 Open Stage has recently become Santa Ana’s coolest new showcase for local artists and musicians! Every last Saturday of the month, Briana Harley brings us along to meet some incredibly talented individuals around Santa Ana. This month, Open Stage takes us to some interesting spots throughout Downtown like the Spurgeon building, the Butterfly House, and the Blue Lot! Open Stage feels more like a hangout with good friends than a show; however, viewers are given a deep insight of what kind of music is being created by a versatile group of artists in Santa Ana.  Twitch Kid opens the show with an entire segment of performances to original songs! Twitch Kid is a local artist who not only is a unique musician, but also focuses on artistic expression through visuals. Twitch Kid’s style is very much experimental rap with inspirations from drag and theatrical makeup! Shot at the historical Spurgeon building, Open Stage took viewers on a surreal experience with Twitch Kid. The next location was the Butterfly House where Alexander Lee gave a beautiful performance on piano. Alexander is a talented local pianist. His performance was a breath of fresh air and it was nice to enjoy the beauty of simplicity.  Briana took us to the top of the parking structure on 3rd and Broadway, which is close to the Artist Village and the 2nd Street Promenade. There, they recorded multiple artists performing live! Lizzy and the Palm performed songs with Megan Fransisco, Logan, and Briana Harley, proving how well these friends can collaborate with each other! Lizzy performed additional songs that really showed how versatile and raw her sound is. She takes listeners on a journey with her that is truly unique.  John Roseboro also performed with Lizzy on acoustic guitar. His beautiful style of classical guitar was met with Lizzy on vocals! His performance is the kind of music you just want to listen to after a long day. Check out his work to find out more about what he does.  To close out the night, an amazing local band, The Offtrax, performed on the Blue Lot! They are a high energy, surf punk band that has a lot of character and a fun sound. They performed some originals and a cover, which ended the night on a perfect note! Playing right in front of a beautiful mural, this scene really captures the essence of Santa Ana! If you missed this episode of Open Stage, you can still watch it here! Join us every last Saturday of the month to watch Open Stage live to support local artists!
Story by Breanna Policar
1 Comment
 This past year has looked very different for Santa Ana, including the ArtWalk. However, we’re not letting these circumstances hold us back from celebrating the culture and art of Downtown Santa Ana. We’ve compiled a list of things that are happening this month. Join us and support these local artists throughout October! For more updates, follow us on Instagram and Facebook. The Santa Ana Unified School District is heading up the Digital Artwalk with their new special, “Arts Forward!” This is a great way for educators, students, and community members to empower one another through the arts. Join the live stream every first Saturday of the month to support your local schools! Every Saturday of October, join music lovers from around the world for this online event! Explore different types of new music through this virtual experience! Check out their event page for more details. Alfadir Luna is an artist based in Mexico City. His exhibition is an ongoing storefront installation that can be viewed anytime from the 2nd Street Promenade. Check out their website to learn more about Luna’s work! The Orange County Center for Contemporary Art is temporarily closed, but they’ve created an amazing virtual tour of their space for anyone to enjoy! The exhibition, “Terra Incognita,” showcases work from artist-couples who explore “unknown land.” Check out their website to see the work, as well as the 360 virtual tour that will be available through October 10th! Check out this online tour of Jerry Rothman's exhibit, showcasing his ceramics from the Laguna Art Museum Collection. Learn more about his career and his collection on their website! GENE is an amazing local artist based in Santa Ana! His work is very much inspired by the human spirit, as well as movement and ancient cultural wisdom. GENE has curated an online gallery so check out his website to see some of his incredible work! He has several beautiful collections to look at! Although Frida Cinema’s venue is temporarily closed, they’ve created multiple, safe ways you can still enjoy movies! Check out their website to find out more details about their pop up drive-ins and their streaming service online that are going on throughout the month! B Minus Studios is located in the historic Santora building. They are putting on a show starting October 3rd in honor if the halloween season! Appointments are required, as there will be limited availability on select dates only. Keep up with B Minus Studios on their Instagram page to find out how you can visit! In the Callejon Del Beso, they have an art exhibition every month of young and emerging artists. During the pandemic and due to the restriction to leave, they have created an online virtual-exhibition with the works of these same artists to continue promoting the Callejon! Check out their interactive gallery on the website! They also have a mural workshop taught by Maestro Camacho that is carried out online as well. This workshop shows the progress of two small murals painted in the alley during the pandemic. Also, special this month, Nalle Fine Art will showcase live in the alley the works of Moises Camacho, Fiona Harris and Joseph Hawa. Stop by between 3rd St and 4th St on Bush St. AvantGarden has a 20-year history in Downtown Santa Ana, where its earned its reputation as the gallery of new, unusual, experimental ideas in art. AvantGarden will be popping up outdoors at 3rd Street near Spurgeon Street at The Copper Door's outdoor space along 3rd St. This will be a unique opportunity to grab food, a drink, and enjoy art while social distancing. Story by Breanna Policar
