Fresno Famous

Like many non-profit organizations and cultural and educational centers, the Fresno Art Museum (FAM) has struggled to stay afloat during these tough economic times. Donations are down, community support is down, difficult shifts are being made with employee cutbacks and changes in leadership.

Despite this, FAM has managed to keep its doors open, keeping unique modern and contemporary art available to our community. It wasn’t until a conversation with my friend Hamilton (who I used to work with at The Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art & Science and who now works for FAM) that I learned the FAM’s current exhibition,“The Human Touch,” from the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Wealth Management Collection, is chockablock full of big names like Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein, Alec Soth and Nan Goldin.

What??!! I know!

Hearing this, I was eager to meet with FAM’s executive director Linda Cano to discuss what the Fresno Art Museum has been up to.

Originally from Lemoore, Cano has been the executive director of the Fresno Art Museum since June. Before that, she was on the board of the FAM and served as a trustee for many years. She also held internships with the FAM as both an undergraduate and graduate student. Here, she talks about arts education, the loss of the MET and happily gives me a quick tour of the exhibition.
I will be going back.

After reviewing the Fresno Art Museum website I read that the museum opened in 1948 when a group of local artists created the Fresno Art League for the purpose of critiquing and exhibiting their art work.  Sixty-three years, that’s impressive!

We’ve been around for a long while! It really was an ambitious vision. It was that group of artists who got together and built the Fresno Art Museum and then they gifted the museum to the city. So the city owns our building. When I think about the whole concept, this group of artists along with city officials at the time thought it was a wonderful idea that Fresno should have a place for people to come and celebrate art and culture.

Has the museum always been in this building and location?
Yes, it was built specifically as an art museum. It has expanded with additional gallery space and a sculpture garden. We have a classroom space, and a 152 seat auditorium we use for concerts, films, and lectures. We recently had a chamber music concert as well as a blues concert this last weekend. It really is a center for the arts.

It seems to be quite an educational center.
It really is. Our educational department is probably our strongest department. Our education program formed a partnership with local schools involving lesson plans helping to integrate art into the curriculum, like discussing proportion in science and math. The response was totally overwhelming. We stopped counting at 2,200 entrants. Kids from all over the valley have created self-portraits for the exhibit called Faces of the Valley that coincides with our RBC show The Human Touch which is about identity and how identity is formed. We have just over two thousand pieces from students K-12, and the reception has 1,500 RSVPs.

When reviewing the vision of the FAM, it mentions that the museum is currently recovering from a financial crisis and has experienced a significant turnover in executive leadership. How are things going now, and what are your plans for the future?
We are currently in the black, but it is a struggle every month, we are barely sustainable. It’s difficult. But this is not unusual. We’re still coming back from this huge economic crisis as is everyone else. All nonprofits are in the same boat, and those of us that have made it are just kind of eking by, but as I like to say, “The doors are open!” and we’ve got great programs and a supportive community. The issue is that people who were donating regularly have had to cut their donations in half. We have had to cut back on staff, and tighten up our belts. It’s difficult each month but we’re still here providing services.

What type of new and exciting events do you have planned?
We have big special events and we have small special events. Like I said, we have the reception Tuesday night for Faces of the Valley. Wednesday night we have a lecture where we are partnering with Alliance Francaise, with guest speaker, Philippe Walter coming from France, from the Louvre, who is a chemist who analyzed the paint on the Mona Lisa. On Saturday we have Family Day, where we have puppetry and various activities throughout the museum all day long, it’s a free day and we usually get about 500 to 600 people on those days. Every week we have something going on here. As far as big events we have our Spring Garden Show which will be off campus at the Smitcamp estate, and that will be a fundraiser with a cocktail party and art auction. We also have Men Who Cook, which has expanded this year including a chili cook-off with the Sheriff’s department and the fire department, and we’ll also have a few bands playing. We’re also bringing Carnival back.

