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Great Northern Coffee Closed

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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.

View pictures of the Pullman train car here.

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October 2020 | Open Studios Art Tour

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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.

Virtual Tour + Studio Visits

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.

Benefits

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.

Stay Safe

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.

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Chris Kaufman/Appeal-Democrat Waif Mullin, of Chico, with his bird Pappi, will have a show of his pastel work at The Theater Gallery on Plumas Street in Yuba City.
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How can I see the artwork?

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

Chico Art Center

Vagabond Rose Gallery & Framing

Ellis Art and Engineering, Downtown

Sally Dimas Gallery

Chico Paper Co.

Art Etc.

Oroville

Broken Color Gallery

Gallery Exhibit

October 3 - November 1, 2020

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.

PROGRAM SPONSOR
PROGRAM SPONSOR
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BLAST ART After School Program

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BLAST ART

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

The Train Car Gallery

May 27 - November, 2020, Chico Art Center

The Gratitude Flower

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.”

Dia de los Muertos Art & Altar Exhibition

November 1-22, 2019, Chico Art Center

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OSAT 2020 ARTIST PORTAL

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Make a Date For Art

Make a Date for Art is our theme for the 2020 Open Studios Art Tour (OSAT).  We do not want to bypass this annual tradition, and according to our artist survey, you do not want to either. 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.

Virtual Tour + Studio Visits

We are building a website that will enable you to have an individual page featuring your artwork and studio. This is considered the virtual tour. All artists will be on this virtual tour, which will be heavily promoted and publicized. In addition, you have the option to invite visitors for a traditional studio visit by appointment, should you feel comfortable and able to follow the COVID-19 safety guidelines.

Benefits

Registering for OSAT this year allows you to build your own customizable web page on the OSAT website for one year. 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.  Invite the public to “Make a Date” by purchasing a tour guide or paying online.  This will also give artists the chance to visit one another.

Stay Safe

It will be important to practice social distancing and to use masks and hand sanitizer for both visitors and the artists while on the Tour.  All recommended protocols will be listed in the tour guide and artists may make any special requests when scheduling appointments with visitors.

Register by July 31

Registering for OSAT by the July 31 deadline will assure your listing in the tour guide, allow you to exhibit one artwork in the gallery, and have an individual web page on the ChicoOSAT.com website.

You

The key to the popularity of Open Studios is THE ARTISTS.  People enjoy seeing art but also learning something about the people who make the art. The Open Studios Art Tour provides a unique opportunity to promote yourself to a new audience and to provide those patrons you have already cultivated with the opportunity to see and buy your new work.

We Can Help

By letting artists be in control of who visits their studios and when, we think it can be done safely. We will forego the kick-off reception this year as large gatherings are still not advisable.  All registration will be done online. Assistance will be provided to those who are not able to complete an online  form.  If needed, call the Chico Art Center at (530) 895-8726 or email ckelly@chicoartcenter.com .

Webpage

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24hr access for 1 year

Promote your work all year long

Grow Your Audience

Over a thousand art enthusiasts look forward to this annual event.

Build Community

Join artists in Butte County who share their paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, glass art, and textiles.

Q & A

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Tutorials for Quality Photos & Videos

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Important Dates

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CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

CALL FOR ARTISTS

2020 Open Studios Art Tour, Online + Studio Visits

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.

  • Artists from Northern California are eligible to participate.

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:

  1. Printed Tour Guide Book
  2. Gallery Exhibition: October 3 - November 1, 2020*
  3. Artist page on the ChicoOSAT.com website

Register after July 31, 2020 benefits include:

  1. Artist page on the ChicoOSAT.com website

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

COVID-19 Guidelines

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Strategies for Success

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Get Ready for Studio Visits

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Sample Artist Galleries

Images by former OSAT Artists

Waif Mullins
Annai Smith
Nancy Spinadel
Richard Balch
Barbara O'Brien
Kristen DeMartini Carlos
Tia Cronin
Sheryl Karas
Richard Whiteread
Nicolai Larsen
Annai Smith
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Sept 2020 | Flora: The Other Endangered Species

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Juried Call for Art

Submission Fee: $25 Members/$35 Non-Members

Cash Prizes: $200, $100, $100

Focusing on native, threatened, and endangered plants, Chico Art Center is seeking artwork of all media that helps us think about how important biodiversity is to the health of the regions we live in. Increasing awareness and knowledge of plants, plant life cycles and how to use them effectively in our lives is essential. How do we grow our future? For example, many regions need replanting after wildfires. Each artwork will be accompanied by the artist’s statement about the status of the plant and its habitat.

