Squidfry 06.23.22: For Art's Sake

FOR ART’S SAKE… Squid has lately been making modern art, splashing paint around with all eight arms at once – think Jackson Pollock, times four. Squid started pondering whether it’s time to take this new hobby seriously and get studio space, so Squid checked in with the Arts Council for Monterey County. Until last year, the nonprofit ran studios for up to 20 artists in the American Tin Cannery. For a year, they’ve been looking for new much-needed studio space – and then finally found it, in The Independent building in Sand City. Besides the popular watering hole Post No Bills and high-priced apartments upstairs, it’s a great space that has been mostly collecting dust. So Squid was delighted to hear the Arts Council signed a lease for 3,700 square feet – smaller than its old digs, but nicer, says Executive Director Jacquie Atchison – to accommodate up to 15 artists. It will cost $122,400 for three years, in the city that’s staked its claim as a regional arts hub. They were just waiting for the landlord, Los Gatos-based Urban Atelier LLC, to complete tenant improvements with the hopes of moving in before Aug. 1, in time for the West End Celebration. All good.

That was until June 15, when Urban Atelier reps Gerald Lyles and Chris Orosco sent a letter to Atchison saying it’s all up in the air due to infighting.

Orosco says it’s a matter of money. “The deal is very far from break-even. My fiduciary obligation is to prevent that type of loss,” he says.

But don’t worry, he adds – the family will donate something to the Arts Council sometime. Maybe once they start collecting rent of more than zero?

LIGHTS, INACTION… Around the summer solstice, it’s hard to get Squidlets asleep by bedtime. In the winter, if they want to do anything fun, artificial light is required.

So it is that Squidlets share with many human kids a desire to get lights installed on high school athletic fields, so they can play past 4:45pm year-round. And so it was that the board of the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District last year approved lights at Monterey High School – to the chagrin of neighbors who prefer their skies dark.

The project has led to three lawsuits filed by a group called Taxpayers for MPUSD Accountability. The latest, filed June 7 against MPUSD and the Division of State Architect, alleges the state agency failed to ensure the local fire marshal had signed every draft of the plans, instead copy/pasting that critical signature.

A decision in an earlier suit is expected soon, after attorneys for the Taxpayers group and MPUSD hashed out the finer points in court on June 20. There was some discussion about whether the district had adequately planned for staging of construction equipment and fencing it off from passersby. “Common sense” was cited as one potential solution. Squid has another that might help: lights.