Priscilla Cohen in The Coyote Cycle by Murray Mednick

As ground zero of the automotive economy, Los Angeles has a unique contribution to make in devising better ways to live, and VisionLA Fest invites the L.A. arts community to get involved in this vitally important project. By engaging the international dialogue on climate change, imagining creative responses and building momentum for change, artists and storytellers have a crucial role to play in shaping a better future.

Our L.A.-based Festival has been timed to coincide with the U.N.’s 21^st “Conference of the Parties” on Climate Change (COP 21) in Paris, and the concurrent Art COP21, a Paris-wide arts festival expressing support for a strong international climate treaty and positive, sustainable change.

Rush White Woods 1, 2014

VisionLA Fest will collect submitted work together under the Festival umbrella and publicize widely to the general public via our website/app, social media and traditional media. Events and projects submitted to the Festival must take place between Nov 30 – Dec 10, 2015. The work may range from installations and performances interacting with the public space to formal gallery shows; from theater and dance pieces to concerts, readings, films, street art, pop-up art– whatever the L.A. arts community dreams up. Projects may be created especially for the festival or may be aggregated into the festival from existing or planned shows that speak to the themes of climate action and social transformation. The Festival and key partner 350 SoCal Climate Action will prepare educational and outreach materials to be presented at participating shows to grow public awareness and enthusiasm for a strong and timely response to global warming.

It’s time for the L.A. arts community to join in the international cultural conversation on the climate. What do our local artists have to say about this problem? Together we can transform the slow-motion crisis of climate change into an inspiring call to action, and a remarkable opportunity for positive change.

Festival Team

Cheryl Slean (Co-Executive Producer) is a writer, filmmaker, producer and educator exploring the intersection of the arts, sustainability and contemplative practice. Her films have won numerous awards at festivals worldwide, been anthologized and distributed on television and online. Her theater production history in LA goes back 25 years and includes dozens of award-winning shows as writer, director, producer, as well as extensive experience in non-profit arts management. Recent theater work includes two site-specific commissions from Seattle University, and in L.A., site specific performance events in Koreatown and at the L.A. River. She recently co-founded L.A. EcoDharma, an invitation to engage L.A.’s contemplative communities in wise action on environmental issues, and serves as Arts Chair of SoCal 350 Climate Action.

Guy Zimmerman (Co-Executive Producer). An award-winning writer, director and producer, Zimmerman has served as artistic director of Padua Playwrights since 2001, where he has produced over forty productions of new work. He is currently completing a doctoral degree in Theater and Dramatic Arts in the joint UC Irvine/UC San Diego Phd program, and in 2011 received a graduate certificate in Urban Sustainability at Antioch University. His articles and essays about film, theater, art, science and politics have been published recently in the July 2015 edition of Shakespeare Bulletin, the critical anthology, Architecture in the Anthropocene, Theater Forum, LA Weekly, LA Theater Magazine, the LA Citizen, Cyrano’s Journal, and the arts and culture website Times Quotidian. Zimmerman has also edited an eight-volume anthology series for Padua Press, distributed nationally by TCG.

Board of Advisors

• Julie Adler
  Artist Advisor
• Jessica Aldridge, Exec. Dir.
  Burbank Green Alliance
• Melissa “Zippy” Downing
  Public Art Advisor
• Jack Eidt
  Publisher, WilderUtopia.com
  Co-Founder, SoCal 350 Climate Action
• Omar Holguin, Founder & Director
  La Mancha Gallery
• Cynthia Hubach, Founder
  Frogtown Community Garden
• Tim Keating, President
  LADAD Space
• Hon. Paul Koretz, Council Member
  Los Angeles City Council District 5
• Pamela Marcello
  District Representative
  Cong. Adam Schiff, 28th Dist.
• Anna Marie Piersimoni
  Digital Media Prod. & Marketing
• Naomi Pitcairn
  Photographer, activist
• Rita Valencia
  Writer, Designer
• Geoffry White
  Psychologist, activist, artist
• Miranda Wright
  Sustanablepractice.org
  Executive Director
  L.A. Performance Practice
• Diana Wyenn
  Director, Arts Advocate
• Aura Vasquez
  Environmental Advocate
  VP Wilshire Ctr Neigborhood Council
• Sabina Virgo
  Founding member
  MLK Coalition, SoCal 350 Climate Action
• Justin Yoffe
  Executive Director
  Arts Earth Partnership