Second Saturday

Posted on January 6, 2011 – 1:48 AM | by OldManFoster

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By Liv Moe  Photos by Scott Duncan

December is not the best time to survey the status of Second Saturday.  Each winter, the monthly event goes into a sort of suspended animation; it gets cold, Christmas parties start to rival art receptions, and the galleries themselves have holiday parties which upstage their own monthly events.  Bit by bit Second Saturday starts to look like a ghost town.

In recent years, come the first warm Second Saturday, the monthly art walk comes raging back.  Those spring events serve as a slightly tamer precursor to the crowds the summer will hold.  But, given recent events – a shooting and several robberies – and much talk concerning the future of Second Saturday, these suddenly quiet streets seem to have an ominous air.

Gallery closures, violent crime, and rising decibel levels have significantly changed what has been Sacramento’s most successful public event since the Thursday Night Market. In chatting with a sampling of city officials, gallerists, and developers it would seem that the  changes haven’t quite been as drastic as one might expect – so far.

Sacramento’s art community spawned Second Saturday two decades ago.  The event has grown steadily from its initial gallery focus to today’s familiar festival environment. By 2008 things had ratcheted up to an almost unmanageable place for some gallerists; unruly crowds – more interested in partying than art connoisseurship –  made openings hectic affairs.  These days the crowds have have splintered off on their own, often independent of the galleries. Depending on what happens next this may be a very good thing.

“My feeling is that the Second Saturday Art Walk should actually be called “Second Saturday Midtown Walkabout,” said MARRS developer Michael Heller in a recent interview. “I feel it has become less about art and more about enjoying the pedestrian experience (food, drink, music, performance) that Midtown has to offer.  If it were up to me, I would re-brand it in this manner and enjoy.  But I would also choose another night of the month and go back in time and do an authentic art night as well.  Kind of like the old days of the art walk.”

Two years ago a comment like that might have sent the art world into a frenzy. To suggest that Second Saturday was about something other than art was seen as a tremendous insult to a community who felt their event had been usurped in the name of what one gallerist referred to, off the record, as a “cheap date night.” Some predicted, correctly, that this parallel phenomenon would eclipse Second Saturday and move ahead on its own.

In researching this article, a subtle, yet essential distinction presented itself. If one was to begin at the MARRS project and examine the series of concentric rings outward one would find that Second Saturday changes from block to block, separating itself from street fair to art reception night, with each serving entirely different demographics.

When I wrote about Second Saturday back in 2008 the MARRS Project had just come into full bloom. Solomon Dubnick was taking in so many art viewers every month that they had to hire a security guard at one point to control the crowd – and cut down on the occasional theft. B. Sakata Garo at times looked more like a crowded frat party than an art space, and 20^th Street Gallery was known to boast a line that stretched to the corner. With 20^th and J Streets acting as a sort of ground zero, bands, t-shirt vendors, waffle trucks, and artisans began springing up in almost every direction.

While researching that first piece it took me more than 30 minutes to walk nine blocks because the sidewalks were so crowded. Though this crowding was the bain of many Midtowner’s existences, I have to admit, in hindsight, it was awfully fun.

Flash forward two years and the landscape has changed significantly, Solomon Dubnick first moved, then downsized, and 20^th Street Gallery announced in October that they were closing up shop. This past September saw the tragic shooting that unfolded in front of Streets of London, and subsequent months have brought reports of armed robberies following the art walk. Many of those I interviewed back in 2008 alluded to worrying that something “bad” would happen eventually; I doubt that any imagined anything as bad as we’ve seen this year.

So what to do now? Around this time last year talk circulated about attempting to move the art reception portion to a day other than Second Saturday.  This idea was met with resistance for two reasons: relocating something that would take time to catch on seemed a risky prospect to a gallery scene already on shaky ground; and, Second Saturday does sometimes lead to sales as a result of a follow up visit to an exhibition’s private opening which usually takes place the Thursday before Second Saturday. Not all gallerioes follow this practice, with a case in point being B. Sakata Garo, whose only reception is on Second Saturday, which seems to suit gallery owner Barry Sakata just fine.

At this point, with some of the galleries located right in the thick of things closing up shop, those that remain are geographically not in a place to receive the thundering herds anyway. “Second Saturday is our main reception and is what we live for,” said Gwenna Howard, one half of the Skinner/Howard team who run a contemporary space on 7^th and S Streets. Skinner/Howard have always done preview Thursdays and rely on Second Saturday for sales.  These sentiments have been echoed by other spaces outside of the 20^th and J core. For them, Second Saturday has remained steady and essential to business with limited occurrences of drunken or poor behavior.

What then for ground zero? At the moment, Second Saturday and its drunken, rowdier doppelganger seem to be cohabitating fine thus far. As the weather warms, however, shepherding the future of the event will be a tricky undertaking.

Midtown residents are tiring of the crowds, noise and trash, and Second Saturday goers are growing wary of the spike in crime in recent months. Comments like these on FB are not uncommon, “Babysitter in place..get to go to Second Saturday tonight…my peace radiating forcefield will protect me against random acts of violence that keep popping up in Midtown.” Though some want to quibble about the violence taking place “after” Second Saturday officially concludes for the evening, the truth is that they still give the event a black eye.

“Second Saturday has been and continues to be a positive, family-oriented event that has exposed many people to local art that wouldn’t otherwise have been exposed,” said City Councilmember Steve Cohn in a recent interview. As we move into warmer months Cohn says the city will be focusing on police, parking, curfew enforcement and various other tactics in a move to keep Second Saturday on the right track.

The art community continues to benefit from the massive visibility of Second Saturday and the large crowds moving through the galleries every month. But, now that the focus has shifted, the galleries are carrying on and it’s this other event, what Heller calls the “Midtown Walkabout,” that needs help staying on track in a positive way.

Policing and managing festivals like these requires a delicate balancing act between businesses, visitors and law enforcement. With Thursday Night Market and now Second Saturday as examples it’s clear this is a community hungry for events. Let’s hope the right balance is struck to preserve what is still one of the best things this city has ever developed for itself.

Tags: Art, Art Walk, Liv Moe, Mike Heller, Second Saturday