Paper Mache
Pardon me if I brag. 2020 was a tough year, but despite it all we kept on doing what we have been doing for 40 years: celebrating the arts and our heritage and the cultures, places, traditions, and events that contribute to the quality of life in Yuba-sutter.
That is not to say that we did not face significant challenges as we managed pandemic-induced changes to our day-to-day reality.
It saw disappointments like the suspension of our Arts Exposure grant-funded field trips for high school art students and our Yuba Water Agency “Learning Science Through Art” classroom programs for 2nd /3rd graders. We had to cancel annual events like Harvest the Arts and Art & Oysters along with all in person, events like our Yuba Sutter Youth Choir and live music performances.
Regardless, the challenging year also brought new opportunities and achievements. We opened our Kalakara Art Studio complex in Yuba City with three resident artists and two young artists in our Art Mentorship program. We invented virtual series like our Artist Alchemy interview show and our All About the Arts talk show. We created virtual Art Auctions to support local artists and we provided a grant program for art and culture organizations supporting communities of color. We commissioned new murals and presented virtual programs like Slightly Batty, Terror
Tellers and Applause.
It is always difficult to plan a year’s worth of programs and events even under normal circumstances, but especially so not knowing when we will be able to re-open our theaters and art galleries. We are taking a conservative approach and assuming the first half of the year will still require full social distancing and no large public gatherings. From July on we are planning to get back to live events hoping we will be back in the normal zone with the caveat that if things take a turn for the worse, we will cancel, postpone, or revert to full virtual mode.
Let the New Year begin!
(Paper Mache is a weekly column about the arts community by David Read, director of Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture.)