Cheri Gaulke Designs Three Bridges in the San Fernando Valley

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Six medallion designs for Tampa Bridge that depict and name flora, fauna and Tataviam villages in this section of the Los Angeles River

In 2003, I was commissioned by the Bridge Improvement Program to create designs for three San Fernando Valley bridges over the Los Angeles River that would be undergoing reconstruction. Now two of the bridges are complete and one is nearing completion. I am delighted to be sharing the design concepts and photographs of the work. The public art project was overseen by Los Angeles’ Cultural Affairs Department, Becky Snodgrass, project manager. I approached this project in the same way I approach most every project. I started by doing historical research about the streets and surrounding areas. I wanted to use the opportunity to tell stories about the community that contemporary residents might not know. I discovered some interesting things some of which are expressed in a representative style and others more abstractly.

Tampa Bridge with 24 medallions designed by Cheri Gaulke

Tampa Bridge with 24 medallions designed by Cheri Gaulke

Tampa Bridge Design, 2012, Los Angeles River, San Fernando Valley

Twenty-four circular medallions with six different designs are embedded in pylons at the four ends of the bridge. Each is a tribute to the indigenous people, plants, animals, birds, and fish of this section of the Los Angeles River. Silhouettes of a hawk, trout, coyote, oak tree, butterfly and cattail stand out against a background of names which form a kind of visual poetry of taxonomy. Porcelain enamel on steel, each medallion is 24” x 24” x 1”.

Designs for Wiinetka Bridge that celebrate local visionary Charles Weeks and his vision for the self-sustaining farm

Designs for Wiinetka Bridge that celebrate local visionary Charles Weeks and his vision for the self-sustaining farm

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Winnetka Bridge Design, 2012, Los Angeles River, San Fernando Valley

The Winnetka Bridge design is a tribute to Charles Weeks, a visionary and early developer of this area. A founder of Winnetka, Illinois, he came to the San Fernando Valley in 1920 at the invitation of the Chamber of Commerce with a utopian vision of self-sustaining farms. His development was called Charles Weeks Colony. Each medallion has a short text drawn from Weeks’ theories which he published in a book called One Acre and Independence. The earth-toned graphics are reminiscent of early 1900s illustrations. The chickens, bees and pear refer to Weeks’ formula for a successful farm. The larger panel depicts Weeks and his son surveying the land. Porcelain enamel on steel, medallions measure 42.5” x 36” and 42.5” x 50.5”.

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Vanowen Bridge has cast concrete wheels that evoke the history of this street

Vanowen Bridge Design, 2013, Los Angeles River, San Fernando Valley

Vanowen Street got its name as the main thoroughfare between Van Nuys and Owensmouth (later renamed Canoga Park). The movement from place to place inspires two design motifs—the circle/wheel and the wave. The wave represents the river water ever-flowing beneath the bridge. Circles are powerful symbols found throughout all time and all cultures. They represent the sun, the earth, cycles, seasons, wholeness, community. When a circle becomes a wheel it adds the quality of movement—of time, progress, westward expansion, transportation. The wheels depicted on the bridge tell the history of the area—wagon wheels for settlers, gears for industry, film reels for movie production, tires for suburbia, and bicycle wheels for the new bike paths and energy-saving commuting. Cast concrete, metalwork, bridge measures 5’ x 80’ x 1’.

Cheri Gaulke and Sue Maberry Receive Awards

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Cheri Gaulke and Sue Maberry, photo by Barbara Hayden

We were delighted to receive the Art is a Hammer Award from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics on October 20, 2013. The ceremony took place at an event called Celebrating the Art of Resistance at the Professional Musicians Union, Local 47 in Hollywood, California. The award’s name was inspired by this quote: “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it,” by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Curiously, the same quote has also been attributed to Bertolt Brecht. Writer Terry Wolverton presented us with the award. The event was a wonderful gathering of activists and artists and it included a silent auction of a vast array of political posters. We purchased two: Sheila de Bretteville’s Pink poster and one with the Art is a Hammer quote (attributed to Brecht) by design firm Helvetica Jones. At the end of this blog post you can read the biographical notes that were in the program as well as our acceptance speech. We were thrilled to have so many dear friends and collaborators in the audience and grateful to our employers, Harvard-Westlake School and Otis College of Art and Design, for their support of the event. The CSPG is a wonderful organization doing fantastic work by preserving and archiving political posters in which artists contribute so greatly to social movements.

