LA Freewaves Announces Kick-Off Event For Its 2002 Festival and Panel Discussions: 

“TV or Not TV”at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles On Thursday, January 31^st at 7:30pm

Los Angeles, CA - This year, LA’s essential media arts organization, LA Freewaves announces its kick-off event for "TV or Not TV", the umbrella title for 2002's ambitious schedule of public events.  For the first time in the festival’s 13-year history, festival organizers will present an eight-part series of panel discussions leading up to November's biannual arts festival.

The first event will be a high profile evening at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Auditorium (250 S. Grand Avenue, in downtown LA) on Thursday, January 31, 2002 from 7:30pm - 10:00pm.  The event, free to the public, will include refreshments, short screenings and a panel discussion with invited guest speakers.

The panel series will explore the creation of a mass media outlet for the arts.  It will formulate a non-profit model with various income sources to disseminate media arts as well as the various arts of underrepresented audiences.  The eight public panel discussions will elicit a collective vision from the educational, art, technology and media worlds.

The guest speakers for the January 31^st event at MOCA include:

Titus Levi, Moderator - faculty at USC Annenberg School of Communication

Doug Chang - KCET Director of Programming, former PBS producer for “Egg” (segment producer) and “POV” (Supervising Producer)

Deedee Halleck - Co-founder of Deep Dish TV, founder of Paper Tiger TV, media activist

Larry Namer - founder of E! Entertainment, Steeplechase Media and Comspan

Neil Sieling - Consultant launching WorldLink TV, Exec. Producer of “Alive from Off Center”, and Exec. Producer for the animated film Waking Life

Each panelist will present his/her views of the following questions and then engage each other, along with the public, in a discussion.  The main questions to address include:

Where are the arts on TV?

Could the arts be mass distributed?

Is it possible now to start a nonprofit culture TV channel?

Can the Internet be a viable alternative or complement?

The eight planned “TV or Not TV” panel discussions will take place at key public arts and educational institutions in Los Angeles beginning on January 31^st and will culminate in the midst of LA Freewaves’ 8th celebration of experimental media arts, in November.  Throughout the panel discussion series the public is invited to interact with leading edge artists, broadcast industry heavyweights, and progressive educators who will discuss, analyze, demonstrate, debate and showcase a multitude of media arts reaching a wider global audience. 

Through these important panel discussions, LA Freewaves, along with everyone who participates, will create a feasible non-profit model for a culture channel on satellite TV or the Internet.

As a coalition of arts organizations, schools, libraries, cable stations, and curators, LA Freewaves produces a major festival of experimental arts every two years.  Since 1989, renegade artist and festival director Anne Bray has presented hundreds of artists in diverse locales across Los Angeles County for the entire month of celebration.  LA Freewave’s biannual festival is now LA's oldest, biggest and most enduring media arts festival. This year will mark LA Freewave’s 8th biannual festival of media and experimental arts with the goal, as always, to serve the needs of the artist and audience alike by providing a diverse forum to share their works and ideas. 

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The evening also marks the official open call for entries for this year's 8th biannual LA Freewaves art festival in November.  So BYOT (Bring Your Own Tape) or visit the LA Freewaves Web site for submission guidelines and address. Deadline for open call is March 15, 2002.

For more information please contact Lynn Hasty at Green Galactic 323-466-5141 or lynn@greengalactic.com.