Silver Lake Festival to Feature Art Auction, Music and Events for Families

Art, movies and jazz will mix Sunday when the Hollywood Los Feliz Jewish Community Center holds an art auction and family festival in Silver Lake.

Dubbed “Art Works ‘96” and modeled after the Venice Art Walk, events will include a silent auction featuring the works of more than 200 Southern California artists, food booths, two jazz bands, an African Cuban band and children’s activities.

The auction will be held at the Mack Sennett Stage, a restored 1916 sound stage once used to film silent movies.

“This is an opportunity for us to throw open the door and cast a shining light on the Jewish community,” said David Feinman, chairman of Art Works ’96. “We don’t want to be perceived as a cloistered community.”

Actually, the Hollywood Los Feliz Jewish Community Center has already opened its door to the racially mixed Silver Lake neighborhood. Of the nearly 100 families who send their children to the center’s preschool, kindergarten and day-care facilities, many are not Jewish.

Three years ago, leaders of the community center set a goal of having a major art festival in 1996. With no idea about where or how to start soliciting artists for the program, the leaders started with a little spy work.

“Espionage at the Venice Art Walk got us going,” said Feinman, who said that at the Venice Art Walk, where people stroll through artist studios, he and associates made contacts with representatives of popular artists.

Countless phone calls later, the center had a mailing list of 1,800 people affiliated with the arts.

On Sunday, the streets near the center, located on Bates Avenue just north of Sunset Boulevard, will be blocked off for people to enjoy the music, games and the auction that begins at noon and ends at 5 p.m.

People attending the auction will get a chance to buy art that will be offered at a starting minimum bid of 50% of their appraised prices. The minimum bids range from $100 to $9,000 for Brian Shapiro’s painting “Chief Rabbi of Israel.”

About 300 pieces of art are expected to be auctioned, organizers said. The proceeds will be split by the artist and the community center.

The funds will go toward operating costs of the center and upcoming projects, such as proposed free art classes.