Just buy a “ticket” to Side Street Projects’ 18th Annual Phantom Ball
and we’ll send you a “party favor” made for this infamous non-event:
a signed, limited-edition print by a well-known contemporary artist
created exclusively for the Phantom Ball (Edition size=150).

What does the print look like? that’s a secret until June 1, 2011.

Buy your “ticket” right now (sight unseen) for $150 (limit 2 per customer).
Once we reveal the image on June 1st, the “ticket” price doubles to $300.
After January 1st, 2012, any remaining prints will be sold for $600 each (+tax).

And on that note, this year’s “souvenir print” is by…

or call (626) 798-7774 (M-F, 10am-5pm PDT)

Limit 2 “tickets” per customer
On 6/1/11 the “ticket” price DOUBLES to $300,
so get yours now (sight-unseen) and save!

FREE and open to the public

About the Performance and Screenings: Inspired by 10-day-long traffic jams in China, devastating oil spills in the gulf, the “end” of the Iraq war, and fatal off-road races in the Mojave desert, Driven by What’s Inside is an outdoor performance and cinema event that reconsiders the role of the automobile in contemporary society.

The evening brings together recent performance and video work by Vera Brunner-Sung, Ecstatic Energy Consultants Inc. in collaboration with Elana Mann, Diana-Sofia Estrada, Alexa Gerrity, Joseph Imhauser, Noah Klersfeld, Julie Lequin, Benjamin Love, Susan Mogul, and Carlin Wing.

These artworks undermine the banality and brutality of the automobile by any means possible whether through psychedelic road-tripping, FM radio talk-shows, or love songs. Artist Elana Mann presents Driven by What’s Inside as a way to deepen explorations in her own work related to cars, driving, and war. This event is the second in a new series for Mann, in which she will be attempting to redress her grandfather’s involvement in the Manhattan Project by creating a “peace bomb” with other artists. Drive-in, walk-in, cycle-in, but bring a blanket, folding chair or seatbelt, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

We still have prints available, at the ticket of $350.   Edition of 100. It’s beautiful.  Get one before they sell out!

Isn’t she cute?  This is Side Street’s new mobile classroom, on her way home from the factory in Hurricane, Utah.

Stay tuned – we’ve got more images from our trip, but right now we’re busy re-arranging the lot, and preparing to begin the build-out.

In as little as 20 minutes you can create and donate a unique Fundred Dollar Bill artwork that will be picked up in by a special armored truck and carried to Washington D.C., where a request will be made to our legislators for real change.

The goal is to collect over 3 million of these unique artworks. This cumulative total of 300,000,000 Fundred Dollars supports the equivalent cost (in U.S. Dollars) required to make safe every lead contaminated property in New Orleans, so that every child is protected.

Your creative contribution, along with 3,000,000 other individuals, will send a powerful message to Congress that we care about the health of future generations. This is a cool project, a great learning opportunity for all ages, with profound implications for the health of our planet and children.

Side Street Projects will be serving as one of the collection centers for the Fundred Dollar Bills. The people involved in this project are world class artists who really pull stuff like this off on a regular basis.

The “Fundred” truck will be coming to Side Street Projects on Friday February 19th at 4:00 pm.

We will be making Fundreds and loading up the truck. Come join us. It will be fun!

Additionally, come and make your own hanging planter out of a recycled 2 liter bottle.

Last summer when Side Street Projects stopped in New Orleans on our cross country trip with the Armadillo we were astounded by how much work still needs to be done. Here is a video of children in the 7th ward who have never tasted fresh herbs because their soil is so contaminated that they can’t plant anything to eat in the ground.

Did you know that lead contaminated soil is a problem in many cities in the U.S. and is a condition that often significantly impacts the health of our children? Studies demonstrate that lead-poisoning can affect nearly every system in the body, compromising healthy brain development and leading to poor performance in the schools, attention deficit disorder and even juvenile delinquency. The good news is that there is a solution, and it is why I encourage you to participate in The Fundred Dollar Bill Project, a simple, fun and important project supporting a solution to lead-contaminated soil in New Orleans as a model for other cities across the United States with the same devastating problem.

