Exhibit

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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.

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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

 

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.

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

Call For Pizza Box Art

Entry fee $5

Family rate 4 boxes for $10

Drop Off: July 17-18, 2026

CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT AN ENTRY FORM

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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May 2026 | The Puzzle Show

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Puzzle Show logo 2024

May 12-29

A Community-Made Installation & Fundraiser

Closing Reception & Silent Auction Friday, May 29, 6:00 - 8:30 PM

*Bidding ends at 8:00 PM

Artists Jeb and Olive Sisk, Titus Willoughby Woods and friends Mr. Black and Wolf Bless bring back the largest public participatory exhibit in Northern California. The Puzzle Show originated at the 24 Hr Drive-By Gallery decades ago by David "Sisko" Sisk, his son, Jeb Sisk, and Titus Willoughby Woods.

March 28-29

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PICK UP

Come to Chico Art Center to pick up a blank puzzle piece for $20 while they last!

Be part of the show by transforming a piece. Paint, draw, collage, knit, assemblage, burn, carve, mosaic, upholster, papier mâché, sculpt, 3D print, laser cut, circuit bend... let your imagination run wild!

Kids under 13 receive a free puzzle piece with the purchase of one puzzle piece.

Enter your purchased puzzle piece numbers here

April 25-26

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DROP OFF

Bring your finished pieces back to the Chico Art Center, Saturday & Sunday, April 25-26, 10AM – 4PM.

All of the puzzle pieces will be painstakingly installed across all of the gallery walls to reveal a high relief mural. The overall effect is a total surprise!

May 12-29

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The exhibit opens May 12. Come celebrate creativity and bid on a piece! The silent auction starts on the first day and ends during the closing reception.

RECEPTION & SILENT AUCTION

Friday, May 29, 6:00 - 8:30PM

*Bidding ends at 8:00

Come enjoy the company of friends and fellow makers over refreshments while bidding on your favorite pieces! The winning bidders pick up their artwork Saturday and Sunday, May 30 & 31, the weekend after the auction, from 10am - 4pm.

Project Designers

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Titus Willoughby Woods

Paint brushes and splashes! The perfect metaphor for art in action. Who's going to clean up this mess?!

Jeb Sisk

Gourds the perfect organic shape, no one alike, just like the puzzle show. I’m amazed and inspired by this show every time it comes together. Thanks to all the incredibly talented people in this community and beyond who help shape this show into what you see on the walls. Without the 350 plus people who participated this year, you would only see blank plywood puzzle pieces on the walls.

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Chico Art Center to fill with puzzles

by Jennie Blevins, April 25, 2024

KZFR Butte Views and Beyond

Ray Laager interviews Lisa Freeman-Wood about the Puzzle Show, April 25, 6:30pm, 2024

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Invite Friends on Facebook

Click Here
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View the 2024 Puzzle Show

Learn more

2026 Bidder Entry Form

2nd 2026 Bidder Entry Form

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April 2026 | Creative Fusion

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CreativeFusion26_Front (1)

April 7 - 24

Reception & Award Ceremony: Friday, April 24, 5:00-7:00 PM

Voting for People's choice awards starts on the first day of the exhibit and ends at 5:30 during the closing reception.

Awards will be announced at 5:45pm.

This exhibit brings together Chico's young, creative talent. Every year, our secondary school Art Teachers are tasked with selecting their student's most expressive and skillful artworks and preparing their work for exhibition. This is the only annual exhibit in our area to display the formative, 8 year span of our youth's creative development. Please join in celebrating creative minds at work in arts education.

$50 and $25 Cash prizes for 14 students are generously donated by Pennie Baxter and Teresa Gisske, Lisa and Jon Freeman-Wood, and Made in Chico.

Chico Jr. High

Chico Country Day

Chico High

CORE Butte Charter School

Inspire School of Arts & Sciences

Pleasant Valley High

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FOR TEACHERS

This is the 22nd year that Chico Art Center has produced this exhibition, started by Reta Rickmers! We are so proud to present the creative collaboration that happens in your classrooms.

Art & design work are welcome!

Cash prizes (donated by local patrons) will be awarded to outstanding artworks.

  • 10 artworks per teacher

  • 2D work must be ready to hang. Framing is not required. If it’s not framed, it must have a way to be hung. If mounted with a mat board, 4 Command strips per artwork is ideal.

  • 3D artworks must stand with no wobble.

  • Artwork is encouraged to be for sale. It sells as is. Frames are not removed.

 

IMPORTANT DATES

Deliver Artwork: Friday, March 27, 11:30am-4pm, Sat-Sun, March 28-29,10am-4pm

Exhibit On View: April 7 - 24

Reception & Awards: Friday, April 24, 5-7PM. (You may take home work after 7pm)

Pick Up Artwork during gallery hours (weekends 10-4): April 25-26 or after the reception ends on Friday.

WALL LABEL INFO

  • A short statement (3-5 sentences) from the student about the process/technique/digital program and their intent will really help jurors.

  • Student’s phone number so that they may be texted reminders about the reception. (This does not apply to Jr. High students).

Students may fill out this entry form