Fallbrook Arts Inc. continues to mold and shape the community

The Fallbrook Art Center reopened recently with a new art show "A Find Magnified," which runs through Sunday, Aug. 30.

The art center has been showcasing local artists since it opened its doors in 1996 at 103 S. Main Avenue in Fallbrook. Originally a former drugstore with royal blue carpet and fluorescent lights, the art center went through myriad changes and continues to press forward through the coronavirus pandemic.

Mary Perhacs, executive director of the Fallbrook Art Center, first started volunteering there 24 years ago.

"I was a paralegal," Perhacs said. "I'm not an artist. I'm not an art maker; I'm an art facilitator.

"When I first started, everything was very different. It was much smaller and then about two years later we acquired the school," she said.

Perhacs is now in charge of the Fallbrook Art Center, the Fallbrook School of the Arts and Art in Public Places, which are all under the umbrella of Fallbrook Arts Inc.

The art center continually changes their art gallery exhibits and runs the cafe attached to it as well. A few blocks east of the center, Fallbrook Arts Inc. runs the Fallbrook School of the Arts at 310 E. Alvarado St.

"The yellow building which is next door has a full ceramic studio, full printmaking studio," Perhacs said. "We just formed a collaboration with San Diego Book Arts, so there'll be book-making, paper-making; we have painting classes, drawing classes, kid classes, jewelry classes."

They've also implemented new social distancing and sanitation procedures.

"We closed, I think, March 13," Perhacs said.

The center reopened with the new show, called "The Find Magnified," which began June 27 and runs through Aug. 30.

"We have been doing very well," Perhacs said. "It's not as busy as it used to be, but there's probably hardly any day that goes by that we're not selling at least $500 worth of goods."

People have felt very confident in the items they're getting, according to Perhacs. "There's no mass produced anything here," she said. "They're also appreciative of the rules that we have in place, the facial covering and the temperature taking, and people have been very compliant."

They're also still running classes at the school, she said.

"We've just moved tables out for social distancing. We've got a patio area out in the back," Perhacs said. "We're putting up tents in the back so people can go outside and create, and the kids' classes are going gangbusters.

"I think all the parents want the kids to go out and do something," Perhacs said, laughing.

Perhacs added that she believes people are surprised by the level of sophistication and the equipment they have.

"We're one of the only, I think, still working bronze foundries in North County because most of them have closed, even though it's not open to the public," Perhacs said.

Part of the reason for their success has been through generous donors, she said.

"In April 2018, we received an unexpected bequest from a patron that I had worked with for a long time," Perhacs said. "She would sponsor shows because every show we had, we had show sponsors; we have commissions on sales; we have general donations; we have community donations, county support; she left us $1.5 million in cash. It was a cashier's check."

Perhacs said she had a difficult time processing it emotionally at first.

"I still get a little choked up about it," she said.

The money has helped the center get through the coronavirus shutdown.

"We were shut down for two and a half months; so everybody got paid what they were supposed too," Perhacs said.

The secret to their success?

"We just never thought there was anything we couldn't do," Perhacs said. "We're like the little town that could; that's Fallbrook."

For more information on the Fallbrook Arts Inc., visit https://fallbrookartsinc.org/.

Lexington Howe can be reached by email at [email protected].