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Cheri Gaulke holds Art is a Hammer Award with Carol Wells, founder and executive director of The Center for the Study of Political Graphics, presenter Terry Wolverton, and co-recipient Sue Maberry, photo by Barbara Hayden

On September 7, 2013, we attended the awards ceremony at the Women and Media Conference put on by the Veteran Feminists of America, We were there to celebrate Joannie Parker, long-time feminist activist and former head of Women’s Studies at Westlake School for Girls, now Harvard-Westlake School. The event was organized by another former colleague Martha Wheelock. We were surprised when we were given medals for our work in the arts and at the Woman’s Building. Our daughter Xochi was thrilled to meet famous civil rights attorney Gloria Allred.

Cheri Gaulke and Sue Maberry display medals from the Veteran Feminists of America

Cheri Gaulke and Sue Maberry display medals from the Veteran Feminists of America

Award recipient Gloria Allred and Xochi Maberry-Gaulke

Award recipient Gloria Allred and Xochi Maberry-Gaulke

Cheri Gaulke and Sue Maberry Biographical Notes from the CSPG Program

Cheri Gaulke and Sue Maberry met at the Woman’s Building, a feminist art center, in 1977 and have been a couple since 1979. They have worked individually and collaboratively as artists, activists and educators. At the Woman’s Building they often collaborated on programming and graphic design projects. They conceived the media event to hoist Kate Millet’s gigantic Naked Lady sculpture to the roof, which made the front page of the Los Angeles Times. In 1981, they cofounded Sisters Of Survival, an anti-nuclear performance group who wore nun’s habits in the spectrum of the rainbow, and used public performance and graphic design to network with artists and activists in North America and Western Europe. Gaulke and Maberry have also collaborated with their daughters, Marka and Xochi, on artworks about lesbian family.

Maberry was a program director both at the Woman’s Building and at the Armory Center for the Arts. After receiving a Masters in Library Science, Maberry became Director of the Library at Otis College of Art and Design in 1992. There she has led efforts to incorporate the use of new and developing web technologies within the college. She received a grant from the Getty in 2000 to begin digitizing the Woman’s Building archive and make an image bank available online. She then created the TLC (Teaching Learning Center) to assist and train faculty in the use of technology in the curriculum. The TLC received a Center of Excellence Award from New Media Consortium in 2007 for their groundbreaking work in instructional technology. She has continued to make visible the history of the Woman’s Building as co-curator of a Getty-sponsored Pacific Standard Time exhibition at Otis College in 2011-12 that included the publication of two catalogs, video oral histories, and extensive online resources.

As an artist, Gaulke brings a feminist perspective to a variety of issues working in such media as video, performance, artists’ books, and public art. She cofounded performance group Feminist Art Workers in 1976. She made a video with LGBT teens, designed the first U.S. memorial to Filipino WWII veterans, and created environmental video installations such as LA River Project with teens from East LA. She has completed ten permanent public art works including the Lincoln Heights/Cypress Park Metro Station that celebrates the role of water in Los Angeles.

Gaulke has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, California Community Foundation and LA’s Cultural Affairs Department. In 2011-12, her work was featured in Pacific Standard Time exhibitions at LACE and Otis.

At Harvard-Westlake School, Gaulke has facilitated students to create award-winning videos as teacher, Upper School Head of Visual Arts and Director of Summer Film. As Artistic Director of The Righteous Conversations Project, she brings together Holocaust survivors and teens to produce public service announcements about social injustices. Recently, with Friendship Tours World Travel, she took students to Laos to make documentaries about the Secret War and will travel to Rwanda for the 20th anniversary of the genocide in 2014.

