Episode 1: The Story

Episode one of MONCA Unframed tells the story of how a conversation, a vacant building, and a bold idea turned into the Museum of Northern California Art. From early pop-ups to transforming the Veterans Memorial Hall, hear how MONCA was built by community, creativity, and a willingness to take risks. Guests include Pat Macias and Trudy Duisenberg.

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SPEAKER_03 0:00

We're here to talk about the Museum of Northern California Art, or MANCA, as it's known. And MANCA exists to make art accessible and promote awareness of Northern California artists through collections, exhibitions, and educational programs. In this five-episode series, we're going behind the frames into the stories, the risks, the history, and the big ideas that continue to shape this community-driven museum. This is episode one, the story. I'm Georges Weber, and this is Monica Unframed. Today, our guests are Pat Masias, Executive Director of Monca, and Miss Trudy Dusenberg, one of the founders of the museum. And I would love to hear about the path that led you both to creating this museum. And how did you meet? How did you get this wonderful, crazy idea to do this? Where does it begin?

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Well, like all things, it was kind of serendipity. I was down the street at Enlo doing community outreach. And I would drive, of course, I would drive by the Veterans Building every day going to work and look at it, and it looked so sad because it was closed, you know. And uh I would think about what could that building be used for? And and I think it was 2007 or it must have been 2007. There was they were going to build the new parking garage, a four-story parking garage. And it was a very big deal, and we wanted to make it beautiful and keep the community happy.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

So we thought of a this is the parking garage for Enlo?

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Parking garage for Enlo when it was Enlo Medical Center. So we thought of community art project, and there were open panels on the outside exterior walls, kind of trimmed with ivy, but they were big. And the idea was that we would have art individual artists do maybe eight of these big spaces, and to represent paint the objects would be representing parts of Butte County. And so there would be a we were going to put out a public call for art. I was a coordinator, and somebody said to me, Oh, you have to have Pat Messias uh, you know, be one of your jurors. And we had not met at that point. I said, Where is she? She was at 1078 gallery at the time. And so she was part of that project, which was very successful, and they look so beautiful right now. All of the art panels are still there, surrounded by ivy, and most and people still do stop and look at them. So that was how we met, and we enjoyed each other, and you know, we we could both see the abilities that the other person had. So one day, Maureen Kirk, who sadly just passed away, and she was a county supervisor at the time, and she called me and she said, Trudy, don't you think Enlo would like to acquire the Veterans Building? I was like, I no, I don't think they'd like to acquire. And she said, Oh, but it's beautiful, beautiful classic old building. I said, It is exactly that, an old building. And we are trying to build new buildings, you know, no more renovations in a community center. So I said no to Maureen, and she said, Well, think about it. I I did, but I was just laughing. But I I called Pat. And that was interesting that I mean it came to me to call Pat. And I said, What do you think about that building? You know, I took this phone call, and it's so gorgeous.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

It really is.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

And I think we could get in and tour it. So she said, Yes, let's let's do it. We called Maureen and she let us in. We were flabbergasted, you know. And part of the the deal was whoever the new occupant would be would be responsible for any interior upgrades to a building that had not been upgraded since 1924.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

27?

SPEAKER_01 5:10

27. Okay. Okay. Old. Yeah. No real air conditioning, you know, clunky furnace. I mean, it was a very overwhelming proposition. But at that point, we didn't care. We were just looking at this amazing space, and it was beautiful. It was kind of a wreck, as empty buildings. What happens when nobody's using them? And then we said, well, we went, I remember what we did exactly. Went to the hotel diamond bar, and we got cold Chardonnay, and we started daydreaming instantly. Remember? Just honestly, we were just like, Well, it could be a museum, but we could, you know, look at all that space. And we got genuinely excited, and then said, Well, maybe a good idea would be to invite our husbands to go through it with us. Richard being an architect, my husband was a general contractor and had been a building inspector. So, and of course, I think we each went home and told our husband about this idea, and they were both like, really? But they I think they were kind of curious, and they went. I think we were there with them, yes. And they somebody even went up into the ceiling and um they toured the basement and literally came out quite kind of impressed and standing on the sidewalk said to us, it is built like Fort Knox. You know, that is a sound structure. So the fact that our husbands were kind of pro is a plus, huh? Yeah, we we were like, hmm. So that was that was the start.

SPEAKER_03 7:07

That was the start. So the building was part of it from the inception, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

And then Pat, can you talk a little bit about the history of the building?

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Well, it was built in 1927 for the veterans, for the veterans use um as a meeting space, as a there's a huge stage in the back, so it has a not so much performance, but you know, presentations and um they would hold events in there. Um we have history of even car shows. They'd bring old cars in from the alley up and out up a ramp, and also wrestling matches. So a lot went on, I'm sure those walls could talk, they would have stories galore. So that was kind of how we saw it. And then we saw um, we started to think about community and people living around it, and how would what would the reaction be to having a museum in your um neighborhood?

