingslea teaches at Santa Clara University.
Artist Corinne Okada creates wearable art and other art objects from recycled
candy wrappers from other cultures, providing cultural links for different
generations. Her beautiful Nutcracker Dress is constructed from Russian,
Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian, and Italian candy wrappers along with produce
bag netting, and bag ties. Her Fear Kimono is related to internment of Japanese
Americans in the US during World War II. It contains Japanese paper dolls made
of Executive Order 9066 documents, Japanese candy wrappers, fishing line, and
plastic sushi grass. Okada also creates objects such as flora and fauna from
wrappers. Here the material culture comes more into play because of the
contrast with the natural world we once knew. Okada received a recent Artist of
the Year award from Cupertino.
Chike Nwofflah, Director of Oriki Theater in Mountain View, presents traditional
wearable art from the Igbos in southeast Nigeria. Traditional garments are
unique to each region and reflect the status of the individual. The garments
displayed are often part of Oriki performances and installations that relate to the
music, dance, and village life in Nigeria, where bright colors and bold designs are
ever present. Nwoffiah is partaking in a drum/dance performance assembly at
Nimitz Elementary School, part of a Euphrat collaborative interdisciplinary public
artwork involving artists, De Anza students, and elementary school students.
Kerry Vander Meer takes women's contemporary clothing, particularly the
stretchy kind, and builds art installations that overflow with creative energy of
shape, lines, and textures. And fun. For example, a portion of her large
installation Give and Take alludes to both the restrictivelliberating elements of
pantyhose, sometimes stretched to the limit, and also alludes to variations of give
and take in all kinds of social, economic, and political interactions. Yet joyful
whimsy encompasses all. Vander Meer has exhibited widely and teaches at
Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland.
Hector Dio Mendoza's artwork reflects various meanings to material culture.
Having worked with elderly women in care facilities where he was collecting their
stories, he noted they often crocheted doilies as they talked. So he dipped some
of these in liquid concrete and created solid sculptures, all white. A colorful
version, Atomic Landscape, connects to contemporary issues of youth, with
whom Dio Mendoza also works. His wide-ranging community involvement leads
him to unusual content. In the social sciences, "material culture" helps to
understand a culture. But in his mixed-media Scapegoat (profiling), clothing,
headgear, or hairstyle can be used to distance people, stereotype, exclude, and
worse.
Nazanin Shenasa exhibits a handmade silk costume, Layla's Shroud, created for
a performance and installation, Permanent Madness, 2006. The work addresses
the unconsummated love between the ancient Middle Eastern lovers Layla and
Majnun. Shroud is a response to the medieval Iranian prototype of a noble
woman suffering in silence. Here her poetic thoughts come flowing out of the
sleeves. The concern of being separated from your dreams is a universal one
that still pertains today. Young people often struggle with educational and life
decisions, conflicted as to whether to conform to family or community
expectations, or to follow their heart to the true self. Shenasa is a textile artist,
art historian and curator who teaches at De Anza College.
The exhibition was curated by Jan Rindfleisch working with Nazanin Shenasa,
with assistance from Diana Argabrite.
The Euphrat Museum is in an interim space in the A quad while the design of the
new Euphrat building is being finalized and construction proceeds.
The Euphrat Museum of Art is funded in part by Arts Council Silicon Valley, and
by an Applied Materials Excellence in the Arts grant and an Adobe Systems Inc.
grant, both in partnership with Arts Council Silicon Valley.
For events connected to the exhibition, call the number listed below.
IIIII
Call Jan Rindfleisch 408-864-8836 for more Information.
Nimitz Elementary School 1 st, 2nd, and srd graders participating in a Euphrat
Museum of Art free-of-charge After-School Art class. Students are creating West
African-inspired figurative and pattern stamps for a collaborative public art
project. 2007
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Two Nimitz 3rd graders begin stamping their West African-inspired stamps inside a larger than life silhouette of a dancing
child. Nimitz students participated in during-school assemblies presented by Oriki Theater. The children and classroom
teachers learned some West African rhythms and the Dance of Life from Ghana. 2007
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Faria 2~d grader in a Euphrat Museum of Art After-School Sculpture class at Faria Elementary School. 2006
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I'hologruphs by Brian Connelly
Artist Antonio Castro. from the Euphrat Museum at De Anza Community College.
shows students at Nimitz School how to create the hats they will wear in
Cupertino's Lunar New Year parade on March II.
ling Qin watches as third-grader Alice Ahu puts the finishing touches on her hat.
