A recap of the past year 2017 :

 

Thank you for responding so positively to support the creation of  historic district for the Hacienda, Cemetery and Native Garden.  This is an important, and long overdue task.  Listing Mojica's Hacienda on the Federal Register of Historic Places enables us to add our Santuario Native Garden and the 1840s Marquez Family Cemetery to that recognition.  A great deal of work has already gone into collecting the documentation and the images and writing drafts of the myriad parts of the Application.  Of course this is  a 'labor of love' for Task Force Members.

 

Volunteer-run-organizations are actually quite rare in the non profit world.  It forces us to  allocate our hours among activities. The level of effort devoted to Historic Designation meant a greatly reduced Summer Programs schedule.   

 

We were able to engage both our elementary school students and an archeo tour in the cemetery where they saw  the beautiful new "Las Cruces" project. Our Historian, Ernest Marquez has designed Mexican crosses to commemorate each grave and the art tile plaque listing the names was completed through your generosity.

June saw onsite lecture programs sponsored by Patron members and focused on invitations to members of local organizations who'd made 2017 grants.   Our collaborative offsite programs continued to be a source of invitations for Patrons  to small group events at the Getty Research Institute, the Colburn Institute of Archeology, the Huntington and the Autry.

 

Yet we know that many of those in our La Senora  community are individuals who volunteer as docents, or man the sign-in or information table at events and exhibitions.  The reduced on-site events programming has a larger impact on the participation of these Volunteers.

   

What's new for 2018?

 

  

You've told us you miss the rich variety of our programming.  We've heard laments about the lack of concerts, film series and tango.  We're not certain which is the more vocal group of fans! 

It simple,   We need sponsors.  Who wants to produce a La Senora concert or fund a lecture.  

 

For five seasons  La Senora served as the  'home concert hall' for the  child Prodigies of the Colburn School's Danielle Belen Strings Studio.   It's been remarkable following these kids over the years as they keep winning international awards.  Each is a gifted artist and they have the pleasure of performing on rare instruments on loan from the Mandel Collection.  Kevin Miura explained to us how his violin contributed to his making the cut to go to England to compete in the Mendelssohn Competition  (at which he took 2nd place in the junior division and won the use of a Stradivarius that we hope to hear this coming summer.) 

And then there's the incomparable  Marc Wanamaker and his archives!   His collection of  arial photos of  Beverly Hills in which Chaplin and Mary Pickford/Doug Fairbanks lived, made it startlingly clear that here were there two homes and tennis courts and walkways between them, and not much in the general area of anything else until you got to the Beverly Hills Hotel.  The details he adds about living with the Chaplin family in their Swiss lakeside retreat made 'Charlie' a real person to us for the Chaplin film series.  His background  on Gone with the Wind disclosed facts that weren't even known by the Ransom Center Curator for that collection.  What fun Marc's talks are. 

               Educating about our history while having fun doing so is one of our goals.

 

  Thank you for supporting us.....and do think about sponsoring an event in the summer of 2018.