Pow!Wow! Long Beach returns after a year’s hiatus to celebrate their sixth year anniversary with a series of art installations and other activities for the community happening all over the city for the week.
Tuesday marked the official start of ‘Rise Play Repeat’, a week-long multimedia art festival hosted by Pow!Wow! Long Beach and Art Renzei. The purpose of the festival is to get people engaged with the local arts community in Long Beach.
The pandemic had put a halt to many of the events in the Long Beach community so many people were anxious to start showing love and support for their city once again.
Cindy Allen, councilwoman for Long Beach’s District 2, spoke during the press conference held on Wednesday for the event, expressing her gratitude for the amount of support for the arts after a very difficult year.
“Our city has been through so much and we’re still going through it. We find so much comfort and healing through artwork and music, so I’m just really excited that that’s the focus,” said Allen.
Also speaking at the conference was Julia Huang, one of Pow!Wow! Long Beach’s advisors, who emphasized how much of an impact art has on communities both locally and worldwide.
“Pow!Wow! Long Beach was always about bringing the world to Long Beach and bringing Long Beach to the world,” Huang said.
Huang also said that Long Beach is a very unique city that is united by its art and diversity.
“I hope that this whole week, as the art installations are being planned around the city, you engage with each other and enjoy art and culture in this beautiful city that is called Long Beach,” said Huang.
One of the sculptures on display during the festival was ‘Plastic Seal’, by Bordallo II. The sculpture was temporarily placed on Shoreline Beach, but is permanently on exhibit at the Long Beach Museum of Art.
The idea surrounding Bordallo II’s work is the excessive plastic consumption from humans that is consequently destroying the planet.
Also temporarily on display at Shoreline Beach was Tom Fruin’s sculpture, ‘Camouflage House’, made out of stained glass. The colorful glass reflects and captivates the sunlight, giving it an exquisite visual effect.
Aside from the art installations, many activities were held throughout Long Beach for the public to participate in. These activities included a pop-up shop, an artist led bike tour, a beach party and a ‘give + take’ plant trade.
A few staff members from ‘Art Supply Warehouse’ participated in the pop-up shop with screen printing demonstrations. Among the staff was Rebecca Giesking, who helped with the T-shirt printings.
“Pow!Wow! invited us to come out and utilize our abilities to do something interactive and so we decided to do screen printing,” said Giesking
Pow!Wow! Long Beach is scheduled to return with more art installations and fun activities next year.