In just 10 short years, Downtown Las Vegas has transformed into an ever-evolving multi-block gallery – thanks in part to Life is Beautiful Music & Arts Festival. Since 2013, the festival has become a dynamic and immersive celebration of art in all its forms, housing art by local Las Vegas artists, up-and-coming creators, and global muralists alike.

• An A-List Art Gallery: From awe-inspiring installations to interactive experiences, the festival’s art offerings create a visually stunning and thought-provoking environment. Working with JUSTKIDS – a creative house that conceives, produces and promotes comprehensive art projects on an international scale – Life is Beautiful has brought more than 50 artists such as Shepard Fairey, Banksy, Vhils, D*Face, Vhils, Roa,  and many others to the vibrant streets of Downtown Las Vegas.
• Local Love: Recognizing the incredible talent within the community, the festival provides a vital space for these artists to showcase their work and gain exposure to a wide audience. The festival has worked with many Las Vegas creators – including  Melanin Girl Culture, Cerissa Lopez, KRIE, Pretty Done, and Eric Vozzola – to introduce and celebrate their work with fans from across the world.
• Immersive Installations: Fun fact: Life is Beautiful isn’t just limited to static pieces. The festival offers interactive experiences that invite attendees to engage with art on a deeper level. From participatory installations to immersive performances, festival-goers become active participants in the artistic process, blurring the lines between artist and audience.
• Real-Time Creation: Giving artists a space to create captivating works and fans a chance to see the creative process in real-time, Life is Beautiful features live art experiences throughout the festival. Over the years, attendees have had the opportunity to learn new techniques, contribute to communal art projects, and unleash their own creativity in a supportive and vibrant atmosphere.
• Community Collaboration: One of the festival’s biggest beliefs is in the power of art to inspire and unite communities. Through its diverse art offerings and experiences, Life is Beautiful aims to ignite imagination, provoke conversations, and create lasting memories. It’s a place where art transcends boundaries, connecting people from different backgrounds and cultures through a shared appreciation for creativity.

Over the years, Downtown Las Vegas has become a must-visit destination for art-lovers across the world. Whether you’re a seasoned art enthusiast or simply curious about exploring new artistic expressions, Life is Beautiful offers a one-of-a-kind art experience that will leave you inspired. 

Additional details about this year featured artists will be announced closer to the festival. For more information on Life is Beautiful, visit www.lifeisbeautiful.com or follow along on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. 

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Life is Beautiful is inviting 2 lucky winners to it’s 10-year celebration. Click here to enter to win 2 VIP tickets to the Life is Beautiful Festival September 22-24!

A great getaway awaits you up the Hudson: An annual festival of more than 100 participants across 10 New York counties, including NADA Foreland.

DULUTH, MN. (Northern News Now) – For the past couple of years, Essentia Health put a call out for local artwork to be featured inside its new hospital and dozens of artists answered.

Hundreds of pieces are on display in the new St. Mary’s Medical Center.

Ann Klefstad was one of the local artists chosen with her piece “Three Realms” which represents the sky, water, and earth around us.

She said she designed the piece specifically for the space hoping it can help connect with a patient’s journey inside Essentia.

“If you are in the hospital you are focused on your own body, often focused on the negative aspect of your body, it’s sick or it’s injured, and so what art can do, is it can restore your relationship with the larger world,” said Klefstad.

Klefstad said it was an honor to be chosen among the 80 other local artists and have her work featured inside the hospital.

Karen Savage-Blue, a member of the Fond du Lac Tribe of Ojibwe, was also chosen to display her artwork.

Born and raised in Duluth, she said no matter where she moved away to, Lake Superior would always call her back home.

Due to this, she wanted to communicate that in her painting making sure to include earth elements of water, air, white pine trees from the region, and native animals in the Northland.

“It’s important to have art that is created from this environment,” said Savage-Blue. “It is important to have that art shown within that environment. It acts as a reminder to us for why we are here, why we live here, and especially why we stay here.”

Savage-Blue states she is happy that Essentia has Native American representation within the hospital.

She said everyone should heal from the past, in turn helping patients heal moving forward.

You can see Klefstad’s piece between the 6th and 7th floors and Savage-Blue’s artwork on the concourse floor of the hospital.

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For Canadian hip-hop, 1991 was pivotal. Not only did it mark the debut release from the first Canadian woman MC, Michie Mee, but also the debut from jazz-rap pioneers Dream Warriors. It’s when the “Northern Touch” hitmaking group Rascalz formed. And it’s the year the Juno Awards introduced a category for rap music.

