SDSU Students Unite South Bay Community Through Art Event

SAN DIEGO---The LoCAL Arts Collaborative, a ground breaking project-based research and civic-engagement opportunity students at San Diego State University (SDSU), aims to unite the San Diego South Bay Community through its upcoming heART on CENTER art-based event.

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_{Deadline Friday, January 20th, 2012 - 5:00 p.m.}

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HeART on CENTER is an event created with art as its beating heart. However, at this art-walk, you will not find yourself walking a velvet-rope path, silently gazing at untouchable museum art with your hands clasped humbly behind your back. HeART on CENTER aims to break the mold of traditional art-walks by including a variety of hands-on activities, live musical performances, and live visual demonstrations for all ages. The event is even going to feature a musical “petting zoo” where children and adults can try their hand at playing unique musical instruments. The student creators of heART on CENTER are hopeful the event will spark a love for the arts and community within the heart of every participant.

The heART on CENTER event is free to the public and is to take place on Center Street in Chula Vista on Saturday, February 11th, 2012 from 4p.m.- 8p.m.

The event is hosted by The City of Chula Vista, event sponsor Casa Familiar, and support of Third Avenue Village Association (TAVA). However, heART on CENTER is driven by the visions and research of the students of the LoCAL Arts Collaborative.

HeART on CENTER is the product of the continuous effort of four semesters of SDSU students. Each student in the course comes from a different academic discipline and is hand-selected every semester to participate in the unique collaborative.

Dr. Feilen, Faculty of the Division of Undergraduate Studies at SDSU, created the hybrid undergraduate project-based research and civic engagement course as part of a service learning initiative with SDSU’s Center for Regional Sustainability. For the past two years, students of the LoCAL Arts Collaborative have been engaged in community-building with artist, musicians, educators, businesses, civil government, non-profits and other advocates that nurture and protect the arts within the South Bay community.

The heART on CENTER event was developed as one of many civic action steps. Community advocates (media, civic/town government, education, businesses, non-profits) expressed to the Collaborative their desires to sustain, preserve, and protect the arts practices unique to South Bay communities. These 48 voices were captured in a published Resource Development Plan, a formulated community deliverable created by previous LoCAL Arts Collaborative members.

Dr. Feilen hopes her students’ efforts will someday result in long-term social change. “I wanted us to be a part of something bigger than ourselves and to give back to the community," said Dr. Feilen.

The newly implemented course, appropriately titled, “Sustaining Our Community Through the Arts,” guides students to address community sustainability within South Bay by means of promoting the importance of the arts and its advocates. Unlike traditional university courses, the collaborative is unique in that it was structured to provide students the opportunity to not only gain undergraduate research experience, but to engage them in civic-learning focusing on real-world challenges within the local community.