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These Artist Directories are a passion of mine.

My goal has always been to supply an affordable and attractive way for ALL artists to get world wide exposure via the internet and the means for people LOOKING for art to FIND it!

However, during these difficult times, even just $35/year is beyond some people's budgets. On that same note, most people don't realize that it costs me thousands of dollars a year to keep these websites going.

In that respect, I've decided to offer Free Listings to Everyone - with the hopes that those, who can afford to, will make a donation (no matter how small) to help keep these sites alive and thriving.

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- Thank you, Hillary

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California - New Cultural Activities for Winter and Spring

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) – Today’s travelers are looking to enrich their lives and learn something new while on memorable vacations, and California is delivering with a bevy of fresh exhibits, plays and shows set for this winter and spring.

According to the U.S. Travel Association, cultural, arts, historic and heritage activities are increasingly popular with U.S. travelers. In fact, 81 percent of U.S. adults who took at least one trip of 50 miles or more, one way, away from home in a 12-month period included one such activity or event while traveling.

“California has a reputation as a haven for people with creative minds, and you can see this in our multifaceted cultural offerings,” said President and CEO Caroline Beteta of the California Travel and Tourism Commission (CTTC). “Whether it’s our large-scale organizations, quirky museums showcasing California’s history, music venues galore or the many robust artists’ communities throughout the state, visitors are taking note.”

There’s no place like home, especially for “Wicked,” which returned to San Francisco, the city that launched the international smash hit musical back in 2003. “Wicked” later went on to cast its spell on Broadway, winning 20 major awards. Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman, “Wicked” swept back into the San Francisco Bay Area Region and began performances January 27 at the Orpheum Theatre. This theatrical blockbuster features the untold story of the witches of Oz and the remarkable odyssey of two unlikely friends who grow up to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch. The nearby Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito has teamed up with World Arts West to present “World on Stage” through February 21. This ethnic performance series takes visitors around the world from clogging to step dance to hoop dance and beyond. Berkeley has also got a buzzing cultural scene with the murder mystery “Crime and Punishment” at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre February 27 through March 29.

Author John Steinbeck called Route 66 the “Mother Road.” It was also nicknamed the “Great Diagonal Way,” the “Main Street of America” and the “Will Rogers Highway.” Now visitors to the Deserts Region can “Get Your Kicks” at the Route 66-themed show, which is part of the Palm Springs Follies. The production plays through May 17 and travels Route 66 via music, dance and comedy. In downtown Palm Springs, the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum portrays the history and culture of the Agua Caliente and other indigenous people. “Sticks & Stones ... and Other Things,” an exhibition at the museum through October, explores the ingenuity of the Cahuilla people through their use of sticks, stones, fibers, bones and a variety of other natural materials. The museum’s collection of rarely seen hunting and food-processing tools will also be on display.

In the High Sierra Region, the North Lake Tahoe Historical Society is celebrating the Watson Cabin Centennial Celebration May through June. The cabin, which still stands on the original Tahoe City site where it was finished in 1909, remains an outstanding example of turn-of-the-century construction. On the West Shore of Lake Tahoe, the new Tahoe Maritime Museum is open during the winter Fridays through Sundays, when visitors can see firsthand an exquisite collection of historic wooden boats and hydroplanes that were popular on the lake 40 years ago. The Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitors Center in Lone Pine has embarked on a new method to illustrate the dramatic contours of the Eastern Sierra – a 23-by-17-foot, 3-D map. The map was machine-carved from three blocks of foam, using a computer-controlled router that operated 24 hours each day for one week.

A multimedia exhibition of more than 40 works by 21 California Native American visual artists, as well as poems by 10 Native American poets, will be part of the “Sing Me Your Song, Dance Me Home: Art and Poetry from Native California” exhibit at the San Joaquin County Historical Museum in Lodi from April 15 through August 16. The display helps bring an understanding of California as an indigenous homeland. Also in the Central Valley Region, the Vacaville Museum is honoring the famous and not-so-famous who paused to rest, contemplate or even work in one chair or another through the years in their “Take a Seat” exhibit, running through June 21. Nut Tree chairs and historical pieces from the Harbison House in Vacaville are in the collection, along with one fascinating chair that is said to have been abandoned by a band of gypsies passing through Pleasants Valley more than a half century ago and taken home by the granddaughter of a commercial fruit grower.

Located in Rancho Cucamonga and part of the Inland Empire Region, the Sam Maloof Residence, Workshop, and Gardens occupies nearly 6 acres near the San Gabriel Mountains. The residence, which is filled with one of America’s outstanding arts and crafts collections, is open as a living museum with public tours available Thursdays and Saturdays. Maloof is America’s most widely admired contemporary furniture craftsman and is entirely self-taught – as well as one of only a handful of designers whose work has been exhibited in the Smithsonian. Along with the collection, visitors can tour the gardens, which are certified habitat and include coast live oak, mature citrus trees and the relic groves, English walnut, sycamore and eucalyptus windrow.

