State Of The Arts

Miss El Paso, Jessenia Cruz and Abigail Velez, Miss El Paso Teen provide insight to the world of pageants. 

Mike Gaglio, volunteer with Keystone Heritage Park previews the Summer Solstice Party and fundraiser, a perfect way to celebrate the longest day of the year in the middle of El Paso’s natural beauty.

Dr. Victoria Ramirez is the Director of the El Paso Museum of Art. She comes to us from the Bullock Texas State History Museum where she served as Director since 2013. She’s been at her new post since late January of this year.

June is also known internationally as Pride month and El Paso Sun City Pride is celebrating the 10 year anniversary of their annual Pride Festival. Known as PrideFest, it has become the largest and most successful LGBTQI festival in the southwest region. To coincide with the celebration of Pride, EPSCP is holding events during the first week of June. Here to tell us all about the celebrations is Alexander Wright.

The El Paso Art Association is a thriving non-profit arts organization composed of artists from a wide variety of artistic disciplines as well as patrons of the arts. Membership is open to all artists at all levels of proficiency and all age groups, races, and artistic expression.

The EPAA has several calls for artists including a call for their Arts International 2017 Regional Juried Art Exhibit which will celebrate the organizations’ 50th Anniversary. Here to tell us all about this call, and their other calls for artists are Dorian Clouser and Karla Zanelli.  

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UTEP, known as OLLI, is all about providing learning opportunities for senior adults, 50 years of age and older. Through the programs offered at OLLI, El Paso area senior adults will find numerous opportunities to become involved, engage their minds, elevate their spirits.

OLLI is currently taking registration for their summer programs that feature art, music and film classes. Here to tell us all about this program and how to participate is Susan Sobin and Ian Wilson. 

The Harley Farley Zombie Book Series began as a way for Donna Munoz to engage her kids in conversation and imagination and to get them away from their electronic devices. Now its evolved into a passion project that has resulted in one published book, one on the way, and a running series in El Paso Kids Inc.

She’s taken the series all over El Paso, spreading the message of unconditional friendship and acceptance using a creature that most people would stereotype and fear- a zombie.  Here to tell us all about her passion project is Donna Munoz.

The El Paso Show introduces viewers to interesting area residents, musicians and restaurant entrepreneurs that are doing great things in our city. Produced by Leap Giant Media, an El Paso-based production company, The El Paso Show is broadcast on KCOS TV channel 13.

You are invited to tune in every 1st Saturday of each month at 8pm, right before Austin City Limits. Here to tell us all about their show is the El Paso Show team of JB Brooks, Ilean De Anda and Jesus Olivas. 

The work of El Paso painter Rhonda Doré will appear in Acrylic Works 4, an international survey of noteworthy contemporary acrylic painting released by art publisher North Light Books this spring.

El Paso’s The Art Avenue Gallery will host a print and book-signing celebration with Rhonda Doré at 6pm Thursday, May 25, 2017 at 1618 Texas Street. 

Ricardo Mora is founder and CEO of the Technology Hub Ciudad Juarez where there is a collaborative growth to build a community of innovative leaders. Mora believes that the idea generation is the key factor to improve the economic and social conditions of any region. 

As part of the El Paso Community Foundation’s Jewel Box Series, El Paso playwright Ted Karber, Jr., who brought us last year's delightful Precious Heart, returns with Banging the Bell.  The play is a comedy about a group of women who plan to be the belles of the ball at the annual cotillion, but infidelity, a corpulent corpse and a dim-witted deputy could get in their way.  

Nolan Richardson Jr. has been named Sacred Heart's 2017 Segundo Barrio Person of the Year. The Father Rahm Segundo Barrio Person of the Year Award recognizes an individual or organization committed to the betterment, works, and service to the cultural, historical, economic, educational, and social empowerment of the Segundo Barrio (Second Ward), and its inhabitants, values, and unique experience. 

The International Museum of Art is a place of opportunity for local artists. The museum is experiencing a serious issue with the elevator that will cost up to $30,000 to repair.

El Paso artists have come together to donate their work to sell at auction to raise funds to help their beloved museum.  The Elevate Your Art fundraiser takes place on on Sunday May 7, 2017 at the International Museum of Art. 

Kikimora is an experimental jazz band inspired by modern and ancient air. They formed during a chance encounter in Oaxaca and now they are based in El Paso.

Kikimora will be playing a show with Frontera Bugalu and Los Chucanos on Thursday, May 4th at The Lowbrow Palace. Here to share their story are keyboardist Leo Bennato, bass player Jericho Cagle, and drummer Albert Braun.

Cartography: Mapping Contemporary Art at the Border is a didactic exhibition that takes a look at the landscape of institutions and independent projects that shape contemporary art practices in El Paso, Juarez and Las Cruces. 

