AxS Festival, a consortium of Pasadena-area arts and cultural organizations and organized by the Pasadena Arts Council, engages the Southern California community by creating provocative issue-based arts collaborations.

AxS is held every two years, and follows the model created by earlier collaborations — "Radical Past" (1999), "The Universe" (2001), "The Tender Land" (2004), “Skin” (2007), and “Origins” (2009).

Collaborating partners participate in AxS by creatively interpreting the theme according to their institutional focus. Drawing on the strengths of Pasadena area arts and culture, educational, and research institutions, AxS provides a diverse set of high-quality aesthetic and educational activities for mainstream public audiences. AxS presents original programming, consistent with the theme, that inspires public dialogue across a diverse population and works to contribute to arts appreciation and intellectual growth in creative and meaningful ways.

Our goal is for the theme to ignite a broad discourse and provide multiple perspectives that are both innovative and timely, as well as artistically and intellectually resonant to a diverse audience and a changing world.

For the 2011 theme, the collaborating partners have chosen FIRE & WATER, and they will explore and interpret this theme through specially curated exhibitions and programs in Fall 2011, including dance, visual art, music, architecture, theater, film, photography and literature.