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COMMUNITY I
Hats for unity parade
Euphrat artist helps students
make crazy hats for festivities
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The Euphrat Museum's Arts & School's Program
presents
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Cupertino Area Chilaren:
Mixing
Colors
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Featuring studies in colors and cultures
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Quinlan Community Center
Next to the Cupertino Room
Sponsored by the Cupertino Fine Arts Commission
and The Euphrat Museum of Art, De Anza College
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Saturday & Sunday
Cultural Exhibits/Demonstrations
Quinlan Community Center
Saturday Entertainment - Amphitheater
Master of Ceremonies: Bill Nishimoto
Cupertino Room
Bonsai (miniature trees and plants)
Midori Bonsai Club
John Tompson, Vice President-Program Chair
Hachimaki (headband design and stamping)
Diane Nishiura
Ikebana (flower arranging)
Ikebono School
Yoshiko LeSage
Joyce Kobata
Nihon Shishu (traditional embroidery)
Connie Dunham and students
Northern California Sword Club
Fred Weissberg
Suiseki (scenic rocks)
Kashu Suiseki Kai
Jackson Kato
Sumi-e (brush painting)
Ami Wada and students
Sumi-e (brush painting)
Shirley Kinoshita
Washi Doll (paper dolls)
Rochelle Lum
10:30 am
10:35 am
11:00 am
11:45 am
12:15 pm
12:25 pm
12:30 pm
1:15 pm
1:45 pm
2:30 pm
3:00 pm
3:30 pm
4:00 pm
4:45 pm
Opening Remarks: Bill Nishimoto
Sunnyvale Suzuki Violinist (children's group)
Instructors: Jackie Corina, Hiroko Nishimura & Hisako Morl
California Sumo Association
Palo Alto Kendo (fencing)
Head Instructor: Dr. Walter Hashimoto
Instructor: George Nishiura
Vice Mayor Kris Wang: Welcome Remarks,
Introduction of exchange students and honored Toyokawa
guests Alan & Tani Minor
"Mixing Colors; Artwork by Cupertino Children"
Robert Harrison and Diana Argabrlte,
The Fine Arts Commission
San Jose Taiko (Japanese ceremonial drums)
Lobby Area
Origami (hands-on and paper folding demonstration)
San Francisco Origami Group
Student art work exhibit - Theme: "Mixing Colors;
Artwork by Cupertino Children"
Fine Arts Commission of the City of Cupertino
Diana Argabrite: Director, Arts & Schools, Euphrat Museum of Art
Craft Room
Japanese Calligraphy
San Jose Shodo
Noriko Lake and students
Demo - 11:30am; 1:30pm; 3:30pm - Saturday and Sunday
Activity Room
Ikebana (flower arranging)
Wafu school
Fusako Hoyrup
Social Room
Japanese Doll Display
Mataro Kimekomi Doll Craft Academy
Masanori (Isako) Wasano, Instructor
Bando Mitsusa Kai (classical Japanese dance)
Instructor: Madame Bando Mitsusa
California Sumo Association
Cupertino Judo Club (Olympic sport since 1964)
Instructor: Jim Baker
Aikido of Silicon Valley (classical Japanese martial art)
Instructors: Michael O'Quin & Alice MacAllister
Satsuma Dojo (karate, art of self-defense)
Instructor: Jay Castellano
Watsonville Taiko (Japanese ceremonial drums)
Closing Remarks: Bill Nishimoto
Schedule subject to change
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Artl Faculty / staJJ Exhibition
" , NOVEMBER 14. DECEMBER 7. 2006
(RILCE:PTION WITH PRESENTATIONS NOVEMBER 28. &8PM)
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listing for exhibition
For Immediate Release: January 2, 2007
Euphrat Museum of Art
De Anza College, Cupertino, CA 95014
Art exhibition:
Changing Still Life
January 22 - February15, 2007
Museum Hours: M - Th, 10-4
Open to tour groups by appointment.
