APRIL 21, 2008 (0
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Athenaeum an A-List opportunity
By David McAtee
The Athenaeum in La Jolla is becoming the
new spot to mingle, schmooze, tip back a cocktail, and of
course see some art. Through The Athenaeum's newest membership
category, fresher takes on the gallery scene are happening
regularly at the La Jolla based membership library.
One of only 17 membership libraries
operating in the United States at the moment, and one of only
two on the West Coast, the Athenaeum has added a more
accessible grouping to their membership strata. Called the
A-List, this membership caters to a more hip young crowd,
allowing a more diverse group to become involved in a community
standby that has stood by for almost 110 years.
Membership libraries are an American
institution, the first of which was the Library Company of
Philadelphia, founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin. Membership
libraries began as voluntary companies and societies of
individuals pooled their resources to buy books and secure a
place to house them.
Started in 1894 by a small group of women,
the Athenaeum was conceived as the La Jolla Reading Club. In
1899, the group was incorporated as the Library Association of
La Jolla. In 1921, the Spanish Renaissance style building was
dedicated, with the adjacent building and its trademark rotunda
dedicated on June 27, 1957. In 1955, the City of San Diego took
over the operation of the library as one of its public
branches, and rented the space from the Athenaeum, and the
Association donated the bulk of its library holdings to the
public library, retaining certain books on music and art as the
centerpiece of a collection for the newly-named Athenaeum Music
and Arts Library. But by 1989, the Athenaeum's burgeoning
collections and larger membership expanded beyond the one room
library. The general public library moved to a new La Jolla
branch, and the Athenaeum was able to move into part of the
original building that was dedicated in 1921.
Since the expansion that was completed in
July 1990, under the directorship of Erika Torri, the Athenaeum
has increased its activity in the cultural life of San Diego,
attracting more than 100,000 visitors each year. Events and
programs such as art exhibitions, chamber, jazz and new music
concerts, lectures and art classes at two studio locations have
been added and the Library's membership has doubled. Not bad,
considering that the Athenaeum is one of only 17 membership
libraries in the United States, the Mechanic's Institute
Library of San Francisco the only other on the West Coast.
The A-List membership of the Athenaeum is
the latest evolutionary stage, instituted to gather the
attention of Generation X and Yers. A-List membership is $75
dollars per year and gains the holder free admission to
Athenaeum special events, art openings, receptions, exhibits,
jazz concerts, lectures and classes.
Started by Kristina Meek, Marie Vicars
Horne, Annina Torri (daughter of the Athenaeum's director Erika
Torri), and Sandy Todd Webster, the A-List was a response to
the notable lack of younger patronage to the facility.
“The first event was a free event,
with members of our peer group. We invited friends to attend
and from there it morphed into a formal membership,” says
Meek, now the director of public relations. “We had
noticed at a certain point that no one under fifty even knew
what the
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Athenaeum was, or what we do.”
Reaching out to their contemporaries, the
A-List's founders have begun curating art exhibits on a loosely
regular basis, every six weeks to three months.
The rotation is based on the interests of
the membership and in order to accommodate the different types
of events, both the library/gallery facility in La Jolla and
the University Heights location on Park Boulevard are used.
Because the location in University Heights has no gallery
space, the events that take place tend to be more hands-on
studio-oriented social events where the attendees are the
artists, according to Meek.
“The University Heights location
holds events where people can participate in pottery, painting,
figure drawing, whatever event we're showcasing, and also can
have a drink and some snacks. There's no gallery, so whatever
art there is to see is art that they are making,” Meek
said.
The thought that art can be set in a social
and fun dynamic is at the core of the A-List, going back to
2005, when the membership was founded.
The latest exhibit at the Athenaeum's main
gallery facility in La Jolla is an installation called
“Convergence,” installed by artist Adam Belt.
Including several paintings, sketches, and a large piece of
concrete outside of the main portico, the pieces curated for
the exhibit use the unlikely substance of salt as the medium
and are presented in such a way to command a fresh perspective
on how art is displayed and interacted with. For one piece,
Belt placed a large pile of salt on the floor, just next to a
knee high concrete pillar, and turned an industrial fan on the
pile for a whole day. The result is a sweeping of salt that
resembles the California coastline along one side of a doorway.
The substance was chosen because of its lightly reflective
quality and to invoke the notion of the convergence of the two
elements that make salt.
For the next A-List event and exhibit,
legendary comic icon Jim Lee will be giving a lecture and
presenting work of his own and from his studio, Wildstorm
Productions. Lee has worked for the two major heavyweights in
the comics industry, Marvel and DC, as well as being one of the
six founding members of Image Comics in 1992. In 1991, Lee
provided the artwork for issue #1 of the X-Men, an issue that
to this day holds the record for the highest selling single
issue of all time, almost 8.5 million. Lee is currently working
with Sin City and 300 creator Frank Miller on the latest run of
Batman. Reliving old success, the first issue of Miller and
Lee's Batman collaboration was the highest selling issue of
2002.
The “Superheroes: The Art of
Wildstorm Productions” A-List event will be held on June
26 at 7pm. The event is free to A-List members, $10 admission
to the general public. “Superheroes” is sponsored
by Karl Strauss, Veev Acai spirits, and CityBeat. For more
information, visit www.ljathenaeum.org.
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