For Immediate Release:

Pasadena Arts Council Presents

AxS Festival 2014 | Curiosity

Art + Science

In Venues Throughout Pasadena

Friday, September 19, 2014 – Sunday, October 5, 2014

LOS ANGELES, CA – August 28, 2014 [UPDATED: 9/12/14] – Pasadena Arts Council (PAC) is proud to announce AxS Festival 2014 | Curiosity, in diverse venues throughout the greater Pasadena area from Friday, September 19, 2014, through Sunday, October 5, 2014. AxS [ak-sis], produced by Pasadena Arts Council in partnership with numerous Pasadena arts and science institutions, is a two-week+ citywide festival spanning three weekends that explores the nexus of artistic and scientific inquiry, promoting experimentation and cross-fertilization between these disciplines. Programming is saturated with innovative visual art, theatre, dance, music, photography, history, science, literature, film, and architecture. The 2014 theme, Curiosity, was inspired by the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)-built Mars Rover, “Curiosity,” which is currently exploring the Martian surface some 50 million miles above us. The goal for the festival is to create audience experiences that bridge the boundary between art and science. Many events are free. A schedule of events is on the AxS website. For additional information, please visit axsfestival.org/2014.

To see the comprehensive Calendar of Events please click here.

“The interplay between human curiosity, scientific investigation, and artistic risk-taking reflects a cultural zeitgeist that not only defines Pasadena as the City of Art and Science, but also illuminates the richness, diversity, and sheer innovation of human aspiration and achievement in the 21st century,” says Terry LeMoncheck, PAC Executive Director, “Art and science are united in the AxS Festival – both are powerful engines of contemporary culture.”

Across 17 days of events, AxS Festival 2014 | Curiosity will engage audiences in dynamic, multidisciplinary programming that explores the intersection of art and science. This will be the sixth AxS Festival presented by PAC over the past 10 years. The Curiosity theme celebrates the mission of the Mars Rover, developed at NASA/JPL; the theme also elegantly lends itself to the integral role of curiosity in the artistic process and in scientific investigation/discovery. See LeMoncheck’s recent Pasadena Weekly article, “Be Curious.”

Nineteen presenting organizations will offer an extraordinary array of events and exhibits during AxS Festival 2014 | Curiosity. Subject matter ranging from discussions about artistic pursuits, which merge physics, chemistry, and computer science with uncanny philosophical practices, to an exhibition featuring objects that explore astronomy, space, zoology, physics, history, and the beauty of knowledge will entertain and enlighten. Approximately 150 artists will be involved in this year’s festival. For the complete event and exhibition schedule, please visit the festival website. Find the festival brochure here.

Curiosity –

Curiosity is the prime motivational engine of invention, in both art and science, and perhaps the single most important trait that makes greatness of achievement in these fields possible. Presented every two years, AxS is a proving ground where ideas, scientific theories, and leading-edge technologies converge with artistic innovation across a multidisciplinary platform of architecture, new media, visual art, music, theatre, dance, educational programs, and provocative conversation. The AxS Festival is a response to our contemporary cultural condition – a concentrated exploration designed to ignite and inspire the imagination of audiences and participants alike. Additionally, this year’s AxS theme has been artfully chosen to coincide with the second anniversary of the JPL rover “Curiosity’s” mission to discover more about Mars and, in the process, help scientists dig more deeply into the origins of our solar system and our own planet.



Art + Science in Pasadena –

Pasadena has always been a city of art and science, the two intertwined with its identity like strands of DNA. Few cities, if any, are better characterized by the impact of art and science or able to replicate Pasadena’s extraordinary blend of institutions engaged in the two explorations. These intellectual and institutional assets define the city as a place where ideas and creativity abound. Within this context, the AxS Festival embodies the integration of intuition and reason, as well as emotion and intellect, and the fusion of creativity and technique. It further commemorates, in Pasadena, a textured conversation between the sciences and the humanities that has long been emblematic of the city’s history, and is equally fused with its future. Read more here.

Cocky Eek – SPHAERAE (2012)
polyethylene, PVC and air
(photo courtesy of the artist)



Presenting Partners –

A Noise Within, About Productions, Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design, Big City Forum, Caltech, Carnegie Observatories, Descanso Gardens, The Gamble House, Huntington Library, Kidspace Children’s Museum, KPCC 89.3, MUSE/IQUE, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena Conservatory of Music, Pasadena Master Chorale, Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena Pro Musica, Shumei Arts Council.

Major Supporters –
National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Mondriaan Fund, City of Pasadena, and the Steve and Kelly McLeod Family Foundation.

Go Metro –
Pasadena Arts Council is proud to partner with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) for AxS Festival 2014 | Curiosity. Go Metro and save 10% on all ticketed SPHAERAE events. All TAP card users, Metro employees, and LA County employees who go Metro can save 10% on all events at SPHAERAE by using the discount code “gometroaxs” when purchasing tickets online from the AxS Festival website. For more details, visit here. The AxS Festival is located throughout Pasadena from 9/19/14 through 10/5/14 with many venues accessible from the Metro Gold Line via the Del Mar Station, Memorial Park Station, or Lake Station. To find the best route, attendees can use the Trip Planner on www.metro.net or call 323-Go-Metro (323-466-3876).

Pasadena Arts Council –
Pasadena Arts Council (PAC) is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization that provides resources, programs and services to artists, arts and cultural organizations, audiences, young people, and visitors to Pasadena. The agency offers an independent voice for promoting a vibrant cultural community by facilitating, empowering, and advocating for the arts. PAC was founded in 1964, the first organization of its kind in California, and helped establish the model for community-based support of artists and cultural institutions now prevalent throughout the nation. Over the years, PAC has responded to the evolving nature of the arts community in Pasadena and its changing population, offering programs and services anchored in collaborating, resource sharing, convening, and outreach.

PAC has organized, presented, and promoted five previous AxS Festivals, each of which explored a different theme through visual art exhibitions and public art installations, theatre, music, spoken word, dance, film, and public conversations. The themes have been: The Universe (2001), The Tender Land (2004), Skin (2007), Origins (2009), and Fire and Water (2011). Each festival theme considers profound questions of the human experience to resonate with current issues and to capitalize on Pasadena’s assets in the arts and sciences.

Links –

• AxS Festival 2014 | Curiosity – axsfestival.org/2014
• Pasadena Arts Council – www.pasadenaartscouncil.org
• AxS on Facebook – www.facebook.com/AxSfestival

• AxS Twitter – twitter.com/axsFestival

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For more information, photos, sound files, guest list(s), or to schedule an interview, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201, lynn@greengalactic.com.