Arts Career Day Conference

Just for the sheer number of top Santa Barbara arts professionals it puts together under one roof alone, Julie McLeod’s Arts Career Day Conference 2013 at Santa Barbara City College would be remarkable. But the real excitement will be in the audience, which will be composed exclusively of junior/senior high and college students. Adults would be happy to get the kind of advice and attention that’s going to be available on Saturday, April 6, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at SBCC’s Fé Bland Auditorium, and they have actually been going online to try to register, but this special event, which is the brainchild of longtime arts mentor McLeod, is for the younger set only.

The full program and the required registration form can be found at acdc-sb.org, and if you are a teenager with some curiosity about pursuing a career in the arts, you really ought to be there. Here are some of the highlights.

The emcee for the day will be Shirin Rajaee, news anchor at KEYT, and she will get the crowd going before introducing the morning’s presentations. McLeod will be joined by Lisa Walker, Sojourner Kincaid, and Ann Dusenberry for a discussion of what it means to have a mentor and to become an intern or an apprentice in the arts. This will lead to the first set of breakout sessions, in which attendees may choose which field and expert they wish to meet with in a smaller group. With experts like Elyse Gonzales, director of UCSB’s Art, Design & Architecture Museum, on hand to talk about galleries and museums and composer Brad Fiedel (who did the music for The Terminator), these sessions are sure to be fast-paced, engaging, and useful.

The Santa Barbara Independent’s Photo Editor Paul Wellman will offer his insights into careers in photojournalism in an afternoon talk that’s sure to be laced with his signature dry wit. Other participants include Starshine Roshell, Rick Mokler, Christopher Pilafian, and the new Santa Barbara Teen Star, Allie Nixon.