experience haute Couture and Cuisine a publication at of the fashion week el paseo City of Palm Desert Reserve your seat on the runway for one of the desert’s most scintillating happenings – the seventh annual Fashion March/April 2012 Week El Paseo – taking place March 16 through 24 in the heart of Palm Desert’s world-renowned shopping district. Showcasing the newest collections by top designers as well as fresh ideas from emerging talents, the excitement unfolds under The Big White Tent at Larkspur Lane and El Paseo with a fun-filled week offering stylish ultra-lounge for cocktails, swank after-parties, in-store events, and trunk shows, all benefiting numerous charities. The week’s highlights include What’s Inside a night of Project Runway glitz when the desert’s very own Michael Costello invites fellow Community Gallery Exhibition Project Runway stars, Mondo Guerra, Mila Hermanovski, Focuses on Desert Farming Michael Drummond, Kara Janx, Gordana Gehihausen, Joshua Christensen, and Seth Aaron to share the Fashion Week Experience Desertscapes runway on Wednesday, March 21. Los Angeles-based couturier Mark Zunino will be designer Special Energy Section of the week and the star of the event’s finale on Saturday, March 24. Zunino will debut his new collection for spring Family Safety Festival 2012, bringing his brand of Hollywood glamour to the Offers Fun and Information runway in the form of high-wattage eveningwear favored by some of today’s brightest stars including Angelina Jolie, Halle Mark Zunino gown photographed by Michael Piombo Celebrate Arbor Day Berry, Demi Moore, and Gwyneth Paltrow. This year’s Fashion Week will once again include the Festival of Opera & Art Food & Wine Festival Palm Desert. This popular, rapidly growing event gathers celebrity chefs and sommeliers for three extraordinary days of inspiring food and premium wine tasting, March 23 – 25, benefiting The Culinary Institute of America’s Endowed Scholarship Fund. New Booster Seat Law Featured chefs include Sara Moulton, Good Promotes Child Safety fashion week el paseo March 16-24 Morning America food editor and executive chef Tickets and information: for Gourmet Magazine, and Top Chef Masters’ www.fashionweekelpaseo.com or 760-325-2333 New Art Museum competitor Mark Peel, executive chef and owner of Celebrates March Opening food & wine festival palm desert March 23-25 famed Los Angeles restaurants Campanile and Tar Pit. Tickets and information: www.palmdesertfoodandwine.com or 760-325-2333 It’s Your City Look what’s on the BrightSide...inside! Community Gallery Exhibition Focuses on Desert Farming etc. The Palm Desert Community Gallery presents artwork by Maria Hunt in its new exhibition, Farming in the Desert - Up Close and Personal, on display April 26 to June 29. There will be a public reception to honor the artist on Monday, April 30 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Farming in the Desert – Up Close and Personal will feature large and small-scale paintings The Palm Desert Chamber of Commerce in both watercolor hosts the 14th Annual Shop Local EXPO at and oil that focus on Westfield Palm Desert on Saturday, March 10, the agriculture that flour- 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. ishes around the Salton Information: 760-346-6111 Sea, including fields of artichokes, peppers, The City offers free docent led public art melons, and other crops. tours on Saturday, March 10, featuring the The exhibition will include art at the Palm Desert Public Library, and on large-scale paintings of Saturday, April 14, featuring the art in Civic fields juxtaposed against Center Park. Tours meets at 10 a.m. Information: 760-346-0611, ext. 664 smaller, more intimate paintings of the crop that is Palm Desert residents can being grown there. Ms. drop off their unwanted Hunt paints en plein- citrus through the end of air, painting the majority of April at City Hall, 73510 Fred her works, literally, in the Waring Drive. All citrus will fields before finishing them be provided to Hidden Harvest for free in her studio. Early Morning Harvest by Maria Hunt distribution to those in need. She began painting after a successful 30-year-career as a businesswoman. She has a passion Information: 760-346-0611, ext. 331 for art and enjoys working in watercolor and oil paints. She often shares her passion by teaching or 760-398-8183 painting to children and adults. She has painted traffic signal boxes for the cities of Palm Desert and La Quinta, and has won top awards at the Indio Date Festival. Palm Desert residents who provide proof to The exhibition is being shown in conjunction with Desertscapes, an annual event that focuses on the City that they have adopted a cat or dog historical and contemporary plein-air artwork in the Coachella Valley. The Palm Desert Community from the Coachella Valley Animal Campus in Gallery is located in the north wing of