ArtPlace spoke with the Building Imagination Center about the Center & the downtown art scene
ArtPlace spoke with Jessica Gomula-Kruzic, Director for the Building Imagination Center, about the goals of the Center and the downtown art scene in Modesto, CA.
ARTPLACE: What is your elevator pitch when you describe your project to people?
GOMULA-KRUZIC: We are transforming a vacant storefront in downtown Modesto into the Building Imagination Center, a space for video and visual arts exhibitions, arts education, and artist residencies.
The Center will provide a link between CSU Stanislaus, the Modesto Art Museum, and Modesto’s downtown cultural district. It will provide a physical space for exhibiting visual arts in a non-commercial gallery, and will regularly host visual arts programming through the Modesto Art Museum’s Building a Better Modesto program. The Center will host video screenings and visual art receptions which will coincide with the downtown ArtWalk.
Using a relaxed “48-hour documentary filmmaking” model, resident artists will work with community groups to create original documentaries, using CSU Stanislaus students as cinematographers. Community members will be an integral part of the production process. Half of the resident artists will be CSU alumni, encouraging them to stay in the area and building a bridge between their academic and professional careers.