Crocker Art Museum
Q&A with Agustín Arteaga, new CEO and director of the Crocker Art Museum
On July 1, the Crocker Art Museum welcomed its first new director and CEO in a quarter century. Before taking the helm of the Crocker, Agustín Arteaga spent eight years as the director of the Dallas Museum of Art. He has also led major museums in Puerto Rico, Buenos Aires and Mexico City, where he was the director of the country’s national art museum; has overseen or curated major retrospectives of renowned creatives like Frida Kahlo, Roy Lichtenstein, Diego Rivera and Christian Dior; and has served on the board of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts since 2020. Weeks before starting his new position, he talked to us from Dallas about his vision for the Crocker’s future, the need for museums to reflect their communities, and the importance of raising our museum’s international profile.
Your 2025 Guide to Outdoor Movie Screenings in the Sacramento Area
Break out the lawn chairs and the popcorn, bring a light jacket for when the Delta Breeze rolls in, and cozy up with your friends and family for some outdoor movie screenings this summer (and a few in the fall, too). Whether you’re in the mood for classics like The Goonies and Big, recent blockbusters like Wicked, or animated family fare like Moana 2, these grassy lawns, museum courtyards, and even swimming pools are the place to be.
Out and About in May and June 2025
There’s an Englishman in Wheatland as Sting takes the Hard Rock Live stage; the ninth annual Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival lights up the screen at The Sofia; Leon Bridges at Thunder Valley, and more. Here are 10 local events rounding out the spring.
Out and About in November and December 2024
From a juicy-sweet food fest in Roseville and a return to stand-up for CNN host W. Kamau Bell at the Mondavi, to Placer County artists throwing open their studio doors, and holiday celebrations—both classic and “with a splash of sass”—here are 10 can’t-miss events before the end of the year.
Fall Arts Preview 2024
Like the leafy canopies in our City of Trees, opportunities to catch our region's creative excellence are rarely more breathtakingly golden than during the fall. From Beethoven to Sondheim, and from Dracula in pointe shoes to Joan Miró in an A-list art exhibit, here are a dozen can't-miss cultural showstoppers happening around town over the next few months. Keep your calendar handy—we've got your ticket to making the most of this singularly sensational season.
Going Going Gonzo
He has directed over 400 music videos for the likes of the Goo Goo Dolls and Kat Von D, is learning seven languages—including American Sign Language—and started performing stand-up comedy during the pandemic. Oh, and he just landed his first solo show at the Crocker Art Museum, featuring his wildly colorful, surrealistic photography. (In case you’re wondering, yes, that is the artist in his actual living room at his West Sacramento Victorian.) Meet retrofuturist Raúl Gonzo—the ultimate one-man band of creative expression.
Out and About in July and August 2023
Tears for Fears in Wheatland, Cirque du Soleil at the Golden 1 Center, Rent on the Music Circus stage and more. Here are 10 events heating up the summer.
Estampas de la Raza
Running June 25 through October 1
Thiebaud: A Celebration
Five months after Wayne Thiebaud passed away on Christmas Day at the age of 101, the Crocker Art Museum is remounting its Covid-curtailed 2020 retrospective of the artist’s career—this time with more than a dozen additional works. The museum’s chief curator Scott A. Shields gives us a tour of 10 of the 117 pieces in the exhibition, which opens May 29, and lends his perspective on Sacramento’s “patron saint of painters.”
The Sweet Life
On the eve of his 100th birthday, Wayne Thiebaud—the Sacramento painter best known for his evocative portrayals of desserts that look good enough to eat—talks about the new pieces he’s working on (yes, he’s still wielding a brush—and a tennis racket!), his favorite kind of pie, and why, despite his status as one of America’s most important living artists, he still sees himself as “just an old art teacher.”
Wayne Thiebaud
(The First 90 Years)
The Crocker Art Museum is honoring him with a major retrospective. The California Hall of Fame is about to induct him alongside Barbra Streisand and James Cameron. And The New York Times’ chief art critic says there’s “no painter in America that is more satisfying or skilled.” But on the eve of his 90th birthday, after a career that took him from Disney to the Whitney, Sacramento’s Wayne Thiebaud is hardly resting on his laurels. In fact, he’s just getting warmed up.
Building Anticipation
After seven years of planning, the Crocker Art Museum’s new $85 million expansion is set to break ground on July 26. We talked with Charles Gwathmey, the project’s architect, about the process, the design and why the Capitol will no longer be the only prominent white building in Sacramento.
On Sale Now!
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