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Redwood Trees coming back to life after the Dolan Fire of 2020
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Here's a clickable guide to local artists, indie bookstores and fun events to kick-start your post-pandemic adventures.
17-Mile Drive, just one of the many stunning visuals in Monterey County. Carol M. Highsmith Library of Congress
BY LIBBY MOLYNEAUX
The awe-inspiring coastal county that gave the world John Steinbeck—and inspired Salvador Dali when he escaped to the Hotel Del Monte during World War II—has no shortage of museums, art galleries, bookstores and performing arts venues. A cultural reconnection awaits in the walkable, arty burgs of Monterey and Salinas, where the creative scene is back in a big way. And the free wine at gallery openings is the local stuff.
Here's a clickable collection of art and culture resources to kick-start your arts dive.
A one-stop directory for Monterey County galleries, arts organizations, artists, and arts education programs, along with local and statewide calls for artists. Arts4MCcan also coordinates art exhibits in local businesses.
Arts Council for Monterey County
Built on the promise that “Monterey is Happening,” this well-coordinated site is the source of free art walks, plus music, food and wine, and community events.
SeeMonterey.com/events
Monterey’s Museum and Cultural Arts Division offers a nifty curated guide through hidden gardens and historic sites filled with paintings, sculpture and murals.
Monterey.org/museums/Monterey-Art
Salinas' Main Street is at its artiest after 5 o'clock on the first Friday of the month with art openings, live music, dance performances, kiddie art fun and readings at indie Downtown Book and Sound. First Fridays resume in July with a soft opening, as some businesses will be closed for the holiday; August will be the official reopening of the Art Walk, and September will mark 1st Fridays’ 15th and 16th anniversary celebration.
1stfridays.org
Downtown Salinas’ hub for readings and signings by local authors, plus events like the monthly West Coast Songwriters Competition, which resumes in October. Not to mention: The store offers a week of robust readings for National Banned Book Week.
DowntownBookAndSound.com
Coming in 2022: Carmel-by-the-Sea’s popular plein-air event returns with juried painting competition and art sale, sculpture-in-the-park and live music.
CarmelArtFestivalCalifornia.com/
Along with every literary genre, Downtown Monterey's Old Capitol Books proudly stocks the area’s largest selection of LGBTQIA, feminism and gender, ethnic studies, and black history books. Now that the store has reopened, it should once again be a source of author events, music, and more happen in its intimate (to say the least) performance space.
OldCapitolBooks.com
A Facebook group for a collective of Salinas-based urban artists living who work together to create art under the belief "Nature is Art - Art is Healing." Here's a good example: “Ancestral Fire Cider Workshop.”
Facebook.com/UACSalinas
An collection of writings on the people of Monterey and local culture of Monterey Bay can be foud on this attractive and engaging literary website founded in 2017 by local reporter Julia Reynolds, who saw a need for tories by and about less-heard local voices published in both English and Spanish.
VoicesOfMontereyBay.org
Covering Monterey County since 1988, MC Weekly keeps its finger on the pulse of the arts and culture scene—especially now that the scene’s heartbeat is quickening.
MontereyCountyWeekly.com/events
California State University Monterey Bay’s events calendar features upcoming classes, workshops, talks and films that are open to the public.
CSUMB.edu/events
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