This Week on the Central Coast…
Seaside PD helping with repairs, 30th Carmel Art Festival, a new exhibit at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, and a note about baby foxes.
Monterey
Seaside Police launching “Lights On!” program
Seaside’s Police Department will be the first agency in Northern and Central California to use “Lights On!”, a program that allows officers to give vouchers for light-related repairs rather than issuing a fix-it ticket.
The program was started by a nonprofit called Microgrants in Minneapolis after a broken tail light resulted in an officer-involved fatal shooting. “The ‘Lights On!’ program aims to help transform a negative, costly stop for an equipment violation into a healing moment between an officer and a community member”. The goal is to improve police relations with the local communities while helping low-income drivers with minor repairs and, overall, helping to make the roads safer. It also reduces the stress of the stop for both the officer and driver.
The police department will partner with local auto shops and cover the cost to repair a broken headlight, taillight, brake light, or turn signal light. No city funds will be used to pay for the program, though the department did have to use its own grant money to cover some of the cost. The remaining portion was covered by the Microgrants nonprofit.
Carmel Art Festival coming next weekend
The Carmel Art Festival was started in 1993 to celebrate Carmel as a destination for artists. “The three-day event is committed to supporting Carmel’s rich artistic history, while supporting the next generation of artists.”
The 30th annual festival begins Friday, 5/19, and ends on Sunday, 5/21, at Davendorf Park. Winners will be announced during the Friday evening event and will be followed by a reception filled with music, food, and wine all from Carmel and Carmel Valley. Tickets to the reception gala are $40 each.
A “quick draw” competition will take place on Sunday, 5/21, where selected artists have only 30 minutes to create a painting, which will be sold in a silent auction later that day.
In addition to the painters, sculptor Steven Whyte will hold his own event within the festival called “Sculpture in the Park”, where he will lead a live sculpting demonstration.
You can find more information about the festival at its website.
SPCA reunites baby foxes with parents
Last Thursday, three fox kits were brought in after they were believed to be lost or abandoned. The SPCA determined they were about four weeks old. Motion cameras were set near the suspected den site and the kits were reunited almost immediately.
The SPCA put out a message regarding fox kits:
“Fox kits may start venturing out of the den at about 4 weeks old, so it is likely the adventurous babies are still unsure where to go and how to explore their world. It is also common for kits to play together unattended before returning to their parents at night. We thank these finders for trying to help these little kits, but unlike other species we typically reunite, foxes are allowed more leeway at this age and can be left alone for up to 24 hours before there is a need for concern.”
Santa Cruz
New exhibit at MAH shows ideas of “Future Ancestral Technologies”
The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz has premiered a new exhibit showcasing the idea of “Future Ancestral Technologies”. The title of the exhibit, “Sé’sh Shóto’sh Psí’sh”, translates to “Red, Black, and White”. The colors are meant to represent muscle, sinew, and bone. New Mexico artist Cannupa Hanska Luger said the “project is rooted in science fiction, namely emphasizing that technology is not the mechanism that leads people into the future but rather the ideas that spark progress.”
The exhibit is part of a bigger three-year project by the Museum of Art & History called “Kincentricity” which was launched with the help of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Museums for America program. The project has allowed the museum to create a new section of its gallery for indigenous history.
MAH is open from noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays.
Just wanted to say that the variety of topics is interesting as are the varied Central Coast locations covered. Also, I like the fact that the stories are often not covered in other media I read. The "fix a light" article is one such. Keep up the good work.