Floating on flowers (PW article)

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Floating on flowers

Behind the scenes with the Rose Parade’s award-winning float builders

By Justin Chapman, Pasadena Weekly, 12/27/2012

The end of the year is nigh, which means the float industry is gearing up for its big show on Jan. 1. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people line Colorado Boulevard and 72 million people in nearly 200 countries tune in to watch what has been dubbed "America's New Year's celebration" to experience flowers and music. But the crown jewels of the operation, now in its 124th year, are the floats.

In warehouses across San Gabriel Valley, and throughout Greater Los Angeles, year-round builders are putting the final touches on 42 enormous floats as thousands of volunteers cover every square inch of the moving structures with organic material, from a variety of flowers, beans and rice to seeds, grains and even produce. A Tournament of Roses Association liaison is assigned to inspect each float moments before it is displayed to the world.

The flowers, which come from all across the globe just two days before the parade, are the very last things to go on the floats to ensure their freshness. Besides the crowds of volunteers who help decorate, at least 30 employees work hard year round at each of the two main award-winning float building companies, Fiesta Parade Floats and Phoenix Decorating Co. That number can reach 200 come December.

"One of the biggest misconceptions about the Rose Parade is that we take three months off every year, put some metal on some wheels, slap on some flowers, and we've got a parade float," said Brian Dancel, media relations manager of Phoenix. "Absolutely not. Our deconstruction begins Jan. 3. We don't reuse anything except the banner float; these all get broken down, all the metal thrown into recycling, all of the natural materials thrown into the trash, and we begin again right away for next year."

The first sales meetings between the float builders and sponsors occur in early January. By March, most of the designs are finalized and construction begins on the first wave of floats. According to Tim Estes, president of Fiesta, the designers, builders and sponsors work very closely on every step of the process.

"We really work closely with each and every client to develop the design that they want," said Estes. "It's a working relationship that takes anywhere from three weeks to as much as eight weeks to come up with the design. Once the design's done, we're able to convert it into a rough construction model, do blueprints and start the construction. The design element is the hardest part in the whole process."

Even though Fiesta's designs are ultimately drawn up by internationally renowned artist Raul Rodriguez, the final product is the result of a collaboration of Estes, Floral Director Jim Hynd and Rodriguez working directly with clients.

The clients of all four float companies--from cities like Los Angeles, Glendale, South Pasadena and Sierra Madre, to companies like Dole, Miracle Grow, Farmer's Insurance and Honda, the main sponsor of the Rose Parade--all enjoy very healthy returns on their investments, with float costs ranging from about $100,000 to $400,000.

"These floats are not rolling commercials," said Dancel. "However, they do get 45 seconds of coverage on live television in what is the second most-watched event in the United States every year behind the Super Bowl. It's a fraction of the price with more bang for your buck. You're talking about an outreach to a lot of people. It's one of the smartest business decisions that any company could make."

Estes, who has been in the float industry for nearly 50 years, has seen positive and negative changes in float making in the past few decades. From a design standpoint, clients want more of a message involved, as opposed to just having a pretty float with their name on it.

"With respect to actual construction, we're finding easier and better ways to come up with creating the figures and components that go on the float," he said. "The materials we're using today are not the same materials we used on floats 30 to 40 years ago. Animation has also certainly made some good, positive steps with respect to using more hydraulic power."

However, Estes has watched the parade be cut down from two and a half hours to two hours, and the toal number of floats from 60 to 42. The parade has also been shortened to accommodate TV broadcasting schedules. Both Fiesta and Phoenix would rather see more floats restored to the parade.

"Since the Rose Parade is so well known, due to the great floral floats that are created by some very creative artists, float builders and the self-built floats, perhaps we could try to eliminate a couple bands and equestrian units and increase the parade by about 10 floats," said Estes. "One large band equals approximately two to three floats in overall length, so get rid of one band and you can bring in two or three more floats."

The variety and craftsmanship among the remaining 42 floats, however, is quite a sight to see even before the flowers are attached. Oen of Fiesta's floats will have a 30-foot real flame shooting out the top of a 26-foot volcano. Rodriguez and his bright blue Hyacinth Macaw, Sebastian, will be riding on that float, sponsored by Dole. Farmer's Insurance sponsored a float that will host the first wedding ever broadcast live during the Rose Parade right at TV Corner at Colorado and Orange Grove boulevards. Virginia couple Gerald Sapienza and Nicole Angelillo won a Facebook contest and will say "I do" atop Farmer's Insurance's "Love Float."

From a giant Cat in the Hat to a 40-foot slide that kids will ride during the parade to Jesus standing at the pearly gates, there's something everyone can enjoy during the 2013 Rose Parade.

"There's a lot of variety of people who will be riding, things that we're honoring; you name it, we've got it here," said Dancel. "It doesn't get any larger on New Year's Day than the Tournament of Roses Parade. We're just happy to be a part of it."



The fight of their lives (PW article)

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The fight of their lives

Art Aids Art celebrates 10 years of empowering South African women

By Justin Chapman, Pasadena Weekly, 12/6/2012

For 10 years, Dorothy Garcia and Tom Harding have dedicated themselves to a poor township in South Africa. Their Altadena-based nonprofit organization, Art Aids Art, has done invaluable good for the people living in Khayelitsha, an unfortunate lingering remnant of the apartheid era situated on the outskirts of Cape Town. In 2003, Garcia and Harding began buying beaded artwork made by otherwise unemployed South African women. They sold the artwork at home parties in Altadena and Pasadena and reinvested the profits back into Khayelitsha. Today, with more than 100 events held nationwide, the organization has helped generate more than $200,000 for the township community.
 