It was also the year that the godfather of Canadian hip-hop, Maestro Fresh Wes, released the critical song “Nothin’ at All.” The fiery track explored the parallels of how systemic racism affected both Black and Indigenous communities:

Listen, I want an explanation,
Why are Mohawks being kicked out of their reservations?
And being put in misery,
You’re stealing the land to create sporting facilities.

The Native man of the land is who you’re killing,
And then got the nerve to celebrate Thanksgiving,
Claiming every man is equal,
I hate to see what y’all got planned for my people.

[embedded content]

“I think about Maestro’s ‘Nothin’ at All’ and it’s such a tradition in hip-hop, to acknowledge those links,” says rap artist Shad, who has collaborated with Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Tanya Tagaq and more. “The solidarity is a tradition of that. That’s what consciousness means to me, in music and hip-hop, [it’s] raising these histories and raising these connections that are often covered up.”

Since hip-hop’s early years, Black and Indigenous musicians have used their music as a way to spotlight inequality. One of hip-hop’s early trailblazers was Black and Cherokee MC Grandmaster Melle Mel, a member of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The American rapper penned socially conscious songs about marginalization, including one of the genre’s most influential tracks, “The Message.”

“If you go all the way back to ‘The Message’ [by] Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, they were talking about what was going on in New York at the time and in certain neighbourhoods that were just left to rot, really, and talking about it in this direct, really frank way that I’m not sure music had really seen before,” says Shad.

“That’s why [hip-hop] exists, as a tool for oppressed people to be heard,” says Afro-Indigenous rapper Mamarudegyal MTHC.

Although Maestro, Michie Mee, Dream Warriors and other Black artists were some of the first to find success in Canadian hip-hop, Indigenous artists such as Kinnie Starr, War Party and Rez Official were also making waves when the genre started to gain momentum in the country during the ’90s. They each released candid songs tackling similar themes of racism, injustice and more.

In 2019, Mamarudegyal MTHC explored these connections between Black and Indigenous musicians in The Foundation: Indigenous Hip-Hop in Canada, a documentary that analyzed the rise of Indigenous rappers.

Hip-hop has always lent itself well to speaking directly to power and speaking in a really bold and candid way.– Shad

“We have the drum and we have the DJ, we have MCs, we have storytellers, we have the break dancers and the fancy dancers and the powwow dancers, and so there’s quite a bit of parallel,” she says of the cultural similarities.

“In the film, there was a shot of [rapper Mama ‘S’] who says, ‘Hip-hop is our voice, it’s the voice of our generation.’ And because we don’t have a connection to our language because it was taken from us, we feel drawn to hip-hop because it gives us an outlet and it gives us permission to speak angrily,” she says. “It gives us permission to speak our angry thoughts in a way that’s healing, builds community and is productive.”

“Hip-hop has always lent itself well to speaking directly to power and speaking in a really bold and candid way,” adds Shad.

Black and Indigenous rapper Boslen also says the shared connection between the two communities is “as real as possible.” 

When the Indigenous and the Black communities come together, I think it’s a beautiful thing because you can see the history of Canada through the stories of both of our people.– DJ Shub

“Specifically Black and Indigenous people, they’ve been fighting [for equal rights] a lot of their lives,” he says, adding that it’s natural for them to come together to make powerful music. 

In 2020, Mohawk DJ and producer DJ Shub collaborated with rapper Phoenix Pagliacci on the impassioned track “The Social,” which details the ongoing trauma in both Black and Indigenous communities. Some verses speak directly to the repercussions of colonialism and others detail the significance of the Black Lives Matter movement, with Pagliacci spitting scorching lyrics that apply to both groups: 

You think we just cause all the problems,
You tell us that we caused them so we should solve them,
But when we ask for help to resolve them,
They take our identities and dissolve ’em.

[embedded content]

After explaining the concept of a social to Pagliacci — Indigenous communities gathering to have fun, spend time together and check in on each other — Shub says she found “all the similarities about looking out for the community and what we need to do to keep our communities safe” and began writing the words.

“The connection was made there, and she understood what this whole thing was about,” he says.

“When the Indigenous and the Black communities come together, I think it’s a beautiful thing because … you can see the history of Canada through the stories of both of our people,” he adds. “I just think it’s very important that things like this are talked about and music is shared.”

