Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum – On Top of a Mountain Exhibition

In the past few weeks, Carolyn’s treasured friend Jack Robinson and Carolyn created the CAJA Ukrainian Support Fund, which will provide monthly vouchers for food and needed supplies to 78 Ukrainian individuals and families in Poland. Jack traveled to Poland 3 months ago and has been valiantly volunteering to help distribute food to the refugees, making friends with many, and meeting other heroes helping with the refugees. Through these efforts, he realized how much help such a voucher program would be and identified, along with his Polish colleagues, Emelia and Jarek, the recipients who could most benefit. Together Carolyn and Jack established this Fund, and Jack last week distributed the first vouchers.

Carolyn is humbled and honored to be able to make a difference for people in need during this time of humanitarian crisis.

Stanley H. Barkan is the publisher of Cross-Cultural Communications and the editor of the Cross-Cultural Review Series of World Literature and Art, that has, to date, produced some 400 titles in 57 different languages. His own poetry has been translated into 25 different languages, and he is the author of 18 original poetry collections, several of which are bilingual. He has assisted with the publication of many of Carolyn’s books in a variety of languages.

Stanley, Carolyn’s publisher, left her a message on her answering machine, which she loved and wanted to share with her friends and public. “My beloved friend and publisher Stanley Barkan left me this most sacred and meaningful message after reading my latest book, Immortal Seeds, said Carolyn.

Dear Carolyn, this is Stanley. I just reread, very carefully, page by page, five pages at a time, Immortal Seeds. I’m sitting here thinking of you and David on a skiff sailing in the clouds of the seventh heaven where the ancient gods still drink their nectar, eat their ambrosia and offer you, waiting for you to come where Orpheus will play his lyre and you will sing your poetry and David will lie there listening with joy. So, Carolyn, you have touched me deeply in my deep heart’s core, to quote Yeats, and I am very proud and humble to be your publisher. Love you. Bye.

This photo of Stanley was taken by Bebe Barkan, his wife, as he is reading during a Walking Tour of Dylan Thomas event.

“We’ve suffered from some supply-chain issues, like everyone,” museum spokeswoman Amanda Fruta said, “but we’re opening essentially on time. Some of the smaller things aren’t done yet, but we’re ready for the public.”

The Museum opens with temporary limited hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays in addition to second Saturdays and reservation-based visitation on Fridays.

Tours of the Public Art Park, including campus sculpture gardens, murals and a new mosaic are available at noon each second Saturday of the month starting with opening day on February 12. The Museum is closed Sundays and Mondays.

The transformation is intended to better serve visitors with accessible facilities, inclusive policies and multi-use spaces that will make the only free museum in Long Beach welcoming for everyone. Renovations also offer opportunities for groups to host small receptions outside on Patron’s Plaza and in the north gardens.

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A project to more than double the exhibition space and add state-of-the-art supporting functions at the Kleefeld, as some at Cal State Long Beach call it, is nearly complete after 18 months of construction.

Art pieces are being hung in one last gallery as the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum prepares for a soft opening later this week.

A project to more than double the exhibition space and add state-of-the-art supporting functions at the Kleefeld, as some at California State University, Long Beach call it, is nearly complete after 18 months of construction. The work is part of a $24 million renovation that includes upgrades to the Steve and Nini Horn Center and landscaping around the building that includes multiple sculpture installations.

“We’ve suffered from some supply-chain issues, like everyone,” museum spokeswoman Amanda Fruta said, “but we’re opening essentially on time. Some of the smaller things aren’t done yet, but we’re ready for the public.”

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