Additions to San Diego’s Soviet Arts Festival Are Announced

Organizers of the Soviet arts festival announced Tuesday the inclusion of a movie festival and symposium featuring four Georgian film directors, the addition of three more eggs to the exhibit of Faberge eggs, and the creation of extensive festival-related educational programs for children.

Arrangements were also solidified for the B St. Pier exhibition of 30 Georgian icon masterpieces from the Fine Arts Museum of Georgia and for performances by the Georgian State Folk Song and Dance Company and a children’s folk dance group, the organizers said. An agreement was also reached to bring a Georgian mural artists to San Diego to paint a tribute to the festival.

“This visit was very productive in clarifying a number of details and in initiating the educational component,” said Sal Giametta, cultural aid to Mayor Maureen O’Connor. “The educational component is one of the most important. The plan is to involve San Diego-area children in the festival to the fullest extent.”

Giametta returned recently from a 10-day trip to the Soviet Union with a delegation representing the “San Diego Arts Festival: Treasures of the Soviet Union.” Other delegates were festival artistic coordinator Bruce Joseph, Hal Fischer of the Timken Art Gallery, festival education committee chairwoman Jess Flemion and San Diego Opera general director Ian Campbell.

Flemion took letters and mementoes to Georgian students from 24 San Diego schools that are participating in “Young at ‘Art,” an innovative visual arts training program. Flemion will be developing “curriculum packets” in social studies and current affairs on Soviet Georgia for local elementary and secondary-school classes, Giametta said. “It’s the first leg of a children-to-children component of the festival that will become more and more important,” he said.

Four Georgian film directors and a Georgian film critic will participate in a cinema festival and symposium. The directors will be recommended by Eldar Shegelaja, cinema director of the Georgian Cinematographic Union, Giametta said. Either the Museum of Photographic Arts or the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art or both will sponsor the festival locally.