Pence Gallery $50,000 for 50 Years

Needs

The Pence Gallery is asking the community to support three important needs this Big Day of Giving 2026:

Facility Security $10,000: At the Pence Gallery, creating a safe and welcoming space is a top priority. With recent indoor thefts reported in Davis, an attempted theft in our Andresen Learning Center, and unauthorized entry into upstairs staff offices—where artwork, financial information, and personal belongings are kept—we know it’s time to strengthen our security.

This project will fund upgraded indoor and outdoor security lighting and add a security camera upstairs to monitor the Andresen Learning Center and nearby staff offices. Our current indoor emergency lighting is more than 20 years old, is energy-inefficient, and increasingly unreliable. During a recent power outage, the backup emergency lighting lasted only about 30 minutes, leaving rooms completely in the dark once the old emergency lights died. This makes visitors and staff especially vulnerable to injury during evening hours when the building is dark.

New energy-efficient LED emergency lighting will improve visibility inside the building, while also lowering energy costs. Updated emergency backup systems will provide longer-lasting light if power is lost, giving us greater peace of mind. Brighter external security lights in the front of the building will also increase security so that theft and vandalism is visible early on.

Adding a dedicated security camera upstairs will help deter theft and allow us to better monitor spaces that house valuable artwork, personal belongings, and sensitive materials. These upgrades are practical, proactive steps to protect our artwork, our staff, and the community space so many people enjoy.

Educational Programming $20,000: At Pence Gallery, we believe art should be something every child and family can experience — not something that should be limited by high program cost.

Our Art in Action family program has become a favorite monthly creative outlet for families. When we had to scale the program back to occurring quarterly, we immediately felt the public’s response. Thanks to strong demand, we were able to bring it back to a monthly program last year — and we’d love to keep it that way. Keeping fees at just $5 for members and $10 for non-members is important to us because we want families to be able to participate without hesitation. (Members participate for free!)

Our ArtSmart elementary school program is also seeing growing demand. Last year, 15 teachers who wanted their students to attend had to be turned away simply because we didn’t have enough classroom space. We would love to add more sessions, so more students can have this hands-on art experience.

At the same time, supply expenses for these two programs have increased by about one-third, so what used to cost $60 per class now costs closer to $80. We’re committed to not raising the student or child fee, even though neither program fully covers its costs. We understand that keeping the program reasonable is an important part of the decision that families have to make in coming.

We will also create a scholarship fund for schools that simply don’t have the budget to participate in ArtSmart. No student should miss out on art because of the lack of funding.

The need is clear: families want these programs, teachers are asking for them, and students benefit from them. Our goal is to keep Art in Action as a monthly program, expand ArtSmart to serve more students, and ensure both programs remain affordable and accessible for everyone.

Exhibition Funding $20,000: At Pence Gallery, we host 15+ exhibits each year, and while visitors see the finished show on the walls, there’s a lot that happens behind the scenes to make it all come together.

Exhibitions aren’t just about hanging artwork on a wall. They involve careful planning over 2-3 years by a team of staff: including a curator, marketing associate, education director, installer, and our designer. It takes a tremendous amount of skilled labor to make an exhibit look professional and well-done. Installation alone is costly — and many galleries shift those expenses onto artists. It’s common for artists to pay exhibition fees and to handle their own installation, marketing, and staffing the gallery.

We don't.

The Pence covers many of the costs of planning the exhibit, so artists don’t have to. Artists are already paying more and more for materials and studio space — adding exhibit fees on top of that can make showing their work simply impossible.

Because we take on these expenses, we’re able to support local and regional Northern California artists at all stages of their careers. For some, the Pence is their very first show — like Raquel Cox, a working artist who had her first exhibit with us, and Charlene Will, winner of the Pence’s 2025 Emerging Artist Award. For others, like our recent solo exhibits by Joseph Bellacera or Robert Ortbal, their exhibits are part of a long exhibition history of thirty-plus years.

Funding for our exhibitions ensures that artists can focus on creating — not on writing checks to show their work. Supporting our exhibits allows us to keep saying “yes” to artists without asking them to pay for the opportunity, or to schedule only shows with work that will likely sell. It allows us to continue supporting emerging and established artists alike, offering professional presentation and promotion without financial barriers. It ensures we can continue offering professional, thoughtfully curated exhibitions, while keeping the financial burden off the artists themselves.

When you support our exhibits, you’re directly supporting artists — and helping us keep these opportunities accessible and affordable for the creative community.