The Crocker Art Museum will be one of more than 40 sites worldwide to host Slow Art Day in 2010, an initiative that encourages visitors to slow down and spend quality time looking at a single artwork. Slow Art Day will take place on Saturday, April 17, starting at 11 a.m., at the Crocker. “The majority of museum visitors view an artwork for less than 30 seconds,” said Christian Adame, manager of life-long learning at the Crocker Art Museum. “But it is easy to miss the artist’s message during such a quick look. This event is designed to help participants see art in a new way – to focus, contemplate and discuss their ideas.” The Slow Art session at the Crocker will focus on three artworks

The Sacramento Pride Festival, an annual event that brings thousands of attendees from throughout California, will be held for the first time on Capitol Mall in 2010, Bill Otton, interim director of the Sacramento Gay & Lesbian Center, announced this week. The Pride Festival and Parade will be held Saturday, June 19. Established in 1984, the day-long lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride festival has been held at Sacramento’s Southside Park for the past several years. Otton said the move to the Capitol Mall site will generate renewed excitement for an event that dates back to the early years of the gay civil rights movement in Sacramento and help bring attention to the role

 The idea is non-controversial among members of the City Council: They all support the concept of a makeover for Capitol Mall. And, they all like the idea of the city hosting a design competition for a remodel of the Mall from the riverfront to 9th Street. The City Council gave its unanimous support to the fledgling plan, which was presented by Beth Tincher of the Economic Development Department Tuesday night. The details of the design competition would be crafted by city staff, the American Institute of Architects and stakeholders, according to a Nov. 10 city staff report. Councilman Steve Cohn said he and council colleague Ray Tretheway have been working on the plan for a future revam

Today the Preservation Commission will meet to discuss a study of bringing Streetcars onto Capitol Mall and back to downtown Sacramento. Over the past 30 years, public and private interests have examined the feasibility of streetcars and other services that could travel between West Sacramento and downtown Sacramento, but in May 2007 West Sacramento became the lead agency to prepare a draft environmental impact report for the project in order to gain permits for the project. With the partnership of West Sacramento, Sacramento, in cooperation with Sacramento Regional Transit (RT) and Yolo County Transportation District (YCTD), a partnership was formed to study the reintroduction of the str