Koo's Art Center was an art gallery and music venue located at 530. E Broadway in Long Beach, California, USA. It was a 501(c)3 nonprofit art center that hosted events including fine arts, music (performances), film screenings, social demonstrations, and literary events. It had a dedicated gallery space that was changed monthly to coincide with Long Beach's Second Saturday Art Walk, and held weekly hardcore/punk/indie music shows.
Koo's Saved every kid who volunteered there from isolation and any Teenage Burden. Many kids there were surrounded by gang life and this put the punk ethos bore all to witness and become their true self. It kept kid as young at 11 to 15 all way up to 21 from gangs, drugs, and sheltered them from social or family problem. Many of the former Koos Kids are now community leaders in their community. Dennis Lue and Seth Wilder showed a bunch of volunteers the meaning of community and nonprofit with the added benefit of having the best music in the a tricounty area. Similar to Koo's cafe was Che Cafe in San Diego.
Koo's began as a small art cafe in Santa Ana in the early 1990s, at 1505 N Main St. Santa Ana. It was founded by Dennis Lluy, Lou Bribiesca and Dan Montano. It had a living room area dedicated for spoken word artists and for bands to play. Koo's served coffee and snacks from its kitchen. It ran several programs: the 17th Parallel break dance group, SoapboXX, the Mural Project and the Awareness Through Arts and Community (ATAC) Program, and was the base for the Santa Ana Food Not Bombs. In 1998 Koo's was awarded a US$10,000 grant from MTV's Do Something Foundation to help fund its programs.
By 2001 Koo's premises were no longer large enough for its activities, and it closed down in Santa Ana, It did not immediately relocate, but instead promoted shows at the Drop-In Center in Garden Grove, Sacred Grounds in San Pedro, and The Brown Brothers Building in San Pedro.
By 2003 a new, larger, permanent location was found, at 530 E. Broadway in Long Beach's art district. It accommodated an art gallery far larger than before, and larger music shows. As of 2015 [update] Koo's had a fine arts gallery, a monthly performance art showcase called 10x10, and weekly musical events.
Projects as of 2015 [update] included:
Hosting several music shows a week in a variety of different musical genres. Koo's hosted hundreds of musical performers over the years, including The Ataris, Atreyu, The Black Heart Procession, Braid, Bright Eyes, Audio Happening, Death from Above 1979, Deerhoof, The Get Up Kids, Hum, Jimmy Eat World, The Locust, Melt-Banana, Pinback, Calvin Johnson, Chokebore, Cannibal Ox, Mr. Lif, Mirah, The Pressure, Sense Field, Some Girls, Seahorse Liberation Army, Thrice, Wesley Willis, Xiu Xiu, Death By Stereo, and Ink & Dagger.
Koo's hosted a monthly art gallery that is changed on the second Saturday of each month to coincide with the Second Saturday Art Walks hosted in the arts district of Long Beach every month.
10×10 was a performance arts showcase that allows for 10 performers to entertain the audience however they please for ten minutes a piece. These can include anything from spoken word to musical performances as well as ballet or painting.
The Boch Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit performing arts organization located in Boston, Massachusetts. It manages the historic Wang and Shubert theatres on Tremont Street in the Boston Theater District, where it offers theatre, opera, classical and popular music, comedy, dance, and Broadway musicals. The center also offers a diverse mix of educational workshops and community activities; collaborates with artists and local performing arts organizations; and, acts as a champion for the arts in the Greater Boston community by aggressively helping to make the arts an integral part of the community's collective, daily experience. It maintains partnerships with numerous arts organizations in Boston, including the Celebrity Series of Boston, Fiddlehead Theatre Company, Express Yourself, and more.
The culture of San Francisco is major and diverse in terms of arts, music, cuisine, festivals, museums, and architecture but also is influenced heavily by Mexican culture due to its large Hispanic population, and its history as part of Spanish America and Mexico. San Francisco's diversity of cultures along with its eccentricities are so great that they have greatly influenced the country and the world at large over the years. In 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek voted San Francisco as America's Best City.
