Wednesday, December 1, 2010

On The Verge of Something Truly - Locally! - Amazing.

The Verge Gallery and Studio Space
625 S St., Sacramento, CA 95814
916-448-2985
www.vergegallery.com

I know we like to imagine that we live in a town where other people will foot the bill for our cultured and stylish good times. But the harsh reality is that Sacramento is not drowning in a plethora of "cool" or independently wealthy retail arts and entertainment outlets. Compared to San Francisco, Portland, New York, or Chicago, it's pretty meager - yet wonderful - indie joints we have here in The City of Dutch Elm Disease. We don't have much, but what we do have we're grateful for. Ya know?

While it's perfectly natural and ordinary for small businesses to open and eventually close in cities and towns all across the the United States, in Sacramento, when a specialty business like, say, Cinemania - a video rental shop that specialized in underground and B-movies - closes up shop, it's rarely replaced with something that's equal-to or better-than. To keep such enterprises afloat and thriving, it's taken Sacramenta's who appreciate the finer, more underground quality aspects of life a while to realize that if we what cool things like record shops, clothing boutiques, coffee houses, restaurants, bike shops, tattoo parlors, etc. to survive in this town, we, as a community, need to actually support these places by patronizing them on a regular basis.

Such is the case with The Verge, an ambitious arts outlet that brings arts and entertainment culture from around the globe to Sacramento. Besides such past artwork offerings from the likes of Patricia Gillespie, Stephen Kaltenbach, Daniel Johnston (yes, that Daniel Johnston), The Verge hosts exhibition space for dance troops and the occasional touring band, as well as providing studio spaces for local artists.

Recently, The Verge has moved into it's newer, bigger  and better digs, which promises to provide even more arts, culture and elbow room than their previous space. Of course, being a business that specializes in the arts, the cash-flow for this endeavor is almost non-existent. And this is where you come in...

The Verge has a KickStarter page which allows those of you who value visual art as intrinsic and valuable to the fabric of our community to donate whatever dollar amount you place on this local and vital arts complex. As of this writing, The Verge has raised $4,265 towards their $6,000 goal (a seriously meager amount considering The Verge provides the same thought-provoking and engaging visual arts that in much larger cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York would require much, much more). And if you doubt the serious contribution that the arts provide to a city, Try imaging a Sacramento that consisted ONLY of buildings in the bland and imagination-free beige color scheme some of our sleeper denizens prefer. (((Shudder!)))

Again, that link to contribute funding to The Verge can be found right here.

Don't allow The Verge to fall by the wayside. The last thing anyone want is to have yet another cool outlet for creativity go belly-up (funny how the same people who bemoan athe lack of "anything to do" in Sacramento are also the same people who take such enterprises for granted when they are around by not supporting such endeavors in the first place). Don't be that person! Support The Verge! Donate money to their KickStarter page! Feel good about yourself for doing so!

And, oh yeah: enjoy the art!

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