Pat Macias commemorates the life and

Reed applegate: man about town

In 2009, a group of art and community members were approached to discuss the use of a beautiful (but vacant) 1927 classical revival building on the Esplanade in Chico that had been the home to Butte County Veterans for many years. It sat empty for 12 years and the owner, Butte County, was looking for fresh ideas for its use and ways to restore it to a vibrant life. After meetings with neighbors, art appreciators, and interested people in the community, the idea of an art museum began to emerge.

As then director of the 1078 Gallery, I met many collectors, artists, and art enthusiasts. One that stood out to me was Reed Applegate who quietly attended receptions and quite often purchased art. One day in 2010, after a long conversation over Starbucks coffee, Reed and I hit upon the idea of using the vacant Veterans Hall as an art museum that could highlight the work of Northern California artists and provide the opportunity to display a portion of Reed’s collection. This beautiful, stately building on the Esplanade seemed to be an ideal location. Thus began the journey of a future monca and Reed Applegate.

It is obvious that Reed embodied the traits that are important to be an art collector and art enthusiast. He had the eye for the unusual. He understood the process of creating art and appreciated the creation of beauty. Through conversations with him, one could see his desire to follow the careers of the various artists represented in his collection of Northern California art. And, most of all, he had a passion and a desire to share his art with others.

These are the traits that encompassed Reed’s life-long passion to collect art and share it with the community. Most notably, he purchased art that had been produced by Northern California artists beginning with his peers and art instructors at Chico State University and branching out further to the north, south, east and west in California. Among the work he collected was the art of Janet Turner, Peter Voulkos, Wayne Thiebaud, David Park, Nathan Olivera, David Gilhooly, Roy DeForest and many, many Chico-area artists.

My first memories of meeting Reed were at various art openings from the 1078 Gallery, the Chico Art Center and the Turner Print Museum, where I began to understand how eager and passionate he was about art in almost every medium. He particularly liked the print medium but was also excited about painting, photography, and sculpture. He had an eye for what was strong in an artist’s portfolio, and he made sure to collect the best pieces.

Reed was born and raised in Chico and continued to live in the same house he grew up in. My impressions of him were his being comfortable in the everyday experiences that led him on his journey of who he became. Having lived in Chico all his life, Reed was a determined city walker who daily stopped in to greet the owners of stores and local galleries, have coffee at Starbucks, do research at Meriam Library, and attend and support artists and art venues during receptions and art walks. He became familiar with the student interns at the University Gallery who knew him by name, and I am sure learned from his knowledge of collecting. His favorite downtown events were Slice of Chico, Christmas Preview, and the Harvest Sidewalk Sale. He lived a simple life so he could pursue his passion for collecting. The things important in his life were his Chico art friends and his personal “art friends” in his collection. He looked forward every year to hosting a summer potluck in his backyard for other collectors, artists, and art lovers. His life was filled with the arts as he also was an avid North State Symphony patron, a wonderful pianist in his own right, and loved to attend the Chico Ballet performances.

In the early stages of creating a Chico art museum, a board of directors was formed. Reed was on the initial founding board during which he participated in the development of the mission statement and the premise that the museum would focus exclusively on art created by artists of Northern California. In 2014, with a generous grant from The Discovery Shoppe, Trudy Duisenberg directed and produced a film on The Legacy Artists that included Ann Pierce, Claudia Steel, Richard Hornaday and Sal Casa. This film was narrated by Reed, and it premiered at the Chico Women’s Club in 2014 to a full house. monca, Reed generously gifted a part of his extensive art collection of Northern California art to the museum as its signature gift plus a large donation to begin this dream of an art museum in Chico. With this gift of art, over 5,000 students in Chico and surrounding area schools have had the experience of learning with “real art” from a museum. Similarly, senior centers, science fairs and city-wide art events including the City Hall have been exposed to wonderful Northern California artists from monca’s permanent collection. In 2014, the museum was awarded the Mayor’s Award for Achievement in the Arts, recognizing both the museum and Reed’s contributions. Since 2018, the museum is honored to have been voted by members of the community as “Best Museum.”

Converting the Veterans Memorial Hall to a museum involved considerable oversight by the members of the board. Over the years, from 2012 in Downtown Chico pop-up locations, a three-month exhibition at the Shasta County Arts Council in Redding, to when the doors were opened in the Veterans Memorial Hall in 2017, most early exhibitions included artwork from Reed’s gift to the permanent collection. As the museum administration considers the future of monca, plans for its expansion will allow Reed Applegate’s gift to be viewed by an even wider audience. A plan is underway to increase the exhibition space of the museum to house a more prominent and permanent area for the slowly growing museum collection.

We invite you to join the Chico art community by walking in Reed’s shoes for a Memorial Reed Applegate Art Crawl on the evening of Friday, October 14 from 5-8pm. The crawl will start at the 1078 Gallery on Park Avenue, moving on to the Chico Art Center on Cherry Street, and the Turner Print Museum on the CSU campus, then concluding the evening on the Esplanade at monca where there will be a memorial video of Reed, an exhibition of work from his collection, and a memorial wall on which visitors can leave notes and memories about their own Reed experience and his generosity. Join us and raise a glass of champagne to say, “Thank you Reed,” and may you rest in peace.