Arts & Culture

Hollywood actor Edward James Olmos poses with Michelle Rodriguez (right), Superintendent of Pajaro Valley Unified School District and Brenda Avila of the Watsonville Film Festival Friday in front of the Mello Center in Watsonville. Olmos, founder of the Latino Film Institute, made the special...

WATSONVILLE—For the first time in 10 years, Watsonville’s Esperanza del Valle (EDV) will be returning to the Henry J. Mello Center for the Performing Arts for a weekend of dancing, music and cultural celebration. The nonprofit folklórico dance group was founded in Watsonville in 1980...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Brillante, an ongoing mosaic mural project in downtown Watsonville, has officially reached its halfway point. Organizer and artist Kathleen Crocetti says that volunteers recently finished the six thousandth of 12,000 square feet of mosaic. In celebration, Crocetti’s organization, Community Arts & Empowerment, will be...

APTOS—An Aptos High School junior inspired by her father’s hard work in local agricultural fields has won this year’s 20th Congressional Art Competition, and will see her photograph hang in the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Michelle Lopez-Rubio, 17, says she was working with...

Dr. Leonor Xóchitl Pérez was 12 years old when she first played mariachi. It was 1973, and her school in Southern California had just created the first school-based mariachi program in the state’s history.  The music stuck with Perez. When she was 18, she was accepted...

The Watsonville City Council at its Tuesday night meeting solidified its decision to implement a new fee on development projects that would fund the arts in Watsonville. Soon, developers seeking to create commercial and residential projects will have to pay 0.75% of their project’s valuation,...

WATSONVILLE—The second edition of a literature and arts journal created by Cabrillo College English students will soon be published, and the public is invited to celebrate with students and contributors this Friday. Xinachtli Journal, or Journal X, features poetry, short stories, essays and art. It...

SANTA CRUZ—Santa Cruz community radio station KSQD 90.7 FM will broadcast and stream three days of the internationally-acclaimed New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival this weekend. The broadcast and stream will begin Friday 11am-4pm, continue on Saturday noon-5pm and end Sunday 11am-5pm. Artists include Chris...

Sam Ruiz (left) and Jose Ruelas team up with Emanuel Garcia (not shown) of Rinaldi Tile & Marble to install a mosaic tile sheet to the exterior wall of the parking structure at Rodriguez and Second streets Monday. Watsonville Brillante, a multiphase mosaic outdoor project...

For the past two years the Dan & Lillian King Foundation, which aims to advance the learning of the U.S. Constitution, has sent scores of eighth-graders from Monterey County schools to see live productions of the Tony Award-winning show, “Hamilton: An American Musical.” Hundreds of...