Arts DEVO

Sweet, sweet Artober Here we are, right in the thick, gooey center of Artober, and as is typical for autumn in Chico, there is so much art and music oozing from every crack that it is impossible to gorge on every treat. Artoberfest isn’t so much a “festival” as it is a frame held up around this typically busy arts month in Chico. And while all of October has provided its usual colorful collage this year, the coming week’s calendar is an especially hectic composition.

But before we get started, I need to give a shout out to the very deserving recipients of Chico’s 2014 Mayor’s Achievement in the Arts Awards (all of whom have been busy helping to fill up Artober with art), which were handed out by Mayor Scott Gruendl on Oct. 7: The Chikoko fashion/art collective was recognized for its work as a local business; the arts individual recipient was Josh Hegg, local musician, promoter and 1078 Gallery board member; and the nonprofit award was handed to monCA, the Museum of Northern California Art. Congrats to all, and thank you for the work you do to make Chico rad!

Now, about this weekend. Can one really experience it all? Not likely. But you can tailor a program that will give you a respectable four-day stretch of arts immersion.

Whatever schedule you make, there are two no-brainers: Open Studios Art Tour and Chico Beer Week. The studios and galleries on Chico Art Center’s annual tour are open all weekend, Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 18-19 (and next weekend, Oct. 25-26, as well), so you can fit your tour anywhere you have an open block of time. And the same goes for Chico Beer Week, which continues every day through Saturday, and features several opportunities for augmenting your arts adventure with great craft beer (visit www.chicobeerweek.net for schedule), culminating with the afternoon-long Single, Fresh, Wet & Wild Harvest Festival at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. hop fields, on Saturday, Oct. 18.

And there are four theater options running through the weekend as well—two traditional options (Legally Blonde the Musical at Chico Theater Co. and Little Shop of Horrors presented by the Birdcage Theatre at the State Theatre in Oroville) and two offbeat (The Seminar at the Blue Room and Living Dead in Denmark at Chico State—see pages 52 and 55 for reviews). For the rest, here are some highlights from which to choose each day:

Tonight, Oct. 16: Legacy, reception for exhibit of prints by The Turner Museum’s namesake, Janet Turner (5:30 p.m.); poetry reading at The Bookstore (6:30 p.m.). Music options: Cove, Sama Dams, Clouds on Strings at 1078 Gallery; The Dirty Heads at Senator Theatre; Mary Chapin Carpenter at Laxson; Hellogoodbye and Surrogate at BMU Auditorium.

Friday, Oct. 17: Boutique Crawl, a roving resale-boutique party with fashion, libations and entertainment (6-9:30 p.m.). Music options: Achilles Wheel at Chico Women’s Club; Alli Battaglia at the Maltese; Cold Blue Mountain album release at Café Coda; Thick and Thin—Americana music and “foolishness” with Gordy Ohliger and friends at the 1078 Gallery.

Saturday, Oct. 18: Idea Fab Labs and monCA present three-person exhibit by Kyle Campbell, Mallory Russell and Jacob Troester at Idea Fabrication Labs (3-6 p.m.); Parade of Lights in downtown Chico (5 p.m.). Music options: Monstros Pizza bash, celebrating eight years with nine bands; Tracorum (S.F.) at Lost on Main; Wayne “The Train” Hancock at Feather Falls Casino Brewing Co.

Sunday, Oct. 19: “New old jazz” with New York’s The Hot Sardines at Laxson Auditorium.

Bonus Monday: Freak-folker Devendra Banhart at the El Rey Theatre or the Australian Americana of The Greencards at the Big Room.