Local Highlight: Pacific Grove Art Center

by The Alliance //
PGAC art students showing off their custom t-shirts.
PGAC art students showing off their custom t-shirts.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards’ national office in New York City is dedicated to growing and supporting our Affiliate Partners across the country. Our Affiliate Partners are doing great work in their communities, and we love hearing about their outreach efforts, their students, and their programs. This month, we shine the spotlight on the Pacific Grove Art Center, which manages the California Central Coast Art Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Here’s what the Pacific Grove Art Center had to say about Awards activity in their region:

Artists and patrons alike love sharing and learning the process of artmaking.
Artists and patrons alike love sharing and learning the process of artmaking.

The Pacific Grove Art Center (PGAC) is an arts and arts education non-profit whose mission is to Educate, Appreciate, Exhibit, Encourage, and Inspire. As part of that mission, we proudly host artist studio rentals at below market/affordable rates where local artists are encouraged to work and develop their craft. The artists exhibit bi-annually and at various times during the year with open studios and other events. We are also the home of the Peninsula Ballet Center.

Sketch from Donimgo Ramirez’s beginning drawing class.
Sketch from Donimgo Ramirez’s beginning drawing class.

Since 1969, the Pacific Grove Art Center has been a community-based nonprofit seeking to enhance art appreciation and encourage the creation of art. With the desire to have art available to everyone, PGAC has held low cost classes, free exhibits, and offered reduced rent for artist’s studios for more than forty years. Emerging-to-established artists are professionally shown in our historic galleries, and large group shows can provide the first step into the art world for many. In the coming months, PGAC will be offering new programs, including a Mural Program that will focus on capturing all the incredible events and programs happening around the Monterey Peninsula.

There is always something to show off in the youth classroom.
There is always something to show off in the youth classroom.

The Central Coast is filled with a diverse and eclectic demographic of students. From the farmlands to Silicon Valley there is artistic potential in all of them, and the passion and support for the arts is prevalent in most communities here. Every area finds a significant and relevant way to make the arts a part of their lives and communities. Whether that is music and fashion at special events or fine arts sold in the galleries, the people of the Central Coast understand the importance of the arts in their lives, and we at the Pacific Grove Art Center are excited to be affiliated with the Scholastic Awards and the opportunities they provide for the students on the Central Coast.

Youth sketching around town
Youth sketching around town

This is our first year as an Affiliate Partner of the Scholastic Awards, so every step of this is brand new. We are grateful for all the support we are getting from Daniel Embree at the national office. Of course, none of this would be possible without our Executive Director, Teresa Brown, our Scholastic Coordinator, Sarah Saleet, our volunteers, Claudia Sawyer and Jennifer Bicket, and all the members of the community that have stepped up to serve as jurors.

PGAC volunteers are always cheerful and helpful at our events.
PGAC volunteers are always cheerful and helpful at our events.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are proud to work with organizations like the Pacific Grove Art Center to help talented students receive recognition for their creative efforts. By partnering together, the Pacific Grove Art Center and the Scholastic Awards give our youth the support they need to become lasting members of their art and writing communities.