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October 2020 | Open Studios Art Tour

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OpenStudioPSD

 

Open Studios Art Tour is an annual Butte County tradition. Artists share their private studios with the public to explore. This month-long 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.

OPEN STUDIOS ART TOUR Weekends

October 17-18, 10:00am - 5:00pm
October 24-25, 10:00am - 5:00pm

Open Studios Art Tour is a two-weekend event. Visit Artists in their environment as they share their behind the scenes, studio practice and welcome you to buy paintings, photography, sculpture, ceramics, furniture, jewelry, woodwork, stained glass and other handcrafts. Over 60 artists participate.

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Relax and refresh at participating Eateries and enjoy art too! Look for the FORK icons on the tour guide map.

Artist's Portal

Artists register here soon...

GALLERY EXHIBIT

October 3-25, 2020

View one artwork by each artist, buy a tour guide booklet and plan your self-guided tour of artists’ studios throughout Chico and parts of Oroville. Free and open to the public.

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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.

Patron's Exclusive Preview Reception

Saturday, October 3, 6:00-8:00 pm

This is the first public view of artworks by all Open Studio Artists. The $30 tickets to attend include the Open Studios Tour Guide with map and info of all of the artist's studio locations ($12).

With musical stylings, catered drinks and refreshments.

Patron of the Arts will be honored to celebrate generous community support and love of art and creativity!

Tickets Available for Purchase in November
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Guide Book with Map

Purchase for $12 at the following locations

Chico

Great Northern Coffee

Vagabond Rose Gallery & Framing

Ellis Art and Engineering, Downtown

Sally Dimas Gallery

Chico Paper Co.

Art Etc.

Chico Art Center

Oroville

Broken Color Gallery

Extended Hours

Friday, October 16, 5:00-7:00 pm

View OSAT Exhibit and purchase Tour Guides 

PROGRAM SPONSOR
PROGRAM SPONSOR
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August 2020 | California Visionary Art, The Legacy

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Paul Pratchenko, "Dissolution of the Familiar"

August 15 - September 25, 2020

Reception: Saturday, August 15, 5-7 pm

This is an invitational show featuring some of the great masters of the genre.

The California Visionary Art Movement was born in San Francisco in the late 60’s and early 70’s inspired by the psychedelic era, spiritual awakening, transformative synergy, and a search for deeper inner meanings of life. 

Utopia, shamanic mysticism, the moon landing, new age ideals, East meet West philosophies, and fantastic realism were concepts for artists to discover and draw upon. Sacred geometry, world building, the beauty of nature and the human body, were important themes. 

Music advanced technology with the arrival of synthesizers played an important role in this movement as both inspiration, and by creating meditative spaces to work by. Visionary art became album covers. 

With visionary art, the artists became shamans, magicians, and alchemists transmuting inner visions into sacred art, or at least they attempted to make inner truths and the transcendental into manifest forms such as paintings and drawings. 

Some of the artists associated with this movement painted scenes of earthly beauty, a return to Eden, sanctuaries for the soul, imagined cosmic landscapes before the age of planetary discovery. Others artists painted surreal and hallucinatory compositions, and sometimes satirical commentaries on modern life. 

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April 2020 | Creative Fusion

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Sketchbook by Maddi Duntsch

16th Annual Junior High + High School Art Exhibition Selected by their Art Teachers

 

Exhibition: April 10-24, 2020

Reception: Friday, April 17, 5-7 pm

Vote for People’s Choice! Cash prizes awarded at 5:45 pm

14th Annual Junior High & High School Exhibition of artwork selected and prepared by their art teachers.

An exhibition of exceptional junior high and high school student artwork selected by their art teachers.  Fresh twists on traditional assignments as well as explorations in digital media offer visitors a rare chance to see visual literacy and expression in fine art and digital art curriculum in Chico schools.

Come see creative minds at work. For months, students across Chico develop their paintings, drawings, illustrations, photography, ceramics, mixed media and sculptures. Then, art instructor's top choices are framed and prepared for exhibition. This show offers very young artists the opportunity to exhibit in an art gallery and art patrons first chance to collect charming an affordable objects.

Over 150 works of art will be exhibited by Pleasant Valley, Chico and Fair View High, Inspire School for the Arts, Marsh, Bidwell and Chico Junior High and Blue Oak Junior High.

Students, teachers, parents and friends gather at the opening reception to enjoy artwork, cast their votes for People’s Choice Award and celebrate the Juror's selections for cash prizes.

This exhibition and cash prizes are sponsored by Graham Hutton of Made in Chico. 

Read the Teacher's Statement
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March 2020 | Furlandia

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PhilDynan_AnaNelson_Bunny_Crop

March 7 - 27, 2020

Reception: Saturday, March 7, 2-4 pm

Ana Nelson and Phil Dynan have been passing paintings back and forth for more than 15 years of collaborative projects. The name of the exhibit, Furlandia refers to a mythical land inhabited only by animals. They are characters based in large part on the animals at Ana & Phil’s Accidental Animal Rescue Center, a place where the two artists have taken in over 430 animals in the last 8 years.

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February 2020 | Sal Casa

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Sal Casa by Ron Schwager, 1992
Sal Casa by Ron Schwager, 1992

February 8- March 1, 2020

Remembrance Reception:

Saturday, February 8, 5-8 pm

This commemorative exhibition honors our Chico icon, featuring works on loan by Sal Casa’s collectors, an installation of his studio wall, and a weekend sale of works from Casa’s estate Feb 8-9, 10am-4pm.

Please join us at the reception to share stories and memories of Sal. For questions contact gallery director, Cameron Kelly at ckelly@chicoartcenter.com

Obituary written by Sal's daughter, Kate Casa 
Chico News & Review's Tribute | A Brief Bio of Sal Casa
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Current | Member Showcase

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MemberShowcase

117 artists of all media have kicked off Chico Art Center's 64th year by sharing a sample of their art practice. Whether an artist is a novice or pro, it is always a courageous and generous act to make one’s personal creation public for all to consume. Visitors have a chance to see what studio artists, both regional and national offer up.

Reception: Friday, January 10, 5-7 pm

This exhibition is generously sponsored by Cris Guenter.

Deliver artwork January 2-5, 2020 | Entry is free with $40 membership | Pick Up February 1-2

Chico Enterprise Record Article