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“Fremont Bloom” Installation

This vibrant installation, brought to life by a partnership between Midtown Parks and CADA with sponsorship from Kaiser Permanente, features 30 eye-catching sculptural blooms, including 6 to 9-foot tall illuminated California poppy sculptures, designed by local artist Gina Rossi in collaboration with Atlas Labs. The artwork will be on display for 45 days of the summer months for the next 3 years, transforming the park into a colorful celebration of art and community.

Supporting Public Space Through Art

Fremont Bloom reflects CADA’s commitment to investing in vibrant, welcoming public spaces and supporting local artists through place-based cultural projects. By pairing art with landscape and neighborhood design, the installation contributes to a sense of identity, encourages connection to place, and adds a distinct visual element to Fremont Park.

Want to See Fremont Park Bloom Back in 2027?

With your help, we can bring the 6-9-foot illuminated poppies to life again in spring 2027. To make a donation today that is recognized on site at Fremont Park Bloom in 2027, visit our donation page here.

Supported by Brown Construction, LBT Investments and the City of Sacramento, Fremont Park Bloom offers an opportunity to support and be recognized, or uplift someone special. Tiered opportunities to give include:

Donate Here

Come to Your Senses: An Immersive Art Activation by CADA

Interactive Art Installation Engages All Five Senses, Supporting Local Artists and Community Non-Profits

“Come to Your Senses,” an immersive art activation presented by the Capitol Area Development Authority (CADA) with support from Mayor Steinberg’s office, featured five distinct rooms designed to stimulate one of the five senses—sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. The art activation captivated visitors from November 2024 to March 2025 in downtown Sacramento. From meditative deep-breathing spaces to evolving art installations, the experience was designed to awaken creativity and curiosity.

Experience Highlights:

A Community-Centered Experience

Key Details:

“‘Come to Your Senses’ was more than just an art exhibition; it was a vibrant community event that celebrated Sacramento’s diverse artistic talent and supported local non-profits,” said Danielle Foster, CADA’s Executive Director. “Attendees experienced art in a completely new and interactive way, creating lasting memories while giving back to the community.”

This innovative exhibition featured contributions from local artists, including Keia Kodama, Karen Ulep, Gabe Lopez, Micah Kearns & ILU Innovations, George Holden’s Live Cinema and Liquid Light Show, Northern Light Productions, We Are Sacramento, MusicLandria, and even the visitors themselves, who had the chance to participate and contribute to the evolving art pieces. Highlights included a monochrome tactile room, an immersive illuminated breathing space, and hands-on musical stations from MusicLandria that allowed attendees to create distinct soundscapes.

“Our interactive stations allowed attendees to create and experiment with electronic sounds using synthesizers, sound modulators, and effects processors, inviting them to craft unique soundscapes and delve into the world of synthesized audio,” said Buddy Hale, Founder of MusicLandria.

“We created an experience for the entire community to enjoy,” stated Foster. “By focusing on the senses, we aimed to meet each guest with avenues that resonated and offered a space for them to explore both art and themselves on a deeper level.”

While the installation has ended, MusicLandria continues to offer opportunities for the community to explore and create music. To learn more about their programs and resources, visit:

MusicLandria

Additionally, there may be future art activations for “Come to Your Senses” at various locations, so stay tuned for updates on upcoming events.

Looking Ahead

While “Come to Your Senses” has concluded its initial run, CADA is exploring opportunities to reopen the installation at a new venue. Stay tuned for updates on this extraordinary sensory experience.

Website

Thank You for Your Support

CADA extends its gratitude to the artists, participants, and supporters who made this activation possible, including Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the Sacramento community.

Keep an eye out for future announcements about the return of “Come to Your Senses” and the chance to experience art in a whole new dimension!

Nature goes wild in 10th Street mural

Vividly colorful imagery of flora and fauna have transformed a block of 10th Street from mundane to magnificent. A mural depicting an imaginative natural landscape bristling with life has made a dramatic difference for the façade of businesses and apartments along 10th Street opposite Roosevelt Park.

