Due to financial losses associated with the upkeep, Great Northern Coffee will no longer be in business as of December 31, 2019. Chico Art Center Board of Directors have loved sharing this adventure with the community. A volunteer transitioning committee will be developing new, income-based options for utilizing the train car. For questions or comments please inquire to Lisa Freeman-Wood lmfreemanwood@yahoo.com.
Open Studios Art Tour is an annual Butte County tradition. Artists share their private studios with the public to explore. This event series is produced solely by Chico Art Center (CAC) volunteers as our major fundraising project of the year. Your participation and patronage pledges your commitment to visual artists in your region and helps make CAC's programming possible all year. Many thanks to our sponsor, Heithecker Financial and local businesses advertising in the Tour Guide Booklet. We hope you'll support local artists and businesses with your patronage.
October 1, 2020 - July 31, 2021
Connecting Art Patrons with Northern California Artists. Explore artworks in every medium through Online Artist Galleries. Make a date for face-to-face Studio Visits by appointment with available artists, following COVID-19 safety guidelines.
“Make a Date for Art” is our theme for the 2020 Open Studios Art Tour. We do not want to bypass this annual tradition. Both artists and the public look forward to this community favorite every year. With COVID-19 still active, we have adapted the Tour to accommodate required safety measures.
Instead of having the traditional Tour for only two weekends, as we have in previous years, we will promote studio visits by appointment all year long.
It will be important to practice social distancing, use masks and hand sanitizer for both visitors and the artists while visiting Artist Studios. Artists may make special requests when scheduling appointments with visitors.
The OSAT website will launch October 1, 2020. This is when you will be able to purchase a $15 Virtual Tour Access Code, which connects you with all available artwork, information about each artist, how to contact them and which artists welcome face-to-face Studio Visits. You may also purchase a Tour Guide for $15 at the following locations, starting October 1. Your Tour Guide comes with a Virtual Tour Access Code.
Chico
Vagabond Rose Gallery & Framing
Ellis Art and Engineering, Downtown
Oroville
Free and open to the public. View one artwork by each artist, buy a Tour Guide with artist info, and plan your self-guided tour of artists’ studios throughout Northern California. Due to fluctuating COVID-19 Guidelines for Butte County, the gallery exhibit may be canceled.
The Chico Art Center is offering individual online galleries to showcase your artwork all year long.
This is considered the Virtual Studio Tour. All artists will be on this Virtual Studio Tour, which will be heavily promoted and publicized. In addition, you have the option to invite visitors for traditional, face-to-face Studio Visits by appointment, should you feel comfortable and able to follow the COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Fee Options:
$150 Individual (One online gallery page that can be updated regularly)
$275 Family (Family rates gives 2 pages for 2 artists that can be updated regularly)
Registration Deadlines:
Register by July 31, 2020 benefits include:
Register after July 31, 2020 benefits include:
The Virtual Studio Tour will be up for one year, and artists receive 24hr access and a personal log-in for updating and customizing their page.
*Due to fluctuating COVID-19 Guidelines for Butte County, the Gallery Exhibit may be canceled.
For technical questions about the website or gallery exhibition, contact the Gallery Director, Cameron Kelly at ckelly@chicoartcenter.com.
For other questions contact OSAT Team Leader, Lisa Freeman-Wood at lfreemanwood@chicoartcenter.com
Images by former OSAT Artists
Students created personal narratives in sketchbooks with images and text as they thought about what it means to live in their community and its context for their personal stories. Artist Cameron Kelly provided the driving vision for this project in collaboration with Courtney Boyden, one of the existing BLAST after school coordinators and Jennifer Spangler, Arts Education Coordinator at Butte County Office of Education (BCOE). Building on student interest for an outdoor sketching program that Boyden started, this year-long after school program helped students use art
as a way of seeing their world. This partnership between Chico Art Center, the Chico Unified School District After School Program, and the Butte County Office of Education (BCOE) was funded by a Youth Arts Action Grant from California Arts Council with additional support from California County Superintendents Arts Initiative. For more images visit chicoartcenter.com
May 27 - November, 2020, Chico Art Center
December 11, 2019, Chico State Arts Collaboration Space, Arts Building for an Honors Course Gallery Walk.
Lily Derecktor Gaul, an Honors student and Early Childhood Development Major at CSU Chico, helped conceptualize and produce this project. Students were prompted with three questions. Who and what are you thankful for? What helps your gratitude grow? What do you hope to have or achieve in your future?
Derecktor Gaul says about her motivation to teach, “Children, like flowers, are delicate and need to be watered with hope. Children’s dreams and ideas are what keep the world spinning. The art they create and the words they write are signs of development and improvement. As impressionable as they are, it is important to indulge and protect their imaginations to keep them as authentic as possible. Children are beautiful because of the authenticity of their honesty and hope which is shown in all that they create. When they come together and work on a project their art is enhanced. The Gratitude Flower is a demonstration and reminder of the hopefulness and authenticity children bring into the world.”
November 1-22, 2019, Chico Art Center
National Juried Exhibition
*This exhibit has been rescheduled to accommodate a memorial exhibition.
CALL FOR ART
This call for art seeks mixed media artwork that changes a book from its original form by altering its state or meaning. Books from any source and media are eligible for this exhibition. $300 cash prize to Best of Show.
Book art takes many forms. Sculptural bookworks, for example, command attention so that viewers are compelled to reflect upon the issues explored in the work. Many compelling works integrate text with sculptural and material richness to create a multi-sensory reading experience.
Artists sell handmade goods and artwork for the holiday season.
Think global. Buy local.
November 28 - December 31, 2020
Reception: Saturday, November 28, 10:00 am-1:00 pm
Meet the makers over nibbles and drinks.
Artists: Rent a Space in the Gallery
Want to sell your wares all month but don't have the time to tend a booth? Reserve a space in our gallery! Online registration opens in July.
Rental Fee: $125, $150, $225 depending upon space location. Reserve By: Nov. 20
Space Sizes: Wall space units: approx. 48” wide from floor to ceiling with 24” floor space; Floor space units: 5’ square.
Install: Monday-Wednesday, November 23-25, during gallery hours
Take-Down: Sat-Sun, Jan. 2-3, from 10 - 4 pm
Reservation is first-come-first-serve. Artists may share a space with an additional $25 processing fee. Docents monitor the gallery and make all sales transactions. Cash, check and credit are accepted. Artists are encouraged to gallery sit; help customers, wrap goods, etc. Space location is confirmed at end of sign up period as locations may be adjusted for optimum placement.
