The Culture Bucket for August (updated): New street fair date in lieu of ArtHop to be announced, Madera Theatre Project’s ‘Little Mermaid,’ and more

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That’s because city officials announced on July 31 that ArtHop is getting split in two, according to Fresnoland, the news website dedicated to public policy reporting. Per Fresnoland, art galleries in downtown Fresno and the Tower District will continue to open their doors to the public on the first Thursday of the month. The street fair side of ArtHop – which attracts thousands of people – would move to Wednesday nights.

OK, now for the questions:

• Which Wednesday nights? First Wednesday of the month? Second, third, fourth?

• How do you get the word out about the change to the throng of young people who show up for the street fair on Thursdays? (And what will they do if the expected vendors aren’t there?) 

• Will the crowds show up on Wednesdays, which don’t have the weekend’s-coming-feel of Thursdays?

•  Will the gallery side of ArtHop draw enough people to keep the original Thursday night event alive?

•  For tonight’s regularly scheduled ArtHop event, will unlicensed vendors still show up? (An aside: Licensed food trucks on private property in the Tioga-Sequoia area of Fulton Street will be there tonight.)

If those questions weren’t enough, here comes a question about Measure P. Yes, Measure P.

Last week, it appeared the City of Fresno might be looking to use Measure P money to regulate ArtHop. What impact – if any – that would have on Measure P arts grants is unclear.

Here’s what we knew last week: City officials have concerns about safety and other issues created by about 15,000 people attending ArtHop in its current form. At a July 19, news conference, City Council Member Miguel Arias – whose district includes downtown – raised the city’s possible use of Measure P funds to oversee ArtHop, according to the Fresno Bee. It also was announced at the news conference that the city would not allow outdoor vendors at the Aug. 1 ArtHop. To put it mildly, vendors and others were not pleased.

The Munro Review texted Arias on July 22 asking for details about how Measure P money could come into play. As of Aug. 1, there was no reply.

A couple of  things to keep in mind: 

First, 88% of Measure P money goes to boosting Fresno’s parks, while the other 12% is for expanding access to arts and culture through grants to nonprofit arts organizations and individual artists with eligible fiscal sponsors.

Second, a divided Fresno City Council voted in 2022 to spend $4.4 million in Measure P parks money to help buy the Tower Theatre. At that time, the city’s Cultural Arts Plan wasn’t finished, and no Measure P arts money could be spent until the plan was completed and approved. 

Fast forward to 2024: the city has a finished Cultural Arts Plan and $8.6 million in Measure P grants could soon reach more than 70 grantees. Here’s the really interesting detail: about $800,000 is left in the Measure P arts budget for 2024. 

Arias said in the July 31 Fresnoland article that the city is looking for an organizer to manage the street fair. Could the city be coming for all or some of the $800,000 to pay an organization to provide that management? Or could the city again dip into the parks side of Measure P to pay that organization? Stay tuned.

Here’s another Measure P development related to ArtHop: the Downtown Fresno Partnership, an organization dedicated to the well-being of the city’s core, proposed this spring to manage the event. But that proposal got deep-sixed in the uneven rollout of the first-ever Measure P arts grants.

The background: the Downtown Partnership submitted a Measure P grant application asking for $200,000 to organize existing ArtHop vendors, add new ones and upgrade the event’s entertainment options, according to Elliott Balch, president and chief executive officer of the Downtown Partnership. The Fresno Arts Council, which runs the grants program, rejected that application along with four others from the Downtown Partnership. Balch then appealed that rejection to the city’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission.

The Commission never took up the appeal, as The Munro Review previously detailed. Bottom line: On July 15, the Commission did a redo in awarding the $8.6 million to the more than 70 grantees. That gave the Downtown Partnership the option of redoing its appeal of the rejected applications, including the one to manage ArtHop. But there will be no appeal, Balch told The Munro Review.

In explaining that decision, he said the Downtown Partnership’s proposal was an attempt to directly address the issues that concern the city about ArtHop. “In fact, we’ve been proposing this approach to the City since before Measure P,” Balch said. “Unfortunately, as you’ve observed at the [Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission], we’ve gotten zero traction so far. As such, I don’t see a point in appealing and drawing out the process further, especially as scores of worthy projects and organizations are, like us, waiting eagerly for the awarded funds. But you can imagine my frustration.” (The Downtown Partnership did get one of its grant applications through the scoring process and is awaiting $76,487 to finance a mural project on a downtown parking structure.)

Balch said the Downtown Partnership remains committed to improving ArtHop. “We are eager to work with our community partners and the City to find a solution that not only works, but makes for a better experience for vendors, stores and restaurants, artists, and visitors.”

You can read Doug’s complete Measure P coverage here.

Farewell to Summer Arts

(Posted Aug. 1)

Donald Munro writes:

As I’ve already reported, Fresno State bid adieu to the CSU Summer Arts program on July 20. It will move to Cal Poly Pomona in 2025. That finishes up a five-year consecutive run in Fresno. In the history of the program, it’s parked itself for a total of 19 years at Fresno State, the most of any campus.

I don’t know if Fresno State made a bid to host the program for another five-year stint. (Kristy Sauerbry, interim director of Summer Arts, wouldn’t tell me the names of the finalist campuses.) I will miss Summer Arts, but I’m not surprised by the news. Over the years, the marquee value of the program had diminished — particularly the pubic performances. My guess is that booking fees for artists escalated while budgets didn’t keep up. Perhaps Cal Poly Pomona, with its proximity to the greater Los Angeles entertainment industry, will be able to snag some bigger names.

