For the art junkies among us, Downtown Sacramento has become one of the best places around for a good fix.
“The Downtown gallery scene is thriving,” says Beth Jones, partner in the JayJay Contemporary Art Gallery. “Thanks to major art producing universities and more galleries with museum quality work, you can get some very good art in Sacramento.”
Downtown is home to nearly two-dozen formal galleries, and almost innumerable exhibits that can be found everywhere from the local coffeehouse to the main lobby at City Hall. For artists, it means the opportunities to have their work on display goes well beyond gallery representation. For art lovers, it means there’s a full spectrum of art styles and media to be enjoyed.
One of the best ways to sample that spectrum is the famous Second Saturday art tour, now in its 16th year and bigger than ever.
On the second Saturday of each month there are nearly 300 venues available in Downtown and Midtown, from galleries to hotels to real estate offices. Most offer a chance to meet a featured artist while enjoying music, food and wine. The event starts at 6 p.m. and lasts until roughly 9 p.m. Tours are self guided, so the advice of organizers is to start early.
“Most of the restaurants and coffee shops stay open late on Second Saturday, so skip dinner,” says Scott Farrell, Web master for Sacramento Second Saturday (sacramento-second-saturday.org). “In a casual evening you can see a lot of diverse art, so my advice is to see the art first, then grab a bite later.”
Anyone truly wanting to tap into the best art that Sacramento has to offer doesn’t have to wait for Second Saturday, however. The arts are ready to be enjoyed immediately and any experience has to start with the Crocker Art Museum. It is the crown jewel of the city’s arts scene.
“The Crocker is very important to the art scene here and a real demonstration of how the community is willing to step up and support the arts,” Jones says. From there, there are several galleries offering something for every taste, but some that are not to be missed include:
• Axis Gallery, an artists’ collaborative with a reputation for “challenging contemporary artwork”
• B. Sakata Garo, featuring new exhibitions almost every month and a broad mix of media and styles
• The Art Foundry, a true metal foundry and gallery that combines the contemporary with “art’s classical roots”
• Exploding Head Gallery, offering contemporary art, ceramics and monthly rotating exhibitions
• The Artists Cooperative Gallery featuring local works in a variety of mediums
For those seeking something a little more obscure, there’s the Phantom Gallery, which shows exhibitions in abandoned buildings, and the Fool’s Foundation, which owner Liz Donner says is designed to “push the envelope.”
Finally, outside the galleries there’s a guided tour of Sacramento’s Art in Public Places, recently recognized as one of the top 10 “must do’s” in Sacramento. The Art in Public Places program started in 1977 when the City and County of Sacramento began setting aside two percent of all public projects to fund public art.
“Today there are more than 600 works in the collection, including 50 in the Downtown area,” says Linda Bloom, administrator of the Art in Public Places program for the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. “That doesn’t even include the artwork that can be seen at every light rail station in the Downtown area.”
Guided tours of Sacramento's public art are free and can be arranged simply by calling the commission at 916-566-3992. Highlights of the tour should include stops at City Hall, the Environmental Protection Agency building and the Sacramento Convention Center, among others.
