By Dianne Anderson

San Bernardino residents can stretch their imagination and express their inner muse through several upcoming programs and events at the Garcia Center for the Arts.

Art with Jessie, a professional artist, is inviting the community to come out and try their hand at duplication and renditions of paintings by the ultimate professionals.

Participants don’t need to be an artist, but they need to love the process.

Dr Ernest Garcia, executive director of the Garcia Center for the Arts, said one recent project was a redo of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. It drew a very enthusiastic response, and the experience was priceless.

Hopefully, he said they can stay focused long enough to master their masterpiece.

“They did a great job with that,” said Dr. Garcia. “Sometimes it’s simple and other times it’s challenging. People are painting and they’re laughing all the time, and I wondered what time do they get to paint?”

That event is hosted through November, and will take a break over the holidays to resume in January. Tickets are $23.

But many of their events are also free and open to the public.

Last weekend, their virtual reality event offered a broad spectrum of technology and games. That event was hosted by a comic book store, which donated 3,000 more comic books to their comic book library.

For the holidays, other big events are in the works. The Latino Community Day of the Dead will be held on November 1 starting at 6:30 p.m., which recognizes the celebration of life. Their next big community event is December 21 with a community musical play of Mary and Joseph in their journey to seek lodging.

Year-round, several other programs provide a great assortment of happenings even for the most discriminating artistic tastes. The whole community is invited out to explore the artist within.

Ceramics classes are always a big hit, and they bake the pieces on site. The classes run for four weeks and tickets are $60.

“We have wonderful teachers, and people who create, and they’re going to work on wind chimes,” said Garcia, a long-time educator and retired dean of the College of Education at Cal State San Bernardino

Among them, On Saturday, November 2, their Schools & Communities First San Bernardino Area Campaign Kickoff run 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The Garcia Center for the Arts, named after Dr. Garcia and his wife Dr. Dorothy Garcia, is located at

536 West 11th Street in San Bernardino.

On November 7, the community is invited out for San Bernardino Sings Folk Songs, another of their ongoing events. He said that the program was born out of a desire to recapture the protest songs of the 1960s. Back in those days, there was a great intensity of power in the music and lyrics, and of art as a reflection of life.

These days, he wonders about how to get back to that artistic influence.

“There are so many distractions, one of the biggest distractions where there’s a crowd, everybody is looking at their cell phone, not even paying attention to life going by,” he said.

Part of the answer may be in engaging the youth and adults in more creative activities.

On Saturday, November 16, their Poetry Out Loud Kickoff Bash! Runs from 3-7:00 p.m. Local youth and people of all ages are coming together to give voice to the storytellers and advocates.

Classes and presentations, the artists and their collections are diverse. The San Bernardino Symphony Association administrative office is based out of the facility. Arts Connection, the Arts Council of San Bernardino County, is also at the center.

He said the center is becoming the local hub for the arts.

“We’re not just hoping, we’re doing it to reach the community. There’s a lot of things going on,” he said.

For more information on dates and times, call (909)888-6400

For dates and times, see  http://www.sbvca.org/garcia-center/events