Exhibition dates: Sept 5-25, 2020

Due to fluctuating COVID-19 Guidelines for Butte County, the exhibit may be online only.  Please fill out the online entry form below and upload an image of your artwork by August 16, 2020.

Generously Sponsored by Ann & Tony Slocum

Read Prospectus
Apply by August 16, 2020
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August 2020 | Small Works

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SMALL WORKS
August 1-28, 2020

This annual, jury-free community exhibit of 12x12” artworks is a celebration of tiny experiments in color, shape and materials by artists of all ages. Grab a small work while it’s hot!

Due to COVID-19 restrictions for Butte County, the exhibit is online.

To purchase artwork, please email Gallery Director, Cameron Kelly at ckelly@chicoartcenter.com .

Nicolai larsen, "Amazing Stories", acrylic on canvas, $250. With all the time "at home" I've reverted back to my childhood (or so my wife says). It was all science fiction and dinosaurs back then. AMAZING STORIES was the very first sci-fi magazine published.This painting is a humoristic tribute to that genre. I really miss the art center!
Gitta Brewster, "Coronaria Covidii", Papermache and Acrylic on Canvas, $150.
Brittney Apel, "In Bloom", Ink, $50. A fluid ink canvas piece to remind us to flow and bloom together.
Annai Smith, "Morning Poppies 2", oil painting, $170. Mid-morning light blankets the field of poppies. My artistic eye not only takes in every detail of beauty and color but analyzes the many pleasing compositions of the scene. I can't help myself. It's and innate desire to gather the scatterings of nature's bounty and arrange them to my liking. I AM AN ARTIST!
Carolyn McLeod, "White Bud", Photograph on 12" x 12" wrap canvas, $150. I often walk by a Magnolia tree in my neighborhood and stop to take photos. I am intrigued by how sculptural Magnolia blossoms are. This particularly bud is particularly so and seems to mysteriously float in space as if from another world.
TK Frankenber, "Hand in Hand", 100% Wool, Knitted Shadow Mosaic, 12" square, $60 Knitted Shadow Mosaics are interlocking and inverted motifs in opposite and reversing shades. Walking through a local gallery provided the inspiration.
Carolyn McLeod, "Yucca Light", photograph on Archival Velvet Fine Art Paper, $150. I took this photo of a Yucca plant in my neighborhood. What interested me was the shape of the flowers and the way light fell on the petals.
Richard Robinson, "Cheers", collage, $125. There's a beauty in the simple and ordinary. Pleasure sitting with a friend or family member enjoying an ale or coffee together. Maybe discussing life and living, or maybe just appreciating the small things in our world.
Richard Robinson, "Three fish" Collage, SOLD.
Annai Smith,"Morning Poppies 1", oil painting, $170. Living far from family can be hard as well as a blessing. This particular painting was inspired by a quick trip to visit my son and daughter-in-law expecting their first baby, my first grandchild. The poppy field was so full of vibrancy and life. Photographing my beautifully pregnant daughter-in-law amongst the flowers was an opportunity to combine both beauty and life into a memorable portrait. Painting the poppies was my way to immortalize that beauty and life.
Alice Figueroa, "Second Chance Bonsai," watercolor/nature, $200. This sweet bonsai wasn't strong enough to survive the heat of the campfire but it lives on in art.
Nancy Beliveau, "Kitty Glitter", mixed media, $50. Orange cats have special personalities I think. With this in mind I added glamour with jewels and swirls. Cats were once worshipped and I have a feeling they still think they are worthy of adoration.
Cris Guenter, "Morning Walk", oils, NFS. With the pandemic limiting interactions with others, my morning walks have taken on greater significance. This local scene is part of my early morning walk. It is near the big roundabout and Wildwood Park across from the Elks Lodge. The morning sun casts delightful shadows that dance on the sidewalk.