Artists shown:
DeWitt Cheng, Susan Danis
Artist, campus and community collaborators include Janet Leong Malan,
Connie Young Yu, Tom Izu (California History Center), Annie Presler and
Jose Marte (De Anza Biological, Health, and Environmental Sciences
Division)
Changing Still Life is an interactive exhibition comprised of "stilllifes" from which
viewers can draw. These stilllifes encompass a variety of directions, with
objects reflecting different cultures and histories, found/recycled objects, objects
related to different academic disciplines, and some artworks themselves.
Viewers have the opportunity to use viewfinders and sketch on the spot.
While creating their artwork, participants will be studying form, arrangement, and
content. Objects will be added and removed over time. Some aspects of the
arrangement can be adjusted. Movable lights and viewfinders enable
participants to change lighting conditions and determine their compositions.
This changing still life imbues a classic art form with contemporary and local
relevance. The unusual objects with wide-ranging content came from artists and
from sources on campus and in the community.
Artists Susan Danis and DeWitt Cheng display artwork and/or objects from their
studios. Danis's work, referring to consumerism and the environment, is
constructed of recycled materials, sometimes conglomerations of synthetic
fuzzies, beads, fake hair, plastic and rubberized parts in garish hues, pinks and
greens. Cheng's art relates to science specimens. He morphs these into unique
creatures and attaches titles that draw one into larger contemplations.
FE06lJARY 5, 2001 · LAVQZDEANZA.COM
Euphrat helps
students c_reate
;Nicole Moreno
LA VOZ
The mIssmg sock that suddetily
disappears when you do a load of lalludry:
. has miraculously found its way into the
art exhibit at the EuPlltat M:u~eum .of Art.
The "Changing Still Life~'exi1ibiti<?n waSc
made for students; which was created for
students in art classes to come in and draw.
from, includes socks.
The exhibit is not your typical art show.
Rather than each artist having;. his or her
owh section on the wall, the Euphrat has
made this exhibit circular.
"We talked abOut if we should give each
artist their own COrri~, but we decided to
put it together in"tIi~ middle. "Together
the items are easier for the.dass to see,"
said Diana Argabrite, director of Arts and
Schools Program.
The museum holds artifacts celebrating
Chinese American history in Cupertino
donated by historian GOnW~YoutlgYu Md
artist Leong Malan. The@alifornia History
Center gave pieces . in~luding Frtlnch-
style doors from De Anza College's now~
demolished West Cottage.
THE VOICE 01= DE ANZA COLLEGE
arts & entertainment
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Maureen GamarralLA VOZ
Still life art is placed in the center of the the Euphrat Museum in the new exhibit designed
for ;:1rtsudents . .
beetles to toy dolls that make for very much creates her art by using recycled items like
creative and beautiful compositions," said socks and hair ties. Cheng studies animals
- art instructor Juliana Kang. "The still life and creates morphed images of them.
at the Euphrat has been very useful for the "The best part is when students are here
design and drawing classes." using the viewfinder to look at the art," said
Two of the artists, Susan Danis and Argabrite. The Euphrat museum is located
Dewitt Cheng, are Bay Area natives. Danis in the A quad.
DAILY NEWS
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A moment of reflection
Victor Maccharoli / Dally News
Cupertino resident Linda Chew Toda looks at art created by faculty members from De Anza and Foothill colleges at the Euphrat Museum of
Art on the De Anza campus in Cupertino on Thursday.
_ THE sruOENT NEWSPAPER OF OEANlA COUEGE _
JANUARY 30. 2006 · LAVOlDEANZA.COM
Art exhibit a forum for
community involvement
Aaron Wilcher
LA VOZ
Last Tuesday, Nancy Horn
and Sonia BasSheva Manjon,
both prominent California arts
administrators, spoke at De
Anza College about their work
in public' arts in Oakland and
San Francisco.
