17 Artists will be showing and offering their art at a brand spanking new venue in Rancho Cordova this year - The MACC (Mills Station Arts & Culture Center - pronounced 'MACK') at the Mather Field Light Rail Station, Corner of Mather Field Road at Folsom Boulevard (10191 Mills Station Road, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670). It's a jewelbox of a gallery on the first floor, and I hope, a catalyst for the visual arts in our community.
This is our fourth year as a temporary gallery in various locations in Rancho Cordova. We'll be open Saturday, December 2nd through Sunday, December 10th. Weekend hours are 11am to 7pm, and weekday hours are 4pm to 7pm.
And there's a backstory! Back in the 1990's, I managed a federal program in California to sort of 'replace the divots' made by building the interstate highway system, the Transportation Enhancement Activities program. $60 Million in federal funds were coming into California each year to invest in transportation-related historic preservation, build the bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and eight other types of enhancements. We funded 1,000 projects over the program's first eight years.
One of the projects we helped fund in Sacramento County before Rancho Cordova was a city was to move this big old two-story building (a wayside stop on the Lincoln Highway) to the light rail station. Interestingly, it is heated and cooled by geothermal energy.
In recent years, the Rancho Cordova Civic Light Orchestra and the Civic Band practiced upstairs, but until this year, the first floor had no floor, in fact it had trenches in the dirt, so remained unusable.
What a transformation! The first floor space is a beautiful, flexible 'vanilla box' that can be used as art gallery, meeting place, and who knows what else! Eighteen of the 22 double-hung windows on the first floor are covered in removable wall panels, and each panel has a track for hanging art, just like the hanging system at City Hall. Along with the panels, the MACC has portable wall panels to add free-standing hanging space.
The City's Grand Opening won't be until January 2018, but our RC Arts group will host the 'soft opening' of this wonderful new facility. Please join us at one of our receptions during our gallery run: Saturday, December 2nd is our Grand Opening. Sunday, December 3rd is our Artist Reception. And Saturday, December 9th is our Second Saturday Reception. We have special and unique gifts for the holidays!