Amanda Jordan, "I’d rather be...", mixed media on canvas, SOLD. I asked friends what they would rather be doing then wearing masks - this was one answer (kissing).
Judy Kane, "All the Colours", acrylic on canvas, $220. I’ve been thinking (like everyone) about healing the Planet. Applying Love and Science to every situation. Might be a good place to start.
Lisa Freeman-Wood, "Embroidery - Pink and Taupe Free Form", NFS. I decided to pick up embroidery again when the Stay at Home order came. I had done some embroidery as well as sewing, and macrame when I was in my 20's. I ordered a kit with lots of thread in many colors and the things I'd need to get started again. I worked my way thru a couple of samplers and decided to do something different. I did not draw this design and it was not originally for embroidery but I thought it would be interesting to do. It is not perfect but it was fun to do and I learned a lot. I pinned it to a canvas I had.
Rosemary Redmond, "The Year of 2020", oil on canvas, $75. COVID-19 has been so all-encompassing on my life and lives of everyone I know that I could not resist a painting about the virus itself--as it changes and mutates, and moves from one place to another.
Carla Resnick, "Retrieve", acrylic and ink on canvas, $285.
Maggie Wisdom, "A Visit From Squeaky", acrylic, $60. Inspired by a friendly visit from a neighborhood cat.
Sue Warwick, "View Out My Window", mosaic, NFS. I am lucky enough to live by Bidwell Park. My studio window faces that park. I see the seasons change through that window. I captured the ginkgos from the Esplanade and the almonds all around us.
Mariam Pakbaz, "The Permeable Chamber", mixed media, $250. This miniature space is ready to accept its tiny occupant. The Permeable Chamber is set up for noninvasive sleep experiments and maximum dream access.
Erin Wells, "S T O P", acrylic, $50. Too much going on. We are all seeking a break. One way to find our comfort zone is to Stop accepting interruptions.
Mary Elizabeth Collins, "Inner Healer", Acrylic, and photo borders, $90. No matter what a tree (bark and leaves) experiences through the seasons, there is a magnificent life giving chemistry deep inside and under the soil, as it communes with other trees and a myriad of life forms. On trees, I often find vaginal images, created by life's adventures within and outside of their bark. Trees constantly remind me to celebrate my female, life giving, sustaining nature. These vaginal shapes also remind me to travel within myself to remember where I emerged, that my essence is life giving.
Mary Elizabeth Collins, "Dance of the Ancient Olive Tree", Acrylic, Photo border, NFS. I relish seeing our human selves in trees. The grey and white knees,bones and feet at the base of some old olive trees in my apartment complex,dark red violet olives strewn around the base and beyond, led me to see an ancient female dancer. It has been my desire for sometime to celebrate the connections I feel between trees and me. This and my " Inner Healer" painting in this exhibit, are my first efforts to portray a bit of my relationship with trees.
Dan Fregin, "Piper Cub in a roll", 1 of 3, house paint, $300 for set. Rolls were not very exciting but you could not use much rudder to counteract adverse yaw from about 60 degrees of roll through about 240 degrees or you would end up with some nose-down yaw.
Dan Fregin, "Piper cub at top of a loop", 2 of 3, house paint, $300 for set. The terrain looks really close for coming inverted over the top of this loop. But it reminds me of my Cub (1975 to 1983) with a 65 horse Continental and a wooden prop - It would climb at least 50 feet in successive loops.
Dan Fregin, "Piper Cub in a spin", 3 of 3, house paint, $300 for set. You had to hold full rudder into spins because it had so much wing that it would fly itself out of the spin. Normal pitch is around 65 to 75 degrees down to keep one wing stalled.