Art of Native Landscapes

Along with our Storytelling fest at the Banning downtown art festival, we're featuring exciting art by area artists. Come enjoy!

Storytelling at Banning's Art Festival

Dragonfly Lecture on April 29

What some see as annoying weeds, others treasure as native plants important to indigenous people — foods, medicines, and more. And what some don't see at all are vital signs, forgotten murals tucked here and there throughout the Inland region. 

Explore Inland backways and back alleys in a search for "Vital Signs and Lavish Weeds" with poet Juan Delgado at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center's next Dragonfly Lecture on Monday, April 29.  

Juan Delgado is an award-winning poet who is unflinching witness to voices, lives, and landscapes often overlooked. He is a professor of English and director of the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing at California State University, San Bernardino. 

The lecture is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. April 29 at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center's San Manuel Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. Your $5 will help the nonprofit Learning Center save and share Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Information: 951.849.7736.

10 years in the Pass: Ballet concert April 28

San Gorgonio Ballet is celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year and so is Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. The two nonprofits will get together on April 28 when the ballet’s junior company performs in the Center’s San Manuel Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning.

San Gorgonio Ballet is a 501(C)3 nonprofit professional ballet company that was established in 2003 by founding artistic director Julia Olsen-Rodriguez. The ballet company is dedicated to the preservation and presentation of the art of classical dance by providing professional performances danced by professional dancers from throughout the United States. The company trains and gives opportunity for talented local youth to perform with these artists in both elite theater productions along with many local outreach performances yearly.

San Gorgonio Ballet Junior Company is scheduled to perform from 3 to 5 p.m. April 28 at the Learning Center’s Hall in downtown Banning. San Gorgonio Ballet Junior Company is a special group of talented young dancers on their way to professional careers in dance. This amazing young company will be performing a variety of classical and contemporary ballet works along with a special appearance by artistic director, Julia Olsen-Rodriguez. The performance will also feature the great classical ballet titled "Pas de Quatre" first set in 1845 by Jules Perrot; it’s one of the most adored of the classical ballets. There will also be a sampling of some new contemporary work and a rousing Can Can, sure to please one and all.

The $10 admission will benefit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, which saves and shares Southern California’s Native American cultures, arts, languages, and history. The Center offers a concert every Fourth Sunday in a cross-cultural series that benefits the Center’s work.

Information: 951.849.7736