 In the second episode of “The Hot Hour,” we got to explore Downtown Santa Ana with Maria the Hot Tortilla and meet some amazing individuals! Maria took us to so many cool places that showed off some of the best parts of DTSA. Through interviews, good food, and shopping, Maria learned more about the vibrant culture that makes up Santa Ana. To kickoff her journey, Maria introduced us to Thomas, the owner of the newly opened boba shop in Fourth Street Market! He shared that Loose Leaf Boba offers fresh-pressed teas, artisanal drinks, fresh ingredients, and even organic matcha! Their menu offers a variety of customizable options that makes their boba unique. Support their business by stopping by and enjoying a hand-crafted drink! Maria then took us to GCS Clothing, a store that has been a cultural hub for Santa Ana for 11 years. GCS not only carries an impressive collection of clothing and art supplies but also hosts ongoing art shows and performances. We met a local photographer, Jazmine Woods, who showed some of her work with us! At GCS, there are always talented artists cycling in and out so you know that whenever you visit, there will be some fascinating work by local artists. In the dynamic Fourth Street Market, Maria took us to Patches and Pins, a fun and unique flea market that offers collectables, clothing, food, and more! Maria then met with the owner and artist behind Donnies, a shop that has vintage comic books, sneakers, clothing, patches and pins! Gente Night Market is a monthly event that takes place at The Blue Lot, a popular spot for the community of Santa Ana to share art, music, food, and good times. To showcase all of the markets unique finds, Maria took us on a virtual walthrough, meeting some interesting vendors along the way like @jstrailmex_snacks and so many more talented vendors!  Maria also got to share an exclusive interview with the owner of Slushcult, a quirky mini mart that offers the community of Santa Ana a great place to express individualism and cultivate a tight-knit community. The owner of Slushcult shares the origin story of the brand and what it has evolved into today. Fourth Street Market is Maria’s next stop, highlighting Alta Baja. We get to meet the owner, Delilah Snell, who tells us about their wine club, as well as their amazing menu!  Maria then meets up with Loni over some food to talk about the Amigas Social Club, an empowering community for women who want to connect and inspire others! Together, they visited some local stores, including Ninos Bridal Couture, Stussy Archive, and La Michoacana Express. The beauty of DTSA is that there's so much more left to explore! Join Maria The Hot Tortilla for the next episode in October for some brand new, exclusive content! You can watch all of our videos on our Youtube channel! Don't forget to subscribe, comment, and share! Story by Breanna Policar
 Main Street is a major thoroughfare bisecting our downtown. And soon, our main drag will be an astounding 15% faster to travel on, six million tons greener and part of an arsenal of engineering solutions aimed at making our downtown safer for many forms of transportation. It sounds too good to be true but this sudden boost is because of lots of invested dollars and time by a multi-agency partnership to produce the Main Street Regional Traffic Signal Synchronization Project.  The project is expected to begin this month and anticipated to be completed by December 2020. This project is in partnership with the Orange County Transportation Authority to improve and update the traffic signals along the main street corridor from Taft Ave., in the City of Orange, through the City of Santa Ana to Culver Drive, in the City of Irvine. This $4,663,729 project will provide new equipment, like traffic signals cables and other infrastructure, along with a software upgrade of the Traffic Management Center.  We hope the synchronization will make Main Street safer in addition to the travel time and greenhouse gas-reducing benefits. Recently, a personal injury law firm in that works all over Orange County, collaborated with 1Point21 Interactive, a data visualization company, to inform the public of the 100 most dangerous intersections in Orange County. Four of these intersections are located in Santa Ana and two are in the downtown area along Main Street! Aitken*Aitken*Cohen analyzed traffic patterns from the California Highway Patrols Statewide Integrated Traffic Reporting System from 2010 to 2019 to come up with a Crash Risk Index (CRI). The CRI weighs the volume of collisions and the severity of the injuries of the collisions. During the 2010 -2019 time period there were 60,000 traffic collisions that resulted in 55,891 injuries and 328 deaths. Fortunately for us, we don’t top the list of OC's Most Dangerous Intersections, but we are on it:
We look forward to the coming changes on Main Street and until then, be extra cautious at the above listed intersections. Story by Abraham Gomez Photos provided by OCTA, Google Maps |
AuthorNew, dispatches and updates from Downtown Santa Ana Archives
September 2022
Categories |
RSS Feed