After launching last summer, the 2nd Saturday ArtHop now soars once a month in Redding. I just finished talking to a participating business owner who couldn’t stop raving about it.
But remember the Cultural Cruise? The original art gallery open house event in Redding? Where do we place the cruise in this new tapestry of art events?
We place it on Friday. The annual event runs from 5 to 8 p.m. at 10 locations around Redding.
The Cultural Cruise remains a viable evening for a number of reasons. No. 1, the more art cruise events the better, right? No. 2, the Cultural Cruise includes several venues that ArtHop does not.
Exclusive to the cruise are Redding City Hall (which on Friday will include music by members of the Northstate Songwriters Association); Turtle Bay Exploration Park (check out the Geckos exhibit); First United Methodist Church (two great artists: Bev Corford and Chuck Prudhomme); and the Shasta College Art Gallery (works by Lucy Puls).
Maps for the Cultural Cruise are available at the Old City Hall Arts Center, Turtle Bay or online at the Shasta County Arts Council’s website.
• At Old City Hall (which is on both the cruise and ArtHop), I just viewed the new encaustic exhibit featuring Anne Kinkade, Cathy Valentine, Belinda Hanson and Rodney Thompson. Wow, what a wonderful exhibit. The tagline on the show is “Contemporary Art in an Ancient Medium,” and there’s just something so intoxicating about all of these works. You want to touch them. You certainly want to stare at them for long periods of time. The surfaces are just incredible.
Troy Hawkins, one of the creators of ArtHop, called the exhibit the best he’s seen at Old City Hall. Arts Council Director Gini Holmes saw me browsing around in the gallery and was like, “Oh, yeah, isn’t it amazing?” My photos won’t do it justice, but here are a few images from the show:
Hand Vessels by Belinda Hanson.
“The Reds” by Anne Kinkade.
“T&C #13” by Rodney Thompson.
• The North Valley Art League will announce the award winners of its 25th annual National Juried Show during Friday’s Cruise. The show’s juror was acclaimed watercolor artist Birgit O’Connor. There were entrants from all across the U.S. and even a couple of international artists. Here are a couple of images from that show:
“Self Portrait,” a lithograph, by Angela Young from Merrill, Wis.
