Read the full article by Hannah Ross with additional reporting by Keyshawn Davis and Sena Christian at Sacramento News & Review and at The Sacramento Observer
The Sacramento arts scene may be on the brink of transformation. Since a pandemic that had threatened to gut local arts scenes globally, the community has worked tirelessly first to survive, and then to rebrand, shift, change — to become the dynamic and inclusive creative space the city envisions for itself.
But the reformation is not without its growing pains.
Following the public call-out of Wide Open Walls over an ill-executed cultural project in Little Saigon, Verge Center for the Arts has come under scrutiny over the evictions of two resident artists from their studio spaces.
Those artists, Daniel Alejandro Trejo, who had leased a studio at Verge for about seven years, and Esther Marie Hall, who had a studio there for about two years, were notified of the evictions from Verge’s Studio Artist Project on March 15 via a letter from Verge board member and general counsel Phillip Cunningham that alleged Trejo and Hall “work(ed) internally to ruin [The Project] for everyone else.” The letter also noted that the evictions were to ensure “the safety of its staff and the good of its program.”
The two artists claim they had simply been asking questions about a grant awarded to the arts center. Verge disputes that those questions led to the evictions, but rather the evictions were the result of multiple complaints made by staff and other studio artists against Trejo and Hall, who, according to Verge, made threats to deface Verge property and dismantle security cameras on the premises. The alleged threats were captured by a camera in the loading dock at the back of the building, according to Verge.
But the claims around the evictions have since devolved into dueling narratives, accusations of racist and anti-queer behavior, claims of axes to grind, and a workplace violence restraining order against curator and art critic Faith J. McKinnie by Verge — leaving other local artists feeling like they have no choice but to pick sides. Several people have done so quietly, worried about how they will be viewed, which has created a chilling effect across the creative community. As one source who asked to remain anonymous described it: The local arts community is eating itself.