Calendar Draft

Lamorinda Arts Council (Council) invites local poets to apply to read their work at the second “Art Embraces Poetry” event on Saturday July 15 from 1:30 – 3:30 pm at the Town Hall Theatre, 3535 School Street, Lafayette. Featured poet Nana-Dictta Graves will present Ekphrastic poetry. Apply to participate in the program at HERE. or call 925-359-9940.

The Lamorinda Arts Council (LAC) presents the photographs of featured artist JenniferLothrigel in her solo virtual exhibit in the Art Gallery at Wilder  during the month of June. Access Lothrigel’s artwork online at
www.lamorindaarts.org/online-galleries/ where you may also purcahse her work with one click.

Jennifer is a photographer and writer who lives inLafayette California. Her work is a meditation on belonging, lineage and connection to body andplace. She has multiple bodies of photographic work she has been focusing on in the past few years. The work that she is showing comes from two of those bodies of work.

The first series is titled Briones and is about her relationship to the place she lives. She lives within walking distance to Briones Regional Park and has been photographing while on her hikes for manyyears. This series not only represents her reverie and awe for this beautiful place but also explores what it means to belong in a place and to have arelationship with the natural world. She has explored the question: How can I live with the same level of harmony that I see in nature? This is a question and a practice that she lives with. She says, “Briones is my teacher.”

The second group of photos she is showing comes from work from in her series ‘Wind Mother,’ named after the
Hungarian Goddess Szelanya who controls the wind, creating both soft breezes and wild storms.These photos explore how ancestral patterns are carried both in the body and are woven through a lineage. Relying on family relics and her body, she focuses on the balance of honor and release, mythic and mundane. Contact curator Bill Carmel at wildergallery@lamorindarts.org to learn more about Lothrigel’s work.  

The Lamorinda Arts Council presents multimedia by Claudette McDermott, Nancy Rubin’s Photos of Fathers and Art & Artifacts from Sister City Tabor in the June Art Gallery at the Orinda Library, 26 Orinda Way. Join the artists at a reception in their honor where light refreshments will be served on Sat. Junee 10 from 3-5 p.m.

This free exhibit runs June 3 through July 1. Visit the gallery at 26 Orinda Way during normal library hours – Mon. – Thu. 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fri. – Sat., 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.; closed Sunday. Close date is Monday May 29. Call 925-254-2184 for more information or visit http://ccclib.org/.

Join friends of the Lamorinda Arts Council for conversations about the creative life. Please bring whatever art, digital art, music, writing, etc. you are working on as a “prompt” to start the conversation. We want to know what is stirring up (or blocking) your creative juices at The Coop, 32 Lafayette Circle, Lafayette, from 3-5 p.m. Look for our our knockoff Picassoesque poster of Dora Maar (Picasso’s muse & model) – that’s us! No host bar. Just show up. Questions? Email literary@lamorindaarts.org.

The mission of the Council is to ignite and sustain artistic expression and appreciation for all ages throughout Lamorinda. If you are interested in visual, performing or literary arts, please join us in keeping the arts alive. We are an engaged group of volunteers and donors who develop and produce events, partner with professional organizations and artists, give financial support and awards, and advocate for a vibrant, local culture of visual, performing, and literary arts.

If you are interested in exhibiting artwork in one of our galleries please apply online HERE. The LAC curates two galleries in Orinda with virtual and in-person artwork every month (Art Gallery at the Orinda Library & Art Gallery at Wilder). Below is a sample of other programs we offer or participate in:

LAC Programs

• Art Embraces Words, Art Embraces Music (new in 2022) and Art Embraces Poetry (new in 2023)
• Art of Mixology Competition/Fundraiser (yearly in October @ Theatre Square, Orinda)
• Artify Orinda (utility boxes & Big Belly’s in Orinda displaying artwork by local artists)
• Arts Ambassadors (unjuried exhibit for Lamorinda K-8 youth; all receive AA ribbon)
• High School Visual Arts Competition (Homeschools, Public and Private High Schools in Lamorinda including all high schools in the Acalanes Union High School District, yearly in March – juried)
• Lafayette Art & Wine Festival (double booth for youth art tables, yearly in Sept.)
• Lafayette Community Day (new in 2022)
• Lamorinda Idol (Annual youth singing competition open to K-12 students in Contra Costa County)
• Lamorinda Presents (monthly roundtable hosted by Lafayette Chamber of Commerce)
• Mocktails & Cocktails (last Sunday each month)
• Moraga Spring Fest (hosted by Moraga youth)
• Orinda Action Day

Community Partners and Arts Partners

• Art in Public Places Committee (LAC liaison representative to APPC in City of Orinda)
• Art Moves Project (LAC NP incubator program)
• CA Arts Council
• CA Writers Club, Mt. Diablo Branch (co-host of Ekphrasis Collaborative Art Exhibit, May 2023)
• Compass Realty, Diane Dwyer & Wendy Bond
• Community Foundation of Lafayette
• Lamorinda Arts Alliance (Sponsor of Digital Art Category and cash award in H.S. Visual Arts Competition; co-host of Ekphrasis Collaborative Art Exhibit, May 2023)
• Mindful Littles (LAC in-kind contribution)
• Orinda Community Foundation
• Saint Mary’s College Arts (Student Intern program)