MERCED, Calif. — Downtown Merced is not what it was ten years ago.
That’s what community leaders said when describing the area that once was a strip with scattered mom and pop restaurants and skeletal structures of aging buildings – but has now become a buzzing multicultural hub for arts and culture.
The California State Arts Council recognized this change in December by designating downtown Merced as one of the state’s 10 newest cultural districts.
These neighborhoods represent “the thriving creativity, diversity, and unique artistic identities of communities throughout our state, driving cultural, economic, and social vitality,” according to a council press release.
Merced is one of only two new cultural districts recognized this year in the Central Valley. This is only the second time the council made the designation, after announcing 14 cultural districts in 2017.
“There's this new renaissance that is happening, and I'm really excited about that and how it's corresponding now with this designation that we have long deserved,” said Colton Dennis, executive director of the non-profit Merced County Arts Council.
Dennis also runs the Multicultural Arts Center, a gallery on Main Street that hosts exhibits by local artists and offers a variety of art or dance-related classes. The downtown also features a ceramics shop, an art studio, and the Playhouse Merced theater.
According to Dennis, the local arts council always wanted downtown Merced to be recognized by the city or the state as an arts and culture district, but the city needed to invest in the space first.
After the pandemic, when buildings were renovated and a plethora of arts, food and clothing restaurants started popping up, Dennis said they knew they had a fighting chance. With the win, the area will receive $10,000 to brand the downtown as an arts and culture district. They will also maintain that label with the state until 2030.
Earvin Mendoza, a local videographer and photographer, is also excited for the recognition.
“A lot of artists have been here in Merced for a while now,” Mendoza said. “A lot of them are mural artists. A lot of them have bands.”
Mendoza works at the Cien Ojos art studio on Canal Street. He agrees with Dennis that recent renovations to historical buildings like the El Capitan Hotel and The Mainzer theater boosted the community’s pride in the space, and created an economic and artistic boom.
“I think now that the beautification in downtown has started happening, there's been more opportunity to see the artists,” he said.
A downtown is a beating ‘heart’ for a city
Gloria Valdovinos, the executive director of two non-profits, Downtown Merced Partnership and Visit Merced, describes the city’s downtown as a melting pot of businesses that bring in a multitude of people on any given day.
And that’s what she said a downtown should be — a centralized area where the larger community can come together for events and connections.
“There's a little bit of everything here,” Valdovinos said. “You definitely have a really big theater scene… You also have a really big DJ and music scene, and then you also have artists, like in Cien Ojos…ceramics as well.”
Valdovinos facilitates tourism and infrastructure improvement in Merced’s downtown. She said when she attends cultural events or pop-ups brought on by different groups in the community like The Mercado Night Market or the Hmong American Day celebration, she sees all kinds of residents interact with each other.
“You still have the younger generation coming, but then you also still see the older generation coming here at the same time, and everybody's just kind of cross-pollinating, but not directly in the same event,” she said.
Dennis, with the Merced County Arts Council, said downtown Merced’s strong central space will spread community awareness to developing areas, including South Merced and the University of California campus.
“Having a downtown that is the heart, that is strong, that can make sure all corners of Merced are as strong,” Dennis said. “But a big component of that is our arts and culture that helped develop all of that, and we got to keep that strong and keep that going.”
Dennis said he wants to make sure artists stay at the forefront of the downtown’s development because they’re the ones who created its identity.
“[People] think that art is just about making you feel good and what you see, but it's more than just that,” Dennis said. “It's who we are, it's how we connect, it's how we communicate, it's how we tell our stories, it's what brings us commonality and what helps bring us together.”
Dennis and Mendoza are optimistic about the district’s future. A native of Livingston, Mendoza came to the city to attend Merced College. He thought he would be a mechanic, and worked a job at a car dealership for some time before investing in social media and eventually quitting to pursue a fulltime career in videography. He thinks the downtown space will lead the way for many others like him.
“A lot of artists sometimes don't know what to do where it's just like, ‘Is there a career? Is there a path? Is there something that I can do?’” he said. “And I think in the place that we're in right now, downtown has kind of created that place to have a community and have a hub for artists.”
