A Heart for the Arts
by Angie Young

The charming artist’s eyes twinkle every time he speaks about having an arts presence in his community. Gilroy’s Nader Khaghani doesn’t hold back his punches when he pours out his heart about the art community in Gilroy. He would like to see more happen with visual art in his hometown and not just watch other cities around him flourish in the creative scene. He is active in several South County art groups such as Gilroy Arts Alliance (GAA), Theater Angels Art League (TAAL), Valle Del Sur (VDS) and his own organization Visual Literacy Institute (VLI).
His love for the arts is tangible and practical not in empty rhetoric. He built the non-profit organization – Visual Learning Institute to teach others how to see creatively. Khaghani believes in order to influence a large city like Gilroy to become more involved with the arts, he has to educate one person at a time.
“I feel you have to start somewhere, that’s what Visual Literacy Institute is for,” Khaghani says. “As children we are told what to draw, a house, a flower, a dog, etc. Later on in a color class or other art class they will tell you that a flower or a bird doesn’t look like that in real life and stifle creativity. VLI frees people to make art from the unconscious mind.”
Enrollment into one of his workshops isn’t limited to artists but to anyone who wants to explore their creative side. He is offering a class in Exploring The Language of Image on Saturday, June 22nd, from 9 am to 4 pm.
Another feat for Khaghani is getting juried for the second time in the largest one-day art festival on the West Coast: the Saratoga Rotary Art Show. This is a tough show to get juried into. As far as Khaghani knows he is the only one from Gilroy who will be present in Saratoga on Sunday, May 4th. He would like to see more artists from Gilroy try for the Saratoga show as those in Morgan Hill and surrounding areas do.
The May 4th art show and sale on the West Valley College Campus is expected to have excellent attendance. The people there purchase art. It’s one of the better venues for artists to sell their work in the Bay Area. Every artist would love a chance to be there so the organizers of the one-day festival have to jury the entries and pick only the best from hundreds, possibly thousands of applications. Two hundred artists will display paintings, jewelry, and sculptures and will be on hand to greet you the art lover and collector in May.
For more information on the Visual Literacy Institute and workshops please contact Nader Khaghani at nader_khaghani@yahoo.com or 408-842-6269. If you’d like to attend this year’s Saratoga Rotary Art Show then go to www.Saratogarotary.org.

~Angie Young