Sep 26 2012
Enjoy the latest installment of Arts & Culture Along the el Camino Real:
The Shakespeare Press Museum offers a collection of rare equipment and early examples of printing that spans 150 years of California printing. Printing scholar Laura Sorvetti shares the history behind the type.
ARTBOUND | KCET
http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/san-luis-obispo/print-like-its-1897-the-history-behind-the-shakespeare-press-museum.html

The Shakespeare Press Museum is not a rumination on Romeo and Juliet but rather a working 19th-century printing museum located at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. The museum’s collections are behemoths of a forgotten era of printing: metal and wood type, printing presses, and a library containing early examples of printing in California and the West. The museum’s pioneering beginnings originate with Charles “Shakespeare” Palmer, whose private collection of printing presses and type were donated to Cal Poly in 1964. (A predilection for poetry earned Palmer his Shakespearian nickname in high school.) The California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) campus adopted Palmer’s moniker and the museum was named in his honor, officially dedicated as the Shakespeare Press Museum in 1966.

About:

Travel along the coastal route of the El Camino Real and explore the rich, diverse cultural and artistic identity of San Luis Obispo County. This installment in the series celebrates the mavericks, pioneers, and experimental thinkers of the county.

Read the entire series:

Season 1

Season 2

sep 24 2012
October is “Arts Month” and three local groups are hosting PASSPORT TO THE ARTS, Saturday,October 6th from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  in downtown San Luis Obispo.  The Central Coast Center for Arts Education at Cal Poly, the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art and ARTS Obispo, the San Luis Obispo County Arts Council have joined forces to entice families to come downtown to experience the arts for free throughout the city center.  PASSPORT TO THE ARTS is intended as a celebration of the arts and will allow children to see performances and meet local artists and talk to them about their art disciplines. 

PICKUP A PASSPORT:

Families can pick up their free bag of arts information and passport for autographs in front of the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art beginning at 10:00 a.m. SLOMOA is located at 1010 Broad Street (on the west end of the Mission Plaza) San Luis Obispo, California 93401.

The Passport package will include:

• A Passport in which children can get the signatures or stamps of performers at several sites;
•  a reusable bag of information about upcoming arts events, lessons and performance information for the year;
• Map of all venues.  Venues will also be marked by signs and balloons. 

PASSPORT ACTIVITIES:

• Plein Air festival: artists will be doing their “Paint Out” canvases in Mission Plaza and surrounding downtown. Families can observe the artists at work and return for autographs in the passport books at 12:00 before the live auction of festival paintings;
• From 10:00 to 1:00 there will be Plein Air painting for children on the Museum lawn;
• Musical performances at Court St. Plaza opposite Pottery Barn;
• Theatrical performances at the SLO Little Theatre;
• Singers and guitarists at BooBoo’s Records;
• Storytellers and readers of children’s books inside the SLO Library in the children’s section;
•  and a self-directed quiz tied to the public art along the creek walk opposite the Mission and in the library.  

PASSPORT TO THE ARTS offers families a chance to experience the arts of our community while engaging in an interesting and fun-filled walk around the city.   

For more information contact:
Susan Duffy of CCCAE (543-7963)  Karen Kile of SLO Museum of Art (543-8562) or Charlotte Alexander of ARTSObispo (544-9251)

Sep 12 2012
Author Catherine Ryan Hyde has a very special connection to the Central Coast. Her bestselling novelPay It Forward which was adapted into a movie of the same name, is one of several novels with themes of do-goodery and chance acquaintances. All of these narratives were written from Hyde’s small coastal enclave alongside views of the Pacific Ocean and SLO County wildlife. Spend a day in the life with Catherine Ryan Hyde as she helps document this episode with her personal photographs of the coastal paradise she calls home.

Read her story on KCET’s Artboud: http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/san-luis-obispo/catherine-ryan-hyde.htmlAbout the Series: Arts & Culture Along the El Camino Real: Travel along the coastal route of the El Camino Real and explore the rich, diverse cultural and artistic identity of San Luis Obispo County. This installment in the series celebrates the mavericks, pioneers, and experimental thinkers of the county.