Cameron Kelly

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October 2026 | Open Studios Art Tour

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Open Studios Art Tour Gallery Exhibit

October 3-23, 2026

Reception: Friday, October 2, 5-7pm

Gallery exhibit by participating OSAT artists. Preview artwork by each artist and plan your self-guided tour. Open Studios is more than an event. It’s an invitation to connect with the creative heartbeat of our region.

 

Open Studios Art Tour Weekends

October 10-11 & 17-18

OSAT is a two-weekend event. Visit artists in their environments as they welcome you to buy artwork, jewelry, woodwork, stained glass and other handcrafts. Over 60 artists participate.

 

Artist Registration

Opens June 13, 2026. Click here for the Artist's Portal.

Guidebook25
How do I visit art studios?

Purchase a $15 guidebook for studio addresses at the following locations:

  • Chico Art Center - 450 Orange Street
  • Art Etc. - 256 E 1st Street
  • Chico Paper Co. - 345 Broadway
  • DCBA Welcome Center - 338 Broadway
  • Ellis Art & Engineering Supplies - 3029 Esplanade
  • Museum of Northern California Art - 900 Esplanade
  • Buffy's Gift Barn of Paradise - 6393 Skyway

View 2026 Open Studio Artists

After September 15, browse the 60+ artists by name, medium or weekends they are open by visiting ChicoOSAT.com.

ChicoOSAT.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 Guidebook. We hope you'll support local artists and businesses with your patronage.

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August 2026 | Narrative

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Kandis Horton, Save the Dime, 2025
Kandis Horton, Save the Dime, 2025

Narrative: Visual Storytelling

August 15 – September 18, 2026

Reception: Friday, September 4, 5-7pm

Narrative: Visual Storytelling is a group exhibition that explores photography's unique ability to tell stories. Featuring twelve artists working across diverse photographic styles and approaches, the exhibition demonstrates how a single image or a carefully constructed series of photographs can communicate narratives that are direct, evocative, deeply personal, or richly imagined.

The photographs on view represent a wide range of storytelling strategies. Some explore personal journeys and human relationships, while others examine cultural traditions, the boundaries between public and private spaces, or imagined worlds. Whether documentary, constructed, or conceptual, each work invites viewers to look beyond the visible and consider the stories, emotions, and ideas that unfold within and beyond the frame.

Prospectus
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July 2026 | Pizza My Art

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Ann Winnie, Pizza Time

Call For Pizza Box Art

Entry fee $5

Family rate 4 boxes for $10

Drop Off: July 17-18, 2026

Exhibition: July 24 - August 7

End of Auction Pizza Party: Friday, August 7, 5-7pm

*Auction Ends at 6:30 PM, then awards given after and auction winners are welcome to pay and pick up their purchases.

$800 Cash Prizes + Fun Consolation Prizes announced at Pizza Party. Need not be present to win.

CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT AN ENTRY FORM
Print the Flyer

Makers of all ages transform the common pizza box into extraordinary objects

Pizza My Art turns pizza boxes into pure imagination. After six years, the entries continue to get wonderfully wild.

Got an idea, a joke, a masterpiece brewing? Enter the competition and turn a plain pizza box into your canvas. Winners walk away with cash prizes, pizza gift certificates, and a stack of fun consolation prizes — because everyone who dares to create deserves a little love.

Not the artsy type? Come be a collector instead. The exhibit and silent auction is packed with one-of-a-kind, affordable art that's perfect for your home, office, or that one blank wall you've been ignoring. Every piece tells a story.

Thank you to our sponsors for donating pizza boxes, gift certificates, and in-kind prizes: Mountain Mike's, Farm Star Pizza, Grana, and Rione Restaurant. Cash prizes were generously donated by The Art House, and Marion Hunziker-Larsen in Nicolai Larsen's memory.

Special thanks to Nicolai Larsen for initiating this beloved programming at Chico Art Center, and to Marion Hunziker-Larsen for graciously producing this fundraiser year after year.

Want to see this year's entries? Check out the discussion on our Facebook event page.