They higWighted community
collaboration and advocacy, and
discussed public and educational
art's role in community involve-
ment. This even foreshadows
an ambitious, far-reaching proj- .
ect coming from a task force
sponsored by De Anza President
Brian Murphy's office.
According to task force co-
director Cynthia. Kaufman,. the
Institute for Civic Engagement,-
which has been in development
for months, 'could arrive as soon
as the end of the winter quarter
- at least as an ideology.
"Most of' our students
know there's. some serious
things wrong with the world,"
Kaufman said. "That's one of
the main things that will happen
. with [this program]. Helping'
students navigate the world of
social change."
Horn, former director of the
Kearny Street Workshop in
San Francisco, discussed that
organization's projects. These
I projects brought together fed-
..' eral, state and local agencies
. and funders with artists and
Aaron Wilcher I LA VOZ
Two pieces from an exhibit at the Euphrat Museum for the "100
Families" project, which links artists and families in Oakland. .
citizens to address social and San Francisco, and the Chinese
. historical issues affecting Asian Exclusion Act, which took place
Americans in Chinatown and at Immigration Station on Angel
ManiIatown. Horn told her sto- Island for a large part of the.
ries about the Kearny Street twentieth century.
Workshop .as a vision to art edu- Horn based her ;tdministra-
cators and students interested in tive work on the needs of the.
the task force's plan. community for more than 30
She described two large-scale years, including starting several
public art projects: a three-day neighborhood art centers in Sari
multimedia festival rem em- Francisco in the 1970s. j:.
bering the police's mid-1970s "I learned what drew people>'
mass eviction of Filipino tenants to an organization, since they..';.
from the International Hotel in were community centers, and "f"
see EUPHRAT. pag~2.;~~
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Aaron Wilcher ILA VOZ
Yu-Ting,Hsian's award-winning painting, "Serious Artist," is part of an
art exhibit at the Euphrat Museum dealing with social change issues.
t I EUPHRAT: using -
t art for community
-'outreach efforts
FROM PAGE ONE
usually they were projects that took in to consideration the history
. of the neighborhood, identitiy, cUiture, lifestyle, families and
concerns of social conditions that iIIipacted therr lives," she said.
Manjon, director of the Center for Art and Public Life at the
California College of Arts in Oakland, outlined programs the center
offers.
These programs unite professors, students and community-
outreach arts programs, which extend from the classroom to the
streets. Her current project, "100 Families," allies the center with
community artists and dozens of families in Oakland.
Some of the artwork is on display at De Anza's Euphrat Museum
of Art.
Manjon discussed the link between her project and the
communities it serves in Oakland. .
"What are our issues? Our issues go way beyond 'do we have
an art program [in schools]?' We're talking about saving people's
lives. You have a drop-out rate .in the middle of west Oakland of
\ 50 percent." .,'
. Under the task force's plan, it would create an office that would
establish and administrate new courses, certificate programs,
student fellowships, service learning programs and relations with
many off-campus organizations.
According to Kaufman, the president's task force was slated
to finalize its mission statement and organizational outline last
Thursday. .
The Plan for Civic Engagement still has to pass a process of
evaluation and approval by the Office of the President, the De Anza .
Student Body senate, the Faculty senate, the Faculty Association
and the task force itself, but according to Kaufman, its goals are "in .
the air" on campus.
Jan Rindfleisch, the executive director of the Euphrat, helped to
organize Tuesday's event, and says that this plan is a central reason
for bringing Hom and Manjon to De:Anza. , .
The plan follows similar work did at the Urban Institute at San
Francisco State University where Murphy served as director for the
Institute's inception in 1992 to his arriva~ at De Anza in July 2004.
- THE SllJDENT NEWSPAPER OF DE ANZA COLLEGE _
MARCH 6. 2006 · LAVQZDEANZA.COM
Euphrat hosts community art
Robert Balicki
LA VOZ
Grabbing the media's attention with- art always
came easily for retired San Jose State Professor
Tony May. -
When his Art and Community class brought
a snow machine to St. James Park in downtown
San Jose, it got press coverage from as far away
as Canada.
uIt was a big public relations success, and quite
fun, unusual and a little bit surreal," May said.
