An exuberant reception featuring Rocco, family, and friends: Mission Bay High School Gypsy Jazz Band, Genbu Daiko, freestyle dancing by Kanna Burch, with Live Painting, and special guests at the Japanese Friendship Garden’s Inamori Pavilion. Sponsorship by San Diego Yokohama Sister City Society and Design Consignment Gallery. This reception kicks off Rocco’s American Life Tour and Gallery Exhibition; an art collection thought lost and forgotten being revealed for the first time in 28 years. As vibrant as the day they were painted, America’s largest collection of Satoshi Akiyama, a.k.a. “Rocco”, will be on display at Design Consignment Gallery from September 18 through October 18. Rocco will be an artist in residence and one of three featured artists from three San Diego sister cities coming together for the first time for public murals, workshops, and events throughout San Diego and Tijuana.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][button url=”http://designconsignmentgallery.com/event/rocco/” position=”ta_center”]For More Information[/button][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][button url=”https://48323.blackbaudhosting.com/48323/Roccos-American-Life-2018-Tour” position=”ta_center”]To Purchase a ticket[/button][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
The story behind “Rocco’s American Life” wouldn’t be complete without a reunion with Sister City muralist, Mario Torero of Chicano Park fame. It was Mr. Torero and fellow muralist Ruben Seja who together encouraged Yokohama-based Rocco to come to San Diego nearly 30 years ago for an Art Exchange. The body of work Rocco created is considered among his best work. Over 40 large format acrylic on canvas and 80 smaller works are represented in the exhibition. In the early 90s, Rocco and his team painted one of the largest murals in Chicano Park and an entire building at Albert Einstein Elementary School. A restoration of the mural by the original artists is one of many projects scheduled during Rocco’s Artist in Residence. Rocco also produced a large body of work in Tijuana, the third San Diego Sister City represented. Tijuana artist and border wall muralist, Mr. Enrique Chiu, will be participating in the exhibition side-by-side with Satoshi and Torero. The art exchange climaxes in Tijuana, with all three artists contributing to the US/Mexico border wall project “Mural de la Hermandad” or Mural of Brotherhood, the largest International border art project in the world. Together these artists represent the best of what of Sister City relationships are all about. With these new contributions to San Diego and Tijuana’s public art, they set an example of how an artistic legacy is established to the delight of future generations of artists and the public. A portion of gallery sales will be dedicated to the San Diego Yokohama Sister City Society.
Our latest sister city project was to raise awareness of environmental issues in Yokohama and San Diego. Over 400 students from San Diego elementary schools participated in drawing the posters. Below is a link of the posters that were submitted which was exhibited in Yokohama.
BY DIANE BELL COLUMNIST JAN. 29, 2018 3:20 PM PT
Thelma Press, 90, was unable to travel from San Diego to Japan to be honored by the emperor, so Japan’s Consul General in Los Angeles came here Wednesday to confer Japan’s Imperial decoration.
Press received “The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays” from Consul GeneralAkira Chibaat the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park.
“It is a ranked decoration and highly prestigious,” saidJennifer Usyak, the Japanese consulate’s adviser for political and community relations. “We look very carefully at the background of anyone under consideration.”
San Diego resident Thelma Press gets prestigious honor from Japanese government.
(Courtesy photo )
She explained the award recognizes people who promote friendship and good relations between the United States and Japan and who enhance Japanese culture in the United States.
Press’ contributions date back to 1959 when she was living in San Bernardino and co-founded the San Bernardino-Tachikawa Sister City program.
She was appointed as a California representative to Sister Cities International in 1972 and served as president of the San Diego-Yokohama Sister City Society from 2013-2015.
A Los Angeles woman also received the 2017 Imperial decoration in an earlier ceremony at the consul general’s home.
The emperor’s award requires the approval of his Cabinet. “It is equivalent to the Congressional Gold Medal in the United States or a knighthood in the UK,” Usyak said.
Principal Eddie Park has continued the tremendous momentum of dialog between Yokohama and San Diego for building a public school partnership. Eddie traveled to Yokohama once again on from July 8-16 and made tours to the elementary, middle, and high schools in Kanazawa Ward. He was able to meet and exchange gifts with each of the principals there and officially sign partnership agreements that twinned schools together.
Kanazawa Elementary is now partner schools with Barnard Elementary Asian Pacific Language Academy; Kanazawa Junior High School is partnered up with Pacific Beach International Baccalaureate Middle School; and Yokohama Municipal Kanazawa High School is partnered up with Mission Bay High School.
Furthermore, the Yokohama Board of Education has newly establish an Office of International Division to focus on its overseas exchanges. On September 12th, Yokohama Municipal Kanazawa Senior High School Principal Masahiko Miura and English instructor Mr. Satoshi Yuchi will arrive in San Diego to attend the Society’s annual luncheon at Admiral Baker Clubhouse, and then tour their San Diego partner schools and better know our city.
