Episode 5: The Future

In the final episode of monca Unframed, we look ahead to the future of the Museum of Northern California Art. Executive Director Pat Macias and Fundraising Manager Bonnie Pipkin discuss the museum’s capital campaign, plans to expand into the building’s unused space, and the vision for growing monca as a hub for art, education, and community connection. From new classrooms and exhibition space to increased programming and partnerships, this episode explores how community support will shape the next chapter of the museum 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

The Museum of Northern California Art, or MONCA, exists to make art accessible and to 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 five, the future. I'm Georges Weber, and this is Monica Unframed. Today we have with us Pat Masias, Executive Director of Monca, and Bonnie Pipkin, who is now the fundraising manager for the museum. And welcome. Thank you. Thank you. So, Pat, in the first segment of this series, we talked about the history of the Veterans Building and how you came to obtain the lease for the museum. Can you tell us a little bit about the space that's currently used and what kind of visitor and member participation we have?

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Well, we're currently using 4,000 square feet of a 17,000 plus square foot building. And this is the part that we opened up in 2017 and did approximately a million dollars worth of renovation to. At this point, we have, I would say, over 400 members. We have thousands of people on our newsletter, and we are using the space as exhibition, education, and event space to be used for health and healing, and for um just generally welcoming people in for anything they want. I mean, over the museum weekend, just last weekend, we had over 500 people come in in two days. So to me, when I asked, gee, have you been here before? I would say probably over a half of them had not been there before. Will you come back? Yes. So that's, you know, that's our outreach. We outreach into the community by tomorrow we'll be in the plaza with DCBA telling them about Thursday Night Market where we'll we'll participate. We go to card events, and um, it's just it's a museum that is for the community, and it's a museum that goes outside of that 4,000 square feet right now.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Excellent. What about events? I know there's a lot of really wonderful, exciting events there. What do what is the process? If somebody wanted to rent some space to have an event, how does that work? Um they can come in and talk to me.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Basically, you know, I I can do it over the phone, but they haven't been in the space, they don't see what it's like, they don't see the um opportunity for what they're doing. I think it's really important. I I'm I'm a one-on-one person. I mean, I really would much prefer meeting people and being with people than I am doing things um only on the computer or the phone.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

Got it. I know we've had really good music events. There's some coming up this weekend, um, ongoing. Uh have we had weddings there?

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Oh, yes. We've had weddings, we've had memorials, we've had proms, we've had Butte uh College final dinner there. In fact, we have the Inspire Prom coming up in May.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

Great. Okay, so we've got the museum now, which is a full, almost 10 years old. It's beautiful, it's vital. There's shows all the time. What about that 9,000 square foot area in the back? And Bonnie, I think you're gonna be very involved in the future of that space as well.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

That's right. Yes, that's uh well, um, I I would love for Pat to talk about the backspace, but it is a space that's full of possibility, and I think that that's really what drew me into being a part of making that come alive.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

But um, yeah, Pat, tell us a little bit more about Well, I think the emphasis is number one, we're a museum, and we will always be a museum. We're not a performance space, we're not, we can use these things, but but when you look at us, we are a museum. So that is going to be more exhibition space. It's gonna be two classrooms where we have nothing right now to teach unless we teach right out in the galleries. Um, we can rent it for um an event, we can um have lots of conferences or you know, a possibility beyond what we can do in the 4,000 square feet that we're in.

SPEAKER_03 5:37

And in the past it was used for veterans dances. Uh I think you said even car shows, they'd car shows, wrestling matches.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yes. I remember exercise classes in there in the 90s. Do you?

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Yeah. It was also Calvary Baptist Church for a while. Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

Well, and there it there's a nice stage. There's even a green room, I think. Yes, underneath. And there's a lift. Um what is it gonna take to make that space usable?

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Well uh renovation. I mean, uh we can't use it until it is renovated. So we have no air conditioning or heating back there. The electrical is still 1927 when the building was built. And, you know, for us, we need to engineer it for sound because no matter what you're doing back there, if it's a classroom, you know, if it is somebody walking around and looking at our permanent collection, which we'll be able to put up, um, those it it has to be usable and it has to be done well.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Well, and the ceilings are super high. I don't know how to estimate. 19 feet. There you go. I knew you'd know. And the windows, the light back there is terrific. So we're gonna do electrical, we're gonna do is this gonna be phased or are you gonna do big bang all at once?

SPEAKER_02 7:05

No, you can we can write grants, we can get the money, and we can do it piece by piece. We can't use it until it's done, but it we don't have to sit around and wait for the three to four million dollars that we need.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

Well, and that's a good thing. We've got those really nice architectural plans that have already been drawn up by the front desk. Are those still reflective of where we're heading?

