Arts organization Art Pulse used to have its fingers in many pies.
It ran an arts website, a gallery in Barrio Logan and a regional Emmy-winning arts television program (Art Pulse TV), all while providing educational programming for artists. Most of that came to a screeching halt in June, when Art Pulse ceased operations.
Co-founder April Game said a loss of funding was the final nail in the organization’s coffin. Art Pulse’s other co-founder, Henry Moon, had been its the benefactor since the organization’s founding in 2007, but cut back drastically early this year.
Still, a facet of Art Pulse lived on. Snorkl was an all-encompassing arts and culture events calendar, providing in depth information on dance, theater and arts events around the county.
Not only that, it allowed artists to create profiles where they could share their work, biography and information about upcoming shows, and had a classifieds section just for them. It was an incredibly useful resource for artists, arts writers and anyone looking for a great cultural event to check out. For a while there, it looked like Game was seeking funding to keep Snorkl alive even without the rest of Art Pulse’s offerings.
But last week, Snorkl shut down completely. In its place is a blue screen with a short message: “Art Pulse has closed its doors and sadly this brings Snorkl to a close. It was a pleasure serving you.”
I’ve heard from a couple local arts people about the end of Snorkl, and they’ve all expressed lament. “It was SD’s best event calendar by far,” one said to me via email.
“The end of Snorkl is a big loss for the local arts community,” said Carissa Casares, Snorkl’s former site administrator and manager. “It was only live for ten months, so many people didn’t even have the chance to use it, but its potential was huge. It provided an online community for both artists and arts enthusiasts to communicate, free of advertising or fees of any kind. There is nothing else like it in San Diego.”
You’re reading the Culture Report, Voice of San Diego’s weekly collection of the region’s cultural news.
Parasites, North Park and More Visual Art News
• Living and working as an artist in North Park has become increasingly difficult for many of those who helped turn the neighborhood into San Diego’s epicenter of hipsterdom. The U-T talks to artist Kelsey Brooks, Angela Landsberg of North Park Main Street, Art Produce Gallery’s Lynn Susholtz and others about being pushed out of the community as a result of gentrification.
• Barrio Logan is now home to a fascinating parasite. (Reader)
• City College’s City Gallery is up and running by the hands of the school’s resourceful and determined faculty. (CityBeat)
• Low Gallery’s Meegan Nolan is keeping busier than all of us. (CityBeat)
• Word on the street is that Alexander Jarman, prolific artist, curator and former public programs manager at the San Diego Museum of Art, is leaving San Diego to join the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. More on that next week.
Drive Like Jehu, Steve Glaudini and More Music and Performance News
• San Diego hardcore icons Drive Like Jehu surprised their loyal, long-suffering fans by announcing a free, all-ages show on Sunday at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park, the band’s first performance in nearly 20 years. All of San Diego’s paunchy dudes in black hoodies and girls with bangs and tattoos are losing their minds right now. (CityBeat)
• Steve Glaudini, artistic director of Vista’s Moonlight Stage Productions is killing it, regularly packing shows and breaking the theater’s box office records. The U-T shares his secret – some other local theater companies struggling to stay afloat may want to take notes.
• Lamb’s Players Theatre is giving its interpretation of “Les Misérable” a bit of shrinkage. (U-T)
• Organizations like the San Diego Opera were criticized for what seemed like an inability to try fresh ideas or reach out to a wider audience. Welk Resorts Theatre in Escondido is doing the opposite by bringing a new take to the classic musical “Oklahoma!” (U-T)
• Is it hot in here or is it just this sizzling, sweaty dance concert? (KPBS)
Digital Gym, Soul Sessions and More Culture News
• The Digital Gym Cinema in North Park is one of the reasons the main thoroughfare El Cajon Boulevard, stretching from Park Boulevard to 32nd Street, has become one of the city’s most exciting cultural hubs. As the U-T points out, it’s more than just a movie theater.
• Make sure to check out El Cajon Boulevard’s Freshly Faded Barber Shop’s regular live Soul Sessions. It’s another amazing hidden treat the boulevard has to offer. Follow them on Instagram – FreshlyFadedBarber – for session info.
• Trivia time! Did you know L. Frank Baum, author of “The Wizard of Oz” and the other Oz books, lived in Coronado? (U-T) Apparently there’s an annual convention dedicated to Oz fans called Winkie Con (CityBeat). The more you know, guys.
• Reader columnist Barbarella Fokos celebrates 10 years of her weekly column “Diary of a Diva” with the release of a book compiling some of her most memorable pieces with new stories. KPBS’s “Midday Edition” interviewed the scribe.
• SDSU professor Harold Jaffe penned a book that’s made up of 50- and 100-word short stories, perfect for the short attention span genera — Look! A donut! KPBS interviews Jaffe on his unique book.