Cheri Gaulke and Sue Maberry Acceptance Speech

(Sue) Thank you to Carol Wells and the Board of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics for honoring us today. We are humbled and grateful. The work of this organization is so very important and we hope you will all continue to support it. Thank you to all of our friends who are here to celebrate with us. Thank you Terry for that wonderful introduction.

(Cheri) We asked Terry to introduce us because we share a common core. For us the stereotype of the lone artist struggling in the studio could not be further from reality. Artist and activists flourish in a community and the Woman’s Building was that for us. We feel profoundly lucky to have been born at an historical moment of second wave feminism that gave birth to this place that in turn nurtured our development.

(Sue) At the Woman’s Building there was always something activist to do. There were exhibitions and educational programs to organize, and art projects of all kinds to work on with other people. Making art collaboratively was in and of itself a political statement. And it was fun.

(Cheri) We particularly acknowledge our Woman’s Building mentors: performance artist Suzanne Lacy, designer Sheila de Bretteville, and the late great art historian Arlene Raven. We embraced her definition of the function of feminist art, which applies to all activist art: to raise consciousness, invite dialogue and transform culture. We are grateful that so many organizations, such as CSPG, continue to exist and support activist art.

The spirit of the Woman’s Building lives on in our hearts. Its roots are deep. Many of the relationships forged there continue and over the years new and equally strong relationships have grown. That includes many of you here today. A network of new connections continue to spiral out. And it’s pretty great that we found each other there and began a life-long relationship and partnership in all things.

(Sue) We have been able to bring what we learned at the Woman’s Building into new settings. We both found supportive organizations where we could continue to be creative, as artists, activists and educators. We are grateful for our positions at Otis College of Art and Design and Harvard-Westlake School.

(Cheri) I am also grateful for my collaborations with The Righteous Conversations Project and Friendship Tours World Travel. I would also like to acknowledge my parents who supported me to pursue my passion for art and my mother for introducing me to strong women artists such as Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe and Kathe Kollwitz.

(Sue) And to our beloved twin daughters Marka and Xochi who couldn’t be here today because they are away at college. They have learned the value of community and have joined us in taking up the hammer.

(Cheri) A colleague recently said to me, “We need to find something fun for you to do.” He was referring to my recent work with survivors of the Secret War in Laos, the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and a new program about domestic violence. I said, “But Jim, this is fun for me! Raising awareness about these issues, and getting teens excited about doing the same — that’s my idea of a good time.”

And now to be receiving an award on top of it all! What could be better? So here’s to lots more fun for all of us in the future!

Cheri Gaulke premieres new video work at Otis College of Art and Design

Please join me this Sunday, September 22, 4-6 pm, for the opening of the exhibition Tapping the Third Realm and the premiere of my latest video work.

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TAPPING THE THIRD REALM

SEPTEMBER 22 — DECEMBER 08, 2013

An exhibition spanning two galleries and college campuses exploring the spiritual, metaphysical and alchemical in contemporary art.

The Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design (OTIS) and the Laband Art Gallery at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) are pleased to present an exhibition of contemporary art entitled Tapping the Third Realm on view September 22 through December 8, 2013. Opening receptiontakes place on the fall equinox, Sunday, September 22, 3pm-6pm (3pm-5pm OTIS; 4pm-6pm LMU) followed by three months of related exhibition programming.

A large group exhibition, Tapping the Third Realm presents the work of thirty-four artists who deal with ideas of spirituality through four main avenues: conjuring, communication, collaboration and chance. It explores how artists tap into another dimension, whether it be a place of spirits, ideas of heaven, or the collective unconscious. Elements of magic, witchcraft, and profound attention or intuition are evident in the artists’ creative processes. In this collection of work there are portals to the spirit world, communications with the dead, spells manifested in glass, prayers as drawings, potions as paintings, and dreams transformed into sculpture. This exhibition is curated by Meg Linton, Director of Galleries and Exhibitions, Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design and Carolyn Peter, Director and Curator, Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University.