Jay Duncan with Jay’s Pix Presents and the Sunset Film Society proudly present a special movie event in celebration of the 45th Anniversary of The Godfather .

The event takes place on April 23, 2017 at 4pm at Ardovino's Desert Crossing.  Jay Duncan and Marina Ardovino provide the details.

Event founder, Jacob Fourzan previews the 8th annual El BugO in El PasO! V.W. Charity Car show and swap meet at the El Paso County Coliseum.

Chrysalis, El Paso Community College’s bilingual literary journal is about to release it’s latest installment with an event on Friday, April 21 at 6pm at theEPCC Rio Grande campus’ Little Temple.

The event will feature readings by contributors as well as a reading with English Faculty. It is free and open to the public.

Student editors Christpher Thoreson and Kamille Montoya along with their faculty advisor Minerva Laveaga talk about the event and the journal.

Amalia Mondragon is a local singer/songwriter who is currently working on her solo project that will be released on Friday April 21, 2017.  

Her debut solo single features a collaboration with Ela Band who once backed Mexican pop singer Natalia la Fourcades. Here to tell us about her adventures is Amalia Mondragon. 

For over 30 years, KCOS has hosted an annual Art Auction in support of public television. The KCOS Art Auction gives local artists the opportunity to display their best work while giving viewers the chance to bid on their favorite pieces.

Emily Martin Loya, KCOS General Manager, and artist Hal Marcus have the details.

El Paso Pro-Musica has a lot happening! As part of the Young Artists Develmopment Series, Trio Jinx is in town for several performances and a special Young Artist Development Concert will take place on Saturday April 8, 2017 at 5:00 pm at UTEP's Fox Fine Arts Recital Hall.

There’s also a new Center for Arts Entrepreneurship at UTEP, and El Paso Pro Musica’s final concert of the season is just around the corner. 

Artist Ho Baron has a surreal outdoor sculpture garden at his home at the corner of Aurora and Piedras, that features several of his large-scale works.  Lately, Ho has shifted his focus to dolls and doll parts. Ho Baron talks about the inspiration for his art and how you can tour his home to view his work.

Del Valle is a new play written and preformed by seasoned actor and writer Ned Van Zandt. Del Valle, a true story, is the account of a well-born Texas man who hits bottom in prison.  It’s also a tale of surviving sex, drugs, and rock and roll at the Chelsea Hotel, with Sid and Nancy, and in Hollywood, with Chaka Khan. 

Cirque du Soleil returns to El Paso with multiple performances of Ovo from April 12 through April 16, 2017 at the Don Haskins Center.  

Ovo, meaning “egg” in Portuguese, is a headlong rush into a colorful ecosystem teeming with life, where insects work, eat, crawl, flutter, play, fight and look for love in a non-stop riot of energy and movement. 

"Vedem: The Underground Magazine of the Terezin Ghetto" is a multi-media traveling exhibit that deconstructs and reinterprets the literary work of a secret society of Jewish boys, who created the longest-running underground magazine in a Nazi camp.

Vedem was their voice, their defiance, and their connection to life before. Using pop-art graphics, drawings and paintings, and the prose and poetry of teenage prisoners in Terezin, the exhibit breaks down the original pages of Vedem then reconstructs them in the form of a contemporary magazine. 

On Thursday, March 23rd and Saturday, March 25th, 2017 the El Paso Opera will present Gioachino Rossini’s Cinderella at the Abraham Chavez Theatre.

The El Paso Opera production will follow world-renowned director Garnett Bruce’s adaptation of Rossini’s 1816 fairytale Cinderella and will be set in 1930s Hollywood. The opera is sung in Italian with both English and Spanish projected subtitles provided. Here to tell us all about it is Artistic Director David Holloway.

Montoya-Grams is the brainchild of Indie/Latin band ,Fatigo's, frontman, Mike Montoya. The concept is simple, you fill out a questionnaire based on your loved one, and Mike Montoya gets to work on creating a song written and recorded completely from scratch, tailored to the person's taste in music, known as a Montoya-Gram. Here to tell us about writing songs about and for people he’s never met is Mike Montoya.

Southern New Mexico’s Theatre Dojo performs Killing Buddha, an original play with music, as part of the El Paso Community Foundation Jewel Box Series at the Philanthropy Theatre.

Killing Buddha will be performed at 2:30 pm on Sunday March 12, 2017 in the Philanthropy Theatre. The play is based on a legend in which the historical Buddha encounters a serial killer in search of atonement.  Here to tell us all about it is writer-director Algernon D’Ammassa and musician Randy Grainger.

El Paso’s Fab Lab has a new home in downtown El Paso. Located on the ground level of the new ArtSpace lofts, their core belief is that the tools and resources to actualize creative ideas should be available to as many community members as possible.