New gallery exhibits at Arden Fair give Sacramento artists ‘an opportunity where they live’
Art curators Faith McKinnie and Sarah Hawkins wanted to make art more accessible in Sacramento, especially art generated by people of color.
With the help of Arden Fair Mall, they created a cultural experience through the lens of Sacramento artists for people to observe and engage in one of the city’s busiest spaces.
“The HeART of Sacramento” is a gallery with two-exhibitions that showcase a collection of pieces by local artists documenting their moment in history, and adding it to a timeline of art history created by other artists of color in Sacramento.
Inside the mall, on the lower level next to J. Crew, local artists have their illustrative expressions on display in the art gallery presented by Arden Fair’s art program, “UnchARTed”.
The doors are open every Wednesday through Sunday, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“One of the things that I really do like about Arden Fair is the fact…all the art that’s here is local because they want the community to see themselves represented here,” said Hawkins. “They want artists to have an opportunity where they live already, instead of thinking about (having) to go somewhere else.”
Hawkins is an operations manager, artist liaison, and event producer with UpperCloud Media, an agency that specializes in creative strategy and approach, digital development, video and brand experience.
McKinnie, an independent curator with over 10 years of experience, has her own gallery in midtown and wants to continue to collaborate with others to find ways to provide exposure to Black artists, artists of color, and artists who have been marginalized otherwise, not prioritized.
She said she wanted to have art meet community members where they were. That meant creating exhibits away from places like he Crocker Art Museum or even her Midtown gallery.
And what was more important than that, for McKinnie, was documenting the work of artists, especially as they dealt with surviving a pandemic.
“I think a lot of my work is this intersection between art and community,” said McKinnie. “This being in Arden Mall, there’s so many people coming. We’re also placing these artists in this historical canon. We have so many Black artists, artists of color, and artists with all these intersections in this space that we normally don’t see. This is archival for me.”
Black creativity at the heart of Sacramento
In the back of the gallery stands a historic timeline of monumental moments in Sacramento art, such as the opening of the Sojourner Truth Museum in 1996.
Powerful Black images surround the entrance of the gallery, including window display installations showing work by Dreaming Black.
McKinnie curated the “UnchARTed” exhibition, Black Creativity at the Heart of Sacramento, which is helping to tell the story of many local Black artists w have built a community in the city throughout decades of arts and culture.
In a news release, Arden Fair said it’s a story of “a new generation of artists” who are creating new pathways in art, forging new ideas.
Tasha King is a local artist whose artwork is displayed on the walls in the gallery’s exhibit. The opportunity for her was still something she was taking in.
King has on display two pieces titled, “Tethered Souls” and “Do You Want To Be Happy?” that she recently did. She took the emotion she felt internally dealing with the stressors of life and put it into her paintbrush and began to stroke her masterpiece.
Her work is being showcased in the same mall she used to shop in growing up. She never thought something like that would happen to her in Sacramento.
“It’s opening and creating new possibilities for people,” said King. “Opening yourself up to see something new and different; that expands within yourself.”
The Black Creativity exhibition features 13 artists, including King.
The others artists include: Aliyah Sidqe, Beth Consetta Rubel, Dreaming Black, Dwight Head, Gerry “GOS” Simpson, Jermaine Tilson, Joha Harrison, Juanita Gonzales, Keia Kodama, Monét Alyessett, Shonna McDaniels, and Unity Lewis.
UnchARTed: Through the years
The second exhibition “UnchARTed: Through the Years” is curated by Hawkins and UpperCloud Media.
Since 2018, Arden Fair created the arts program to celebrate and uplift Sacramento’s diversity in artistic expressions, bringing arts to the community and allowing local artists an accessible, visible platform.
“We have the UnchARTed art program to represent our community and bring art to everyone,” said Hawkins. “It’s to celebrate our artists and give opportunities for other people to celebrate them as well.”
The featured artists in the “Through the Years” exhibit are: Bryan Valenzuela, Cate Hidalgo, Colleen Craig, Daniel Tyree, Denae Davis, Diana Dich, Franceska Gamez, Garrett Cotham, Jamie Cardenas, Jared Konopitski, Jeff Mayry, Jill Allyn Stafford, Lynn Tobin, Melissa Arendt, Nate Flamm, Roxanne Brodeur Young, Tess Gallagher, and Travis Cuellar.
Connecting with the artists, curators
Aside from the exhibitions, guests will have the opportunity to connect with the curators and meet some of the creators of the art on the walls.
On Sunday, Kierston Johnson is hosting Yoga and Sound Therapy from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. She will have another yoga event the following Sunday, May 1.
On May 4, which is celebrated as Star Wars Day, Eben Burgoon and other comic authors will be at the gallery from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. to draw Star Wars characters and celebrate some of the authors’ new books coming soon.
The gallery is open to the public and all events are free. The last day for shoppers and art enthusiasts to stop and visit is May 7.
This story was originally published April 22, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