In the first year of the program in Fresno, in 1999, there were 25 events featuring guest artists — and that number did not include the student showcases. In the last year of the program at Fresno, there were only seven events featuring guest artists. The final performance, featuring a too-long performance by movement artist Dohee Lee, was sparsely attended, and at least of the audience left long before it concluded. The experience was sort of a fizzle, alas, for the end of the storied program. (Nevertheless, TMR critic Heather Parish produced a wonderful “visual sketchbook” of the event.)

In those early years, often there were two events a day. Looking back on my very first Summer Arts story in the Fresno Bee, I’m impressed by the eclectic lineup of artists and venues. (Some performances were even held at off-campus venues, drawing the community into the experience.) You’d walk onto campus and feel a frisson of excitement. I knew audience members who marked their calendars and planned their itineraries for the month, some coming to campus almost every day. Summer Arts students flocked to performances as well, with the bonding between them that you’d expect when creative people are thrown together 24/7. Tales endured of late nights at the dorms with drumming circles and raucous good times.

Those glory days of Summer Arts were special, and I like to think they nudged people into realizing that culture can succeed in Fresno even when it’s hot. My hope is that other arts groups — particularly those infused with Measure P funds — can help take up the slack.

California Opera revamps its final performance

(Posted Aug. 1)

DM writes:

In a not-so-good blast from the past, California Opera’s July 21 performance of “Dido & Aeneas” reminded us that Covid can still impact the performing arts scene. Soprano Ericka Kruse was set to go on as the Enchantress when she tested positive for Covid on the morning of the performance. As artistic director Edna Garabedian told the audience after the curtain, sometimes in opera you just have to improvise. Instead of replacing Kruse on the stage, a substitute (Michelle Ryan) covered the majority of Kruse’s part from the chorus “from the pit,” which meant that the show was able to go on — with a little bit of imagination on the part of the audience.

The Fresno City College performance was charming. Highlight performances included Alexandra Jerinic in the title role and Hanna Staley as Belinda. Adding immeasurably to the production was the California Arts Academy Dancers (choreography by Margaret M. Hord), who were ably prepared. I particularly liked the mix of period costumes for the singers and modern costumes for the dancers.

Cal Opera plans one more big event on Saturday, Aug. 3: The popular “Doctors in Concert” (7 p.m. at the Big Red Church) will be expanded to include a condensed version of “Dido & Aeneas” in the second half, which will give Kruse — now with a clean bill of health — a chance to play the Enchantress. Camryn Deisman (a mezzo-soprano living in Visalia attending UCLA as a voice major) will perform as Dido. (“She is remarkable,” opera spokesperson Diane Nixon told me. “I’m sure you will be seeing much more of her in the future.”) Timothy Leon will be the collaborative pianist.

The “Doctors” concert, which has a long and storied tradition — and featuring actual singing physicians — will present Drs. Harvey Edmonds, Avis Ambrose, Don Gaede, John Ambrose and Marshall Flam in a program of musical theater and opera.

Admission is free, with donations going toward neuroscience care at the Community Health System, a safety net facility treating the uninsured and underinsured community.

If you missed my reent story about Cal Opera mainstay Edna Garabedian, you can read it here.

And here’s a past story about Don Gaede at the “Doctors in Concert” tradition.

Do you really need a fire alarm Under the Sea?

(Posted Aug. 1)

DM writes:

The joke in the parking lot, where we were all standing during an interrupted performance of “The Little Mermaid” at the Madera Theatre Project, was that Prince Eric’s solo was so hot that it couldn’t help but set off the fire alarm.

The alarm at the theater, which is part of the Matilda Torres High School complex, went off during Daniel Mejia’s rendition of the solo “Her Voice.” Lights flashed, buzzers buzzed, and a recorded, stupefyingly calm woman’s voice told us repeatedly to exit the building as quickly as possible. The music cut off, and Mejia, who seconds earlier had been belting out his song, offered an assured, princely smile and got quiet.

Director Rachel Hibler, who likely wasn’t counting a fire alarm as an unexpected attendee at a Sunday matinee, took charge of the evacuation, reminding everyone that this what you get with “live theater.” The audience was cheerful, and most stayed, even though King Triton’s two fire trucks took a little longer to arrive than I would have expected.

(All this reminded me of the Fresno Philharmonic’s recent fire-alarm encounter at the Shaghoian Theatre at Clovis North High School. When a false alarm goes off in a public school, it’s 1) harder to turn it off because it’s usually in some sort of central office; and 2) requires an actual fire-department sign-off. Also, it’s a good reminder that any live performance needs to be ready to shut down if the alarm goes off. You don’t want to fool around with the chance that it’s the real thing.)

The show started up again from the point where Mejia left off.

As for my thoughts on the production: The Madera Theatre Project is making strides toward reaching a level of community-theater competence when it comes to large and complicated musicals, but it still has some work to do. I’m not going to write a full review. I’m going to take more of a children’s theater approach and will avoid singling out actors and members of the creative team for individual criticism. Lily Coleman has a lovely voice playing Ariel, and she and Mejia have a nice onstage chemistry. I like the way Hibler uses the aisles as a place for her Heely-clad actors to race upon (especially Flotsam and Jetsam). German Gutierrez is a standout as Sebastian, with strong vocals and a nice sense of comic timing. (His “Kiss the Girl” is first-rate.) Niko Ramos has some great moments as Scuttle. And the costumes are bright and festive.

Things to work on: The show needs stronger choreography, more consistency in terms of vocals (and matching pitch), and a greater visual flair. An over-reliance on a single, dominant projection leaves the stage feeling bare; there needs to be a greater sense of depth and dimension.

Three performances remain: 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2; and 2:30 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3.

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