Even the most deadly of diseases can possess a strange beauty under the microscope. This concept first struck Dr Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue as she was looking at a sample of testicular cancer. The patterns and colours reminded her of modern art, and seemed just as suitable for a museum wall as they did for a laboratory.

Buoyed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s decision this month to return two stolen statues, Cambodia is asking other museums to examine any Khmer antiquities they acquired after 1970, when a 20-year period of civil war and genocide gave thieves free range to loot the country’s ancient temples. 

'Local Habitations' comes out in June, containing the works of Cupertino's Poet Laureate Dave Denny. He is also the last poet standing in PL3, the group of poet laureates who have met monthly to support poetry in local communities.

Liu, a professor of studio arts at Mills for more than 20 years and one of the first Chinese artists to establish a career in the West, is considered one of the most significant Chinese-American contemporary artists living today. This year her work is the focus of two back-to-back exhibits in the East Bay: "Hung Liu: Offerings" runs through March 17 at the Mills museum, followed by a major retrospective of her work, "Summoning Ghosts," at the Oakland Museum of California from March 16 through June. The show will then embark on a two-year national tour. And the San Jose Museum of Art, where she already has several works, offers a new exhibit, "Questions From the Sky: New Work by Hung Liu" June 6 through Sept. 29.

The duo’s gift will establish the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation, an environment for those rare undergraduate students whose interests span fields such as marketing, business entrepreneurship, computer science and engineering, audio and visual design, and the arts. The program will prepare them to become a new generation of inspired innovators.

On Friday, April 19th, at the University of California - Riverside, sponsored by the Gluck Fellows Program, we launched the "i-Promise Joanna - End Bullying Project"—a 5th grade initiative that I am encouraging our schools to kickstart throughout the state.

May 13, 2013 brings exciting new residents to the museum: two Japanese bronze lions flanking the front entrance. Lion figures traditionally serve as symbolic guardians outside temples and shrines in Japan, and the custom continues at many public buildings today. In the case of a museum, however, conservators and other specialists return the favor, working to protect the sculptures from weather and damage.

Wendy Teeter, curator of archaeology at UCLA's Fowler Museum, said the exhibit presents "an opportunity to discuss what these kinds of collectors were doing across the country and to share some of the pain that Native American communities have been feeling all along."

The event was a hearing in downtown Los Angeles intended to address the efficacy of the arts as a rehabilitative tool in the correctional system. The discussion, held at the Grammy Museum at L.A Live, was moderated by California state Sen. Curren Price, who serves as chairman of the joint committee on the arts. 

On April 30, 2013, after approximately nine months of competition and more than 375,000 competitors, Langston Ward of Spokane, Washington’s Meade High School took top honors as the 2013 Poetry Out Loud National Champion.

If inventions out of the California Institute of the Arts -- founded by Walt Disney in the early 1960s and now one of the nation's top art schools -- prove prescient, that future includes a wearable interface that lets dancers control music with the flick of a finger and a virtual studio where you can compose tunes by crouching toward the floor. The school will feature those and more student and faculty innovations Thursday at its Digital Arts and Technology Expo, which this year focuses on future directions in gaming, animation, human computer interaction, digital performance, graphic design, projection mapping, and machine learning. 

Santa Clara County Poet Laureate Sally Ashton joined Dave Denny, laureate of Cupertino and Parthenia M. Hicks, Los Gatos laureate emeritus, Thursday evening at Palacio’s Restaurant in celebration of Ashton’s completion of two years as the region's muse. Ashton, Hicks and Denny, also known as the PL3, began meeting two years ago to share their ideas about bringing poetry to their prospective communities and have become friends.

This new Jewish exhibit, here until January 5, explores how a growing Jewish community settled, prospered and helped shape the economy, politics, and culture of our city. It depicts the story of neighborhoods like Boyle Heights and Fairfax, people like Billy Wilder, Max Factor, my friend Herb Alpert (Fairfax High), Sandy Koufax (here is a signed baseball by him) and Frank Gehry... and linchpin industries like our movies and suburban land development.

Bjork is returning to Los Angeles in June - and she's bringing something for the kids. The Museum of Contemporary Art announced Thursday that it's collaborating with the Icelandic singer-songwriter for a new arts education project for students 9 to 14 years old. The free event will take place June 2, during the museum's monthly family day.

