THERE ARE DOZENS OF ARTS NONPROFITS ACTIVE IN MONTEREY COUNTY. California is one of the states where a network of arts organizations is dense, as it is in places like New York, Tennessee and Rhode Island – the second because of Nashville, the third because of the Rhode Island School of Design.

In 2021, California had the highest number of jobs in the arts nationwide. That means Monterey County communities are lucky, even if, in 2024, the American government spent only $6 on the arts per capita, when Germany spent $89.

Art seems to be an afterthought in schools in Gonzales or Bradley. “Schools don’t even offer basic drawing classes,” says José Ortiz, the artistic director and lead instructor at Hijos Del Sol, an arts nonprofit in Salinas.

Not every public school district is lacking for arts programming. At Carmel High School, for example, students enjoy digital art classes as well as a dedicated performing arts center. But even though the arts are the focus of Carmel Unified School District, according to teacher Holly Lederle, who chairs the visual and performing arts department, there’s still need for more arts, especially in the elementary and middle schools. “We are the only district left that offers dance,” Lederle says.

Despite its relatively robust arts programming, CUSD, like other school districts, also relies on arts nonprofits, working closely with the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts and Center for Photographic Art, both Carmel-based. Where there is a gap in arts funding and programming at public schools, nonprofits step in to help fill the gap.

At Palenke Arts in Seaside, demand is high. “We have waiting lists for classes,” Executive Director Juan Sánchez says.

In other words, there’s an evident need for more exposure to broadly understood arts, including visual arts, performance, dance, cultural events and regional celebrations.

This ecosystem of arts organizations operates under the conviction that art changes lives and whole communities, building neighborhood safety and connections between all parts of our large, economically and racially diverse county.

Many of the current staff at arts nonprofits formed this belief based on their own personal journeys. They experienced the transformation firsthand, like Ortiz, who can’t imagine what his life would be without drawing. Arts make young people busy with the joy of being an animal who can consciously create beauty, mimicking nature that is beautiful, but is not aware of itself. Beauty can make humans less angry and provide a channel for self-expression other than violence and depression. It can build a space where loners can make friends and newcomers can integrate into the community, even if they come from very different cultures.

It’s a lot to achieve. Above this ever-hungry nonprofit artscape watches the Arts Council for Monterey County (Arts4MC), which receives its funds not just from private donations, but also the County of Monterey and the California Arts Council, its mirror institution on the state level. Arts4MC distributes funds directly to local artists and arts organizations. Each arts organization also fundraises to support its mission, including 41 that are included – alongside 206 local nonprofits working in a variety of fields in Monterey County – in Monterey County Gives!, an initiative of Monterey County Weekly in partnership with the Community Foundation for Monterey County and the Monterey Peninsula Foundation. (MCGives! launches Nov. 14 and runs through Dec. 31.)

Each of these organizations has stories to tell about changing lives, and just three examples follow below: Palenke Arts in Seaside, Hijos Del Sol and Sol Treasures in King City, which casts the light of arts around a vast South Monterey County, to borrow the metaphor from its Executive Director Jeff Hinderscheid.

In the names of two of these nonprofits, sun is invoked. Even if some of their physical spaces are tucked away, in a physical sense, or their front doors are in the back of unassuming buildings, they are shining a light.

But those buildings become magically spacious once you are inside, like hobbit holes, opening to a labyrinth of small, medium and big rooms. Child artists raise their eyes from above their projects and stare at new people coming in, proud that they can run through those labyrinths with no problem. Their faces are covered with paint and their hands are covered with clay.

SO MANY PENCILS IN SO MANY COLORS. All of them sharpened and ready to use. The mind is filling with juices of imagination, troubles are gone and a sense of hope is awakened. That’s what one sees and feels when walking through Sol Treasures on King City’s Broadway Street. The pencils have company in plenty of multi-colored paper, scissors and paintbrushes. In the Salinas Valley, it seems all artistic paths cross through Sol Treasures.

At the front of the building there is a gallery that hosts ever-changing exhibits. It is home for local artists, such as landscape painter Katrina Pura, who lives 30 minutes south, in San Ardo.

Moving on, one can hear a piano lesson in progress or see a couple of kids with their grandmother, all three busy with crayons. A room might be occupied by a visiting artist who runs a class, for example multimedia artist Paul Richmond, who teaches bold, colorful painting. You can leave for a couple of hours while your toddler is busy working with cotton balls.

The backyard belongs to Sol Treasures, too. That’s where a backyard music series takes place from May to October. Under the stars, one can listen to regional bands, such as Paradise Road, a band hailing from northern San Luis Obispo.

