open borders
multimedia
In the summer of 2011, a group of Regenerate artists and filmmakers looked at a vacant 40,000 square foot Borders bookstore in Thousand Oaks and saw something else entirely—a community art space, a music venue, a gallery, a gathering place. What they built inside it became one of the most eclectic cultural events the Conejo Valley had ever seen.
Open Borders ran all summer long, with at least four live shows per week and daily gallery programming and performance art. All profits supported multiple nonprofit organizations and charitable causes, including Teen Line, The Trevor Project, Seva Foundation, CAUSE, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
art & Galleries
The former bookstore was transformed into a living, breathing creative environment with two distinct gallery experiences.
The first was a curated gallery featuring works by emerging and renowned artists, including original art by Daniel Johnston and Andre Miripolsky, paintings by Ryan McGuffin and David Teichner, and photographic works by Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Edward Curtis, and Joyce Tenneson.
The second space: an open community mural wall where anyone who walked through the doors could pick up a brush and contribute.
music
The main stage hosted national and international acts across every imaginable genre. A smaller floor stage—known as the Space Carpet, after the actual space-themed carpet in the former children's section of the Borders bookstore—offered more intimate sets, experimental performances, comedy, poetry, and an open soapbox.
Performers included Ramblin’ Jack Elliott & Country Joe McDonald, Ozomotli, Ray Manzarek, Allah-Las, Pinback, The Grouch & Eligh, Daniel Johnston, Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks, Voxhaul Broadcast, Foxygen, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Murs, White Arrows, He’s My Brother She’s My Sister, The Entrance Band, The Get Down Boys, Klezmatics, Meiko, Jeffertitti's Nile, Brad Garrett with Pat Longo's Hollywood Big Band, the Chen-Wu-Janss Ensemble with Spanish classical guitarist Angel Romero, and jazz legends Lee Ritenour and Roger Calloway.
