Fresno Wants to Be Your Guinea Pig for Art

Don’t Underestimate the Central Valley As an Incubator of Galleries, Fringe Festivals, and Graffiti Art

In the Central Valley, art is as likely to reach you on a street corner or in a pop-up performance space in someone’s garage as it is on a museum floor or a theater hall. At a “Living the Arts” panel co-presented by the James Irvine Foundation at Arte Americas in Fresno, California, a group of local artists discussed the different ways they bring the arts to the community, the challenges they’ve faced, and where they draw their inspiration.

Joe Moore, director of content at Valley Public Radio and the evening’s …

You Call That Art?

Yes, and It’s in Unexpected Places All Over the Central Valley

Art is all around us in California—whether it’s whizzing by on the side of a city bus or brightening the facade of a once-dingy building.
Thanks to new technology and …

Can California Go Rogue?

Why an Eclectic Fringe Festival in Fresno Is a Model for the State’s Future

Does California need to go Rogue?

I’m not talking about secession or flying Sarah Palin down from Alaska but about what may be the most important California arts event most Californians …

Hey! Don’t Eat My Art!

Why My Husband and I Turned Our Living Room Into the Museum of Donuts

I’m used to the reaction now: a snicker, a raised eyebrow, and a pause, as they wait for the punch line. My husband, Jan, and I couldn’t possibly run something …

How Our Church Music Became Merengue, Gospel, and Spanish-Christian Pop

Tastes and People Changed at My Church In Modesto. I Learned To Change With Them.

My path to becoming a choir director and Christian recording artist began with a move from Guatemala to Modesto, California. It was 1992, I was 9 years old, and my …

Can Art Save My City?

Downtown Merced Isn’t Known for Anything Good. I Founded an Art Hop to Start Changing That.

Merced in California’s San Joaquin Valley has a population of 80,000 and a reputation for crime, unemployment, and teen pregnancy. But I want my hometown to be known for something …