SPEAKER_01 8:18

We started a small circle though of thinkers, of people we knew just to discuss it. You know, I mean Pat and I couldn't do it alone.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

But what do you mean you had two husbands? Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

But they so we we invited people we thought would be interested in re repurposing the building, and we had many discussions about, and I was just gonna say that some of the early people in that early circle, and they would bring people in and out too, were at the time Nancy Leverett, who was on the board of the Blue Room, Emily Gallo, who is a writing instructor and did uh public writing for the homeless and helped them publish, Reed Applegate, who was a neighbor of the museum, and then became very actively involved, Pat and I, and Laura Joplin was frequently in and out of the circle because she really saw, you know, her intention was music, you know, as a music center, music performing. So we had people were bringing ideas for use and how that would impact the community and the neighborhood. And then with the circle went out to meeting with neighborhood associations. There's an avenues neighborhood association and and such a beautiful area.

SPEAKER_03 9:55

I love that part of town.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Yeah. And I think no, no neighbor actually was opposed to it.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Oh, there were some rumbling, but um, they've come around.

unknown 10:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

And it's it's a you know, uh the parking is always going to be an issue because we really don't have a parking lot. But um thank you to uh First Christian Church down the block. They will let us use their their lot. Um we have 11 spaces around the building that are ours, and you know, people seem even a reception of 300 people, they seem to find parking. Yes, they do.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

Well, what's one thing or what's something that you wish somebody had told you from the get-go about this this project, this inspiration that you've had and that you've carried forward to really wonderful fruition.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

I don't think we could have anticipated how much work, what it would require. I mean, it is a big, big structure. And there were people there were people who would come to community meetings and say, well, we think the homeless should live in it. You know, we'd be like, or you know, it would be for housing the homeless. But then we would always remind them, but remember, you have to pay for the upgrade of the interior. I mean, there were very few other organizations who were undaunted by that requirement. And we were always fully aware of, painfully aware of now. We need money for new air conditioning, now we need, you know, handicapped bathroom. All of that had to be put in place before it could be open to the public.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

There was an architectural committee that Richard was David Griffith is a wonderful architect who values the historic building itself. So everything he does, whether he upgrades it a little bit on the contemporary side or not, it's it's always saving what's there and making it beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Nice. And so you have this community involvement which is growing, which is really wonderful. Um, and it's a community that is both a university town and a heavy agricultural area. I mean, Chico and surroundings provide food for the world, really.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

We knew we had to continually, continually educate the public and make them understand the importance of it. And we really, you know, Pat has an experienced art teacher, art instructor, that we had a lot of teachers associated with our early groups, and so that was a key component of looking for community support and was art in the classroom, which of course is not getting the funding it had when our children were in school. So here we are saying we'll bring that, we decided to bring the art to the classrooms because there was no museum and and do lessons. And we started a pilot program with third grades all over Northern California because the reach of Manca is Sacramento to Oregon border.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

San Jose, actually.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Yes. So we then we acquired a bus.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

It is a very cute bus that I bought at a garage sale.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Yes, it had a little, it needed a lot of TLC.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Oh, it's beautiful. Now you haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

I know, but it it really worked, it really was a great, you know, that really was Pat's baby, and it it worked really well. And then we also decided, you know, well, we would do pop-ups. We we knew we weren't going to be in the building immediately, even after we, you know, we had to get our profit, nonprofit status, and we did that. We had to interact with and work with the county to now how are we going to make this happen? So there would be a lot of time, a lot of preparation, not just with architecture, but all of the other legalities. Yeah. And during that time we had to build support, so we kept doing pop-ups.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Eight of them, eight of them downtown. Thanks to Alan Tochterman and letting us use his buildings often. We would um have a pop-up. We had one on technology, we had one on um autism and blindness.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Well, veteran art.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Veteran art. We well, we you know, we did a lot.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

And we we also took took it to cities. We did a pop-up in the Reading Art Center. You know, we took art that and information about Maka there. And um we did it at the mall. We had pubs in stores, empty stores. So that was the selling point, you know.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

And building the enthusiasm, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

That that landlords you know had empty space. And here we're going to fill it with activity and beautiful things, and you'll get more foot traffic, and it always worked, always, and we always left the space cleaner than when and better than when we went in. I mean, so in a way, people look forward to having a pop-up.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

I would imagine. So, Pat's what's what's going on today with Manca and schools and veterans?

