Arts DEVO

I’m gonna write a show for us and put it on right here … Why, it’ll be the most up-to-date thing these hicks around here have ever seen!—Babes in Arms (1939)

“Let’s put on a show!” Now this is an idea whose time has come. Local theater dude (and longtime CN&R film critic) Craig Blamer is following through on one of his dreams. In an old, mostly forgotten, tin can of a warehouse in south Chico (just off Park Avenue, on 11th Street), he is trying to start “a subscriber-funded workshop and performance space for the local struggling artist.”

The building—a former auto-upholstery business—is nothing special, which is kind of the fun of it. It may be old and funky, and dubbed an “eyesore” by some, but with just a little TLC it has the potential to become the perfect blank box where artists can meet up and inject some life by doing their creative work. After getting the warehouse spruced up, building a stage, and hopefully outfitting the place with some basics—plastic chairs, fridge, computer, Wi-Fi, digital projector—Blamer hopes to stage plays, host comedy and acoustic-music nights, show public-domain films, and have the co-op space available for member-performers to work on their craft.

He’s calling it The Barn, which is a nod to that famous (and likely apocryphal) line that supposedly came from one of the old Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland flicks: “Hey, my uncle has a barn. Let’s put on a show!” Whatever the quote’s origin, it’s such a romantic idea that I could almost burst. Visit www.facebook.com/groups/268630109985267 and join the group today, and kick down the $25 to become a charter member and help get the party started.

See, hear, and touch Who knew that Chico State had a Sound Art class? It’s true. Music professor David Dvorin and art professor Sheri Simons are the co-instructors, and this semester their class has been “exploring acoustics and design principles, exciting and resonating objects, building microphones and experimenting with wireless sensors and processing software.” (Exciting objects!) And this weekend (May 16-18), at Chico Museum, they will be presenting Resonance, an interactive exhibit of the students’ collaborative works that will “utilize sound as a material, and likewise use art as a vehicle integral to hearing or listening, blurring the boundaries of each area.” Way cool.

Oh, and if this talk of experimenting with sound is striking a chord, maybe you should join the noisemakers in the lab? This summer, Simons is teaming up with some well-known sound artists—Sasha Leitman, Trimpin and Michael Shiloh—to present a two-week inventors workshop June 30-July 13 (in Monterey!) titled Sound + Sculpture. Contact Simons at ssimons@csuchico.edu for more info.

Grenade art I ran out of room in my review of the Art at the Matador arts festival (“Kid in an art store,” page 24) to give a shout out to Kyle Campbell and his rad cast-crystal grenades that were neatly on display in padded cases in one of the motel-room galleries. So, here’s me shouting: Go to www.kylecampbellglass.com and to check out the crystal grenades, plus some crystal uzis!