Annual 18th Street Arts Fest is Sat.

Featured event in L.A. Arts Open House

   Santa Monica’s 18th Street Arts Complex will stage its annual 18th Street Arts Fest this Saturday, October 5, as part of the L.A. Arts Open House, the annual County-wide arts festival sponsored by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
   The free family-oriented Fest will run from noon to 5 p.m, at the Complex, 1639 18th Street, and is slated to be one of the biggest events in the county-wide celebration.
   Among the artists scheduled to perform are a Latin jazz group, Bobby Matos & His Afro-Cuban Jazz Ensemble, Los Angeles-based dance companies Nesting Dolls, Tongue, TRIP Dance Theatre and Dance Moving Forward Festival, actors from the Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival, JUICE, Sisters With Stories to Tell, Ellaraino, Celebration Arts Puppets, and Red Hawk, a Native American blues rock band.
   The visual and media artists who will open their studios for the day are: Lita Albuquerque, Electronic Café International, EZTV,Suzan Woodruff, Clayton Campbell, Michael Barnard, Cindy DeSantis, Crazy Space, Alex Donis, Nadia Reed, and Mary Milelczik, as well as visiting artists from France, Taiwan and Australia.
   Children’s arts and crafts workshops will include face painting with Cindy Herrera, noon to 3 p.m., mask making with Nadia Reed, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. and Balloons by Lauri, 2 to 5 p.m.
   A group show, “In Pursuit of Peace,” featuring contemporary artworks, will be on exhibit during the Fest.
   There is free parking at the Arts Complex.