What is that?
Carnival is a huge event we used to do years ago, and it was always right around Fat Tuesday. It was fashioned after Carnival in Rio and New Orleans; just a big blow out party. We gave it a rest due to the hard economic times, but we have had a lot of people request that we bring it back. So we are going to be back with that next spring.

I understand that you promote a lot of local artists. How do you go about finding the artists, and how important is the inclusion of work by local artists now?
It has to be an integral part of the museum’s mission because again, that is a foundation of who we are. It comes about in a number of different ways, sometimes they come to us, sometimes we go to them. You just sort of have to have your eyes and ears out in the community; you have to know what is going on. We are trying to balance local artists with regional and nationally known artists. Of course our RBC show has some internationally renowned names; Roy Lichtenstein, Chuck Close, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, some real show stoppers in there. We will always have local artists; they are always in the exhibition schedule.

The FAM specializes in modern and contemporary art. What are some of the highlights of the permanent collection?
You know, I’m still going through the permanent collection. It was fun for me to go through and review what we have in our sculpture collection. Opening in May we have works of sculpture from our permanent collection so that was interesting for me to go through, and I focused on works that were metal. My background is in pre-Columbian art, so I am an advocate for the pre-Columbian collection in there and I think that needs to be a teaching tool for our huge Latino population. We have a magnificent Diego Rivera painting that a lot of people don’t even know is here. We have a lot of art work by some of the Mexican and other Latin American masters.

How often are pieces from the permanent collection on view?
The pre-Columbian collection is always on view. In the May opening we are going to have sculpture from our collection, as well as some Japanese prints.

How does the museum decide which exhibitions they are going include?
We are now doing exhibition planning about two and a half years in advance. So again, we are trying to balance permanent collection with local artists, national and regional and internationally known artists. We are looking at the exhibition schedule and filling galleries according to that sort of point of view. Some people go thematically, but we’re doing it a little differently right now.

How can the public support the Fresno Art Museum?
There are so many ways to support the museum. We can use volunteers, we can use people who can give any time would be great. We need exhibition sponsors, corporate sponsorships. We would love people to join as members; there are lots of benefits to being a member. Come out and see our shows, come to our events, join our emailing list so that you know what is going on. You can have receptions here, if you want to have a party here, weddings, or hold a meeting.

Can you give me a brief overview of what exhibitions are currently on view?
Do you want to see the RBC show?

Can I?  Yes!
{At this point, Linda Cano guided me through the gallery where the RBC show is on view. I was able to briefly see the installations and ask her additional questions}

What sort of impact was made on the FAM after the closure of the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art & Science?

Well when they [the Met] closed in January, our dollars dried up, and that was when our roof was leaking. People thought, “Ok, so art is not being supported in Fresno so why should we give the museum money? They’re done for.”

{Now going through the exhibition}

I saw this [RBC] show in Nevada and one of the reasons why I liked it was because you could expand and contract it as much as you wanted. I added a few pieces that were by the young unknown and up-and-coming street artists because I wanted to use it as an educational teaching tool, and I thought that if you’re going to have kids coming through, it would be great to have young artists. So again, the theme of The Human Touch is about identity and about how identity is constructed. We have a Baldessari in the other room, and here is the Lichtenstein most people come to see. And then one of the ones I added is by Alex Sweet, who likes to draw street fighters. I also like the ethnic diversity of this show, there are African-American artists, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith is here; we have Asian artists and Persian artists.

How long does the exhibition run?
Until April 18th.

The Fresno Art Museum is located at 2233 North First Street and is open Thursday – Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is $5 for non-members, students and seniors. Cuties 5 years old and under get in FREE. Want to really support the museum? Become a member! You can also follow FAM on Facebook, Twitter, or join their email list to receive their eNews letter.

{Disclaimer: I once helped Josh Tehee  a.k.a Famous Whitewater, participate in the Men Who Cook challenge. We made more than 300 mini crepes. They were a hit. Just sayin’.}