The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) announced today that Grace C. Stanislaus, Executive Director, has resigned effective June 28, 2013 to pursue new interests and opportunities. Deborah Santana, Board Vice Chair will serve as MoAD's Interim Executive Director.

Administrators and teachers are grappling with how to boost math scores to prepare students for an increasingly technology based work force--and utilizing a unique arts-based program. The program, called "Artful Connections with Math," was developed by the Pasadena Unified School District and the Armory Center for the Arts. Funded by a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, it pairs classroom teachers like Grotts with "teaching artists"  who show them how to use hands-on, visual art projects to teach math concepts.

The project review committee for the Seven Seas project--which consisted of representatives from the city's library and community services and public works departments--chose the three based on criteria that included the artist's experience, appropriateness of the proposal to the park's theme, artistic value, functionality, durability, and connection to the park's environmental sustainability goals.

Artists from San Clemente and beyond have been making a very public statement about the city over the last two years. The second round of the San Clemente Street Art Program was completed last month, as five artists painted designs on city-owned traffic control cabinets in locations throughout the city. Five different artists also painted five cabinets in 2012.

In the last 50 years or so, our economy has evolved from an industrial to a financial. According to the founder of Zealous, Guy Armitage, we’re beginning to see another shift – the downfall of the financial sector and rising from the ashes will be the creativity economy.

Born in 1926 in Norwalk, California, Asawa was sent to an internment camp as a teenager along with 120,000 other Japanese-Americans. It was here that she received guidance from professional artists working in the camps, using artistic freedom as her personal rights were stripped away. Ruth Asawa's "Objects and Apparitions" will feature approximately 50 of her drawings and sculptures. The exhibition is on view at Rockefeller Center in New York until May 31.

Stepping up the effort to strengthen its European art collection, the Getty Museum has acquired two major Old Masters paintings: an exuberant early self-portrait of Rembrandt from around 1628, and a classic scene of the Grand Canal in Venice by Canaletto from around 1738.
 

Promoting the vision is the main purpose of her visit to Los Angeles, the third leg of her five-day U.S. visit that included stops in New York and Washington. On Thursday, Park is scheduled to hold a meeting with South Korean IT business leaders to talk about the policy.

A blogger writes that "on May 1, I attended a daylong gathering in Washington DC entitled Innovative Crossroads: The Intersection of Creativity, Health and Aging. Supported by MetLife Foundation in collaboration with the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA), the day was hosted by Grantmakers in Health (GIH) and included health funders as well as members of Grantmakers in the Arts and Grantmakers in Aging."

The NEA announed that it will award $45,085,105 in partnership agreements to fund 54 state and jurisdictional arts agencies and six regional arts organizations throughout the country. California received $1,024,800, and the Western States Arts Federation received $1,555,800.

When you think of Napa, wine is most likely the first thing that jumps into your mind. And though there’s no arguing wine is a huge part of the Napa experience, it’s not the only thing worth setting time aside for when you’re planning a getaway. Art is attracting attention in downtown Napa, and putting a hop in the steps of those willing to do a little wandering.

This profile of architect Kris Yao is by the university online news source. Yao looks with gratitude to Berkeley and the College of Environmental Design for the wisdom and experiences that have contributed to his success, “It’s a wonderful university that benefits many. I loved being a part of it.”

Ray Harryhausen, the stop-motion animation legend whose work on "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms," "Jason and the Argonauts" and other science fiction and fantasy film classics made him a cult figure who inspired later generations of filmmakers and special-effects artists, has died. He was 92. Without his work, 'there never would have been a "Star Wars" or a "Jurassic Park,''' Steven Spielberg said.

An innovative study led by The University of Nottingham is to investigate whether arts and humanities can help improve the mental health and well-being of patients and carers alike. The five-year project will examine the role that music, storytelling, photography, sculpture and other activities might play in assisting mental health service users and those who look after them.

Today, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors accepted and dedicated a gift of public art from YoloArts, the result of a generous grant from ArtPlace America. The public art piece, by local artist Susan Shelton, is titled “From the Ground Up,” and is permanently installed outdoors on the north side of the Erwin W. Meier Yolo County Administration Building.

Fresno inaugurated its first poet laureate on April 22, formally embracing a rich poetic history that, though widely acclaimed in literary circles, had received little recognition here. Fresno joins a rapidly growing list of cities and towns across the nation with their own official bards; in just the past few months, not only have Houston and Los Angeles established poet laureateships but so have Boise, Idaho; Key West, Fla.; McAllen, Tex.; and San Mateo County, near San Francisco. 

