150 Works on the Block in Photography Center Auction

AUCTIONS: The L.A. Center for Photographic Studies holds its sixth annual Benefit Auction Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Santa Monica’s G. Ray Hawkins and Pence galleries. On the blocks will be works by 150 artists including Jo Ann Callis, Judy Fiskin, Sebastiao Salgado and Richard Misrach. The works will be previewed at Melrose Avenue’s Turner/Krull Gallery through Thursday, then will be on view at Hawkins Gallery all day Saturday. Tickets are $40. Information: (213) 482-3566.

Venice’s Beyond Baroque hosts “Penal Art Auction: A Postscript for Reform,” a benefit auction for the California Institute for Women’s Casa Frontera Visitor Center, at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The works--created by prison inmates and top contemporary artists including Alexis Smith, Mike Kelley and Jim Shaw--will be exhibited at the gallery beginning Tuesday. Admission is $15. Information: (310) 822-3006.

Holding its 10th annual benefit art auction on Saturday is the Laguna Art Museum, which will offer works by more than 130 artists including Peter Alexander, Laddie John Dill, Frank Romero and Helen Lundeberg. The event begins with a buffet dinner at 6 p.m.; tickets are $75. Information: (714) 494-8971.

MORE BENEFITS: The Santa Monica Museum of Art marks its third anniversary on Thursday with “Sea Jazz Blues,” a gala benefit and preview opening of Richard Wyatt’s mixed-media installation “Central Avenue Jazz.” The museum will transform its galleries into a club honoring the musical legends of L.A.’s past, with food, a full bar, and performances by the Buddy Collette quintet. Tickets are $125 and up; the event begins at 7:30 p.m. Information: (310) 399-0433.

The University of Judaism hosts a one-day exhibition of works by 15 L.A. artists grappling with environmental problems next Sunday from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Featured artists include Kim Abeles, Jacci Den Hartog and Steve De Groodt. The show is held in conjunction with the conference, “Confronting Earth’s Most Vital Environmental Concerns,” and proceeds will go to various environmental groups. Information: (213) 482-3305.

PUBLIC ART: Twenty-five artists, critics and writers from across the country will gather at Oakland’s California College of Arts & Crafts Thursday through next Sunday for the national symposium, “Mapping the Terrain: The New Public Art.” Scheduled participants include artists Judith Baca, Jenny Holzer, John Malpede and Helen and Newton Harrison, writers Lucy Lippard and Arlene Raven, and administrator Mary Jane Jacob. Symposium discussions will center on definitions of public art, the relationship between artist and audience, and the context of critical assessments of public art. Information: (510) 653-8188, ext. 216.

Compton-based sculptor Charles Dickson has won a Community Redevelopment Agency commission to create a memorial to civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the King Shopping Center at 103rd Street and Compton Avenue. The memorial will feature a cast-bronze arm coming out of a pulpit engraved with the full text of King’s famous “I have a dream” speech, and releasing a cast-bronze bird of freedom. It will be unveiled for King’s birthday observance, on Jan. 20. . . . East Los Streetscapers this week unveiled its latest mural, “Hacia al Norte,” which was painted in the dining center of the new Outdoor Recreation Group plant (a manufacturing facility for recreational gear) at 3800 N. Mission Road.

FOLK ART: A two-day exhibition of Mexican and Indian folk art, including textiles, basketry, jewelry, masks, furniture and colonial artifacts, will be held Nov. 23 and 24 at the Pasadena Civic Center at 300 E. Green St., Pasadena. Admission is $5; proceeds go to the Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture. Information: (818) 793-2122. . . . The Craft and Folk Art Museum’s International Folk Art Market is being held today from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium in Culver City. Admission is $3. Information: (213) 937-5544.

FESTIVALS: A performance by Uma Suresh, a dancer and choreographer incorporating themes from the ancient Indian epic “The Ramayana,” will highlight Pacific Asia Museum’s South Asia Festival, a free family event to be held at the Pasadena museum Saturday and next Sunday from 12:30-5 p.m. Also featured will be sitar and tabla music, decorative flour-based rangoli designs, a demonstration of the production of clay images of the monkey-god Hanuman, shadow puppet workshops and performances, and video tapes and storytellers’ versions of “The Ramayana.” Information: (818) 449-2742.

Also holding a free festival is Temple Isaiah on West Pico Boulevard, which hosts the 11th Annual Festival of Jewish Artisans Saturday (beginning at 8 p.m.) and next Sunday (from noon-5 p.m.). Included will be an art exhibition and sale, a concert of Sephardic serenades, a children’s Hanukah art workshop and a family Hanukah concert. Information: (310) 277-2772.

ETC: Tickets go on sale at all Ticketmaster outlets and at the museum box office today for the Armand Hammer Museum’s upcoming exhibition, “Catherine the Great: Treasures of Imperial Russia, the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, USSR,” which opens Dec. 13. . . . The Museum of Contemporary Art has elected five new members to its Board of Trustees. They include: Aviva H. Covitz, owner of Teuscher chocolates in Beverly Hills; Timm Crull, president and CEO of Nestle USA; Gil Friesen, former president of A&M; Records and A&M; Films; Sheldon M. Gordon, of real estate developer The Gordon Co.; and Christopher N. Madison, president of ColorGraphics, a commercial printing firm. . . . Also electing a new trustee is the L.A. County Museum of Art. He is John E. Bryson, chairman and CEO of Southern California Edison. . . . Irit Krygier, whose Krygier/Landau Gallery closed last year as an early victim of the recession, has joined Richard Green Gallery in Santa Monica and will handle client development and special projects.