Facebook Event

Competition Rules

  •  Pick up pizza box at CAC starting late April & pay entry fee.
  •  Box can be flat, open or closed, constructed or deconstructed, or incorporated in art. Pizza Box Art can be 2D or 3D or Popup. Medium can be painting, drawing, collage, popup art, mixed media, wall or table sculpture, or anything else you can imagine or create. All attachments must be secure.
  • Must be ready to hang or to be placed on a pedestal.
  • Write your name (+ age if kid) on the back of the piece AND enter artwork on online drop-off form.
  • All pizza box art will be on display and auctioned off to the highest bidder at CAC.
  • To get any Pizza My Art entries during the auction, including your own, you will need to win the final bid.
  • Any artwork not picked up or claimed by August 8 at 4pm can be reclaimed by the artist.
  • Pizza box art still unclaimed after Sunday, August 9 will be recycled.
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June 2026 | Dolores Mitchell

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 DOLORES MITCHELL

June 9 - July 17

Reception: Friday, June 26, 5:00-7:00 PM

Dolores Mitchell is considered by most to be a Chico arts icon. This exhibition provides a cross-section of the many subjects, styles and media Mitchell has practiced over decades.  Included are San Francisco fantasies as well as North state rice fields, orchards and bird refuges, and a Chico Icon series with Bidwell Mansion, the Senator Theater, bungalows and bar scenes.

Although Dolores Mitchell set her paints aside while teaching Art History at CSUC from 1970 to 2000, she continued to practice figure drawing and to sketch outdoors and in museums. She has a Bachelor’s degree in painting and a PhD in Art History from UCLA. After retirement, Dolores co-founded Avenue 9 Gallery with Maria Phillips and Giovanna Jackson, which gave her the incentive to paint seriously again. Mitchell is a regular contributor to Upgraded Living Magazine and promotes artists and art events in her newsletter, Art Talk. To sign-up for Art Talk, use this link.

Order an exhibition catalog here
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Choose Chico 2026

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ChooseChico26

Chico Art Center's Special Offerings: 

Saturday, Feb. 28 - The Makers Cafe

Our free and family friendly maker space will supply you with plenty of free materials and tools you can use while you’re at Chico Art Center to create your own art. Enter our 1947 Pullman train car for a fully creative experience.

This particular café will be an open maker space for you to come and make art was such a wide variety of materials, cover a dinosaur in googly eyes, make a tiny diorama, go wild with the hot glue guns. Sky’s the limit!

This event is completely free to attend and family friendly though little ones will definitely need adult supervision on hand. Drop in anytime you like, we’re so excited to see you this Saturday!

 

Sunday, March 1 - Free Draw Station

Come draw at our easels placed in the gallery and on the deck. Ever tried Urban sketching? Draw the landscape outside, including our 1947 Pullman train car, people viewing the exhibit or the artwork itself. All ages welcome. Drawing supplies provided.

Come draw with us in Chico's downtown plaza for Choose Chico Day from 1:00-4:00

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Maker’s Muse Street Fair 2026

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makersMuse26

Chico Art Center's Special Offerings: 

Saturday, Feb. 28 - The Makers Cafe

Our free and family friendly maker space will supply you with plenty of free materials and tools you can use while you’re at Chico Art Center to create your own art. Enter our 1947 Pullman train car for a fully creative experience.

This particular café will be an open maker space for you to come and make art was such a wide variety of materials, cover a dinosaur in googly eyes, make a tiny diorama, go wild with the hot glue guns. Sky’s the limit!

This event is completely free to attend and family friendly though little ones will definitely need adult supervision on hand. Drop in anytime you like, we’re so excited to see you this Saturday!

 

Sunday, March 1 - Free Draw Station

Come draw at our easels placed in the gallery and on the deck. Ever tried Urban sketching? Draw the landscape outside, including our 1947 Pullman train car, people viewing the exhibit or the artwork itself. All ages welcome. Drawing supplies provided.

Chico Art Center will have a free drawing station at the end of the fair, on 5th & Orange Street. See you there!