All proceeds from the track went to organizations supporting Black Lives Matter and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

From connecting in the studio to uniting in activism efforts, Shad says both communities continue to intersect. “Oftentimes we’re not actually talking about different stories. It’s the same story,” he says. 

“There was precedent for that for me,” he says. “I think about Maestro.”

It’s been more than 30 years since the release of “Nothin’ at All,” but Maestro’s message of Black and Indigenous solidarity has persisted.

“When we come together collectively and listen and learn from each other’s struggles, we can make this place better for everyone,” Maestro said in a 2020 interview with Canadian Dimension.”That’s what I was saying in the early 1990s. That’s what I’m still saying today. Without togetherness, we’ve got nothing at all.”

The Block is counting down to hip-hop’s anniversary by airing 50 stories over 50 days that focus on significant artists, events and moments in hip-hop history. The 50 stories will air nationwide each night on The Block on CBC Music until Aug. 11 to coincide with The Block Party.

There’s no shortage of clay art shows to see right now around the country. At the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, “Funk You Too! Humor and Irreverence in Ceramic Sculpture” highlights 50 bold pieces created from the 1960s to present day. LGBTQ+ artists are the focus of “Making in Between: Queer Clay” on view at Pomona’s American Museum of Ceramic Art. And the Metropolitan Museum of Art just debuted “Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery,” curated by the Pueblo Pottery Collective and billed as “the first community-curated Native American exhibition in the history of the Met.”

Two recently opened shows near Mid-City Los Angeles especially capture the range of contemporary clay artists’ ideas. “Wayfinding,” Craft Contemporary’s third clay biennial, features the work of 14 contemporary artists “who harness clay’s powerful physical and metaphorical properties to embody their ties to land and water,” as described on the exhibition’s website. A short drive away, “Clay Pop Los Angeles,” curated by Alia Dahl at Jeffrey Deitch, embraces a playful and bold approach to clay, focusing on pop culture influences.

These two group shows highlight the themes contemporary clay artists are exploring — namely modern anxieties around industrialization and climate change as well as ancestral memory. As contemporary artists continue to push the possibilities of ceramic art, they are utilizing the medium’s connection to nature, time and chemistry to explore both global and personal narratives.

Courtney Mattison’s “Our Changing Seas IV” (2016-19). “I want people to see what I see when scuba diving on a coral reef,” the artist says.

(Courtney Mattison)

One artist who works with clay, the San-Francisco based Courtney Mattison, creates work that highlights climate change, drawing from her background in marine ecology and environmental studies. “Our Changing Seas IV,” created from 2016-19, sprawls over a large wall in “Wayfinding,” immersing the viewer. Mattison often uses everyday objects, or tools she makes herself, to painstakingly re-create the texture of coral reefs.

“I want people to see what I see when scuba diving on a coral reef — to feel like they’re hovering above it and discovering details from every angle,” Mattison said.

This form of close looking requires we also acknowledge the bleaching of coral reefs, a result of rising water temperatures. Mattison’s installation shifts from colorful and vibrant hues to stark, white sections, calling attention to the fact that these ecosystems are still alive — it’s their skeletons that we are seeing.

“It is essential that the medium of my work be ceramic, as calcium carbonate happens to be both a glaze ingredient and the compound precipitated by corals to sculpt their stony structures,” Mattison said. “Not only does the chemical makeup of my work parallel that of a natural reef, but porcelain tentacles and the bodies of living corals share a sense of fragility that compels observers to look but not touch.”

Drawing on decades of ceramic work, Joan Takayama-Ogawa also brings issues of climate change into her art, with a number pieces on view in “Wayfinding.” These range from 30-inch to 40-inch all-white sculptures that nod to the Great Barrier Reef to 4-inch ceramic cupcakes with syringe pens in them, their “frosting” devoid of color.

Joan Takayama-Ogawa’s “Bleached Coral, Great Barrier Reef, Papua New Guinea” (2018). The artist is eschewing color to evoke the bleaching of coral reefs.

(Joan Takayama-Ogawa and Themes + Projects Gallery, San Francisco)

The artist and educator’s ceramic pieces hold “scary messages” while leaning into beauty, she explains. Takayama-Ogawa recalls how a student at Otis brought her “white coral chunks” from Guam, the student’s homeland. That was in 2009; by 2015, the artist made coral reef bleaching a major part of her practice. She recently embraced a new direction: holding off on colorful glazes.

