Sacramento arts made a huge leap in a decade, and it looks permanent

The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento Bee, The (CA)

December 31, 2009

Author: David Barton

Special to The Bee

Edition: METRO FINAL

Section: EDITORIALS

Page: A15

Article Text:

Imagine the Sacramento area without concerts at the Sleep Train Amphitheatre, Raley Field or Empire Events Center. Imagine no Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in Davis. Imagine no California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. No Cosmopolitan Cabaret.

Imagine Second Saturday when it drew a few thousand people downtown for a quiet night of "art walking." Or imagine a Sacramento with Tower Records, with the Sacramento Symphony still performing and The Bee's Bill Glackin still reviewing.

That was Sacramento, at the close of 1999, when the big entertainment event was the opening of the IMAX Esquire on K Street in July.

In the subsequent decade, Sacramento got an idea of what it might become. Businesses invested in the city. Artists and musicians came here -- and inspired locals stayed.

Why this happened during this particular decade is not entirely clear. There was certainly no one reason. But a growing population -- spurred by people moving here from the Bay Area -- an ample money supply for investment and a desire to go out were all factors in creating a critical mass for change in Sacramento.

Those factors were in force all over California, where easy money and a passion for entertainment in all its forms combined to drive a developing arts scene. The past decade brought us a gorgeous new version of the de Young Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, the new Asian Art Museum at the S.F. Civic Center location, and a wide boom in casino development in the foothills and Lake Tahoe, where outdoor venues were built and touring artists loved to play. And everywhere, people were opening new restaurants.

But in Sacramento, there was something else going on, something a bit less measurable. There was, perhaps, a growing realization among the grown-up children of Sacramento -- developers like Mike Heller and Sotiris Kolokotronis and Bay Miri, art aficionados like Beth Jones and Lynda Jolley and Liv Moe, artists like Steve Vanoni and Kim Scott, and musicians like Brian Wheat of Tesla and John McCrae of Cake -- that perhaps their hometown wasn't something to escape.

Perhaps it was something to embrace.

Sacramento became, for Sacramentans, the place to make their mark.

Perhaps the signal event was California Musical Theatre's decision in 2003 to fold its tent, which had housed Music Circus for nearly 50 years, and build a permanent facility -- the Wells Fargo Pavilion at 15th and H streets -- that matched the quality of its performances.

There was a growing sense in town: "We're here and we're staying here. Let's build something lasting." At this end of the decade, developments at the corner of 10th and K Street Mall gave hope to many, with the opening of the 210-seat Cosmopolitan Cabaret. Plans now include a four-nightclub complex at the same intersection. The possibility of an arena downtown, not just for Kings games, but for 150-plus entertainment events a year, grew closer this month. Beyond downtown, the Benvenuti Performing Arts Center opened in Natomas.

Sacramento's music scene gave the world Jackie Greene, as well as Christian Keifer's "Of Great and Mortal Men" epic, though the scene itself waxed and waned. True Love Coffeehouse succumbed, but Luna's carried on, Marilyn's relocated and Old Ironsides celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Hip-hop and the clubs that play it continued to threaten authorities, and midtown's Golden Bear was raided more times than anyone cares to remember. But at decade's end, the tiny venue is getting a big expansion.

Architecture had a good decade, particularly in Heller's gorgeous MARRS Building retrofit in midtown. Heller took a non-descript office building and turned it into one of the social centers of midtown, with a neon sign rescued from the demolished Harold Wing of the old Crocker proudly proclaiming "ART" to traffic on J Street.

The Crocker's enormous -- and striking -- expansion, $100 million worth, will triple its size when it is completed in October, and leads a major redevelopment of the city's long-neglected riverfront.

Mayor Kevin Johnson's unanticipated interest in the arts drew Wynton Marsalis and Sacramento's own David Garibaldi to town, and the new mayor helped bring Sacramento the Kennedy Center's "Any Given Child" pilot program to g et arts education back in the schools.

Of course, one of the arts' original homes in our area -- Russ Solomon's Tower Records -- folded in 2006. It left a void that was only partly filled by R5 Records, Solomon's quixotic attempt to get back in the retail game -- at age 83.

