Mark your calendars for the always-entertaining Rancho Mirage Art Affaire the first weekend in November.
Art and music lovers count on it to kick off the valley’s art festival season in style. And here’s a welcome bit of news — admission and parking are free! Rancho Mirage Community Park is the venue, and people who haven’t enjoyed a concert at its dramatic new amphitheater are in for a double treat.
Come for the art and stay for the music. During the day, more than 100 artists from all over the Southwest will display their work, representing a wide range of disciplines including photography, sculpture, ceramics, glass, jewelry, textiles, and more. Come evening, smooth jazz performers will command the amphitheater stage at 5 p.m.; gates open at 4 p.m. Throughout the day and into the evening, several Rancho Mirage restaurants provide food and beverages available for purchase, including adult libations
The headliner on Saturday evening is the contemporary ensemble Urban Jazz Coalition. Described as the best-kept secret in smooth jazz, it has built a reputation for engaging rhythmic grooves, funky bass lines, and smooth melodies.
PHOTO COURTESY OF URBAN JAZZ COALITION
Urban Jazz Coalition has delighted audiences for more than 20 years.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LAO TIZER
The Lao Tizer Band brings jazz, rock, classical, and jam band influences together, promising an epic evening show.
On Sunday night the Lao Tizer Band brings its multifaceted world fusion sound to the amphitheater stage. The multigenre, multinational show promises to captivate and expand beyond mere jazz notes. Both musical performances are presented by Marker Broadcasting.
There’s no better way to spend the weekend than at the Rancho Mirage Art Affaire. Browse the wide array of creative offerings, eat, drink, and be artfully merry in one of the valley’s most technically advanced outdoor ven
The Gem of
Rancho Mirage
Jewelry artist Sarah Anderson models one of her exquisite necklace and pendant creations as part of the one-of a kind jewelry she will have on display at the Rancho Mirage Art Affaire.
She fashions them from materials she sources by traveling all over the world. Lately, she’s been drawn to Murano, Italy, home of renowned glass blowers who create the custom beads that accentuate many of her recent designs. Trips to France have yielded vintage Lucite and other antique treasures that she incorporates into the pieces she makes with her own hands. “I’ve made over 2,000 necklaces and they’re all different. Every time I do a piece, I get excited about it,” she says.
PHOTO BY MARK DAVIDSON
Sarah Anderson
Anderson was creative from a young age. As a flight attendant for 22 years, she had time to pursue many different art forms. Yet nothing quite captured her imagination like jewelry.
“I had never pursued an art I felt this way about. And it was just all of a sudden. I go into ‘the zone’ artists talk about when I’m making jewelry,” she says, having retired from the skies and now creates jewelry full time.
“My strength is in design,” she adds. “I love the search to find the different components. And it’s almost like when I find them, they just tell me, OK, it’s going to happen. And it just comes.”