Arts! Arcata returns with some changes
Arts! Arcata is back with some modifications
The first Arts! Arcata since March 2020 is set to start today and continue through Sunday.
For 2021, this Arcata Main Street-sponsored event — which celebrates visual and performing arts — will be held at locations in downtown Arcata on the second weekend of the month (Friday through Sunday) during each venue’s usual open hours — with COVID-19 safety protocols in place.
“Arts! Arcata 2021 is designed to work alongside pandemic safety needs,” said Shoshanna with Arcata Main Street. “First of all, we are really emphasizing that there is no gathering. There will be no shared snacks or wine pouring and no extended hours. It’s not even really an event so much as inviting people to visit galleries, stores and locations in person and online that are showcasing visual and performing arts from Arcata. … Anybody visiting a gallery or store will have to follow the county-approved plan for that location, including how many people can be inside at a time, etc. Of course, facial coverings are required everywhere. Masks, physical distancing and hand sanitizing have been really solid across downtown Arcata.”
She added: “It is definitely different, but it feels great to be bringing back the spirit of celebrating our local artists while being mindful of all the precautions we need to take.”
Go to www.arcatamainstreet.com, check out the Arts! Arcata event on Facebook and Instagram or call 707-822-4500 for more information. Several events this month are being offered online.
Participating locations for March include:
• Arcata Artisans Cooperative Gallery, 883 H St. Photography by Vaughn Hutchins and fiber arts by Carolyn Jones (see story below)
• Arcata Playhouse. Visit www.zerotofierce.org for information about online offerings, including One Minute Dances, tonight at 7 p.m.; “Lucy and the Bear” children’s book reading and sharing by local author Ali Freelund and illustrator Becky Grant, Saturday at 11 a.m.; and songs by Allison Russell from Nashville, Tennessee, Saturday at 7 p.m.
• Arcata Theater Lounge, 1036 G St. Pop-up art gallery and food from local chefs
• Garden Gate, 905 H St. Pastels by Lisa Landis
• Infuzions, 868 H St. “Step Into Sacred Space,” visionary oil paintings by Monica Star, mixed media and photography by Berry Love, and psychedelic abstracts and surreal landscape paintings by Joe Mallory
• Outer Space Arcata. Go to www.facebook.com/outerspacearcata for online offerings information, including a weekly variety show/ open mic Sundays at 7 p.m.
• The Sanctuary. Visit www.SanctuaryArcata. org for online offerings information, including live music streaming Monday through Friday from 7 to 8 p.m.
“I think it’s exciting to be integrating live online offerings as part of Arts! Arcata for the first time,” Shoshanna said. “It just happens to be the grand finale weekend for the Arcata Playhouse Zero to Fierce women’s festival, and The Sanctuary and Outer Space Arcata also have fun live-streaming events. For visual artists, we hope to help downtown venues increase the turnover of the art on their walls and bring more visibility in the community. For our performing arts community that has been ripped from their energy source of live audiences for so long, we hope to at least make sure that people know where to find their local musician and dance friends on virtual platforms.”
Arcata Main Street, she said, “has been very conscious of the difficult situation of our visual and performing artists during the pandemic.”
Shoshanna noted: “It was so great that the 2020 Virtual Oyster Festival still managed to get three live music acts to be a part of the event, including the Latin Peppers. At Halloween, we integrated a DJ and several small dance groups into our drive-through plaza event. In the late fall, we put on a Sunday Art Market on Eighth Street to offer artists and craftspeople a way to sell their work even though many fairs were canceled. We’re really excited to bring that back in May for another season. We are also trying to make sure that artists and cultural organizations are listed on Arcata’s wonderful www. VisitArcata.com website — and bringing back the essence of Arts! Arcata feels like it fits right in with all of those endeavors.
“The response from the business community seems tentatively optimistic and feels like it’s a good start,” Shoshanna said. “Businesses are now so good at making sure people enter and behave safely in their stores and locations, and celebrating our artists just feels right at this time. I think the number of businesses will grow each month as long as things seem to be going well. As things hopefully open up more in the coming months, it will be easy to step forward or step backwards with this kind of a whole weekend model.”