Page 20 - Final for publication for January

Our Creative Community

By David Schroeder

Remember the plaintiff teenage lament, “There’s nothing to do in this hick town!” Well, when it
comes to art in Modesto and Stanislaus County it’s just not true. We have an abundance of art and art
activities, to the degree that it’s almost impossible to find a free date on which to schedule an art
activity that isn’t in conflict with another, equally wonderful event – competing for an audience.

Since I began working to revive the Arts Council in the County, this observation, about the
abundance of art in our area, has repeatedly impressed itself on my consciousness, and I continue
to discover artists, arts groups, and arts activities that I was unaware of in the past. As you can see,
if you check out our new web site at www.stanislausarts.org, and look at the directory, it’s an
impressive list, and it keeps growing.

In as much as it’s the mission of the Arts Council to support and promote the arts in our area, and
given my own lack of awareness as to the extent of the playing field, I thought that a first step would
be to make a list and find a way to introduce the members of our creative community to each other
and to the greater community of Stanislaus County. To my surprise, a planned art exhibit at the
Mistlin Gallery, titled “Love Modesto,” to be displayed in April, has given us a place to start.

I have teamed up with Bill
Harris, who has an extensive
collection of all things Modesto
and we have begun work on a
project we have labeled, Our
Creative Community, part of
which will be on display during
the Love Modesto show at
Mistlin. We have plans to move
our collection beyond Modesto
in the future and maybe publish
it in a magazine that might
become a visual directory of the
arts in Stanislaus County. But
that’s in the future. For now,
here are a few samples of what
might appear in the Love
Modesto show.

What better a place to start looking at area arts that by paying tribute to two past pillars of our arts
community, Grace Lieberman, the two-time director of the Arts Council, and Tony Mistlin, the
primary supporter of the Mistlin Gallery.