To learn more about getting involved, visit the website: www.fundred.org

Bookmeat has a meaty and marvelous name,
and a meaty and marvelous mission.”
- NBC Los Angeles

“This is something really special.”
- LA Weekly

For our friends who couldn’t make it out to Culver City for our Bookmeat fundraiser on November 21st, we’re having a showing & sale of some really interesting (and still available) Bookmeat books at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena:

Bookmeat Booksale: PASADENA
Saturday, December 19th, 1pm-4pm
The Armory Center for the Arts
145 North Raymond Ave, Pasdena

For as little as $75, you can walk away with a unique and affordable holiday gift for the art lover in your life— a signed and (in many cases) modified book from the personal collections of artists like Katie Grinnan, Sam Durant, Pae White, Elad Lassry, Hirsch Perlman, Mario Ybarra Jr., Olga Koumoundouros, Ry Rocklen, Tom Lawson, Alexis Smith, Christopher Russell, Jennifer Steinkamp, Kim MacConnel, Martin Kersels, Mel Chin, Alice Konitz, Nathan Mabry, and more!

All proceeds benefit Side Street’s education programs for kids and artists in LA County. Click here to download the pricelist. To arrange a private viewing, please contact Side Street Projects via email, or call (626) 798-7774.

We’d like to thank all the artist, writers, curators who contributed their time, treasure, and talent to help make Bookmeat such a success. We’d also like to thank our steering committee and all the volunteers who helped make it all happen. For a complete list of folks, please visit the Bookmeat page.

Artist Kim MacConnel gave us a treasured copy of Mythologies by Roland Barthes that he kept in the trunk of his first car: a 1967 Citroen. Or, is it a replica of a long-lost favorite book that (you guessed it) was kept in the trunk of MacConnel’s car? When you read his explanatory note tucked inside, it actually makes a whole lot of sense. Includes simulated grease stains, hand-written notes, a photo of MacConnel’s first car, and a Citroen rubber gasket in original packaging.

Kim MacConnel is a San Diego based painter and seminal member of the Pattern & Decoration movement. His work is trademarked with brightly colored, loosely rendered patterns borrowed from other cultures or invented, as well as cartoonish clip-art images of contemporary American life and technology. Since the mid 70s, he has been educating students at University of California in San Diego where he has recently retired. He is represented by Rosamund Felsen Gallery in Santa Monica.

Case in point: Christopher Russell. 2009 was a pretty darn incredible year for Christopher, starting off with his first ever solo museum show at The Hammer. Artillery Mag summed things up nicely, “Christopher Russell is everywhere these days. In order to catch up with him, you may have to stalk him.”

For Bookmeat, Christopher donated a dog-eared and heavily-annotated copy of Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont — the vivid and violent 19th century poetic novel that Salvador Dalí, André Breton, Antonin Artaud, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Max Ernst each cited as a major influence on their development.

Christopher altered several pages with this shark motif… half way thru the book, the pages appear to have been eaten. Without giving too much away, Christopher’s “secret inscription” speaks of discovering and devouring this seminal proto-surrealist book during his formative years in Sacramento.

Written in 1869, one year before Lautréamont’s tragic and mysterious death at age 24, Maldoror’s lead character is a figure of absolute evil who is opposed to God and humanity, and has renounced conventional morality and decency. The book combines a violent narrative with vivid and often surrealistic imagery, and begins with a warning to readers:

“God grant that the reader, emboldened and having become at present as fierce as what he is reading, find, without loss of bearings, his way, his wild and treacherous passage through the desolate swamps of these sombre, poison-soaked pages; for, unless he should bring to his reading a rigorous logic and a sustained mental effort at least as strong as his distrust, the lethal fumes of this book shall dissolve his soul as water does sugar.”

Bookmeat – A benefit for Side Street Projects
Saturday, November 21st (6pm-10pm)
“The Brick Building”
8870 Washington Blvd
(Between Robertson & National, next door to the Royal/T)
Culver City, CA 90232

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Tickets are $100 ($75 tax deductible)

- Or call (626) 798-7774 -

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Join us on Friday, October 9th for Pasadena Art Night!

Celebrate art + food by planting the winter lettuce crop on The Armadillo. Born from the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, The Armadillo is an actual FEMA trailer that MIT transformed into a vertical, sustainable, and mobile community garden.