May addressed his approach to art and creativity
along with Consuelo Underwood, a professor offi-
ber arts at the Hinson Campus Center Wednesday.
The event was hosted by the Euphrat Museum
of Art and sponsored by the De Anza Student Body,
and the Creative Arts, Social Science and Humani-
ties departments.
Underwood said her art - reflected anger about
California history.
One piece of art, which showed 1,000 buffalo
footprints, commemorated the few buffalo who
survived their near extermination. On it she em-
broidered "In Gold We Trust," which she said was
the "true meaning of our monetary system."
uThe United States Congress ordered the buf-
falo killed so that railroads could be built and so
that the Indians did not have a source- of food," she
said.
Underwood says that young artists should not be
looking only to make money with their art, but in-
stead looking to help make the world a better place.
For May, his Arts and Community class oftentimes
does not start out with a problem in mind.
Instead, they "try to accomplish something of
substance," without knowing what.
They then explore the area, looking for "sites,
materials, [and] ideas," the three things needed for
oto cou esy 0 lana Arga n e
The windmill model is one of the public art projects
by San jose State Professor Tony May. This and other
projects are on display at the Euphrat Museum of Art
on the De Anza College campus. Creativity and Com-
munity was held in the Conference Room A in the Hin-
son Campus Center Wednesday.
art, he said.
In this way, the class came across tumbleweed,
which was used to make an English garden in 'an
abandoned lot.
Being underneath the tumbleweeds was like be-
ing underwater, said May.
Photograph by Daniel Sato
The new mural at Braly Elementary School, 'Endless Space/Boundless
Knowledge; was the inspiration of three Braly students. In a collaborative pro-
ject, three De Anza College students picked up on the concept and created the
painting on the outer wall of the multimedia building.
Braly students inspire mural
painted by. De Anza students
By ANNE WARD ERNST
The new mural at Braly Elementary
School is big, but the sense of communi-
ty it evokes is even bigger.
The collaborative mural "Endless
Space/Boundless Knowledge" reflects
that theme with elements of outer space
such as stars, a space shuttle and Earth
and the school.
Flying large in the center is the
school's mascot, an eagle. The bird soars
ab<;Jve a cluster of nwnbered buildings,
which represent the school campus.
Visible from the school parking lot,
the bright, vibrant blues, reds and yel-
lows pop off the outside wall of the mul-
tipurpose building.
The finished piece is a collaboration
between youngsters at Braly and stu-
dents from the Euphrat Museum of Art
at De Anza Community College.
The project started two years ago
when the PTA had some money for a
project. The PTA agreed on a collabora-
tive mural, but decided the subject of the
mural should be the students' idea.
The school held a contest and selected
the artwork of three Braly students as
inspiration for the mural.
The entries were turned over to Diana
Argabrite, director of arts and schools
for the Euphrat Museum of Art.
Euphrat offers an after-school art pro-
gram at Braly and other area schools.
The museum program has also installed
collaborative artwork in community
buildings such as the Music Center at
the Quinlan Community Center in
Cupertino.
Argabrite selected three De Anza stu-
dents-Kate Stewart, Joanne Vade-
boncouer and Marcos Perez-to com-
bine the Braly students' three separate
pieces into one.
"We turned it into one sort of cohe-
sive super-drawing," Stewart says.
Stewart and Vadeboncouer painted
the mural over several weekends. Perez
contributed to the design effort but then
tninsferred to UCLA and had to leave
before the drawing and painting on the
wall began.
Using a grid system to maintain pro-
portion, Stewart and Vadeboncouer
transferred the drawing from paper to
wall. Neither had worked on a piece of
such scale, but both say they loved the
process of climbing a ladder, using big
brushes and getting messy.
They were only able to work on the
mural on weekends.
Though the school was empty. then,
Stewart and Vadeboncouer say they were
far from alone.