City Hall, 73510 Fred Waring Drive. It is open Monday Thousand Palms can receive reimbursement through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, please call 760-346-0611, ext. 664 or for their adoption fees. visit www.palmdesertart.org. Information: 760-346-0611, ext. 477 The City has office space and community rooms available for use by local nonprofits, professional organizations, and businesses at In recognition of the Coachella Valley’s rich history of competitive rates for one-time or monthly desert landscape painting created outdoors, in plein-air, use. Spaces are located at the Henderson EXPERIENCE Community Building and Portola Community and to celebrate the variety and beauty of art inspired by Center. the desert landscape, the City of Palm Desert is dedicating Information: 760-346-0611, ext. 331 the month of April 2012 to Desertscapes. Throughout April, the public is invited to attend exhibits of contemporary and historical painters, as Dates to Remember well as talks by some of California's leading art and Daylight Saving Time Begins photography experts, painting demonstrations March 11 and workshops, paint-outs in nature with modern day landscape artists, tours, and more. Most St. Patrick’s Day March 17 of the events are free. Other participating organizations include: First Day of Spring Palm Springs Art Museum; the Walter N. Marks March 20 Center for the Arts at the College of the Desert; The Annual Clean Up Day Historical Society of Palm Desert; Coachella Valley April 21 Watercolor Society; Desert Art Center; Hidden Harvest; Earth Day Mojave Desert Land Trust; and California Desert Art. April 22 Desert Oasis by Elaine Mathews For a full schedule of Desertscapes events and more information, please visit www.desertscapes.net or call 760-837-1664. Family Safety Festival Offers Fun and Information New Booster Seat Law Young and old alike can have fun while learning about public Promotes Child Safety and personal safety at the Palm Desert Family Safety Festival on Saturday, March 24, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Civic Center Parents, grandparents, and anyone who transports Park (Fred Waring Drive and San Pablo Avenue). Admission children in a vehicle need to be aware of important is free. changes to California law regarding vehicle booster Come and enjoy a day of free activities and information seats for children. on important subjects including earthquake and fire safety, Effective January 1, the bicycle and skateboard safety, dog bite prevention, Internet new law requires that safety for children, swimming safety, and much more. children under age 8, Featured activities include a bounce house, finger and face or who are shorter than painting, games, arts and crafts, a basketball demonstration 4-feet, 9-inches, be secured by a former Harlem Globetrotter, police K-9 demonstrations, in a proper child or booster and a gymnastics demonstration. Children are encouraged to seat in the vehicle’s back bring their bikes for a fun bicycle rodeo, which will give partici- seat. The law also requires pants an opportunity to learn, practice, and demonstrate safe bicycle handling skills in a fun, children who do not meet noncompetitive atmosphere. Palm Desert residents are also eligible to receive a free these age and height bicycle helmet. requirements to ride in the Representatives from the City’s Police and Fire departments, including deputies and horses rear seat unless the vehicle from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Mounted Posse, will be on hand to answer has no back seats, the restraint system cannot be questions, demonstrate equipment, and hand out free literature and giveaways. Experts will properly installed, or the rear seats are already be offering free car seat check-ups, and children can have their fingerprints taken. occupied by children under age 8. The day’s excitement will include appearances by McGruff the Crime Dog and Recycle Children younger than one year of age, children Binney, Palm Desert’s recycling mascot. Hot dogs and frozen lemonade will be available for who weigh less than 20 pounds, or who are riding purchase. For more information, please call 760-836-1697 or 760-836-1761. in a rear facing car seat are prohibited from riding in the front seat of a vehicle with an active passenger airbag. According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, the new law is expected to impact more than 1.1 Celebrate Arbor Day million children across the state. Office Director and Get a Free Tree Christopher J. Murphy says that placing children in booster seats increases their chance of surviving a elebrate Arbor Day with the City of Palm Desert this year and get C crash by 45 percent. something that could grow and last a lifetime – a new tree. When seated in a booster seat, shoulder belts The celebration takes place Saturday, April 21, from 9 to 11 a.m.