Also, artists Charlie Hachadourian and Poorang Nori will perform a unique middle-east breadmaking tradition. Out of the remains of an old elevator car, Charlie and Poorang have created a “tonir” – a traditional lavash oven. Charlie and Poorang will be baking fresh lavash all night long… if you’re real good, maybe you’ll get to taste some!

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Pasadena ArtNight
@ Side Street Projects Mobile HQ
Friday, October 9th from 6pm-10pm
730 North Fair Oaks Avenue @ Orange Grove
Pasadena, CA 91103
(626) 798-7774

Visit the ArtNight website for a complete list of participating institutions, activities, and shuttle route maps.

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ArtNight Restaurant Specials!

From 5:00 to 6:30pm ask for a FREE ArtNight dessert with purchase of an entree at these One Colorado restaurants: Akbar, Gordon Biersch, Il Fornaio, Johnny Rockets, Russell’s, or Sushi Roku.

Opening reception sponsored by Whole Foods Arroyo. Charile & Poorang’s performance made possible by an ArtNight Mini-Grant from the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission. On-site community programming at Side Street Projects’ Mobile HQ made possible by support from the Leonard I. Green Foundation and The Rowe and Gayle Giesen Family Trust.

Click here for a map. The viewing is free. Oh, and we’ll be making plastic bottle planters. You can make one too! Just look for us in the Brookside Park parking lot. We’re in Lot “I” – look for the Side Street pick up and the orange canopies. Click here to view the Facebook event, with all the details.

Happy 20th birthday to the Armory!

Join LA’s most intriguing & celebrated artists, writers and curators for a most unusual silent auction. Each has contributed a book from their private collection that influenced their life’s work. Tucked inside each book — for the buyer’s eyes only — is an autograph and secret inscription from the contributor explaining the book’s significance. Most starting bids are $75.

Bookmeat – A fundraiser for Side Street Projects
“The Brick Building”
8870 Washington Blvd
(Between Robertson & National, next door to the Royal/T)
Culver City, CA 90232

An Illustrated Guide to Bookmeat Ticket Prices

Books Contributed By (list in formation): Danielle Adair, Rheim Alkadhi, Stacey Allan, Mark Allen, Rachel Allen, Kathryn Andrews, Edgar Arceneaux, Carmen Argote, Joshua Aster, Karen Atkinson, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Judy Baca, Jennifer Bain, Judie Bamber, Elise Barclay, Kelly Barrie, Tanya Batura, Dan Bayles, Justin Beal, Todd Becraft, Jay Belloli, Stacen Berg, Walead Beshty, Ellen Birrell, Andrea Bowers, Mark Bradford, Nancy Braver, Brian Bress, Kaucyila Brooke, Jane Brown, Annie Buckley, Tim Buggs, David Burns, Brian Butler, Ingrid Calame, Joshua Callaghan, Jane Callister, Heather Cantrell, Juan Capistran, Carolyn Castano, Enrique Castrejon, Tom Christie, Caryn Coleman, Ginny Cook, William Cordova, Kate Costello, Charlotte Cotton, Zoe Crosher, Russell Crotty, Robert Crouch, Christian Cummings, Dorit Cypis, Lavi Daniel, Julie Deamer, Chelsea Dean, Michael Dee, Tomory Dodge, Zackary Drucker, Sam Durant, Martin Durazo, Ciara Ennis, Okwui Enwezor, Jori Finkel, Chris Finley, Sinead Finnerty-Pyne, Lauri Firstenberg, Eve Fowler, Charles Gaines, Harry Gamboa Jr., Ken Gonzales-Day, Rita Gonzalez, Alexandra Grant, Emma Gray, Amy Green, Phyllis Green, Mark Greenfield, Katie Grinnan, Sherin Guirguis, Liz Gylnn, Fritz Haeg, Emilie Halpern, Lynn Hanson, Doug Harvey, Marc Herbst, Robby Herbst, Katie Herzog, Leslie Hewitt, Michael Ned Holte, Violet Hopkins, Bettina Hubby, Salomon Huerta, Steven Hull, Emily Joyce, Vish Jugdeo, Glenn Kaino, Naima Keith, Martin Kersels, Byron Kim, Carol Ann Klondaries, Alice Könitz, David Korty, Olga Koumoundouros, Kris Kuramitsu, Annie Lapin, Elad Lassry, Tom Lawson, Julie Lazar, Julie Lequin, Katie Lewis, Karen Liebowitz, Glenn Ligon, Jed Lind, Matt Lipps, Mara Lonner, Renée Lotenero, Jean Lowe, Shana Lutker, Nathan Mabry, Kim MacConnel, Dana Maiden, Elana Mann, Michael Markowsky, Carolyn Mason, Anna Mayer, Barry McGee, Thomas McKenzie, Rodney McMillian, Lisa Melandri, Yunhee Min, Jessica Minckley, Aaron Morse, Aram Moshayedi, Sandeep Mukherjee, Holly Myers, Tucker Neel, Kori Newkirk, Jill Newman, Gaston Nogues, Laurie Nye, Pat O’Neill, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Robert Olsen, Julie Orser, Ruben Ortiz-Torres, Kaz Oshiro, Laura Owens, Marc Pally, Jorge Pardo, Anthony Pearson, Hirsch Perlman, Renée Petropoulos, Calvin Phelps, Kelly Poe, Stephanie Pryor, Jessica Rath, Marco Rios, John Robertson, Ry Rocklen, Steve Roden, Brett Cody Rogers, Emily Roysdon, Christopher Russell, Analia Saban, Shizu Saldamando, Aaron Sandnes, Melanie Schiff, Maya Schindler, Kim Schoen, Kim Schoenstadt, Kyungmi Shin, Susan Silton, Alexis Smith, Michael Smoler, Jill Spector, Carol Stakenas, Tyler Stallings, Jennifer Steinkamp, Kirsten Stoltmann, Tamara Sussman, Catherine Taft, Ami Tallman, Joel Tauber, Ed Templeton, Melissa Thorne, Pilar Tompkins, Irene Tsatos, Geoff Tuck, Jan Tumlir, Kaari Upson, Jeffrey Vallance, Monique van Genderen, Tam Van Tran, Anton Vidokle, Matias Viegener, Mary Weatherford, Dawson Weber, Marnie Weber, James Welling, Jennifer West, Pae White, Charlie White, Carrie Whitney, Millie Wilson, Rosha Yaghmai, Mario Ybarra Jr., Liz Young, Carrie Yury, HK Zamani, Bari Ziperstein

