Chico Performances: An Insider’s Perspective

Day Gomez here, marketing assistant with Chico Performances. Part of my job as a marketing assistant is ensuring we build a positive relationship with our community—Chico and all of the North state. As President Paul Zingg once said, we are “bridging our world” by hosting an array of performances that culturally enhance our community.

The 2013–2014 Chico Performances season includes multi-Grammy Award-winner Bonnie Raitt, President’s Lecture Series speaker and Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler, folk icon Arlo Guthrie, Golden Dragon Acrobats: Cirque Ziva, and just to name a few. Getting to market and have professional relationships with these amazing icons is a perk.

A great way we reach out to local kids is providing field trips that allow them to watch and learn about the arts. Introducing children to the arts at a tender age is important, and we couldn’t do it without our sponsors. Yes, that’s right, we have sponsors. We look to many businesses in our community to help make our performances successful.

We call the sponsors who help make it all happen for our local children “adopters.” Our adopters can be anyone—a business, a parent, a teacher, basically anyone willing to sponsor a class to go on a field trip.

My job is to make sure this opportunity is made available to local children by spreading the word all over town and making sure our adopters feel appreciated and supported throughout our season. This is my favorite part of my job; I get to meet many people, on and off campus. I thrive on networking and love meeting new people.

Another way I get to meet new people is attending the farmers’ markets and working with poster volunteers. During the farmers’ markets, my colleague and I work a booth and inform shoppers and vendors of the exciting upcoming season. It is always a blast. I get to interact with locals, listen to live music, and enjoy the samples (what I like to call the farmers’ market buffet).

Overall—although I get to work with amazing artists, listen to great music for free, and work on campus, which fits my schedule oh so perfectly—the biggest perk of all is meeting people along the way. Whether it be the bigwigs on campus or the family that attended this year’s Chico World Music Festival, they all matter and make Chico Performances possible.

I really do it for the people. They make Chico so special; this community is friendly and so welcoming. I like to imagine my relationships at work like this: staff members and Chico State faculty are my parents, patrons are my older brothers and sisters, and the artists are my cool aunts and uncles.

We’re just one big happy family here at Chico Performances, and I’m excited to see this season unfold.