“It was meant to be,” says artist Sonia Chapa, one of the founders of Sol Treasures in 2008, next to textile artist Barbara Pekema and artist Bruce Graham. They formed a board, started a gallery and a gift shop. In 2010, Pekema recruited actor Jeff Hinderscheid, a King City native, to the organization. He’s been executive director since 2021.

Hinderscheid added theater arts to the pile, working with King City High School’s Robert Stanton Theater, a beautiful art deco building with an impressive auditorium. Hinderscheid’s most exquisite show to date was Fiddler on the Roof in May 2024. They just started auditions for Something Rotten. Schools come to Sol Treasures for visual art exhibits and to the Stanton Center for performances.

In fact, the Sol Treasures’ building cannot contain all of its activities, starting with artists’ visits at schools to teach, including Chapa. One of the most important annual events is Día de los Muertos, when fun spills downtown, starting with a parade that leads to the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds. From dozens and dozens of stalls, one can buy fresh roasted chickpeas and churros. Children are everywhere, but also solemn men in cowboy hats, old and young, standing in groups. The women are on stage running the Katrina show and contest.

“People don’t realize the amount of talent in this part of the county,” says Jude Yriarte, Sol Treasures’ grant manager.

Hinderscheid wants to combat the effect of technology on kids. He believes that art builds confidence, forces face-to-face interaction and builds communication skills. He also knows that technology is not going anywhere and that’s why Sol Treasures this year launched a podcast titled Offline Expression: The Teen Revolution. The show is hosted by Hinderscheid, who interviews local officials and advises teens on how to use their phones – one need not be an artist to listen to and appreciate it.

“Arts have to be accessible in Spanish-speaking agricultural communities, [which are] so marginalized,” he says. For Sol Treasures, that includes small, rural communities like Bradley and San Lucas in South County.

Students exposed to arts perform better academically and, Hinderscheid argues, they become better humans with a better future. An arts action fund, American for the Arts, claims that students who take four years of arts and music classes while in high school score about 100 points better on their SATs.

But King City is all about sports and agriculture, leaving Sol Treasures a cultural gap to fill.

King City’s City Manager Steve Adams says Sol Treasures is a key partner that works closely with the city’s public art program. “They are critical,” Adams says, referring first and foremost to the presence of Sol Treasures in schools.

But “politically, even those who love the arts don’t have the time or ability to help financially,” Hinderscheid says. “The Arts Council is in bad shape now.” That’s because the state budget cut $5 million compared to 2023, making the local nonprofit’s grantmaking budget this year $19 million.

That kind of budget cycle leaves organizations hustling for funds, in addition to sharing a love of art.

HIJOS DEL SOL’S SLOGAN IS “ARTS FOR YOUTH,” but the organization serves more than youth – community involvement is important.

As the door opens from the outside, 20-year-old Pepe Nolasco raises his smile from above a little boy’s project. They both have deliciously dirty hands. Nolasco has dark hair, glasses and is wearing a warm sweater. He moved from the coast of Mexico to Salinas when he was a child. Soon, he walked into Hijos Del Sol and was intrigued because he liked drawing cartoons.

“There is better access to art tools in the U.S.,” he says, giving an example of why it’s better to be a young artist in America than in Mexico.

He is an Hijos Del Sol alumnus and a current employee, and often the one who goes to local schools to give drawing classes.

“We are artists, not just teachers,” says Ortiz, the Hijos Del Sol founder. “Arts have been misunderstood for many years. It is as important as sports. We also need a field to play.”

Ortiz is concerned about arts, or a lack thereof, in schools. Where is the theater? he asks. Where are the spaces where one can get messy with ink and paint, or get loud while playing an electric guitar?

For all of those things, children, teens and adults can come to Hijos Del Sol. They also come to practice basic drawing, paint on glass, pretty much to work in any kind of medium, looking for hidden artistic potential. It’s a mixed-media world and definitely not a classroom setting. You can work anywhere, alone in the corner or right next to other artists. It’s more like a “here you are, here are the tools, create something” type of situation. There are smaller rooms but also the large, main workshop is where young people work with paper mache, ceramics, clay and masks. Everybody works on their project – families, multi-age, 4 years and up. Parents can stay here alongside children, or the Hijos Del Sol team will look after them.

Like Nolasco, Ortiz also comes from Mexico, but in his case access to arts was even more decisive in his life journey, because it took him from the streets. He thinks about creativity as an ability to survive.