Artists in the Exhibition: Ruth Ann AndersonAnnie BuckleyChristopher BucklowJohn CageLinda EkstromClodagh EmoeAmanda Yates GarciaCliff GartenCheri GaulkeZach Harris, Philip Havice, Alicia HenryGilah Yelin HirschKyle August LindDavid LloydDane Mitchell,Christina OndrusNaida OslineSohan QadriRon Regé, Jr.Ross RudelLiza RyanBetye SaarMarie SchoeffKenzi ShiokavaLinda Stark,Andrés Torres-VivesDani TullLinda VallejoAnne Walsh and Chris KubickBryan McGovern WilsonTom WudlRebecca Tull Yates

Righteous Conversations Project featured in the Jewish Journal

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Photo: Cheri Gaulke facilitates a discussion during a Righteous Conversations Project workshop at Harvard-Westlake School, summer 2012.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/graduation/article/students_survivors_engage_in_righteous_conversations

This article by Danielle Berrin in the Jewish Journal has been a year in the making. Berrin first visited our Righteous Conversations Project workshop at Harvard-Westlake last summer. This year’s workshop starts next week with 32 teen participants, 8 Holocaust survivors, 6 master teachers, 6 teaching assistants and additional RCP support staff. My how we have grown! I anticipate another profound experience for all resulting in a new crop of social-change-making public service announcements.

Below I have excerpted part of the article that talks about my role as Artistic Director. But do check out the whole article. It is very well written and captures the context and motivation for what we do in The Righteous Conversations Project.

From the article:

Cheri Gaulke, the head of Harvard-Westlake’s Upper School Visual Arts Department, is the project’s artistic director, and she helped secure the space for use. “The whole idea just clicked for me,” Gaulke said. “I’m really passionate about teens learning how to use media to affect the world, because that’s the world we live in. And teens need to be not just consumers of media, but makers of media. I liked the idea of giving them the tools of advertising to sell an idea, rather than a product.”

At every Righteous Conversations workshop, Gaulke teaches an intensive media literacy lesson that, in Hutman’s words, shows teens “how to flex their moral conscience and moral outrage through media.” In practical terms, it equips them with a media vocabulary to enable them not just to conceive ideas, but also to visualize them.

Where Righteous Conversations departs from most other forms of Holocaust chronicling is in its call to action. It is a model for tikkun that comes directly from the Torah: just as with the recounting of the Exodus story, the act of digging deep into a formative ancestral pain is meant to awaken in future generations the pain of others.

Gaulke, who is not Jewish, said her own daughter, Xochi, had participated in one of the workshops and discovered a profound connection with a survivor, John Gordon, now deceased. “Gordon, who passed away, was sharing how he was liberated and then came to America. He said that for a long time he was ‘living in the closet’ as a Jew — he was afraid to tell his co-workers that he was Jewish. And as a daughter of lesbians, my daughter really connected with that,” Gaulke said. “Individuals come to the universal from the personal, and it’s the personal that transforms society.”

Harvard-Westlake Film Festival tonight!

Harvard-Westlake Film Festival tonight!

I invite you to come experience this wonderful event that I co-produce. The 10th annual Harvard-Westlake Film Festival takes place on Friday, March 15, 7 pm at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. See filmmakers walk the Red Carpet and be interviewed by Jacob Soboroff (AMC). Hear the Academy Award-nominated guest speaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel, Biuitiful). Watch 23 of the best high school films from all over California from 15 different schools/programs.

Here’s a teaser https://vimeo.com/61737806

Tickets are free and available at the door starting at 6 pm. The ArcLight Cinerama Dome is located at 6360 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028. Parking is located behind the theater.

Trust me, you’ll be glad you went!