If you attended Visions of Change at the Holland Project last April, you may have stumbled across a table with Ren Frick and Ricardo Rubalcaba Paredes behind it. The two artists were debuting their project for the first time– the Reno Community Art Closet.
Ren had been pondering the idea for a community art closet for a few years, after encountering a similar project in Sacramento. Eventually Ren asked Ricardo if they would help bring the idea to life.
“We were working really really late, painting signs the night before (Visions of Change),” Ren remembers. “We really hit it off. I feel like we have a lot of very similar interests, and very similar values. And I was like, ‘do you want to run with the art closet with me?’” Ricardo hopped on board, and the pair worked together to get RCAC up and running.
At the Visions of Change event, Ren and Ricardo provided a poster board for folks to come and share their own ideas for what the art closet might look like. This was intentional– one of their uncompromisable goals was that the art closet be shaped by the community itself.
Although RCAC was first conceived as a project for a class at UNR, the art closet is not affiliated with the university at all. “The institution is very extractive. When the institution invites the community to come in, it's not a mutually beneficial relationship,” says Ricardo. “There's no community that's being fostered. And I think that's what the intent was (with the art closet). We want to foster community.”
At 22 years old, Ricardo has spent much of their adult life navigating housing instability. “(Reno has) major problems with lack of affordable housing,” Ricardo points out. “So another intent with the community art closet was to bring things which aren't readily accessible, or easily accessible…and make those things affordable to artists who may be having a difficult time.”
Community members can access art supply drop boxes at two different locations in Reno: The Radical Cat at 1717 S Wells St (the box can be found right outside the front door) as well as Coyote Supply at 30 Mary St Unit #11 (walk inside the brick building, up the stairs and to the left). In under a year, Reno Community Art Closet has become a valuable resource to local artists. Especially those who are unable to purchase new, usually expensive, art supplies.
The drop boxes have been a great success, but Ren and Ricardo are not stopping there. RCAC is building an online network of artists with all kinds of skill sets. So if a community member wants to try something new, they have the chance to get connected with experienced artists through the community art closet network.
RCAC will also be hosting a workshop series at the downtown Reno public library in March, April, and May, on the second Sunday of each month. “We're thinking about access to creativity, access to art making, and knowledge about art making,” says Ren. “We're really trying to make things as tangible as we can.”
Community members can register for the workshops through the Washoe County Library’s events calendar, with registration for the first workshop opening on February 25th. Workshop attendees will be sent home with their own art kits and instructional zines, in order to empower artists to keep creating on their own time.
With everything that RCAC has already provided the community in such a short time, Ren and Ricardo recently started imagining a brick and mortar location– a store full of free art supplies and books for Renoites to access.
For now, though, they are continuing to support local artists, spread art knowledge and skills as far as they can reach, and encourage everyone to pick up a pen or a paintbrush. “You can be an artist,” Ricardo says. “It's not something that's unfathomable or inaccessible. You just gotta find that community.”