The National Endowment for the Arts has brought some very good tidings to Silicon Valley arts organizations this year, which are expected to receive $140,000 in grants.
The San Jose Museum of Art Association leads the pack with a $40,000 grant to support an upcoming exhibition, “Postdate: Contemporary Photography from India.” Museum supporters have told me they’re thrilled by the opportunity to display more art from India, which they hope will prove as popular with general audiences as with Silicon Valley’s large Indo-American community.
Stanford University will get $30,000 for multidisciplinary works including the world premiere of “The Demo,” a multimedia theater piece from composers Mikel Rouse and Ben Neill that explores how technology has affected all of us in the past 50 years. Other grants will go to Opera San Jose ($20,000), to support the world premiere of “Where Angels Fear to Tread” in February; the Montalvo Association ($15,000) for the arts residency program at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga; and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program ($10,000) in Woodside.
And the Mexican Heritage Corporation is recommended for a $20,000 grant to support next year’s VivaFest, San Jose’s annual celebration of Mexican heritage and mariachi music. As outgoing CEO Marcela Davison Avilés noted, it’s a great baton to pass on to the organization’s incoming leadership.
HOLIDAY POPS: Few places will be as festive this weekend as the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, as the 65-piece California Pops Orchestra performs “The Pops’ Family Holiday” on Sunday.
The 3 p.m. concert, led by conductor Kim Venaas, will feature music from “Frozen,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” as well as popular favorites like “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “White Christmas” and “The Christmas Song.” The whole thing ends with a big singalong carol medley, too.
Tickets run $15 for youth and $37-$42 for adults. Get more information at www.calpops.org.
GOOD DEED DEPT.: The “Random Acts of Pizza” program at Tony & Alba’s Pizza and Pasta on Stevens Creek Boulevard runs year-round, but it seems to be more meaningful during the holiday season. Customers purchase a certificate for $10 that will provide a dinner for a needy family of four to five people. The restaurant makes up the difference in cost, and last year more than 450 certificates were distributed to churches, schools and food banks in the South Bay.
Owner Al Vallorz tells me that a new addition this year is a bell that is rung whenever a certificate is purchased, since as we all learned from “It’s a Wonderful Life,” whenever a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.
“One of our customers came in and purchased $500 worth of certificate,” said Vallorz, whose wife was so excited she had to call him. “It took me a couple of minutes to stop shaking with joy. We have great customers.”
And that’s a lot of bell-ringing.
Contact Sal Pizarro at [email protected]. Follow him at Twitter.com/spizarro.