With a sudden flush of money coming mainly from fees paid by the developers of the Target shopping center, Petaluma’s Public Art Committee is working to use its $260,000 to bring more public art to the city’s landscape.

Modern healthcare facilities are being transformed from sterile buildings into places that make patients feel calm and promote healing, with art playing a monumental role. Incorporating various types of art into healthcare facilities has been shown to positively impact the health outcomes of patients across the globe. Art helps to boost patients in their physical, emotional and mental recovery by inducing feelings of relaxation and decreasing anxiety and perceptions of pain.

Hats off to the artists, philanthropists and government officials, all visionaries that recognize and celebrate the arts. They are all making our experience here on earth a little better.

People might notice something a little different on the Sonoma State Campus starting this week, specifically the addition of numerous student made sculptures. The very large and varied works are part of a regular display for the many people who come to commencement each year to enjoy.

Channa Horwitz, an artist known for her dizzyingly intricate geometric drawings and paintings based on complex predetermined systems, died Monday of complications from Crohn's disease at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica. She was 80.

The National Endowment of the Arts announced $4.68 million in funding to 76 media-arts projects April 23, including new grantees such as the Online Video Engagement Experience (OVEE) developed with CPB funding, a new initiative from the Association of Independents in Radio called Spectrum America and Sonic Trace, a multimedia production at KCRW in Santa Monica, Calif., that was created through AIR’s recently concluded Localore project.

About seventy-five people attended the session at the Wells Fargo Theater at the Autry National Center of the American West, which capped the CAC’s regular meeting.  In kicking off the session, Council Chair Wylie Aitkin stressed the plan was focused on those served by the Council: “It’s about what we can do to work with you, your ideas, your vision for what’s going to make a difference in the arts in California.”

Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission’s (SMAC) Art in Public Places Program has received a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant to produce “Broadway Augmented,” an innovative 15 month public art project that employs cutting edge technology to create ten virtual public artworks in one of Sacramento’s most eclectic transitional neighborhoods.  

Combining art and robotics is nothing new (in fact, it's something quite old), but in recent years the creations dreamed up by artists and roboticists are becoming more elaborate and striking, thanks, in part, to faster and cheaper sensors and computers. We've seen robotic sculptures that defy gravity, robots that can paint and write, and squads of drones that play music, build towers, or perform choreographies. A number of workshops and festivals have gathered researchers and others interested in exploring the intersections of art and robots.

Next month LACMA will publicly unveil a $650-million plan by Pritzker Prize winner Peter Zumthor for a dramatic new museum building along Wilshire Boulevard. If completed it would rank as one of the most significant works of architecture to rise in Los Angeles since Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall opened 10 years ago.

The curator of a major architecture exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art says he is concerned it will be canceled in advance of its planned June 2 opening.

Thirty-eight students from 17 U.S. colleges and universities – including three students from California Institute of the Arts in Valencia – as well as nine students from foreign universities have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Student Academy Awards competition.

A building design offering curved walls and a grand, soaring steel canopy has been selected as the winning design for UC Davis' new art museum, university officials announced today.

Each of the three economies faces a different set of leadership challenges. The Traditional Economy—still the largest—is in steep and fundamental decline: it needs more honesty, vision and courage from its leaders. The seemingly prosperous economy of Financial Capitalism continues to run on bubbles and needs to be reconnected to the real economy. Meanwhile, the Creative Economy is the genuinely flourishing economy of the future: its leadership needs to institutionalize gains already made.

Langston Ward, a high school senior from Spokane, Washington, has won the 2013 Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest.

The City Council has asked the poets of the Pacifica Poetry Forum to help them find the next Pacifica Poet Laureate now that Rod Clark, our first Poet Laureate, has died. 

The council has a ‘Flywheel Incubator’ program as ingenious and productive as it sounds. The Flywheel Incubator offers targeted, direct support services to a curated group of nonprofits, artists, and creative start-ups.

The 60-year-old Quezada is one of 18 artists to be showcased at “Being Here Now -- Celebrating Older Americans Month with Artists 60 and Better." Other noted artists to be exhibited are John Wesa, Libby Maynard and Nancy Gregory. Wesa is a nationally recognized serigrapher. Maynard is the executive director and co-founder of The Ink People Center for the Arts, and Gregory is an award-winning photographer.

