Arts Devo

Chico, deep cuts This week Arts DEVO is drawn to the hidden corners of our local calendar of arts and fun. There are four unique choices on the schedule that have caught my eye—including one at a new arts venue and another featuring an exciting new local venture:

• Maker radio launch party: Those busy creatives at the Idea Fabrication Labs (IFL) have really done it now. They’ve built a new community radio station that’s currently broadcasting at 94.5 FM from the lab’s downtown spot on Orange Street. The call letters are KWQA, and IFL member Sterling Ogden says the low-power FM station is presenting an eclectic schedule of programming—from “dance beats to Louis Armstrong, Bernie Sanders to hip-hop”—and can be heard from Hegan Lane to East Avenue and from Highway 99 to the Sacramento River. It’s also streaming online at chico.ideafablabs.com/maker-radio-2.

IFL is also recruiting DJs (contact them at info@ideafablabs.com to make your pitch) and raising money for equipment upgrades. There’s a Fundly donation campaign set up at tinyurl.com/FabLabRadio and this Saturday (Nov. 23), at 9 p.m., there will be a launch party fundraiser at the lab. Tickets for the party are $15 in advance on the IFL website, $20 at the door, and performers include electronic DJs/producers Eye-re-Eyes and Simple Science, fire dancer Kula Light and many others.

• Strega Studios: Local sculptor/ceramicist Sienna Orlando-Lalaguna has moved her home ceramic studio into a semi-public space. Her new Strega Studios at 2163 Fair St., Ste. B, features a work space, a couple of artist studios and a shared exhibition space that will be open to the public once a month. This month’s open house is Saturday (Nov. 23), noon-6 p.m., and will feature works by Orlando-Lalaguna, Claire Fong, Night Moves and Ama Posey Art. There also will be blank ornaments available to purchase and glaze however you desire.

• Prisoner art: Blackbird is hosting an art exhibit unlike anything Chico normally gets to experience with its Prisoner Art group show composed of works contributed by the formerly and currently incarcerated. On display through Nov. 30.

• Tweed Ride: It’s fall. Time to bust out the penny-farthing, wrap some sandwiches in wax paper and put them and some Nesbitt’s Orange in your wicker basket and meet the gang of velocipedalers on the lawn in front of John and Annie Bidwell’s place Sunday (Nov. 24), at 10:30 a.m. Though it may be a little warm for wool (breathable fabrics in autumnal browns, oranges, etc., are probably acceptable tweed alternatives), the annual Tweed Ride is on. It will depart from the mansion at 11 a.m. and wind its way to Five-Mile in Bidwell Park for lunch before returning to town for after-ride drinks, and possibly some Christmas Previewing?