For questions or to participate as a performer, please contact Reed Rickmers at (530) 804-3044
Arts Alive Spoken Word & Open Mic June
featured
Arts Alive Spoken Word & Open Mic May
For questions or to participate as a performer, please contact Reed Rickmers at (530) 804-3044
October 2026 | Open Studios Art Tour
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.
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
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.
August 2026 | Narrative
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.
June 2026 | Dolores Mitchell
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.
April 2026 | Creative Fusion
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
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