When he arrived in South Monterey County at age 9, he worked the fields. When he left home, he found himself on the street, first living the life of a starving artist. Eventually he went to school and started teaching art and opening studio spaces in Salinas, thanks to the kindness of city and school officials, he says.

Formerly with another arts nonprofit in Salinas, the Alisal Center for the Fine Arts, Ortiz saw the demand for programs and in 2011, he opened Hijos Del Sol. Funding comes from Arts4MC, private sponsors and companies; there is also major support from the Salinas Inclusive Economic Development Initiative, funded by the Irvine Foundation.

“We need to show ourselves more,” Ortiz says about Hijos Del Sol, hoping for more visibility for his organization.

“It’s kind of like a family,” Ortiz says of his small staff. There’s an executive director, a programs director and three art instructors who teach in schools. Ortiz oversees the arts and curates exhibits and observes how young artists grow.

“Children are full people,” Ortiz says. “They are born with an organic ability to design and build. When they need assistance, we are here to help.”

“WELCOME,” SAYS PALENKE ARTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR and founder Juan L. Sánchez, beaming in the doorway. He is eager to extend an invitation to participate or to attend a concert, with such enthusiasm that it’s hard to say no. He also makes people believe they should aim big.

Palenke Arts, a multicultural arts organization in Seaside founded in 2015, offers 25 different classes each week – such as Latin jazz, ballet folkrórico, hip-hop dance, visual arts and a Spanish book club. Many are multi-age classes by design.

Spanish-born Sánchez, tall and oval-faced, is standing in the newly-opened Teen Arts Center, a building that was formerly an elementary school on Elm Avenue and was leased by the Salvation Army to Palenke Arts last April. This is where the Teen Arts Center and the administrative offices of Palenke Arts are now located. There’s a dedicated “loud room” for music and dance, a digital arts studio, a meeting space for teens to socialize, and even a kitchenette that will be used for cooking classes in the new year. Teens and younger students are in separate spaces to encourage communication with peers. And after all, it’s not possible to immediately clean after a painting to make space for a hip-hop dance class – there’s a dedicated “loud room” for music. In this new location, Palenke also has outdoor space too.

The original location, still in use, is about a mile away, in a repurposed locker room inside Martin Luther King Jr. School of the Arts on Broadway, where concerts and most of the classes for younger children and adults take place. Yet neither location, the original or the new one, presents itself obviously to the public as an arts destination from the outside.

Sánchez speaks boldly about his plan for Palenke Arts and the hope of a “forever home,” a dedicated arts venue in Seaside, which received a $1 million grant from the State of California thanks to advocacy by State Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz. (Palenke is currently negotiating with the City of Seaside the terms of a ground lease to build this future home in a city-owned parcel, Sánchez adds.)

The building Palenke wants to construct will allow expansion of its visual arts, music, dance and digital arts programs. “We are at capacity,” Sánchez says, explaining the need. “We don’t want to turn people away.

“Our vision is not just to provide classes but also to present festivals and concerts, bring the community together, and uplift the voices and the culture of people that are often ignored by the media.” That is why, in addition to new classroom studios, they are planning to feature a cafe, a community arts room and a 300-seat auditorium with a dance floor.

Sánchez talks passionately about the need for such safe spaces in a world that can be pretty hostile. “Many in our community feel left out and isolated. We need to create spaces where we can celebrate each other’s cultures and build a joint sense of belonging.”

Sasha Zariñana, a Seaside High School junior, was in middle school when she first started attending after school programs. Then she noticed that other students were also learning arts somewhere else. That place was Palenke, which means a “palisade” in Spanish, but also “an arena,” or “a platform”. It has definitely been a platform for her. Zariñana started with a visual arts class every Wednesday, then gradually became more and more interested in hip-hop dance. “I’m an outgoing kid,” she says. “Palenke made me confident. There’s no judgment here.” Zariñana is currently on the board of the organization.

Palenke has 14 teaching artists and five full-time employees. The organization supports itself (and those teachers, who all get paid) primarily with grants from various foundations, the City of Seaside, sponsorships – and also donations through Monterey County Gives!

“In today’s culture it feels like we have thrown ourselves into our own digital bubbles,” Sánchez says. “Palenke brings the community together in times when society needs it more than ever. We want to transform our community into a place where everyone feels seen, valued and welcomed through the healing power of the arts. No matter who you are, you are not a stranger.”

MONTEREY COUNTY GIVES! runs from Nov. 14-Dec. 31. Learn more about Hijos Del Sol, Palenke Arts and Sol Treasures – plus 203 other local nonprofits – and donate at mcgives.com, or refer to the glossy insert in this week’s issue.