Have you ever visited the Crocker Art Museum after dark? Most nights, you’ll find locked doors and a dark museum. Thursday nights, however, you’ll find anything from a DJ, dancing and bar to film screenings and concerts. As part of Thursdays till 9, the Crocker will transform itself from 5 - 9 p.m. every Thursday. One of its new series is called Art Mix, which offers art enthusiasts, or not, a more exciting museum-going experience. For its second Art Mix, Crocker Manager Christian Adame brought in the music of DJ Rated R, the CORE Dance Collective, a screening of the 1964 vampire classic “The Last Man on Earth” and a photo booth station provided by Beatnik Studios for this week’s “Art in

Rarely will you be solicited for a used toilet paper roll, but perhaps you’ll hand one over for the sake of art. What else are you going to do with it? The third annual Crayons to Canvas Art Drive is accepting art supplies of all varieties this month as organizers work to supply the Stanford Home for Children’s new art therapy room. Begun in 2008 by the sibling duo of Sacramento artist Raphael Delgado and publicist Veronica Delgado, the drive provides resources for an art-based therapy approach for at-risk youth. Stanford Home Development and Marketing Manager Sarah Mentze said the art therapy room, which opened in June, works as a supplementary resource to therapy programs offered by S

‘Twas the first weekend in December and all through East Sacramento, five homes were decked with holiday decorations and filled with Christmas spirit. Local decorators hung stockings by the chimneys with care so thousands of visitors could enjoy Sacred Heart’s Holiday Home Tour. Now 37 years strong, the tour has witnessed custom homes in the Fab Forties district (38th to 46th streets, bordered by J Street and Folsom Boulevard) cover their doorways in wreaths and garlands, display Christmas trees in their living rooms, and illuminate their windows with the sparkle of ornaments and the flickering glow of candles for the benefit of Sacred Heart Parish School. Tour Chairperson Leslie Lopez s

For children who have been victims of abusive environments, a new outdoor classroom was built, with a performance stage, a mini “Delta Prince” boat-themed playground and a vegetable garden. Enormous pink-handled scissors were used to cut the ceremonial ribbon at the classroom revealing for Sacramento’s primary crisis intervention provider WEAVE on Tuesday. Pink balloons also brought color to the ceremony as cosmetics company Mary Kay gifted WEAVE’s Executive Director Beth Hassett with a $20,000 grant check from the Mary Kay Foundation for improvements to the shelter. WEAVE Director of Development Amber Stott said there are hopes to build new transitional housing units at the site, but f

Young poets from all over the world gathered in Los Angeles this year to compete at the Brave New Voices event. Among them were members of the arts-based literacy program SAYS (Sacramento Area Youth Speaks), who placed fifth in the youth poetry event – an international spoken-word contest televised on HBO. After observing both the peril and potential of the educational system, former Bay Area high school teacher Vajra Watson founded SAYS in partnership with the UC Davis School of Education, and the Twin Rivers, Sacramento City and Elk Grove UnifiedSchool districts, the Sacramento Office of Youth Development and the Sierra Health Foundation in January 2009. SAYS and Watson now advocate fo