MEASURE U SPOTLIGHT: MONO ARTS COUNCIL
Mono Arts Council (MAC) is one of the oldest arts organizations in Mono County. We asked them to share some of the highlights, projects, and programs that have been keeping them busy these days. Executive Director Kristin Reese took some time to share these words with us. Thank you to Kristin and all of the staff and volunteers who make this organization such an asset to our community.
Mono Arts Council has been around in the community for over 50 years. We started as an informal group of artists looking for a way to showcase art and have an event to bring tourists to the area. This group eventually formed into the Mammoth Art Guild, which was the name we had when we finally incorporated into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 1992. We changed our name to Mono Council for the Arts in 2013 and then again to Mono Arts Council in 2015.
Our mission: Mono Arts Council fosters a lasting culture of creativity by collaborating with artists through education, advocacy, and programs.
We operate the Mono Arts Council Community Arts Center & Gallery, located next to the Access Mammoth Second Chance Thrift Store, where we sell art from over 60 local artists throughout the Eastern Sierra, as well as provide many programs for the community to engage with the arts through visual art, music, dance, and theater. We also provide arts education to all schools in Mono County, through programs such as Create With the Greats and our Crescendo Music Program.
While Mono Arts Council has been evolving since its inception, we have recently made some moves (some literal) to enhance what we offer for the community. After over 12 years in our location at the Minaret Village Shopping Center, in September of 2025, we opened doors at our new location in "The Plaza" at 501 Old Mammoth Road. With this move, we renamed our space the Community Arts Center & Gallery to emphasize our commitment to our community to provide a gathering place to regularly engage with the arts. This move has not only helped us enhance our programming, we have also had more visibility for our organization than ever before. We've been happy to host monthly open art studio evenings with our local artists, after-school, homeschool, summer camp programs, gallery receptions, art clubs for middle and high school students, student art shows, the Eastern Sierra Strummers Ukulele group, and so much more.
A few short weeks after we moved into our new location, we held our first ever plein air competition, Paint Mono County. We hosted 42 artists from around California to paint outside during our spectacular fall color season. The week included an Artist Meet & Greet at Distant Brewing, workshops by artists known for their work in the style of Plein Air, and a closing reception where awards were announced and art was sold. The first year was so inspiring we decided to host it again this year! Our second Paint Mono County had a 60% increase in attendees! We expanded the event to include more time to paint and more time for the art to hang and sell in our Community Arts Center & Gallery. We also had six workshops with plenty of options for people to learn from the best. Our attendees joined us from all over California, Nevada, and even Delaware!
Another benefit of our move was having a visible, street-front location that inspired us to act on an idea we've had for over a decade! This summer we launched the Old Mammoth Art Walk, a monthly celebration of our local businesses that support our local arts & culture. Each participating business offered discounts and perks for visiting their spaces during the walk and many contributed amazing prizes for the raffle we offered for completing the walk. We timed the "walks" to coincide with and support both the Sierra Summer Nights put on by the Town of Mammoth Lakes Parks & Recreation Dept. as well as Mammoth Lakes Recreation's own Mammoth Art Walk in the Village. The Old Mammoth Art Walk was a great success and we look forward to continuing and expanding this program.
Our flagship education program, Create With the Greats, provides visual arts instruction to every student in Mono County from grades TK - 8th grade. The program only recently expanded to TK - Transitional Kindergarten, as well as being taught in Spanish in the dual-immersion classes at Mammoth Elementary School. In no small part, due to our funding from Measure U, we have been able to keep this program as a stable source of art for our students. We are able to hire high-quality Teaching Artists for everything from lesson development to lab classes, and are well on our way to being able to offer this program once a month during the school year - the program started out with only 5 lessons per school year.
About Mammoth Lakes Recreation
Formed in 2014, Mammoth Lakes Recreation’s mission is to deliver cutting edge sustainable recreation, mobility, and arts & culture opportunities and infrastructure for the benefit of the community and natural environment of Mammoth Lakes. For more information, go to www.mammothlakesrecreation.org.