After facing a possible demolition, Del Mar art space A Ship in the Woods appears to be in the clear – at least until August.
Back in November, I wrote about the space’s impending, not-so-great future for San Diego CityBeat. Basically, the owners of the beautiful mid-century home that serves as a gallery and art and performance space were planning on demolishing the house at the end of A Ship in the Wood’s lease. Co-founders R.J. Brooks, Kiersten Puusemp and Dan Fauchier knew this upon signing, but like a child gets attached to a puppy, they fell in love and were figuring out a way to save the beloved ship.
Well, good news to those who love ASITW. Brooks emailed me to let me know their lease was extended and that they’re planning a campaign to save the house. Yay!
He tells me via email:
“The extension relieved the looming pressure to find a new place that might not match our style. We are finding more and more people in the area (including our neighbors) who are attracted to what we do. We can continue building a non-institutional, relaxed community of like-minded people who want to explore and discuss similar interests. In this reprieve, our plans for having more events will grow and include smaller intimate and larger community meet-ups. We are very happy to stay at the ship and hopeful to be here for the time being.”
I’ll keep you all posted on news and updates on ASITW.
You’re reading the Culture Report, Voice of San Diego’s weekly collection of the region’s cultural news.
Guides, Layoffs and More Visual Art News
• The Reader wrote up a 2014 Guide to the Arts in San Diego, and it’s incredibly useful. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting, guys!
• The San Diego Museum of Art laid off four employees, and it is a complete and total bummer. (CityBeat)
• Get totally squared at Art Squared, an exhibition opening Friday at TPG2 that art pieces with four equal-length sides.
• Robert Irwin opens a new exhibition of his phenomenal light and space pieces at Quint Contemporary this Saturday.
Steroids, Fresh Sounds and More Music and Performance Bites
• Did steroid use cause Tim Lambesis, North County resident and frontman for the metal core band As I Lay Dying, to attempt to hire a hitman to murder his ex-wife? That’s what his defense attorney claims. Read more as local music journalist Peter Holslin investigates in this piece in Noisey.
• The Fresh Sound music series returns Friday, Feb. 21, with contemporary harpist Zeena Parkins. Watch her get down on the strings at Bread & Salt.
• Get out to the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library on Feb. 23 for the next installment in their jazz concert series. This time around, the Tord Gustavsen Quartet performs.
• Oh, that reminds me. The Athenaeum is teaming up once again with the Scripps Research Institute for more great jazz concerts. (U-T)
• The Taoist Sanctuary seems like the perfect spot for this experimental concert, happening Sunday.
• This short KPBS profile of Giuseppe Filianoti, who performs in the San Diego Opera’s “Elixir of Love,” is inspiring. After almost losing his voice to cancer, the tenor says this: “You have to be like Nemorino [his character in the opera], you have to be like a child. To live every day and to think that everything is precious.”
• Patricia Rincon Dance Collective brings a stellar performance to the Encinitas Library on Feb. 23. Don’t shush these dancers as they pirouette through the YA section.
• Speaking of the opera, cartoonists and comic artists were invited into rehearsals of “Elixir of Love” to sketch the actors. See some of the illustrations and read all about the project in Art Pulse.
• La Jolla Playhouse debuts “The Who and the What,” a play by Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar on clashing generations of a Muslim-American family. If the clashes are anything like the ones that go down with my very Mexican family, it will be very loud and full of expletives. (KPBS)
Sex, Winners and More Cultural Goodies
• CityBeat’s Sex Issue is chock full of fascinating pieces. Oh man, I almost misspelled “chock” in a highly inappropriate way.
• And the local theater winners are … (KPBS)
• Check out CityBeat’s review of “Circle Mirror Transformation,” a new play at New Village Arts that revolves around students in a community-center drama class. I was a theater major, so this might bring back dark memories of people using terms like “my craft.”
• The new Central Library won an engineering award. Not surprising. That thing is gorgeous! (U-T)
• Despite layoffs at SDMA, the show must go on. On Feb. 20 they’ll host another round of their popular event, Culture & Cocktails. This time around they honor the culture, colors and flavors of India.
• Poetry and art make a baby at San Diego Museum of the Living Artist.
• Did you know someone made a sequel to the movie “Titanic”? The Leo DiCaprio-less sequel is unsurprisingly a cinematic turd so big it was probably found in John Wayne’s intestine after he died. Watch it and laugh as Laundromat Candy, a troupe of comedians, ridicule it on Thursday at Art Lab.