Arts Devo

The People’s Wall Now, this is a ridiculous building project that Arts DEVO can get behind. In response to 45’s hair-brained plans for building a divisive monstrosity along the U.S./Mexico border, Chico State art major Brad Dufour decided his senior project would be a wall of another kind, “The Welcome Wall.” Last Thursday (May 3), as an extended performance piece, Dufour and a crew of volunteers spent five hours building and taking down a wall made from 93 cinder blocks. The 4-foot-tall, 20-foot-wide structure started in front of Kendall Hall and, block by block, was methodically walked across campus and into the courtyard of the Arts & Humanities Building. It was in place long enough for a three-hour reception before being dismantled. As it sat in place, Dufour invited his tired but elated builders and anyone else who wanted to tag the structure with chalk and help him realize his intent of creating a “site for connection” as opposed to a “symbol of division.”

Nice work by all involved. Now, if Drumpf’s unwelcome day ever comes, let’s all meet down south with some bulldozers, cranes and spray paint and repeat this process.

Motel art If you dig looking at art and maybe even displaying some of it in your own home, the Art at the Matador spring expo is your jam. This weekend, Friday (4-9 p.m.) and Saturday (11 a.m.-7 p.m.), May 11-12, 99 artists will have galleries set up inside and outside the rooms of the Matador Motel on The Esplanade. Local musicians (including Red Dirt Bullies and Warren Haskell) will perform, margaritas will be available and most of the local arts organizations will be on hand for this rad annual event.

DEVOtions

• A history of strings: Do you want to go to your grave having never witnessed the nyckelharpa (a Swedish keyed fiddle) in action? Don’t add another regret to your life. Go hear the New World String Project—a quartet playing Celtic, Nordic and unconventional folk music on the nyckelharpa and more—Friday, May 11, 7:30 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Tickets: $20 ($10 16-under).

• We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep: Join Slow Theatre at Blackbird on Tuesday, May 15, at 7 p.m., for Shakespeare Mix Tape, and hear local actors reading monologues, short scenes, songs and sonnets from the Bard.