The Smithsonian Institution will be closing small exhibit area sections in the African Art Museum, the Smithsonian Castle and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden beginning Wednesday due to the across the board budget cuts known as sequestration.

Crowdsourcing is in the news lately because a certain Hollywood type raised 1.5 million in a day for his upcoming film. But indie artists have been using different sites such as kickstarter and indiegogo for years to help raise funds for their projects. Not everyone can get a Hollywood studio behind their work and for many, this is how they get their work created and/or distributed.

Los Angeles' oldest museum site, the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park, is celebrating its centennial this year. But will there be any reason for festivities surrounding next year's centennial of the Southwest Museum building in Mount Washington? For the past ten years, the castle-like, hilltop structure has been like a very old aunt whose care is a strain on the family, with different factions fighting over what should be done, and who should pay.

Public art seems to invoke deep feelings in, well, the public. Whether museumgoer, art-lover or not, everyone generally has something to say about public art - they either love it or hate it. Beginning May 22, there will be even more to talk about when a yearlong exhibition of sculpture by Mark di Suvero will be on display at Crissy Field in S.F.

On May 9, 2013 from noon to 10 pm, the public is invited to the Digital Arts and Technology Expo’s demonstrations, interactive audio-visual experiences, performances and concerts on CalArts’ campus in Valencia, California. Admission is free.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced today that the NEA plans to award $26.3 million in grants to nonprofit national, regional, state, and local organizations nationwide. These grants support exemplary projects in thirteen artistic disciplines and fields: arts education, dance, design, folk and traditional arts, literature, local arts agencies, media arts, museums, music, opera, presenting, theater and musical theater, and visual arts.

Art Works grants support the

• creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence
• public engagement with diverse and excellent art,
• lifelong learning in the arts
• enhancing the livability of communities through the arts.

A ceremony recognizing the poets was held Wednesday at the Ventura County Government Center plaza, where they received presentations from the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, the Arts Council and selected city organizations.

Art Across America is a documentary that the pair conceived after hearing the dismal statistics about art education in the US - the average student receives only 1 minute and 47 seconds of visual arts education per day.

Creative inspiration can come from unlikely sources. For Arcata haiku poet and artist Annette Makino, 49, the wrinkles and gray hair of growing older have provided an unexpected gift: the idea for a number of poems and paintings. ”The rewards of getting older are subtle and intangible,” said Makino. “They include the wisdom to make better choices, a clearer understanding of who we are and what's important to us, maybe a bit of serenity. Those compensations are not anything you can see in the bathroom mirror."

Two of the newer organizations in the art world -- the non-profit public art association Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND, founded in 2009) and virtual auction house Paddle8 (launched in 2011) -- came together Wednesday for an intimate affair at the Bulgari Beverly Hills location.

The EyeWriter, developed by Free Art and Technology, openFrameworks, and Graffiti Research Labs (GRO), according to Fast Company magazine "combines eye-tracking hardware and GRO's famed L.A.S.E.R. tagging system, which uses a laser pointer and an LED projector to create virtual graffiti as big as a building" and is "meant to provide a creative outlet to anyone who is disabled."

On Monday, April 29, 53 high school students who advanced from poetry recitation championships in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands will gather at Lisner Auditorium at The George Washington University to match their skills in reciting classic and contemporary poetry, from William Shakespeare to Brenda Cárdenas. Nine of the 53 state champions will advance to compete in the National Finals on Tuesday, April 30.

When she takes the stage to recite a poem, Arwa Awan has a stunning look of natural intensity on her face. It's deepened by the Pacific Grove High School senior's piercing baby-brown eyes and framed by the traditional hijab that signifies her Pakistani Muslim faith.  Awan took top county honors in 2012 and competed in the state competition. This year, she wowed the crowd on the Senate floor in the state Capitol in Sacramento.

It's well known that public art can have a positive impact on a neighborhood. Barrio Logan, for instance, saw increased civic pride after the creation of the Chicano Park murals. That pride has helped turn the area into one of San Diego's most compelling arts districts. But what if the area benefitting from this type of beautification is more prone to Bentleys and tiny dogs wearing $300 collars? Does public art really make a difference in that community?

What's yellow, red and blue, stands 20 feet-tall, spins in the wind and can be seen by everyone traveling through Oakhurst on Highway 41? It's Oakhurst's first piece of public art at Gallery Row, 40982 Highway 41. The "kinetic" sculpture, by Fresno artist Chris Sorenson, 87, was installed last Saturday. The piece was created to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Sierra Art Trails Open Studio Tour.

