Read the full article by Gabriel Solis at RAM’S New Times Magazine
Javier “Javi” Plasencia is the newly appointed director of education at Crocker Art Museum. His role, which he took on in October, consists of overseeing the planning of more than 300 public programs.
We recently spoke with Plasencia about his work at Crocker Art Museum, increasing accessibility for the arts and what he wants and hopes to see from Crocker in the future.
Can you tell me about your organization and how it relates to Sacramento’s arts scene?
The Crocker Art Museum is an anchor arts institution here in Sacramento, been around since the latter part of the 19th century, and is the only AAM [American Alliance of Museums] accredited arts museum in the region. It’s really a cultural anchor of sorts. We have a fantastic permanent collection, a fantastic collection of ceramics, wonderful rotating exhibitions … just in terms of the number of exhibitions that we offer and our permanent collections, [and] there’s no other institution like us in the greater Sacramento region.
In addition to the exhibitions and the artwork, we have tons of public programming as well. So, hundreds of public programs that are offered through the museum. … We offer programs for a wide number of constituencies, everything from babies — we have a program called Baby Loves Art, where a bunch of strollers and mothers and fathers with their babies come to the museum and actually look at the artwork. … They’re guided by a facilitator to learn about questions or things that they can say to their baby while looking at art, while reading stories, that they can create those synapses and connections. We have Artful Tot and We Wednesday. Artful Tot is a program for the little kiddos. …