"There were a lot of families who used
the school [on the weekend]: people walk-
ing dogs and riding bikes," Vadeboncouer
says. "They would stop and ask us ques-
tions. That's what murals are all about: It's
a big key about murals, getting the com-
munity involved."
"My favorite part was the community
involvement and knowing that this
would mean something to the kids,"
Stewart says.
At a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the
Sunnyvale school in December, the De
Anza students met the Braly students
who created the initial art pieces.
"We got to go up to the children who
did the work and thank them for letting
us create this mural for them," says
Vadeboncouer.
Principal Lorraine Moore says says all
the students feel a sense of ownership of
the mural because Braly students came
up with the concepts.
"The kids were just screaming their
Braly pride," Vadeboncouer says of the
children's response at the ceremony.
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Volume 59. Number 1 + January 25.,2006+ Cupertino. CA + Est. 1947 +www.cupertinocourier.com
. The Euphrat Museum of Art will change its location three times before it finally settles into its permanent digs
,By ANNE WARD ERNST
People who work in or around the
Euphrat Museum of Art are not afraid
of change. In fact, they embrace it.
Change is what inspired the muse-
um's newest exhibit, says Diana
Argabrite, director of arts and schools
programs for the museum at De Anza
Community College.
The current student art show, which
began Jan. 23- amLn1ns until Feb. 23, is
part of a larger, rotating exhibit called'
Change 200512006.
Change will be noticeable in March
when the museum moves for the first of
three times over the next two years
while plans for a new building are final-
ized and eventually built. Current plans
place the new museum within a com-
plex of the school's campus that is
expected to include a 4oo-seat theater
and a classroom for art history, further-
ing the interrelationship between the
school and the museum.
The broader scope of Change'
2005/2006 includes lectures and discus-
sions that delve into change in the arts
and academic community. It also fea-
tures, among other art, some 50 pairs of
clay feet designed and decorated by
students, staff, faculty and others.
Linda Mau, a ceramics instructor at
. the college, came up with the idea for
the clay feet, which will be on display
throughout the show.
Metaphorically speaking, she says the
feet will help show the way to the new
museum, but she wants even more clay-
feet tiles to guide the way.
"The clay people are the ones who
are leading the march to the new
Euphrat Museum," Mau says.
The art show and. the whole
"Change" program is like a drum roll
for what's to come for Euphrat and the
De Anza Community College campus.
The first step will be the museum's
move to temporary facilities for an
unspecified. time, but most likely less
than a year. While in the temporary
location, the museum's existing build-
ing will be altered, and the museum will
return to smaller quarters and stay
there for about two years.
The back-and-forth movement gives
the museum good footing for the next
step, which will occur sometime in 2008
when the museum moves into its new
building. . .
Over the years, as education budgets
have constricted, so too has the muse-
um's space, and it gave uJ.J. bits and
Photograph by Brian Connelly
The Euphrat Museum building on the De Anza Community College campus is undergoing renovation. While that is going on,
the museum is housed at another location on campus. .
in 1999-a $248 million bond to reno-
vate and expand college facilities to
meet current health, safety and instruc-
tion standards-the Euphrat Museum
will eventually be given some elbow
room.
"Overall the [museum's] space
should be larger, but we're not talking
huge numbers," says Janet Rindfleisch,
executive director of the museum.
Rindfleisch says the new complex will
relate to the overall objective of com-
bining arts, culture and history. .
Argabrite and Mau hope to make the
clay-feet tiles part of Euphrat's and De
Anza's history.
They aren't quite sure how the
"footwear" will be included in the
design, but they have put their collec-
tive feet down and say clay-feet tiles are
a sure footprint somewhere in the
~esign.~ne idea th~tve ~ck;_~.a~~~~
Euphrat's new building.
The clay-feet project evolved on its
own.
The "footwear" comes in a wide'
range of sizes, and the designs and dec-
orations are equally as varied. Mau says
there were no rules about how to create
one's clay-foot design, but progressive-
ly they got more creative.
When people first started making the'
clay feet, some just stamped on the
moist, rolled clay while wearing shoes
and left a sole imprint. Some added
color. Some added words. Some did
nothing at all to the imprint. .