Art/tech nonprofit CODAME is “exploring the dimensions of 3D printing” — all 4 of them. What’s the fourth dimension of 3D printing? You’ll have to find out from CODAME featured artist and speaker Stefano Corazza.

Although best known for her work in setting global tech standards, Warner Bros.’s Wendy Aylsworth is also a leader in communicating technology’s issues to Hollywood’s creative side.

Reaching out to those who create their photographic art on the go, the Arts Council for Long Beach is calling out anyone with a camera-equipped cellular phone to share their own imagized masterpieces in an upcoming photography exhibit. Entitled Nomadic Exposure, the exhibit's main focus will be to showcase Long Beach locals' own photographic take on the multiple public art installations throughout the city.

Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced today that the NEA plans to award $26.3 million in grants to nonprofit national, regional, state, and local organizations nationwide. These grants support exemplary projects in thirteen artistic disciplines and fields: arts education, dance, design, folk and traditional arts, literature, local arts agencies, media arts, museums, music, opera, presenting, theater and musical theater, and visual arts. 

A push for better U.S. art and design education is changing STEM to STEAM. Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) have long been the Holy Grail of a U.S. drive for improved education, producing students who can compete globally. But a growing chorus says art and design must be in the mix.

Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin today announced that James Tyner, a Fresno County Public Library employee who conducts one of the longest-running free poetry series in the San Joaquin Valley, has been selected as the City of Fresno’s first poet laureate.

Students at the Smythe Academy of Arts and Sciences created a music video to get other kids excited about take taking California Standardized Tests. In the video, students sing and rap about taking the annual exams.

Now you can view the entire public art collection at SFO online.  Below are links to a comprehensive catalog of all of the works in the Civic Art Collection that are sited at the airport.

Two county supervisors say there is rhyme and reason for San Mateo County to name an honorary poet laureate who will elevate the literary genre for residents, advocate the arts and contribute to literacy. 

You can expect to see more public art projects in the coming years, especially once the city adopts the Arts and Culture Master Plan going before the Planning Commission Tuesday in Petaluma. Five years in the making, the plan will guide how developer fees are used to beautify Petaluma's shopping centers, plazas, parks and highway overpasses.

Actor Kevin Sorbo was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Riverside International Film Festival gala at the Barbara and Art Culver Center for the Arts on Friday, April 19. In the spirit of the several student films that were featured in the festival, Harki Dhillon, International Film Festival founder and president, emphasized that educating attendees and fostering diversity are among the important goals for the festival.

There are 278 high school students in Santa Clara County who are eagerly awaiting the results of the second annual Art + Tech + Culture competition sponsored by the Los Gatos Art Museum. The winners will be announced at a free April 25 reception that will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. at the museum, 4 Tait Ave. The museum will award $10,000 in scholarships to winning students.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews opens Friday in Warsaw, partly funded by the Polish government. It's located in the area that was once the Warsaw ghetto during World War II, in what was Nazi-occupied Europe. The museum aims not just to provide education about the history of Polish Jews, but to dispel any lingering anti-Semitism seven decades after the Holocaust. It also celebrates the rich traditions and culture of Jews from Warsaw, the capital of Poland, once one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe.

That's all I heard when I called every press representative at every Smithsonian art museum in D.C. this afternoon. No one knows specifics yet—but they're preparing for looming cuts. At a congressional hearing Tuesday, Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough testified that beginning May 1, sequestration will force the institution to cut back on security in museums, which will cause some exhibits to temporarily close through the end of September

A Modesto columnist tackles the topic of public art, graffiti art, and tagging in the Central Valley.

When California Gov. Jerry Brown named Juan Felipe Herrera to the honorary post of poet laureate, he was tapping into a slice of Chicano history.

Taking a cue from musicians, filmmakers and other independent artists, Los Angeles choreographer Raiford Rogers has launched a $7,500 fundraising campaign on the crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter for his latest ballet, “Schubert’s Silence.”

The Exploratorium science museum, which reopened Wednesday on a new nine-acre campus by the San Francisco Bay, is striking for how closely it has hewed to its quirky, interactive and “work in progress” roots.