SPEAKER_02 16:17

A lot with veterans. I mean, every other year we do a veterans exhibition. Um, and we're pretty much in contact with them all the time if we do anything. Because the grant that we wrote with the city for the mural on the alley side of the building, I had I went to one of their meetings and asked their permission to be able to put it on the side of the building because even though they're not there, it's their building. And we're just, as I kind of say, borrowing it at this point. Uh, it'll always belong to the county. A veterans' building can't be sold or given away, so they will always be ahead of it. Um, so those are the kinds of things with vets that we continue to do this year. We did a dinner for them, and the artists really it was fun to watch them bond. We also had a vet art grant, which was a big 30,000 plus grant a few years ago, which kind of prompted us to get in connections with Aaron Toole, who's a wonderful ceramist in the Bay Area, and still makes cups and donates them to us so that we can sell them for the museum. The other part that isn't that you asked me was cool schools. Um, you know, I have to admit, we're not doing real well on that one. It's really difficult to go into schools now. Um, you have to have so much paperwork, it costs money to do all your vetting. Yes. And I'm not sure we can ask the volunteers to put that money out. And is it, you know, I would rather have them come to the museum at this point.

unknown 18:03

Right.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

And we're getting field trips like crazy just this month. It's just been a couple every week.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

Well, and it's terrific that it's free for students, right? Right. What what role do the volunteers play for Monka?

unknown 18:22

Everything.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. They are the museum. Um they're they go from sitting at the reception desk and welcoming people in and uh being bartenders at our receptions to volunteer curators, they are volunteer curators. Um this year we also I I want to kind of step in here and talk about the junior board because we did start a junior board this year, which is made up of high school and college students, and letting them understand what it's like to work in a museum, run a museum, start a museum, they have just been doing great things. They create things for um events for people to come to. They are there volunteering, their time.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Uh they and there's the uh art sale in the spring that they oh the the art sale.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Yes. The art sale um comes up in June, where that's a big fundraiser for the museum.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

Well, and the junior board is really exciting and brilliant, I think. And it's what a great thing for them to have on their resume and their career path, um, along with the energy that they bring. Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

And the and the folks that they bring.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

I mean, they're bringing another age group, which is what we need to have uh come through those doors.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

And we're gonna have a whole segment on the junior board.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

I think though, also I just want to interject. One of the things that early on Monka did was I think bring a new energy to Butte County and the city of Chico to say, do you know that we have, you know, like a dozen museums? Most of them are even in walking distance. Something every town, so many towns would be so excited about and sometimes are taken for granted because they've been here for so long. You know, the Chico history, the gateway, the the farm, the I mean, there are so many, you know, that airport, the air museum, then if you start to include Orville, I mean we we would like to be, we always wanted to be, the art destination.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

This past weekend was uh museum weekend, and uh we had over 500 people come through. And I would ask people, have you ever been here before? No, no, but I said you'll be back, right? So there are a lot of families.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

And people are aware of the the building, but I've just seen the momentum pick up of the amount of people who now will say, Yes, I've been there, yes, it's a great place. Um it's it's very exciting. And what is exciting continually for you being involved? What excites you every day about working for the museum and growing the museum?

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Well, I haven't I haven't been actively on the board or volunteering because I was a caretaker for a couple of years. But I would I was always so excited when we had a local, you know, honestly, somebody right from this community who could could fill those. Rose so quickly. It's like you know, our local art stars. I I think of them and um those were those to me have been very exciting. I I mean just think of the ones I'm thinking of Cisco, Cisco and the photographer, the local art collection.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

Right. And I'm thinking of the fact that we've moved further down, down the state, because people are excited to see faces they haven't seen before. Right. So we're you know, we're getting more and more and more Bay Area artists, and um that spreads the word around the state. Yes, you know, we have to kind of get it out of of Chico. Yes, we can love and and protect everything here, but we need to also grow outside of Chico. Um and you know, you mentioned something about rural, and that's that's a a passion, and that's sometimes a grant part of our things, is that because we are serving a rural community also, that um that's this is a way to help those those folks. We have a um Roger Steele Legacy Foundation, which helps those students come to the museum with money from um buses to admission. So people can apply for that on online. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Well, and and to wrap it up here, you're talking about the function of art in a rural community. And period, what would you say? You know, people are concerned about the price of eggs, they're concerned about the price of gas. And when people think about art, sometimes I think the idea is that it's extra. So I would like to hear from you just some summary thoughts about what is the function of art and the museum in our community and in general.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Well, as a museum, we're not a gallery. We we don't depend on people buying art. So what we depend on is people getting healthy, people looking at art and having another way to calm down. That to me is one of the biggest, biggest things we can do right now is to say, come on in, you know, we're only five dollars and kids are free. So, you know, spend an afternoon.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

And really, Pat and the volunteers did so much in the aftermath of the campfire. Yeah. I mean, truly, and that was great mental health and a great community service for families and children, even day, I mean, day camps for those kids to come in and do art when they have no place to go. Um they've done there's been exhibitions on homelessness, on what are your immigration routes, and so many cultures that are here that people all inclusive. All inclusive, and it's still as far as museums, it's probably one of the best bargains in the state, honestly. It is, it is is very inexpensive when compared to others of the same level.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

Well, great, thank you both so much, and uh keep up the good work. We're so glad that you did this.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Yes, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Thank you for listening to Manka Unframed. This episode has been produced by Aidan Vanderroot. This episode is a production of KZFR as part of the Chico Speaks series, with funding made possible by the City of Chico Arts Commission, the California Arts Council, and listeners like you. Listen to Manca Unframed on KZFR ninety point one FM and on digital streaming platforms.