But some of the footwear looks as if
it is ready for takeoff.
For example, Inna Razmakhova
traced her bare feet and cut out the clay
around the image. Left behind was a
canvas for Razmakhova .to etch in all
her toes and toenails and add a pair of
__..:.,~...... ......... ........"..... &..............+ ............a.n I......,.".... o::r.c ;f th"""
Joanne Vadeboncouer took a differ-
ent approach. She used the X-ray image
of her nephew's broken foot to help her
draw on all the tiny bones of a foot.
She's partial to creating bone art, and
she says she does a lot of bone-inspired
sculpture, but not in a morbid or dark
way.
In all 50-plus pairs of clay feet, Mau
says, no tv..o have had the same shoe.
sole imprint. .
In a previous time, instead of leaving
footprints in clay, students would have
found themselves walking through a
setting of orchards of apricots and
prunes.
"When I go back, I can still feel the
old orchard. I smell the apricot. I smell
a little of the plum. I smell the wisteria,"
Fred Euphrat says.
Euphrat, who lives in Healdsburg,
owns a forest management company
,."ll",r! PnT",d ~ni1 ~ W"tpr Tn" Hp i~
Students,faculty and others have created feet of clay that may eventually be placed in the wa/l..:way of De Anza's Euphrat Museum of Art permanent facility.
Euphrat. to make bottle corks still stands next to ber any interest in the arts on the part of Cupertino and Sunnyvale, including an
His grandparents sold the property to the Flint Center, Rindfleisch says. E.P. or Helen. Nevertheless, shortly after installment at the Quinlan Center that
Foothill College in 1959. The property E.P. and Helen Euphrat, who owned Helen died, the Helen Euphrat Gallery focused on friendship and sharing. The
had been the San Franciscan couple's the Pacific Can Company in San was born, thanks to a grant from the most recent art installment is a collabo-
weekend retreat, and Fred Euphrat, a. Francisco, bought the property from family. It was renamed. the Euphrat rative mural at Braly Elementary
fourth-generation San Franciscan, Pullman in 1940. Museum of Art to avoid the commercial School in Sunnyvale.
remembers spending summers there "I think [my father] paid $68,000 for connotation connected with galleries A project "near and dear" to the
with his mother, Susan. it," says Jack Euphrat. and better reflect its purpose-to heart of Argabrite was the Fair Housing
His childhood memories are of the TIle property stretched across what is research, produce and present challeng- for All project that involved children
land. He remembers the orchards, veg- now Highway 85 and included a ranch ing exhibitions and educational materi- from Cupertino and Sunnyvale Union
etable gardens and some of what still with the Le Petit Trianon, cottages and als that provide a resource of visual ideas . School districts. The collaborative series
remains, the cottages and Le Petit orchards. and a platfornl for communications. of projects helped children learn about
Trianon-a building originally con- The couple was friends with Foothill. One of the museum's most active and the Fair Housing Act and the impor-
structed by another family for its own College's founding superintendent, Cal successful programs is the arts and tance of the laws. The projects included
use and entertainment. Le Petit Trianon Flint, who convinced them to sell the schools program that Argabrite runs. It a large-scale folding book, a mixed-
currently houses the California History property for a new community college includes an after-school art program for media sculpture, a polymer clay assem-
Center, a program of the social science school site. elementary schools that serves large blage and a large-scale group block
division of De Anza College, and the "My parents were older, and they numbers of "at-risk" students and fea- print with interactive elements.
California History Center Foundation, a enjoyed the company of the Flints," says tures a fee-based art program, teaching Another popular program at the
community-based, nonprofit organiza- Jack Euphrat. "Dr. Flint was one of the tours of Euphrat exhibitions, school museum is family day. TIuee to four
tion. sweetest guys you'd ever meet. He was assemblies and collaborations including thousand people come to the event for
Eating warm prunes off the ground like a snake medicine man; he could sell public art projects and exhibits of stu- hands-on activities that include cross-
rpm"in<: Frpd Fllnhrat's stronpest mem- anvbodv anything. Mrs. Flint was a love- dent work at schools and community cultural art projects and performances