ENCINITAS, CA — (November 6, 2008) — Visitors to Lux Art Institute will “See Art Happen” FREE during December, as Lux celebrates its one-year anniversary.

Lux is waiving the normal $10 admission for the month of December and is open free during regular public hours, Thursday and Friday, 1 to 5pm and Saturday, 11am to 5pm.

To kick-off the Free Month, Lux will host a one-year anniversary party where guests will “make a cake and eat it, too.” During a family-fun event open to the public, on Saturday, December 6, from 1 to 3 pm, the festivities will include an artful edible cake sponsored by Elizabethan Desserts in Encinitas and Lux Board Member Karen Tanz and a collaborative art project: a “larger-than-life” papier-mâché birthday cake designed by Encinitas artist Phoebe Bradley, which visitors and kids will help decorate.

On December 4, 5, and 6, visitors can watch artist-in-residence Alison Moritsugu while she completes the detail work for a major “wall-paper” mural. Using five or six small vignettes featuring non-native plants, Moritsugu hides a threatened or endangered plant species or its bird pollinator within each design. Moritsugu cuts and pastes the vignettes together to create a repeat pattern which will be made into wallpaper.

For the rest of the month, visitors can see the completed work, which will become a permanent Lux installation.

Moritsugu, whose paintings examine our relationship with the land, will be researching the native plants on the Lux site as well as more ornamental and commercial invasive plants. It is from these plant drawings that the artist will create her design.

"We have had a stimulating first year at Lux with six internationally known resident artists and their exhibitions," said Director Reesey Shaw. “We hope that San Diegans will come and help celebrate this milestone with us."

Since its opening in November 2007, Lux has established itself as one of the significant contemporary art venues in Southern California as one of the first museums in the U.S. to create an innovative artist-in-residence program that focuses on the creative process.

Fulfilling Lux’s "See Art Happen!" philosophy, the 2009 line-up includes:

Slated to be the first “green” (LEED certified) art museum in California and located alongside one of Southern California’s few remaining coastal wetlands, Lux’s five-acre site overlooks the San Elijo Lagoon and is surrounded by a wildlife preserve that stretches to the Pacific Ocean. An array of rare native plants blends seamlessly from the Lux site into the nearby preserve.

Lux is also dedicated to encouraging children’s artistic curiosity through Luxcursion (classroom fieldtrips to Lux) the Valise Project (portable museums presented to schools throughout San Diego), Summer Camp and Family Day.

Lux hours are Thursday and Friday, 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; cost is $10 for two visits.

For more information visit www.luxartinstitute.org or call 760.436.6611.