Crocker Art Museum’s Javier Plasencia on the benefits of arts education and accessibility in Sacramento

Javier “Javi” Plasencia is the newly appointed director of education at Crocker Art Museum. His role, which he took on in October, consists of overseeing the planning of more than 300 public programs.

We recently spoke with Plasencia about his work at Crocker Art Museum, increasing accessibility for the arts and what he wants and hopes to see from Crocker in the future.

Can you tell me about your organization and how it relates to Sacramento’s arts scene?

The Crocker Art Museum is an anchor arts institution here in Sacramento, been around since the latter part of the 19th century, and is the only AAM [American Alliance of Museums] accredited arts museum in the region. It’s really a cultural anchor of sorts. We have a fantastic permanent collection, a fantastic collection of ceramics, wonderful rotating exhibitions … just in terms of the number of exhibitions that we offer and our permanent collections, [and] there’s no other institution like us in the greater Sacramento region.

In addition to the exhibitions and the artwork, we have tons of public programming as well. So, hundreds of public programs that are offered through the museum. … We offer programs for a wide number of constituencies, everything from babies — we have a program called Baby Loves Art, where a bunch of strollers and mothers and fathers with their babies come to the museum and actually look at the artwork. … They’re guided by a facilitator to learn about questions or things that they can say to their baby while looking at art, while reading stories, that they can create those synapses and connections. We have Artful Tot and We Wednesday. Artful Tot is a program for the little kiddos. …

We have other fun events every Thursday night. We stay open until nine. On the second Thursday of the month, we have a program called Art Mix, which is a big party that happens [for ages] 21 plus here at the museum. It’s themed every single month, so people dress up, they have a blast. There’s bands, there’s food, there’s bars and it’s a really great time for everyone. We have a music series as well on Thursday nights, on the fourth Thursday of the month. Right now, we’re in our Global Rhythms series … It features Latino, Latina, Latinx musicians.

Those are some of the programs that are run through the education department. So I help facilitate and oversee the planning, the ideation, execution and the evaluation of those programs to make sure that we are serving our community, that we’re providing a space for folks to feel welcome, and to really integrate the museum into the cultural life of the city.

What do you see as the major factors inhibiting the growth of our local art scene?

I’m born and raised in Sacramento. I’ve been working in San Francisco for the last four years, so I’m still getting tapped into the cultural scene here, but I’m meeting with folks every week to ingratiate myself into the cultural scene here. I think in terms of inhibitors to growth, I think Sacramento is actually doing a good job. I think we can always do better. We can always increase our offerings and welcome new ideas and new innovation, and always bring in additional voices, especially from folks who’ve been underrepresented or not heard in the past, bringing them into the fold. …

Part of what my job is, [is] to create programming and to work with others in the museum to make sure that they see this as a space that they can come to. So, we try to get out into the community. We provide free family passes to folks. We go out to schools. We have something called the Art Arc, which goes out to public schools in the area, and it’s its own mini museum. … We work with a school to have classrooms come in, one at a time, and then every student who goes on that art is given a free family pass to them to come in, and they can make those connections. They can say, “OK, I’ve been on the Art Arc, I’ve seen this work of art,” they can bring their family at a later date to come to the museum and say, like, “Hey, Mom, Dad. Look, I saw this in the Art Arc.” They feel empowered and excited to be here.

I think [the Crocker does] a very good job of reaching out and hitting a lot of different constituencies and demographics, but I’d like to see some more [of] that. So, how can we be more welcoming to those folks with disabilities, whether seen or unseen? How can we more proactively be thinking about folks with neurodivergencies, folks who are blind or low vision, folks who are deaf or hard of hearing? What are ways in which we can create a welcoming and safe environment for them and let them know that the museum is just as much theirs as it is anyone else’s? I’d also like to see some cross pollination between the arts and other fields as well too. So, you know, maybe partnerships with chefs or kitchens or things like that, to really get you thinking about art in an interdisciplinary way.

Prop 28 was planned in 2022 to provide more funding for arts and public education. Do you think it’s made a difference?

I do. We’re fielding a lot of questions from schools and educators who are wanting to use their funds, and I think they instinctively and correctly see us as a place where they can, where those resources can be used. … We have students coming in for print [workshops]. So they’ll come in and they will be given a workshop on print making, and then they’ll tour the museum afterwards. We have teacher workshops as well. … So that’s something else that we’re working on: How can we be creative and [help] and [be] a resource for schools as they think about utilizing this funding?

What do you see as the most promising solutions to increasing accessibility to the arts?

Accessibility is something that I’m particularly passionate about within the arts. We’re actually bringing in — I’ve had him come to the museum once — his name is Stanley Yarnell, and he calls himself the sheriff of this group called the Blind Posse, and it is a group of folks who advocate for blind and low-vision accessibility within the museum. We’re currently working on a plan to bring in more touch tours, tactile tours, as well as more highly descriptive tours.

What more can you tell me about these solutions and why they offer the most potential to solve the problem?

I think every day is a new opportunity to sort of see, OK, who aren’t we getting into the museum, what communities aren’t we serving? And, how do we address that? I think when folks think of the Crocker and of our commitment to Sacramento, they might just see it as being the grid. But no, we go out into Natomas. We’ve [gone out] to South Sac. We have partnerships with those communities traditionally as well. … We’re addressing a new generation of folks who have different expectations of museums and their roles in society, and we’ll need to meet those. Every day … is a new day to learn, to grow, to figure out what are the needs of this newer generation? What do they want from the museum?

What evidence exists to show the effectiveness of these solutions?

I think we are bringing in a wide array of folks into the museum. And I think COVID was tough for everyone, and our numbers didn’t immediately bounce back, but we’ve been doing a very good job of bringing folks back to the museum. Helping them see this space as a space that they can come to as a third space. You have home, you have work and what are these other spaces that you can go to that serve community needs? I like to see us as that sort of third space for people.

What limitations around these solutions exist?

If we could do absolutely everything and provide free admission for everyone, we would. But we are a museum, and we have a bottom line, and we do need to make sure that we’re making wise financial decisions as well. We’re working to get grant money. … We’re working to fund all of these initiatives so that we can continue to be community oriented, while also being financially savvy in an environment that’s not necessarily the most hospitable to the arts at the moment.