Transformation story

The mural magnifies the wonders of nature, with an Alice in Wonderland kind of landscape inhabited by a friendly 10-foot-tall snail on the prowl, a giant green frog amid a bed of flowers flicking its improbably long tongue at a passing dragonfly, a snow crane standing nearly two stories tall, a frisky squirrel amid ivy, ferns and blooming poppies, and an observant owl keeping watch on Roosevelt Park across the street. Inspired by native Sacramento Valley species, the mural complements the greenery of the park, which CADA previously helped renovate.

The eye-catching imagery complements the nature-inspired color scheme that refreshed the adjoining Somerset Parkside condominiums around the corner on Q Street. The mural project came about as Somerset Parkside was about to be repainted. Although Somerset Parkside is not part of the mural project, CADA worked with the condo HOA representing 75 homeowners to ensure that the mural would complement the color scheme of dark spruce green and rich earth tones chosen for the condos.

Karen Ulep, CADA’s marketing and creative services manager, pursued and earned a City of Sacramento Creative Economy Pilot Project grant, which funded a small of the expansive mural. Sacramento artist Stephen V. Williams designed the flora and fauna concept, with input from Sacramento art legend Gregory Kondos.  Williams completed the initial mural design in June of 2018 and finished an extension of the work in February of 2019.

“Our goal was to create a vibrant and inspiring common space that the entire community could enjoy,” Ulep explained. “We at CADA believe that innovation through art is a creative way to bring together cultures and individuals, and to symbolize the uniqueness of our city. This mural is a point of pride for neighborhood residents and owners of businesses, and is a welcoming gesture to visitors and patrons.”

Work began in phases following the grant award in January 2017, and the monumental project was completed in August 2018. As a neighborhood enrichment project, the mural helps to instill pride in the neighborhood — and serves as an unmistakable geographic reference point. Just look for the big peering owl and the tongue-flicking frog, and you’re there.

Capitol Box Art

On sidewalks and corners throughout the Capitol area, CADA and the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission are takin’ art to the streets with the Capitol Box Art project.

Transformation story

More than 30 metal utility boxes that house traffic and light rail control equipment throughout the Capitol area have undergone makeovers that have transformed them from drab to decorative. This art-in-public-places project has helped reaffirm Sacramento as a community that values art, while giving exposure to established as well as developing locally based artists.

CADA initiated and funded the project in 2013 upon the encouragement of CADA leadership staff who had seen similar work in other cities. CADA, working in coordination with the Metropolitan Arts Commission and a committee that included artists, invited and reviewed proposals from local artists. The Sacramento City Council reviewed and approved finished designs for placement on traffic utility boxes.

CADA received submissions from more than 70 artists who work in various media, including painting, photography, collages, pen and ink, found objects, layered textiles, and digital-generated imagery. To accommodate the differing styles, staff created digital templates of the boxes and transferred the art to the template. CADA selected a local company to print the artworks on vinyl wraps, which were fitted to the utility boxes. The vinyl wraps are relatively easy and inexpensive to install, and they’re durable.

The first box, at the corner of 15th and P streets, was wrapped in January 2014. Others quickly followed. Subject matter ranges from thought-provoking social symbolism to intriguing abstract patterns of color and texture, from playful nostalgia to the beauty found in nature. Some are satirical, some are whimsical, and all are colorful. Over time, they may be refreshed with new imagery.

CADA set five goals for the Capitol Box Art project. The five goals were to: create an avenue for art in the public realm, add beauty to the streets in the CADA neighborhood, discourage graffiti on public property, create a sense of pride for Sacramento artists, and inspire other neighborhoods and other communities to do similar projects. CADA continues to update, refresh and add new boxes to this project.

The Capitol Box Art project has accomplished all it was set out to do.

This project has been transformative, converting ordinary gray utility boxes into sources of inspiration and enjoyment.

Capitol Box Art Website
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