Quick Take
With a new leader in Miriam Anton and a new home right in the middle of downtown, Watsonville's Pajaro Valley Arts is poised for an even more prominent role in South County's cultural life.
For close to four decades now, the epicenter of Watsonville’s visual arts culture has been a buttery yellow Victorian bungalow, designed by fabled California architect William Weeks and built during the McKinley administration.
But that’s about to change.
The beautiful old Lamborn House on Sudden Street in downtown Watsonville is the home of the Pajaro Valley Gallery, the public face of the nonprofit Pajaro Valley Arts (PVA). But in 2022, PVA purchased the historic Porter Building, also designed by Weeks, and built three years after the Lamborn House, in 1903.
The move from the Lamborn to the Porter is only a few blocks, but those few blocks make an enormous difference, at least symbolically. While the current gallery exists in a residential neighborhood, just on the edge of Watsonville’s downtown business district, the Porter sits right in the middle of an area that includes the Watsonville Plaza, the public library, the post office and most of Watsonville’s city government offices. Figuratively and literally, the arts are now at the center of Watsonville.
What’s more, PVA has a new leader. Miriam Anton, a resident of Aptos with an education in art history and experience as a curator and arts administrator, was named as PVA’s executive director earlier this year.
With a new home and new leader, PVA is expected to assume an even more prominent role in the cultural life of South County, but it might take a while.
PVA has already presented a hugely popular show at the new Porter Building gallery. “More Than Cars: Celebrating Lowrider Culture” opened in March and, in partnership with the Watsonville Film Festival, quickly became one of the biggest arts events in town in years.
But the Porter needs extensive renovations, and that will require extensive fundraising. Which means the center of gravity at PVA will continue to be the charming old Victorian across town.
“We’ve been in the quiet phase of our fundraising so far,” said Anton. “But we’re having our big public-facing launch Sept. 28, a members-only party to celebrate our 40th anniversary.”
The plan for the two-story, 12,000-square-foot building is to create a joint gallery and performing space on the ground floor and artist studios, rental rooms and offices on the second floor.
Ideally, she said, PVA is looking to raise between $3 and $4 million for the renovations: “We’re working on a two- to five-year plan. We’ve got the designs for the building, we’ve worked with an architect, so right now we’re working to get our building permits for the renovation.”
The Porter has had several uses over the years, among them a post office, a dentist’s office and a school. The bottom floor is subdivided into a number of rooms, but the new design, said Anton, will be much more open, allowing it flexibility as an exhibition space and even a venue for performing artists, be it in live music, comedy or theater.
“The idea is to make it a central arts hub and a hub of activity for the community,” she said. “We see it [also] as a tourist destination. So folks who are headed up from Monterey to Santa Cruz or to [San Francisco] can easily stop by and check out what’s going on.”
Continuing its partnerships with organizations such as the Watsonville Film Festival and Pajaro Valley Unified School District, PVA also plans to hold more workshops and classes in the creative arts at the new site.
The renovations mean that Sudden Street will continue to operate as PVA’s primary site for public engagement, with new shows and exhibitions, and the continuation of longstanding PVA traditional programming such as “Mi Casa Es Tu Casa,” the annual show inspired by the observance of Dia de Los Muertos in the fall.
The timeline for the full transfer of focus from the Sudden Street house to the Porter is still unclear, but Anton warned it could take up to five years.
The renovation of the Porter Building is part of rapidly evolving cultural changes taking place on Main Street and in downtown Watsonville generally. More prominent programming from such presenters as the Watsonville Film Festival, and, to take one example, a new arts festival to begin in September called Semana Artesanal, suggest that downtown is positioning itself to make fine arts a bigger draw to the area. Anton said that PVA wants to be a leader in that renaissance.
“In a sense, we’re not doing anything new,” she said. “We’re just scaling up.”
PVA’s most recent exhibition, “Identity: Asian American Pacific Islander” is at the PVA Gallery, 37 Sudden St. in Watsonville, through Sept. 22.