By KATHY HANSEN
Special to the Times
Not long ago, the Courthouse Museum celebrated America’s 250th Anniversary with a patriotic presentation on the steps of the Old Courthouse. On Oct. 8, local groups and performers — including singer Michelle Allison, entertainer Arturo Barajas, poet Joyce Dale, Auntie Becky and South Pacific Dance Company, Native American dancer Skyhawk Haynes, performer Niara Jones, and Merced Academy of Dance — will gather at the same location to present an outstanding performance to mark the opening of the exhibit “The MAC at 30: A Canvas of Community.”
Thirty years ago, in October of 1996, the former Montgomery Ward Building reopened as the Merced Multicultural Arts Center (a.k.a. The MAC). But the story reaches well beyond that grand opening.
In 1972, Gertrude Coleman left a bequest to the City of Merced in honor of her parents, pioneer downtown merchants, Morris and Amelia Goldman. More than two decades later, the Goldman Fund had grown from $250,000 to nearly $2 million.
In 1994, Merced City’s Redevelopment Agency placed a community arts center into its downtown plans. Merced County Arts Council (MCAC) Executive Director, Joan Sortini, championed the proposal while agency director Bill Cahill assembled a broad community task force to help shape it. The agency purchased the property, the Goldman Fund paid for the remodeling, and the City Council approved the Arts Council’s plan to operate the new facility.
The result was a 28,000-square-foot arts complex on Main Street, with a Black Box Theater, five gallery spaces spread across two floors, and five studios on the third floor. Its Grand Opening was held with the Arts Council’s annual “Threads Festival” from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5, 1996.
The opening marked a new phase for an arts community whose organized roots included the Merced Art League, founded in 1950. Among its many activities, in 1969, the Art League brought Beniamino Bufano, a famous San Francisco sculptor, to give talks at Merced College and hosted a reception for him at Miller Parker’s art-filled home.
The Merced Regional Arts Council (MRAC) — later renamed the Merced County Arts Council (MCAC) — formed in 1975 and incorporated as a non-profit in 1978. In 1980, the Merced County Board of Supervisors designated MRAC as the county’s partner in the California Arts Council’s new State-Local Partnership Program and has redesignated it every year since then.
Since the 1970s, the Art League and MRAC have operated galleries downtown. In 1984, MRAC moved to 529 W. Main Street, where Arbor Gallery, the Merced Symphony, and eleven other arts organizations joined it. The Merced Sun Star called MRAC’s new location Merced’s “home for the arts.” That same year, Katherine Grave chaired a committee that developed ARTREE, a program connecting local artists with students to provide arts education in Merced County schools.
In 1995, during the remodeling of the Ward building, the roof of the Arts Council’s gallery at 529 W. Main Street collapsed in a rainstorm, prompting an evacuation to another new space until it could move to the new MAC. This made the move to the new Arts Center in 1996 even more urgent and exciting. Arbor Gallery and the Merced Academy of Dance moved in when the Center opened and in 1997, artist Jude Pittman’s “Sun Discs” mosaic, dedicated to Dr. Earl Eager, was installed on the building’s facade.
In 2000, MCAC developed The Enrichment Center (EC), a day program in the arts for adults with disabilities, which operates in a third-floor studio of The MAC.
The economic downturns of the 1990s and 2008 and COVID-19 in 2020 strained the Arts Council. The most severe crisis came in March 2015 when the organization neared bankruptcy, laid off most employees, and relied on volunteers for much of its administration. In 2016, Colton Dennis was hired as Executive Director, beginning another chapter in The MAC’s recovery and continued growth.
Under the lease agreement between the City of Merced and the Arts Council, the City retains ownership of The MAC while providing space in exchange for 30 weekly hours of free gallery access for the public. In return, the Arts Council handles facility utility costs, maintenance, and overall staff management. The center’s operational footprint extends well past those baseline hours, opening each weekday at 8 a.m. for the Enrichment Center and hosting activities like ballet lessons, after-school classes, and rehearsals until 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. and throughout the weekend.
MCAC has its own programs, including ARTREE that has more than 40 local artists teaching art to thousands of students in 17 of the 20 districts in Merced County every year. The Enrichment Center is still in its studio and throughout the building. Kids and Family Days offer a free monthly art project at The MAC. More recently, MAC Theater Camp has taught hundreds of kids and put on sold-out shows in the Black Box Theater.
MCAC also partners with many local arts organizations. Merced Shakespearefest and the Bear Creek Ukulele Society call The MAC home for auditions, rehearsals, and practices. The Merced Symphony moved its office to The MAC in the early 2000s. Occasionally, Playhouse Merced performances spill over into The MAC while newer groups, such as Phoenix Creative Collective and Perennial Players, find a welcoming stage in its theater.
UC Merced and MCAC collaborate to bring their resources to downtown, including an exhibit and activities with Olga Diego, an artist in residence from Spain, who hung fantastical airy sculptures from the ceiling of The MAC, delighting children and adults.
Discover all of this — and much more — at the Merced County Courthouse Museum. The Museum will open “The MAC at 30: A Canvas of Community” exhibit on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 5 p.m., and the art and performance festival will take place outside of the Courthouse Museum at 6 p.m.
For more information about the exhibition, please contact the Museum office at (209) 723-2401.