“A lot of people are surprised that I’m working in white right now,” Takayama-Ogawa said. “But that’s because of the intention and the concept — and the story of bleached coral.”

The changing landscape and humans’ effects on the land play a part in many of the works on view. Pueblo of Isleta and Navajo artist Rowan Harrison says that his Southwestern roots include “a strong traditional lineage when it comes to working in clay.” The Fullerton-based ceramicist has several works on display in “Wayfinding,” all of which are built and painted by hand. Two untitled works are especially striking in the way they showcase Harrison’s approach to mixed media. A vessel made of Native clay, which Harrison will sometimes dig himself, is punctuated with rusted nails. The forms hold opposing worlds: the earth energy of clay juxtaposed with the mass-produced nail.

An untitled Rowan Harrison piece (2023). The form holds opposing worlds: the earth energy of clay juxtaposed with mass-produced nails.

(Rowan Harrison)

“There have been situations where we have lost family, friends, tribal members because of this idea of industrialization moving into, or encroaching into, Native land,” said Harrison. “The metal pieces represent that kind of technology.… I’m trying to represent this harmony or this balance, if you will.”

The artist cites Robert Rauschenberg, George Herms and Bruce Conner as inspirations for his interest in assemblage. Harrison often combines “traditional Southwestern Pueblo motifs” with more contemporary designs; he often picks up brackets, doorbell covers and machinery pieces, bringing them to the studio to see where he can incorporate them.

“I consider myself one of these Native American artists who has one foot in the traditional world and also one foot in the contemporary world — that is predicated on the materials that I use and the design elements as well,” Harrison said.

Lizette Hernández, whose work is featured in both “Wayfinding” and “Clay Pop Los Angeles,” also thinks a lot about the ties between tradition and our present moment. The Los-Angeles based artist created a series of raku-fired works for Craft Contemporary; at Jeffrey Deitch, you can see three glaze and glass on stoneware pieces, also completed this year.

Lizette Hernández’s “Cielo, Tierra, Guía, Guardia” (2023) brings to mind stories of ancestral guides and celestial beings.

(Joshua White / Lizette Hernández and Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles)

Growing up in a religious home, Hernández was familiar with Christian iconographies and sacred items. Titles like “Cielo, Tierra, Guía, Guardia” (the name of her pieces at Jeffrey Deitch, which roughly translates to “Sky, Earth, Guide, Guard”) bring to mind stories of ancestral guides and celestial beings. But she sees clay as “a spiritual material outside of any religiosity.” Her work takes inspiration from altar pieces and shrines to explore a wider definition of sacred objects.

In her visually complex raku-fired pieces at Craft Contemporary, she embraces the oxidizing of glazes and leaves imprints of her hands in the clay, emphasizing the collaboration between herself and the material. Hernández carefully considers how water affects clay, even after it evaporates — “the material holds its shape, so it holds memory,” Hernández said.

Across both shows, there’s a palpable respect and excitement for the possibilities of clay within our contemporary moment. Compared with other mediums, clay has a certain alchemy, chemistry and transformation tied to its mystique.

“There are so many things that can go wrong, but there’s also such a great sense of satisfaction when you get the results you want,” Mattison said. “Sometimes you can open the kiln and get something even better than you expected.”

For all their fragility, ceramics also hold an innate power: you never know what can happen in the process, but that’s where the magic lies.

“The kiln is the great equalizer and keeps most of us pretty humble,” Takayam-Ogawa said. Hernández echoes this sentiment, describing her relationship to the process as a “surrender.”

“I try to embrace the clay and allow it to kind of have its own life, because it does. It goes through experiences that I can’t experience,” Hernández said. “It goes through extreme heat and interacts with different chemicals … all I have control over is my hands connecting with it.”

Looking to provide a place for local artists to sell their goods, Aileen Hearn and Kyle Ten Eyck have opened Coastal Native on Rehoboth Avenue in Rehoboth Beach.

“It seemed like a natural thing to do, since we’re both artists,” said Ten Eyck.

Coastal Native opened recently a few steps from the Boardwalk in a space that most recently housed a jewelry store.

Hearn and Ten Eyck opened Somewhere restaurant on Baltimore Avenue in 2021.

Coastal Native carries locally themed jewelry, clothing, wall decorations, jams and jellies, preserved foods, kitchen decor and other items. The store features gifts and local souvenirs to attract customers looking for keepsakes that are nicer than the trinkets found at a lot of other souvenir shops, said Ten Eyck.