"First Friday" is a name for various public events in some cities that occur on the first Friday of every month.
Cooper-Young is an eclectic neighborhood and historic district in the Midtown section of Memphis, Tennessee, named for the intersection of Cooper Street and Young Avenue. The entrance to the neighborhood is marked by the Cooper-Young Trestle, a 150-foot (46 m) long steel sculpture which depicts homes and businesses found in the neighborhood. Created by metal artist Jill Turman, the sculpture was dedicated in 2000, and has become a source of community pride and identity. In 2012, Cooper-Young was listed on the American Planning Association's 10 Great Neighborhoods in the U.S list.
Westmount Collegiate Institute is a high school in the Thornhill, Ontario district of the greater city of Vaughan. It opened its doors in 1996, as part of the multi-purpose campus now known as the Jean Augustine Complex, named for Jean Augustine, the first African Canadian woman elected to Parliament and appointed to the federal cabinet. The complex contains the high school, Rosemount Community Centre, and the City Playhouse Theatre, to which the school is given limited access. The school is part of the York Region District School Board. Westmount is one of the 29 secondary schools in the board which comprises 191 schools altogether. Westmount is known for its arts program and its strong academic program. Many awards have been given to recognize the art, drama, dance, and music program known as ArtsWest. Mathematics and the sciences were also recognized with York Regional awards. The school is three levels with the first floor hosting many Arts, tech classes and the gymnasium, the second floor is prevalent in languages, and the third floor has many computer based classes, mathematics, business, and sciences.
Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) is an interdisciplinary contemporary arts center for innovative visual, performing and media arts in downtown Los Angeles, located inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. The California Institute of the Arts opened the space in November 2003 as an extension of the college’s mission into downtown Los Angeles.
The Long Beach Museum of Art is a museum located on Ocean Boulevard in the Bluff Park neighborhood of Long Beach, California, United States.
The Forest, also referred to as Forest Café, was an independent social centre and arts centre located in central Edinburgh, Scotland. It was notable for being run by volunteers as a charitable, self-sustaining not-for-profit. The Forest was initially housed at a West Port venue from 2000 to 2003, then housed at 3 Bristo Place in the former Edinburgh Seventh Day Adventist Church, a building owned by the Edinburgh University Settlement until August 2011. It featured a two room café with performance space, a single room art gallery named Total Kunst, a radical library named Old Hat Books housed in the café front room, an Action Room for consensus process based organisational working group meetings and internet access, artist gallery spaces, a meeting cum screen printing and crafting room, a rehearsal/music studio, a walk-in freezer, a woodworking and machining room, a darkroom specialising in alternative photographic process, and unisex toilets. In August 2012 The Forest reopened at 141 Lauriston Place, Tollcross where it continued its activity as a volunteer-run vegetarian cafe with regular free events and workshops, assuming a pivotal role in the revival of the independent community development in central Edinburgh. In 2022 the physical space closed citing difficulties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, despite arts activities continuing decentrally.
The Arts District is a neighborhood on the eastern edge of Downtown Los Angeles, California in the United States. The city community planning boundaries are Alameda Street on the west which blends into Little Tokyo, First Street on the north, the Los Angeles River to the east, and Violet Street on the south. Largely composed of industrial buildings dating from the early 20th century, the area has recently been revitalized, and its street scene slowly developed in the early 21st century. New art galleries have increased recognition of the area amidst the downtown, which is known for its art museums.
The Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center (LNAC), also known as "The Lemp," is a non-profit performance space, art gallery, and community center located in the historic Benton Park neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Since its founding in March 1994, the organization has been among the forefront of art spaces committed to the DIY ethic in St. Louis and the Midwest, holding the position as one of the oldest all-ages "Do-It-Yourself" music venues in the region and in the United States, alongside ABC No Rio in New York City, 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California, and the Ché Café in La Jolla, California.