Please join us in thanking those who made Bookmeat possible…

Patrons: Nooshin Malakzad, Wendy Munger & Leonard Gumport, Peggy Phelps, Susan & John Caldwell, Joan Palmer, Janine & Tony Perron, Dianne M. Magee, Clare & Chris Tayback, Dr. Sujal & Kelly Mandavia, Paul & Lizzie Salvati, Vern & Marsha Bohr, Joe Lewis, Bob & Patty Zuber, Olin Barrett & Ann Dobson Barrett, Maureen Carlson, Dan & Diana Attias, Summer Art Academy, Elinor & Rubin Turner, Edwina & David Dedlow – FormSolver Inc., Katherine Gillespie, Susan & Jim Crawford, Kate & Leonardo Clavijo.

Steering Committee: Ed Schad (The Broad Art Foundation), Melissa Goldberg (ForYourArt.com), Jay Belloli (Armory Center for the Arts), Eungie Joo (New Museum), Liza Simone (Phantom Galleries), Karen Rapp (Vincent Price Gallery and Art Museum @ ELAC), Susan Yank (Hammer Museum), Elise Barclay (O’Melveny & Myers LLP), Pilar Tompkins (Claremont Museum of Art) Sinéad Finnerty-Pyne (Armory Center for the Arts), Janine Perron (Hammer Museum, Side Street Projects Board), Bari Ziperstein (Artist, Side Street Projects Board), Lorraine Molina (LM Projects, Side Street Projects Board), Diane Magee (Side Street Projects Board).

Event & Media Sponsors: Nooshin Inc., Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, Honest Tea, Large Marge Sustainables, ForYourArt, DubLab, Savings.com, Event planning courtesy of Pink Cloud Events. Design and marketing courtesy of The Groop.

Special thanks to Nooshin & Narda Malakzad, Sarah Shewey, Bari Ziperstein, Brady Westwater, The City of Culver City, Susan Obrow, Minuteman Press of Glendale, Jose Caballer, and Aure Gimon. Side Street Projects is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit community art organization. All donations to Side Street Projects are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Federal Tax ID# 95-4395168.