Guerrero said promotion is ongoing, including visiting other festivals and art events to publicize De Colores; radio promotions – including one featuring Mayor Gabino Aguirre - and interviews are also being scheduled, she added, and the council approved televising the festival on the city’s cable access channel.Area merchants “have always been very supportive” and fundraising is ongoing.The Salinas-based Steinbeck Center and Santa Francisco venues are also promoting De Colores, which will also feature the works of 35 noted artists including the Royal Chicano Airforce of Los Angeles.A Mercado and children’s corner offering special activities will also be featured, and De Colores is encouraging those attending the event in eat in area restaurants.De Colores also relies heavily on cyber-space for promotion, said Guerrero, and its Web site (decoloresartgroup.org) is “constantly being updated to provide links” that promote Santa Paula.De Colores also has value in helping the council to achieve their goalsand teachers are being contacted to use the event as a lesson plan that will be available online.De Colores is “a labor of love,” Guerrero noted, and the imaginative poster is set against the backdrop of Hospital Hill to “show the beautiful valley. . .”
10th Annual De Colores to be the best, Montes tells City Council
March 24, 2004
Santa Paula City Council
The organizers of the 10th annual De Colores Art Show & Festival are “working day and night,” towards the mega-event, its founder told the City Council at the March 15 meeting.
by Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesThe organizers of the 10th annual De Colores Art Show & Festival are “working day and night,” towards the mega-event, its founder told the City Council at the March 15 meeting.“. . .it’s very close, just four weeks,” until the April 18 De Colores, said founder Xavier “Big X” Montes of the cultural event which each year draws more and more visitors to downtown Santa Paula and the California Oil Museum.“Carmen Guerrero and I are working 24-7 to bring the best artists, dancers and musicians,” to the city for the event, said Montes.Performers include Pacifico Dance Company, accompanied by Mariachi Monumental de America, an internationally famous troupe: “They’re known for what they do best. . .it’s their life” and the dancers are acclaimed for their repertoire of regional dances likened to ballet.To accommodate the dancers as well as the other top-flight performers a “huge stage, this is a major production,” that will occur outside the museum where the street will be closed for De Colores, said Montes.Posters bid and small are being distributed through the state where Montes and Guerrero are targeting potential De Colores attendees.Montes thanked City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz and the Council for their support, as well as Museum Director Mike Nelson and Brian Yanez, community services director.