“American Masterpieces: Artistic Legacy of California Indian Basketry” premieres in Sacramento at a special exhibit at the California Museum March 14. The display includes more than 80 California Indian baskets from the vast collection held by California State Parks and will be on display through early 2010 at this Gold Country Region location. Many of these baskets will be on public view for the first time, and illustrate the evolution of Native American basketry in California, a functional artistic tradition 5,000 years in the making. The remarkable integrity of techniques and materials, visually stimulating designs, variety of form and graceful qualities have placed basketry at the forefront of a burgeoning art market, with thousands of pieces collected by museums and art connoisseurs throughout the nation.

The Annenberg Foundation will launch the Annenberg Space for Photography, a 10,000-square-foot facility featuring a state-of-the-art digital projection gallery along with a traditional print exhibit area March 27 in Century City. This new facility will host an opening exhibit of eight Los Angeles-based photographers in the genres of fine art, architecture, documentary, fashion, photojournalism and celebrity portraits. Admission is free. Also in the Los Angeles County Region, the Huntington Library, Arts Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino will open its newly expanded Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art on May 30 to reveal a completely transformed space in which its growing American art collection will be displayed in an area twice its previous size. The 16,379-square-foot space will be one of the largest presentations in Southern California of American art from the colonial period through the mid-20th century.

Beginning April 6, more than 15 species of seahorses, sea dragons, pipehorses and pipefish will beckon visitors into the elusive world of these charismatic creatures. “The Secret Life of Seahorses” at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the Central Coast Region highlights the varied habitats where seahorses and their relatives live, and shares important stories about the threats they face in the wild. The artful pairing of memorable stories and imaginative illustrations inspires “Picture This! The Magic of Children’s Books,” an exhibition at the Museum of Ventura County in Ventura April 4 through July 5. Designed for both children and adults, the exhibit features dozens of original illustrations and writers’ notes, including those by Caldecott Medal winner, author and illustrator Simms Taback, as well as others. Parents and children can also create their own illustrated books or read in a comfortable nook.

Bulging eyes, night vision, sticky toepads, squawking voices and disposable body parts are all part of the world premiere of “Geckos: Tails to Toepad” at the Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding, which is located in the Shasta Cascade Region. This showing of the adaptable lizards runs through April 19. Also on display is “Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts,” which profiles a century of work from well-known artists such as Thomas Moran, Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns.

Gunther von Hagens’ “Body Worlds 2 & The Brain – Our Three-Pound Gem: The Original Exhibition of Real Human Bodies” opens March 5 at the San Diego Natural History Museum in San Diego. This unique and educational exhibition about human anatomy, physiology and health gives guests an unprecedented view inside the human body, and features more than 200 real human body specimens all preserved through a remarkable process called Plastination invented by anatomist Dr. Gunther von Hagens. The Oceanside Museum of Art in Oceanside, also part of the San Diego County Region, offers “Quilt Visions” through March 1, bringing together intriguing contemporary art quilts from around the world. Visitors can also view the museum’s “LOWBROWart: Nine San Diego Pop Surrealists,” which reaches beyond the conventional, featuring pop culture, comics and hot rod street culture through May 24.

In Mendocino, the Kelly House Museum is a historic home built in 1861, which offers exhibits about the cultural heritage of the Mendocino Coast, located in the North Coast Region of California. The museum interprets the city’s logging and shipping industries and its unique Victorian architecture, for which the town is recognized as a National Historic Preservation District. Now on display is “Then and Now” photographs that compare approximately 100-year-old photographs taken by Perly Maxwell with images shot at the same locations today.

Travelers may not know Phillip Burke by name, but they probably would recognize his legendary art. In “The Color of Rock,” 33 of Burke’s unique and vivid portraits of rock legends from the past 25 years takes center stage at the Anaheim MUZEO in the Orange County Region through April 12. In Santa Ana, the Bowers Museum’s latest exhibit, “Passage: Photographs of Africa,” by photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher, showcases large-format, color photographs of  African cultural diversity with a dynamic documentation of its ritual practices, including coming of age, courtship and marriage, beliefs and worship, masks and masquerades, royalty and power, and spirits and ancestors. The exhibit continues through August 16.

The California Travel and Tourism Commission (CTTC) is a non-profit organization with a mission to develop and maintain marketing programs - in partnership with the state's travel industry - that keep California top-of-mind as a premier travel destination. According to the CTTC, travel and tourism expenditures total $96.7 billion annually in California, support jobs for 924,100 Californians and generate $5.8 billion in state and local tax revenues. For more information about the CTTC and for a free California Visitor’s Guide, go to www.VisitCalifornia.com.