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Oh, yes. Yeah. Maybe some minor little changes, but for the most part, that's the layout of the back.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

So there's classrooms, there's exhibition space, there's movable theater space. There's a catering kitchen. Oh. There's a a big lobby coming in off of uh Washington Avenue. Great. And then the French doors on Washington. We'll be able to use those for access.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Yeah, that's the those are the that's the entrance into the lobby.

SPEAKER_03 7:58

Super. So there's been some fundraising done already. And what are the plans segue to Bonnie Pipkin? Famous for Bonfire, which is a fantastic local storytelling um event and public joy. And now she's lending her energies and talents for fundraising for the museum. Um you want to talk about what's involved there, Bonnie?

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Yeah, so well, I'll I'll just first start by saying that um I've always loved Manca and I love the events and exhibitions. And when I had the opportunity to to peek in the backspace, I just it and I I think I'm not alone in this experience that people walk back there and they just feel possibility. They just get, it's, it's like walking into a dream, basically. Um and in this this time, in in this world, in this life that we're living, you know, space where we can come together creatively and joyfully is so important. And um, and so I just I was very much just drawn to the possibility of the space. And and um, you know, I spent close to 20 years living in New York. I got a master's degree in performing arts administration and kind of focused on fundraising and fundraised for the New York International Fringe Festival for almost a decade. And and so I just it kind of uh at this moment in in my life, there's a lot of roads kind of reconvening. Um, and and I've spent the past few years in Chico really building community through bonfire, as you mentioned, and I just see how how this is really going to be a collective effort. This is it's a space where a lot of people will be able to do a lot within it, and Manca will be able to have more exhibition space, have this classroom, we'll be able to have this beautiful stage in this beautiful space, and the fundraising efforts that I am interested in pursuing are are collective, they're about community buy-in um and building a space that is for all of us.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

Thank you. We have the the gala coming up on March 21st, and that some of the proceeds from that will be dedicated for the backspace as well, correct?

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Yes. It's it's um a combination of operations and the backspace, but to me, I'm sorry, it's just the future, the future of whatever part of the building you're looking at. It's the future of the museum. And that's what I keep saying to people. Come to the gala. You're not you're not spending money on a party, you're spending money on making this museum continue.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Yeah, so all of the fundraising efforts are really, I mean, that's a really good point, Pat, that we I think that fundraising for the backspace is fundraising for the museum. It is, it is one collective effort. We, you know, as we we raise money to expand, we also expand physically, we we raise money to support the operation of this physical expansion as well and keep all the beautiful programming that's been going on for so long going as well.

SPEAKER_03 11:23

So that sounds right to me. So, Pat, we were talking about classroom space and working with classrooms. What is your vision of how that could work with our expanded space?

SPEAKER_02 11:43

Well, at the very beginning, we were driving docent, and we actually went into the classrooms in elementary schools, high school, and that's become a little more difficult to do now in in terms of you know being fingerprinted and being insured and etc. So we are reaching out to say, come to the museum, number one, to have a class. Number two, you'll see what the museum's like and you'll bring your family. Um, you know, it's kind of a uh a mixture of why we want people there. This is not just for kids. We do a lot of educational programs for adults also. And uh having a committed space, two committed spaces, two classrooms, um means that we can do much, much more with what we're doing right now. We have a tea blending and a belly dance class coming up. No, I we have to do those in two different galleries because they're at the same time and they're before we're open. So it it'll make life so much easier.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

I think that people are always interested in space. It is really um that's that's as a person who's creating anything, we're looking for space to make things happen and do things within. And and within this community, there's there's always a need for more space where again, where joy happens, where hope happens, where creativity happens, where we inspire future creators and artists.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

Um so well, and I know that we were talking with Penny Baxter, head of exhibitions in a previous segment, and about the call for art, and particularly now that it's been expanded from Silicon Valley Bay Area up to the Oregon border and out to the east, we get so much wonderful art and we can't hang it all, we can't exhibit it all. How will that change with expanded space? Where will it be one particular part of the back area or what is your vision there?

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Well, I you'd have to kind of see the diagram, but it in the big space where there's a possibility to put up chairs or or have a summer camp, it's all exhibition space around that. There is a hallway that goes all along the back from the classrooms all the way around to the the lobby, and that will also have exhibition space. So, you know, right now our permanent collection is seen maybe once a year, and that's only part of it. This is a great opportunity to put that up and have people see it um more on a more uh frequent level.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Yeah, so we have the we do get to see some of the permanent collection in the library, right? But that having again more space, this is about space, um having more space to see our permanent collection, and you know, that's part of the function of of a museum.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

So along with classes and events and the art itself, what else do you see as possible for the future in our museum?