Hearn said she and Ten Eyck have wanted to open a store that sells and showcases local artists for some time. The store also allows them to co-brand their restaurant and store, she said, adding that all the merchandise available at Somewhere is also for sale at Coastal Native.

Hearn said they purposely didn’t get too specific when coming up with a name for the store.

“It’s not just about being here along the coast in Delaware,” she said. “It’s about being on any coast.”

Looking to the future, and to their creative sides, Hearn and Ten Eyck said they hope the store also gives them the opportunity to get back to creating their art.

Ten Eyck said it’s been tough to find time to be creative while getting the restaurant and the new store up and running.

“You have to be creative at the restaurant every day, but it’s a different type of creativity,” he said.

Hearn said the scheduled hours of operation for Coastal Native are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Wednesday through Monday. However, she said, sometimes the store has to open later or close earlier, depending on employee availability.

For more information on Coastal Native, 12 Rehoboth Ave., email hello@somewhererehoboth.com.

Wisconsin is no stranger to the presence of deep, yet often under-discussed Native American history that ties in so closely with the state. While much of the visual representation of Native history is most immediately seen in the geography of Wisconsin, many artists are pushing for more visibility and vocality around Native history and culture through their own creations. 

Terri O’Connor is one such local artist. While Terri now lives in Poynette, Wisconsin, she has been around the Madison area since her early 20s. O’Connor’s passion for art started long before she found her way to Madison as art was second nature at home.    

“I started my art way back when I was young,” O’Connor told Madison365. “I just always dabbled in the art scene a bit, slowly working with the tribe on quite a few little projects that they had. My dad was an artist, so he had paintings that he had done in the house like some horses, I remember. I also had my mom’s brother who was an artist, so he did a lot of beautiful artwork, too, as a painter, as well. I saw that and was always interested in art.”

O’Connor grew up surrounded not just by art, but by Native American art and culture specifically that fueled a passion for learning more. Being raised on the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans Reservation, O’Connor was exposed to culture and connections within the tribe that eventually led to working in smaller ways to provide artistic needs for her community. 

“Going to the Pow-Wows in the summertime was a huge influence on me,” said O’Connor. “I just loved the character. I’m a people person when I draw. I love looking at faces and I was intrigued with the history. I like old photos, so working at the museum, I got to see some of the history. It just really influenced me on the culture. The tradition of Native Americans’ respect for their elders, and the Pow-Wows as gatherings and always giving thanks. It’s basically a gathering to get together to see family and see people that you haven’t seen in a while.”

Connecting with people gave O’Connor the opportunity needed to practice her art in ways that may not be immediately thought of such as designing badges for the tribal Natural Resources Department, and logo design for businesses out of the tribe, such as Tribal Sun Soap. However, the most inspiring things for O’Connor’s artwork may just be the joining together of people in ways that uplift and support the community. 

“I did a piece honoring women called ‘The Gatherer,’ O’Connor said. “A lot of the women in our culture were gatherers of not only the food, but they were a great support for the community. I like to do a lot of my art in honor of men, women, and children, because it’s all part of us. We’re all part of that community. We all make a difference in all the things that we do and contribute to help each other. I think that’s true in all cultures.”

One of the communities O’Connor has found herself in is with other local Native American artists who frequently do shows around the area such as the Native Art Marketplace that took place early last month in Mt. Horeb. It is in spaces such as these that she says people may be surprised to find art and culture in a variety of ways including storytelling and carvings as well.   

“There’s such a diversity with some of the artwork in Native culture,” expressed O’Connor. “You’ve got basketmakers and the beadwork that is amazing. There’s so many influential pieces of artwork that maybe a lot of people don’t even realize are out there.”

As time moves forward, many Native cultural traditions and ways of understanding are lost both to the cycle of life, but also to silence. As artists and community members such as O’Connor push to make their history, culture, and passion visible, it takes the community to respond and invest their interest and support in remembering the deep and beautiful Native history that is crucial to maintain for future generations. 

“We want to show people our culture and our passion for it while always having appreciation for everything that’s around us. We are a part of this earth, and there’s so many beautiful things of this earth for us to express and show in our art,” O’Connor said, praising the perseverance and continued collective effort of local artists, especially Native artists. 

“They’re multitalented and they need to be seen and heard because it’s part of our lives. It’s us, it’s who we are, and it’s great that it’s being recognized that we are artists. We are actual artists working out there, and doing it because we love it.”