“Growing: Art, Life, and Cannabis in Mendocino County”

Cannabis Art Exhibit Opens June 2 at Ukiah Depot

The Arts Council of Mendocino County will present “Growing: Art, Life, and Cannabis in Mendocino County,” an exhibit by local artists on the subject of cannabis in Mendocino County. This exhibit was inspired in equal parts by “Altered State: Cannabis in California,” an award-winning exhibit presented by the Oakland Museum of California in 2016—the year the people of California voted to end prohibition of the recreational use of cannabis—and by Nina Simon’s keynote presentation on the Art of Relevance at the 2016 California Arts Council’s “Confluence Conference.”

In response to last year’s cannabis vote, and seeing a new opportunity to engage with residents of the county on a topic that has previously been taboo and/or self-censored, the Arts Council of Mendocino County invited county artists to consider the role of cannabis in local life and culture through the lens of art, and to express their own experiences with it.

The contents of the exhibit range from work made with cannabis-pulp paper to figurative, landscape, and documentary work. Like the Oakland Museum exhibit, the exhibit in Ukiah will offer a “Cannabis Confessional”—a booth where visitors to the exhibit can anonymously write their own experiences with cannabis and read about those of others.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, June 2 from 5–8 pm at 309 East Perkins Street in Ukiah, as part of the ongoing First Friday open-gallery series.