Top California Artists to Converge on Chinatown to Capture Its Distinctive Architecture and Colorful Street Scenes

    LOS ANGELES, May 2 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 100 of California's foremost
 artists will set up their easels on the streets of Chinatown and participate
 in the first Chinatown Art Festival, by painting the historic structures and
 colorful byways of this culturally rich area of Los Angeles.  Their creative
 efforts began in April and will culminate in June with two focused weeks of
 painting, June 11 to June 23, when the majority of the artists will gather to
 create plein air paintings of the city scene.
     All participating artists are juried members of the prestigious California
 Art Club, one of the nation's largest fine arts organizations dedicated to the
 support of contemporary, traditional art.  The finest of the paintings will be
 exhibited June 23 to July 22 at the Hong Gallery, 951 North Broadway, which is
 adjacent to the Gate of Maternal Virtue, an icon widely photographed as a
 civic symbol of Chinatown.
     This art extravaganza coincides with the 63rd anniversary of the founding
 of Chinatown's current site and launches a decade-long effort to revitalize
 this multicultural region of the city.  The event is sponsored by the
 Los Angeles Chinatown Business Council (LACBC) and the California Art Club.
     "These artists will capture images of Chinatown during a period that one
 day will be considered a turning point in the history of the area," said
 Roger Hong, an LACBC board member whose father funded the design and
 construction of the Gate of Maternal Virtue.  "We hope that this Art Festival
 will become an annual event for Chinatown and chronicle the positive changes
 that will take place in the next 10 years and beyond."
     Gayle Garner Roski, event co-chair and artist member of the California Art
 Club, announced that a gala reception to preview the Chinatown Art Festival
 exhibition will be held on the evening of Thursday, June 21.  The exhibit
 opens to the public on the following Saturday.  Proceeds from the sale of the
 paintings on view will benefit a Chinatown building restoration fund and
 educational programs of the California Art Club.
     For more information on the Chinatown Art Festival, call (213) 680-0243 or
 visit www.chinatownla.com.
 
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SOURCE  Los Angeles Chinatown Business Council