Five years after their first venture, with a group of Harvard students, they helped design and build a community center, eKhaya eKasi, which provides essential art, education and economic development programs that have become an instrumental backbone for the township. 
 
On Dec. 2, Mountain View Mausoleum in Altadena hosted a solo, chamber and vocal music concert to celebrate Art Aids Art’s 10th anniversary. The event also exhibited works by iconic South African artists such as Peter Clarke, considered one of the 10 greatest living artists in South Africa, and Jurgen Schadeberg, a German-born photographer whose early photos of Nelson Mandela and the struggle against apartheid were featured in the Weekly, the Pasadena Central Library and Pasadena City College’s Shatford Library, as well as internationally. More than 100 people attended the celebration, participating in a silent auction and purchasing South African art and handicrafts.  
Back to the motherland
In March, the Weekly traveled with Art Aids Art to South Africa to see the organization in action. Khayelitsha, home to 1 million people living in abject poverty, is one of the biggest townships in Cape Town. Most of its residents come from the Eastern Cape, a province of South Africa. The most depressing and unfortunate thing about the townships is that they still exist nearly two decades after the end of apartheid. 
 
There are different styles of housing in the townships. Some are government built and subsidized with satellite dishes on the roofs, while others are squat shacks crammed together over winding hills, providing a heartrending view of a tragically beautiful way of life. People living there can’t afford to leave the township, and this creates a palpable sense of a community based on survival. The lack of transportation, a system which has not changed much since apartheid, is especially difficult for women, which inspired Garcia and Harding to launch the Wheels for Women campaign. This program will bolster self-sufficiency for women in Khayelitsha looking to expand their small businesses.
 
“We’re going to start by getting a vehicle at eKhaya eKasi,” said Harding. “We have a whole community of women there coming up with design ideas and training each other, but when they need materials or try to go market their stuff, they have to rely on some man who owns a car or a taxi. So that independence they’re achieving is derailed by this lack of transportation.”
 
Every day across the small road from eKhaya eKasi, which opened on World Aids Day, December 1, 2008, a queue of women wait to have their beadwork and other craftwork judged by one buyer, who decides if she will purchase their artwork and then resell it at a market at a higher price. The problem is that there’s no opportunity for growth among the artisans.
 
At the modern, two-story eKhaya eKasi, it’s a different situation. Formerly unemployed women take classes, learn vital skills and develop their businesses at the locally run community center. Art Aids Art has also promoted artistic education, including fabric painting, silk-screening, beading and felting.
A global battle
One of the major issues facing residents of the townships is HIV, which remains a difficult subject to address. Following the 6th Annual HIV/AIDS Action Summit in September at City of Hope in Duarte, hosted by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, keynote speaker Mondo Guerra teamed up with Art Aids Art to do just that.
 
The winner of Lifetime Television’s Project Runway All-Stars, who announced his HIV positive status on the show, Guerra placed an order with a group of South African mothers to make a limited edition pin of his Pozitivity design, a print he created that helped him win the show. The handmade pins, part of Art Aids Art’s Beads of Change initiative, can be purchased on his Web site, mondoguerra.com.
 
“Art has always helped me overcome difficulties in my life,” Guerra said.  “I’m proud to support Art Aids Art to empower people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS through their art.”
 
The Art Aids Art founders are particularly proud of this collaboration, knowing it will make a difference for those living with HIV in South Africa as well as raise awareness here in the United States.
 
“It’s just an incredible collaboration between these people who are involved in the struggle against AIDS on opposite sides of the planet,” said Harding. “How great to see the women’s entrepreneurship being carried so far.”
Learning independence
Each year, Art Aids Art leads a group of volunteers to Cape Town to provide assistance to those affected by HIV and poverty. In January, several occupational therapists will be working with universities in South Africa. In the past, a group of Blair High students traveled to the township.
 
“I got so excited about seeing so much participation from Blair,” said Garcia. “We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to take a group of public school children to see life in Khayelitsha?’ I think that’s really important. It gives them a chance to apply their skills in a situation that, like it did for me, can really change their lives. That’s another big fantasy from (Art Aids Art), to send people there and keep trying to make the connections, and keep trying to create common language.”
 
Experiencing the daily hardships that many South Africans live everyday can, indeed, be a transformative process. Garcia and Harding also strive to make sure the programs at eKhaya eKasi are locally run.
 
“The goal is not for us to be in charge,” said Garcia. “Using a parental analogy, you do what you need to do to have it hold itself up. That was its intention. It’s about finding ways to disassociate and, at the same time, be as structurally supportive as possible.”
This remains especially important as the organization gears up for the next decade. Harding noted that they try to make sure they’re not pulling all the strings from their headquarters in Altadena.
 
“Part of the excitement and anticipation of the next 10 years is to know that the people who are there are going to be just fine running the project, and the combination of the local community and the international contributions and energy that are coming in,” Harding said. “Who knows what the future holds?”