Government's insistence, by statue, that new buildings have a small percentage of their budget devoted to public art drew some boos, but such art became more than a passing fancy in Sacramento. It became a defining feature.

From the whimsical stacks of suitcases teetering over travelers at the airport's baggage claim, to the punning "iron horse" at the entrance of Safeway by midtown's railroad tracks, and on to the gorgeous pieces in the lobbies in the state's East End project, public art did exactly what it was supposed to do: refresh tired eyes, brighten ordinary tasks and perhaps challenge a few assumptions.

The epic cascade of video monitors suspended in the lobby of the new US! Bank building on Capitol Mall -- not to mention the 9,000-LED display at its pinnacle -- lent beauty not just to the building, but also to the city's entire skyline.

Of course, there have been struggles as well. The Sacramento Symphony folded, and the Sacramento Ballet had to leave the Community Center Theatre because of slow ticket sales. But the ballet soldiered on, holding its performances in its rehearsal space -- and winning a passionate following that would not let it go.

And the symphony was replaced by the Sacramento Philharmonic, which appears set to hang in for the long haul.

Meanwhile, small theater troupes brought performances of edgy musicals such as "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and Jonathan Larson's "Tick, Tick ... BOOM!" to delighted audiences, including those at a new arts complex: The Artisan on Del Paso Boulevard.

Graham Sobelman's Sunday night cabaret "Graham-a-Rama" sells out regularly. Belly dancing and fire-spinning troupes beca! me performance arts favored by the midtown set, especially on ! Second Saturdays.

Second Saturday became an enormous success, drawing crowds so big that many feared for its future, and by decade's close, some galleries were moving their openings to other nights of the week to avoid the crush. This was a "problem" that would have been unimaginable a decade back.

The Gallery Horse Cow didn't have to imagine problems: it was booted out of not one, not two, but three different locations during the decade. Sacramento's headquarters for outsider art and all-around alternative culture couldn't get love from the authorities, but it gave the decade much of its character.

Edgy galleries like the Verge on the south side of midtown, as well as high-toned Jay Jay Gallery in east Sacramento, brought us a wider range of styles of art than ever before.

More change is in the works: The mighty B Street Theatre, which raised one of the best children's theater companies in the country, will soon break ground on an ambitious complex in the he! art of midtown.

And despite the current downturn, this decade brought a new spirit to Sacramento's arts community, and it appears to be permanent. Imagining even greater growth in the coming decade does not seem like imagination gone amok. It seems likely.

ABOUT THIS SERIES

As we transition to a new decade, The Bee asked various writers and public figures to assess the big events and trends that had an impact on our state during the past 10 years.

Submit a letter:

What do you think were milestones for California in the "oh" decade? sacbee.com/sendletter

Coming Friday: The energy crisis and its legacy

To read previous essays in this series, go to sacbee.com/opinion

Dec. 23: The recall of Gov. Gray Davis

Dec. 24: The clout of Indian casinos

Dec. 25: California and its contribution to the new media revolution

Dec. 26: Partisanship in an iPod age

Dec. 27: What next after the housing bubble?

Dec. 27: G! ains in green jobs

Dec. 27: The "Katrina effect" and inv! estments in flood control

Dec. 28: A new generation of native Californians

Dec. 29: The state's clout in Congress

Dec. 30: Ten years of water torture

Dec. 30: New markets for local food

David Barton is editor in chief of the Sacramento Press.

Caption:

RENÉE C. BYER / rbyer@sacbee.com

Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, center, spoke "For Arts Sake."

RANDALL BENTON / rbenton@sacbee.com

People mingle and enjoy during a Second Saturday, which blossomed.

FLORENCE LOW / Bee file, 2008

Patrons check out the Crocker Art Museum expansion.

CARL COSTAS / Bee file, 2008

A sign once on the Crocker found a new home on the MARRS Building.

Memo:

VIEWPOINTS / THE OH DECADE -- Big events and trends that shaped California, 2000-09

Record Number: SAC_0405391835