A contemporary art gallery is normally a commercial art gallery operated by an art dealer which specializes in displaying for sale contemporary art, usually new works of art by living artists. This approach has been called the "Castelli Method" after Leo Castelli, whose success was attributed to his active involvement in discovering and promoting emerging artists beginning in the late 1950s with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.
The culture of San Diego, California is influenced heavily by American and Mexican cultures due to its position as a border town, its large Hispanic population, and its history as part of Spanish America and Mexico. San Diego's longtime association with the U.S. military also contributes to its culture. Present-day culture includes many historical and tourist attractions, a thriving musical and theatrical scene, numerous notable special events, a varied cuisine, and a reputation as one of America's premier centers of craft brewing.
The culture of San Antonio reflects the history and culture of one of the state's oldest and largest cities straddling the regional and cultural divide between South and Central Texas. Historically, San Antonio culture comes from a blend of Central Texas and South Texas (Southwestern) culture. Founded as a Spanish outpost and the first civil settlement in Texas, San Antonio is heavily influenced by Mexican American culture due to Texas formerly being part of Mexico and, previously, the Spanish Empire. The city also has significant German, Anglo, and African American cultural influences. San Antonio offers a host of cultural institutions, events, restaurants and nightlife in South Texas for both residents and visitors alike.
Aberystwyth Arts Centre is an arts centre in Wales, located on Aberystwyth University's Penglais campus. One of the largest in Wales, it comprises a theatre, concert hall, studio and cinema, as well as four gallery spaces and cafés, bars, and shops.
Downtown Santa Ana (DTSA), also called Downtown Orange County, is the city center of Santa Ana, the county seat of Orange County, California. It is the institutional center for the city of Santa Ana as well as Orange County, a retail and business hub, and has in recent years developed rapidly as a regional cultural, entertainment and culinary center for Orange County.
The culture of Augusta, Georgia is influenced by the many different perspectives and histories of its community members, as well as its own history. The large military population of the area as well as the city's rural surroundings have affected the types of festivals and culture produced within the city. Another major influence on the culture of the city is the annual Masters golf tournament held in April of each year. The most prolific cultural medium produced by the city is its musicians, as evidenced by James Brown, Jessye Norman, and Wycliffe Gordon. Though notably, the writer Frank Yerby and visual artist Jasper Johns were Augusta natives as well.
The Shanghai Oriental Art Center, abbreviated SHOAC, is one of the leading performance and cultural facilities in Shanghai. The five interconnected hemispherical halls or "petals" are shaped to resemble a butterfly orchid from above. They comprise the Entrance Hall, the Concert Hall, the Opera Hall, the Performance Hall, and the Exhibition Hall. The high-tech ceiling changes color during the night to reflect the nature of the performances inside. Located off Century Avenue in Pudong, the SHOAC was opened with a New Year's Eve concert in 2004 and officially opened on July 1, 2005.
The California Outside Music Association was a nonprofit music presenter and networking organization operating in the Los Angeles area from 1983 until 1991. The organization is best known for producing the album A Beginner’s Guide to COMA and a series of festivals called Day of Music. Founded by Titus Levi and Eric Potruch, COMA officially launched on March 3, 1983, when the two founders passed out a flyer describing COMA’s planned activities. This flyer came to be known as The COMA Manifesto. COMA's goals included bringing an eclectic scope of artists from diverse genres, for concerts and festivals. Genres included jazz, jazz rock, progressive rock, experimental 20th century compositions, ambient music music-concrete, free-jazz, post-rock improvisation, experimental rap, and multicultural/trans-cultural experiments.
The Narrows Center for the Arts is a non-profit art and musical performance venue in Fall River, Massachusetts, USA. It was founded in 1995 for the promotion and enjoyment of the visual and performing arts. It comprises two visual art galleries, a performance theater, and visual artist studios.
David Kendrick is an American musician who is currently a member of the experimental pop band Xiu Xiu. A former member of Gleaming Spires and Devo, he has recorded and toured with Sparks, Andy Prieboy and Revolushn. He is based in Los Angeles, California.