Davis Cemetery District & Arboretum

Jennifer Nachmanoff Exhibition
2022-03-01 - 2022-03-31
“Hearts to Hold” Statement:
In the summer of 2020, Davis ceramic artist Jennifer Nachmanoff began forming tiny clay hearts in response to the lives lost to the Covid-19 pandemic. At that point, the count was around 10,000 lives lost in California alone. Something was needed to hold the hearts, so Nachmanoff formed a vessel in the shape of a spikey covid molecule. Thus began a project, the Hearts to Hold project, that is ongoing and currently comprises over 8 vessels, holding over 80,000 tiny hearts, and representing the 80,000 plus lives lost to the pandemic in California to date. Describing the process of making the hearts, Nachmanoff says, “What started as a sacred meditation has sadly become a daily routine. If I could, I’d make hearts for all the lives lost and all the lives affected.”

According to Nachmanoff, this tactile representation of the collective experience of loss is intended to generate an emotional response that numbers alone fail to generate. Prior to its residency at the Davis Cemetery Gallery was on display at the Pence Gallery in conjunction with that gallery’s “2020” exhibit. Visitors are offered several prompts and invited to reflect on loss and resilience and to attach their written reflections to the artwork, becoming a part of the project. The written responses will be collected and shared at a community event at the cemetery later this spring. Plans are also afoot for the Hearts to Hold project to tour various venues, including senior residences, hospitals, and schools, offering the people living and working in those locations a chance to reflect and participate. Says Nachmanoff, “I hope people find the project cathartic; that it helps our community to remember and heal, and then move forward.”

Terry Holter Exhibition
2022-03-03 - 2022-03-31
Artist Statement
Delta Views
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region is an approximately 1100 square mile area. It forms a triangle extending from Sacramento to the north, dropping on its east side through Stockton down to Tracy in the south, and converging between Tracy and Sacramento on the Westside with the San Francisco bay at Pittsburg. The Delta is supplied by the Sacramento River at the north end and the San Joaquin River to the southeast.
Since the mid 19th century, this natural inverted river delta has been transformed through a series of man-made levees into islands of fertile agricultural land. Besides agriculture, its uses include transportation, recreation, hunting and fishing, natural habitat (important especially for migratory waterfowl), and urban development. Historic towns within the Delta include Locke, Walnut Grove, and Isleton. Half of the water needs of California’s human population depend on the Sierra waters flowing through the Delta.
This exhibit of images represents selections from an ongoing three-year documentation of the Delta by the photographer Terry Holter. Terry was a professional photographer in San Francisco for 20 years. He lives in Sacramento and is currently devoting his photographic efforts to personal projects.
