I'm heading to California on Sunday, to Sacramento, to be exact. I'll be there until roughly the first week of June, working for an IT company owned by some friends of mine (what, we've all got to pay the bills, yo.). I'm excited, not just to get a real dose of Vitamin D that doesn't come in a pill, not just to be staying in the bedroom by the pool at the house of some of my favorite people, not because I'll finally have an income, oh, no. I'm excited to check out the art.

 Sacramento's got a groundbreaking Art in Public Places program. They have an ordinance in place that allots 2% of all capital improvement budgets to be set aside for public art. Dollar for dollar, I don't know who actually funds more art, Sacramento or Seattle, but I sure like the sound of two over one percent for art.

Being so close to the freak enclave that is the Bay area of California, Sacramento houses a lot of cool artist communities and lots of prominent artists within its limits. One such gallery I intend to check out is the well-known Horse Cow collective. With tens of artists currently listed on their website, there's a lot to choose from, in many different media. I'm hoping to drag my host family to the Second Saturday art walk, check them out, and other local galleries too. 

My friends tell me not to get my hopes up, coming from the great urban village of Seattle, to Sacramento, but I refuse to be swayed. My hopes are up. It's the capitol of the state, for one thing. They are a mere commute away from Burning Man HQ, there are countless fire performance troupes based there, what more could I ask? Dead cultural scene, indeed. 

 I may well go on to eat my words, but until or unless I experience otherwise, I am excited to go see what Sactown has to offer in the way of art. I'm not talking about huge things on the scale of Flock, or the Hammering Man,  I'm not a size queen when it comes to art. I want to experience the unique flavor of Sacramento's art scene. Are they cool and snobby, like the faux-euro-hipsters seen gobbling down plates of pepperoni at openings in Seattle, or are they the kind of utopian-dream inclusive people who invite you to blow glass at their glory hole, and hold this while I weld it? I hope they're the latter. 

I've been known to spend time with the art snobs and the participation-welcoming crowd. They're not necessarily exclusive, and it does get a little confusing when both sentiments are held in one person or group. I don't have expectations of the people there. I just know I'm looking forward to tasting a new town, seeing what kind of beautiful things are stashed in plain view there, and maybe meeting some more artists while I'm there. Stay tuned, I'll have a full report on your desk in the morning. 

photo credit: Franco Folini