With wine and cheese to feast on, members of the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association met on May 25 to mix and mingle and hear an update on Dancin' on the Avenue, one of the association's big downtown Lincoln Avenue events.

To help reached the Dancin' on the Avenue sponsorship goal, Silicon Valley Community Newspapers publisher David Cohen pledged $500 to the festival.

Willow Glen Business and Professional Association board member Linda Waltrip said the event is planned for June 19 from 5 to 10 p.m. This year the event will have four stages and will feature the Joe Sharino Band, Chubby's All Stars, FlashBack and NU DAY. New to the program this year is the Kid's Court, which will be located in the Wells Fargo Bank parking lot and will be filled with children's craft activities.

The annual event is free, and festival-goers are encouraged to put on their dancing shoes and join Willow Glen residents in what has become a great tradition of good music, food and refreshments.

—Beth Walker

Study finds immigrants
benefit from the arts

Willow Glen­based Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley released a groundbreaking study that examines participation in the arts by immigrants living in Silicon Valley.

"Immigrant Participatory Arts: An Insight into Community-building in Silicon Valley" by Dr. Pia Moriarty finds that the dominant reason for the existence of amateur arts groups in immigrant communities derives from a strong desire of parents to maintain the structure, values, language and traditions of their families.

Santa Clara County is home to people from 177 nations. Dr. Moriarty says this "offers a prime opportunity for studying the socioeconomic effects of globalization."

—Moryt Milo