NOW HEAR THIS! is an outdoor exhibition and sound festival featuring the work of thirty-one different local and national sound artists, composers, instrument-builders, performers, and visual artists for whom listening plays a vital role in their creative process. Visitors are invited to consider the following questions: How can listening disrupt or enhance our sense of place and space? Can the act of listening produce new forms of public engagement and awareness? How can we listen more deeply and differently?
The exhibition includes five newly commissioned site-specific works of sound-based art by national and local artists Taraneh Hemami, Walter Kitundu, Hugh Livingston, Shane A. Myrbeck and Emily Shisko, and Stephen Vitiello. It also featured the launch of Soundings: Listening with Lucas Artists Composer Fellows, a new series of immersive audio walks providing visitors with the opportunity to explore Montalvo’s grounds while listening to a diverse range of sonic work by Lucas Artists Composer Fellows and their collaborators. The opening sound festival included a celebration of the life and legacy of seminal postwar composer and sound artist Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016) organized by Lucas Artists Program Composer Fellow Luciano Chessa. The evening also featured an immersive sound and visual environment, Sama: The Divine Music organized by audiovisual/performance artist/filmmaker/DJ Arshia Haq, in which the artist used vinyl records, archival sounds, and digital recording to explore the Sufi practice of devotional listening; and an interactive workshop with Lucas Artists Composer Fellow Fernando Vigueras and visual artist Daniel Godinez Nivon, where visitors were to participate in a conversation about dreams, listening and sound and to create graphic scores using found objects.
Image Gallery
Meet the Artists
Partners and Sponsors
Now Hear This! was made possible through the generous support of the following program partners, exhibition sponsors, and Friends of the Lucas Artists Program: Special thanks to our lead sponsor, The Marcus Family Foundation
The Jo and Barry Ariko Fund for Artistic Programs • Mitchell and Kristen Yawitz • Colleen Wilcox and Richard Ressman
In the News
- NOW HEAR THIS! An Exercise in Listening at Montalvo Arts Center
By Brandi Miceli, The Mercury News - SOUNDINGS @ Montalvo Arts Center
By David M. Roth, Squarecylinder