SAN JOSÉ, California (March 5, 2018) — Mosaic Silicon Valley returns to the San José Museum of Art for an evening of live performances at ArtRage on Thursday, March 15, 2018, 7 – 10 PM. Mosaic Silicon Valley, an initiative of Sangam Arts, will present “Live! Like a Girl” to celebrate women’s empowerment in honor of Women’s History Month. ArtRage will feature spoken word performances by two San José poets, Asha Sudra and Quynh-Mai Nguyen, and a dance performance by NewGround Dance Theatre Company, choreographed by artistic director Coleen Lorenz. Admission is $5 and free for members. Tickets are available at the door and online at sjmusart.org/event/artrage-march-2018.

Asha Sudra is an artist and educator originally from Los Angeles, where she fell in love with and was influenced by its underground hip-hop scene. Asha has showcased her poetry on tour in London, including the famous Troy Bar. Her music, art, and spoken word mirror the passion and activism she lives out daily. Asha obtained her MA and teaching credential in Social Justice through the Education Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She works currently as an 8th-grade teacher in San José.

Quynh-Mai Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American social artist from San José, California. Her work emphasizes creating cultural awareness through arts education and wellness through play. She is actively involved in multicultural arts education and leadership programs such as the American Leadership Forum, Bloco do Sol’s Brazilian Drumming and Dance, Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute (MALI), School of Arts and Culture, Silicon Valley De-Bug, and her folk/R&B group Q&A.

NewGround Dance Theatre Company is a professional contemporary dance company premiering unique works that focus on the human heart connection. At the Arts Unity Movement (AUM) Center, is where the company performs with an approach called Emphatic Art Exchange, which focuses on choreography that elicits an emphatic response from viewers. The company continuously experiment with new methods of physical expression and focuses on the synergy of artistic forms for all of its thematic and storyline production.

Visitors are invited to explore the current exhibitions on view:

• Full Spectrum: Paintings by Raimonds Staprans, featuring over fifty landscape and still life paintings spanning an artistic career of sixty years.
• The Propeller Group, a provocative survey of projects including video, installation, and sculptural works;
• Louise Nevelson: The Fourth Dimension, which highlights Louise Nevelson’s Sky Cathedral (1957) and includes a new acquisition, related collages, and rarely seen ephemera;
• Crossroads: American Scene Prints from Thomas Hart Benton to Grant Wood, a collection of fifty-seven prints produced between 1905 and 1955, encompassing a broad range of art styles collectively known as “American Scene.”

MOSAIC SILICON VALLEY

Mosaic Silicon Valley commissions and presents collaborations with artists of different cultural communities in San José as a way to bridge disparate audiences. Mosaic Silicon Valley is an initiative of Sangam Arts, a non-profit organization that provides an innovative platform for artists from diverse backgrounds to come together to collaborate and co-create world-class music and dance performances.

SAN JOSÉ MUSEUM OF ART

The San José Museum of Art celebrates new ideas, stimulates creativity, and inspires connection with every visit. Welcoming and thought-provoking, the Museum rejects stuffiness and delights visitors with its surprising and playful perspective on the art and artists of our time. SJMA is located at 110 South Market Street in downtown San José, California. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 AM to 5 PM and until 8 PM or later on the third Thursday of each month. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $6 for students, and $5 for youth ages 7 – 18. Members and children ages 6 and under are admitted free. For more information, call 408-271-6840 or visit www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.

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Programs at the San José Museum of Art are made possible by generous operating support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Yvonne and Mike Nevens, a Cultural Affairs grant from the City of San José, and the Richard A. Karp Charitable Foundation.