Jackson Browne To Headline Weekend Festival To Benefit School Arts Programs

   Jackson Browne will kick off a weekend “Celebration for the Arts” to benefit arts education in the Santa Monica and Malibu public schools, organized by the Santa Monica Malibu Education Foundation.
   Singer/songwriter Browne, whose children go to school here, will appear in concert at Barnum Hall on the Santa Monica High School campus on Friday night, May 14, at 8:30 p.m. The band Venice will open for the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.
   $65 concert tickets are sold out, but $250 and $1,000 are still available. Call 310-396-4557 or 310-452-1394 for tickets. The $250 VIP tickets include admission to the concert and a reception and auction before the concert at the Santa Monica Pier Carousel. $1,000 ticket-holders are also invited to an informal post-concert gathering with Browne.
   The 5:30 p.m. reception at the carousel will feature a raffle, food and wine and an auction hosted by a Christie’s auctioneer and members of the cast of “The West Wing.” In addition, guests will learn more about the work and goals of the foundation.
   To be given away in the raffle are five posters created by a Samohi student and signed by Browne, a diamond necklace, a $200 Drago gift card and a wine basket from Southcorp Wines.
   On the auction block will be a Quantas round trip to Australia for two, luxury cruises for two, dinner for four, infield passes and four box seats for an Angels-Chicago White Sox baseball game, three nights at Palmvilla Resort in Los Cabos, a Laddie John Dill light sculpture, a gathering with the cast of “The West Wing,” and a makeover package.
   On Saturday and Sunday, the Foundation and the Pier Restoration Corporation will co-sponsor an arts festival on the pier, which will feature student performances, arts workshops and vendors, presentations by community non-profit arts organizations and food from local restaurants from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
   Arts and crafts workshops for children will be conducted by Cards by Kids Art, Paper Mosaics, Bookmarks, Floral pens, Fimo clay bugs and Suzi Poo, arts and crafts vendors will sell their wares and students in a number of community children’s dance and drama programs will perform.
   Among the school district student musicians who are scheduled to perform on the pier on Saturday are the John Adams Middle School choir, band and orchestra, the Samohi band, orchestra and choir and the high school’s jazz band.
   For The Arts, a community effort to create a $15 million endowment to ensure that every student in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District receives a comprehensive arts education as part of the school’s academic curriculum, was organized in 2001 by a group of concerned residents. To date, it has raised $1.5 million from over 450 donors. The funds are administered by the Education Foundation. (see editorial on page 6).