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Everything. Dramatic. The sky's the limit. I mean, there are so many things that we didn't think of that have come to us, and I think that's the important part is that um we don't have all the ideas. You know, the community has ideas. Bring them to us. Let's work together, let's work, you know, uh on making this a fantastic venue that people really want to come to, whether they're totally art related or they uh want to sit in the library and read. You know, we have that opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yeah, I think that the it's I I am also very interested to know what the community wants, of course, as we embark upon raising money to to renovate the space that will be used for the community. I I'd love to have the conversation again, um, this kind of dream space where you you look at these walls and you look at the stage and and you imagine, you imagine how you could use it. And and within the existing walls that already exist, there's possibility. And people do all kinds, I mean, there's a puppet show coming up, there's all kinds of things that happen in communication and collaboration with visual art. And um I think that's one of the most inspiring and beautiful things about manca is how much creativity and kind of the the intersection of visual performing, education, all of that comes together.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

There are events outside sometimes too, right, Pat? We've got the yard sale.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Oh, we're getting ready for our June yard sale again. So gather up things you don't want that you think uh somebody else might want. Um, no clothes and no electrical things, but other than that, come on and donate them. It all goes to the museum.

SPEAKER_03 17:08

Great. Is it does it need to be art or arty?

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Oh no, anything except clothes or electronics.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

Got it. Yes. So what when in June? Do we have a date?

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Uh June, it's the first weekend. I think it's June 7th.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

Thank you. We just had a nice chat with the junior board leaders, Johnny Meeks and Kent Moore. Pat, you were instrumental in getting that all going. It's going really, really well. People are getting involved. The young people are fired up, they're firing us up. You want to talk a little bit about the junior board and what that means for the future?

SPEAKER_02 17:51

I think that idea just came to me when I couldn't sleep one night and realized that we've got a segment of the community that we're not pulling in, and maybe we can't pull them in, so why don't they pull themselves in? So the museum needs a future. It needs um young people to say this is maybe how it changes, maybe how it stays the same, maybe how it, you know, just um changes how we look at things. But it'll always be an art museum. But these students they've come up with some really fun ideas. They're really working well together. And I think they understand their role now, as especially when this show comes up that they're going to be doing, they'll find out really what a museum is like. But uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

They're they're a good they're a good group. The show that you're mentioning is that the Never Too Young, Never Too Old? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Yes, the art show that will be in May.

SPEAKER_03 18:58

So, Pat and Bonnie, what else would you like to say about your vision for the future with the museum?

SPEAKER_02 19:07

We want to give people an opportunity to connect with each other, create more community.

SPEAKER_03 19:12

Pursuing art and protecting it, being a hub pillar of the community in Chico.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

We want to continue to strengthen our partnerships. And I would like to see growth. So I think that um that the future for Manca is very exciting. I think that we're standing in a moment of possibility. I'm a broken record with that right now, but but it is. We're we're here, we have all of this space that exists behind what is currently happening at Manca. And we have people who are excited about making it happen, about um, about contributing, about um being a part of something bigger. And and I think that that we're gonna put our boots on the ground and we're gonna involve the community and everybody will be able to come together and make and make this happen. I mean, I think this was as a person who who walked into this role already with many other roles in the community, I think it's just that that I I couldn't not be a part of what what could happen. Um and and so I'm gonna do my best to to lead the charge to get everybody to to to put in and make this make this space all of ours. And your best is stellar. Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

Well, and Pat Kent in in our other interview with the junior board actually brought a tear to my eye talking about the function of art in our society and our community, and about the hope sign on the front of the museum. What are your thoughts about how the museum helps make us hopeful and connects us?

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Well, it's more large than you would imagine. If you look back on the things that we've done um previously, we've written grants for the unhoused where we had them come to the museum um for breakfast, to do writing, to do art, and then left with lunch. We've done many, many cultural events that involve the Machupta, black art, um, the Hmong, and this is our community. This is everybody in our community. I walked out of the building last night late, the hope sign was on, and there were two folks sitting on the um steps and stopped to talk for a minute and they asked me what it was. And I said, Well, it's an art museum. And he said, Are you open tomorrow? I've never been in it. And I said, of course. So, you know, I don't know where all of this comes from, but I know that people need to know what we do and become a part of what we do. Because as you said, Bonnie, too, it's all about community. It's all about our past donors, our future donors, our current donors, and the public who might say, ooh, this is something I could really get involved in.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

Well, and there's a um a part that the museum played in the campfire recovery as well. And hoping helping those people, well, hoping them too, giving them hope. Well, I would say if you're in the area, don't just come sit on the steps, come inside, have a look at the wonderful art and the beautiful building and space, have a look at the architectural plans on the wall, and even a peek into the back if you want to fire your imagination. Thank you so much. This is the future for Monka.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Thank you for listening to Manca Unframed. This episode has been produced by Aidan Vandeverot. 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 Monka Unframed on KZFR 90.1 FM and on digital streaming platforms.