President Obama’s budget proposal for the coming fiscal year would boost federal arts spending 10% above where it stands at the moment, lifting it to $1.58 billion for the 2013-14 budget year that begins Oct. 1 and more than compensating for cuts from the “budget sequestration” bill that went into effect last month. The budget proposal Obama presented last week for 2013-14 would restore those cuts and provide an additional 4.5% increase above pre-sequestration funding.

California’s Poet Laureate and his students are sending verses of condolence to Boston residents and those who were harmed by the twin bomb blasts near the finish line of Monday’s Boston Marathon. Poet Juan Felipe Herrera, a professor at UC Riverside, said the 45 students in his anatomy of poetry class felt moved to reach out in the wake of Monday’s attack.

Representatives of state and local officials, Walnut City Council members, and the Mt. SAC community, gathered on campus Friday to celebrate the dedication of the $24.5 million Design Technology Center. Mt. SAC President Bill Scroggins said the center is designed to foster innovative learning for students and is something unique to the region.

This new approach to the science of mind not only promises to offer a deeper understanding of what makes us who we are, but also opens dialogues with other areas of study — conversations that may help make science part of our common cultural experience. 

Airport scanners can see more than your underwear. Terahertz spectroscopy, the imaging technology used in airport body scanners, has uncovered a hidden, ancient fresco underneath a wall painting at the Louvre.

They were hard to miss in the galleries Tuesday. Runners, with their blue-and-yellow Boston Marathon jackets, gazed at Impressionist paintings, ancient sculptures, and contemporary works at the Museum of Fine Arts, mingling with schoolchildren out on April vacation. In response to the Monday Marathon bombings, the MFA waived its $25 ticket price to offer Bostonians and visitors an alternative to the pandemonium that took place a day earlier and a mile away on Boylston Street.

Mike Piazza knows that some people think it's funny for a baseball player to take up ballet, but the former catcher hopes to turn whoever is jeering him now into dance fans when he takes the stage with Miami City Ballet next month. Piazza will walk on stage and say a few lines in the company's May 3 production of the ballet George Balanchine choreographed as part of the 1930s musical "On Your Toes."

One of the ongoing debates in education is whether so much testing in schools is taking away time for young people to develop their own critical thinking and creativity. At the same time, the White House has talked about the importance of innovation when it comes to staying competitive in the global market. The intersection of both of these issues could be the arts. Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel talks with NPR's Elizabeth Blair about her reporting on the role the arts play in helping low performing schools improve, and in nurturing creativity that can help young people in all subjects.

A spaceship-like, 1,000-seat theater may be the most striking feature of the Motion Picture Academy's planned film museum at LACMA, but the organization has also revealed a bevy of other details about what the six-story, 290,000-square-foot facility opening in 2017, will include.

San Francisco’s swanky new $300 million science museum has taken the bold initiative to encourage kids to ask, “what is normal?” Within the Exploratorium’s sea-side digs, a dingy 20th century exhibit on mental health is nestled conspicuously between light-bending experiments and lasers.

On March 4, nonprofit leaders in Los Angeles, called together by L.A. Stage Alliance CEO Terence McFarland, convened to discuss the 2012 Otis Report on the Creative Economy of the Los Angeles Region. This yearly report aims to determine the economic value of the arts for the purposes of advocacy and public funding. The Otis Report is in some ways a regional version of the Arts and Economic Prosperity IV report released by Americans for the Arts late last year.

The non-profit Arts and Business Council of Sacramento has a ‘Flywheel Incubator’ program as ingenious and productive as it sounds. The Flywheel Incubator offers targeted, direct support services to a curated group of nonprofits, artists, and creative start-ups. Following an intensive application and interview process culminating in a panel pitch session, the Arts & Business Council put together the first Flywheel class this past 2012.

For high school graduates looking to bring a touch of tech to their fine arts higher education, CalArts is inviting visitors to the campus this spring to observe the latest arts-based techniques for teaching computer science and explore the leading-edge work created in response. CalArts will launch three new classes in its Fall 2013 quarter: Introduction to Programming for Digital Artists, Creating Site-Specific Dance and Performance Works, and Live!: A History of Art for Artists, Animators and Gamers.

The restaurant [seven-degrees] rolled out the purple carpet Sunday to welcome the royalty of the Laguna Beach arts community. The crowd at the sold-out event supped and celebrated the state of the arts in Laguna at the Art Stars Awards dinner in stellar fashion, honoring the winners, the nominees and their supporters.