Kid in an art store

If you ventured out to the Art at the Matador event this past weekend (Friday and Saturday, May 9-10), you likely had a nice time in the breezy sunshine and maybe even went home with some local art. That is, unless you were there in the mid-afternoon on Saturday, when fierce winds trailing the storm system in the foothills whipped through the Matador Motel’s courtyard filled with art, pop-up canopies and defenseless eyeballs.

“The dust from the frontage road median rose up so you couldn’t see,” said Maria Phillips, co-owner of Avenue 9 Gallery and one of the Chico Visual Alliance (ChiVAA) members responsible for organizing the event. “Even still, the people came,” she added in an email. “The artists I have spoken to all were happy with sales and said they did better than last year.”

This was the fourth edition of the spring arts festival, which changed its name this year—from Arts Fiesta to Art at the Matador—but kept the same fundamental setup featuring artist galleries in most of the individual rooms of the Mission-style motel, with just as many more showing their works outside in the courtyard. In many ways, it’s the ideal community event for Chico. For one, it exploits the charms of a unique and attractive venue, and includes live local music, food trucks and margaritas for sale. Add to that a ton of quality local art on display and—even though it hasn’t been a point stressed in the marketing campaign—for incredible prices.

My wife and I went on the cool, breezy Friday evening, thankfully missing Saturday’s atmospheric disturbance, and we were caught off guard at how affordable, even cheap in some instances, the art was (some of the little paintings in Kandis Horton and Erin Wynne Moore’s well-stocked room were going for as little as $15).

After making the rounds, my wife settled on a little ceramic gnome house ($35) from Jodee Merrill Smith, and we also bought a gorgeous hand-pressed ceramic tile light-switch cover ($20) from Heather Alexander. We did, however, miss out on a very cool framed painting ($50) by Moore of a pensive bird perched on barbed wire when we left to get cash.

Artists risk underselling their other works by having pieces priced so cheaply at festivals like this (e.g. Chikoko fashion/design collective’s fall and spring Bizarre Bazaars, which are similarly organized), but in the context of an event that draws a couple thousand people or more over one concentrated weekend, the potential for a big payoff via multiple sales makes it worthwhile to have at least some discount. And it’s an arrangement that the community clearly responds to.

“The Matador people want us to do it twice a year,” Phillips said, “and artists are already asking if we could, pretty please, do it again in the fall.” There are no plans for a fall version at this time, but there is next year to look forward to.