Alta Loma's biggest contemporary art show this fall closes on November 14. Admission is free. Parking on the Chaffey College campus at 5885 Haven Avenue costs $1 an hour or $4 for the day.
The show is A Racket of Banshees: Goddesses and Monsters Re-Imagined at the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art. It anchors a fall calendar where the pieces are linked. A free workshop in October makes the paper for a November workshop. The monster show overlaps with a Día de los Muertos ofrenda, and the ofrenda hands off to a musical about the Addams family. A December info session points to a festival in March.
More Than Fifty Artists, and Now Only One Venue
The exhibition was curated by the Association of Hysteric Curators, a feminist collective formed in 2014. On its own site, the group calls itself an intergenerational collective that works through non-hierarchical collaboration. It lists Virginia Arce, Malado Francine, Mary Anna Pomonis, Cindy Rehm and Allison Stewart as founding members.
The show started on screens. In 2023, the online exhibition Goddesses and Monsters featured 48 artists. For the version at the Wignall, those original artists were asked to bring newer work, and more contemporary feminist artists joined them. The roster printed in the exhibition guide now runs past fifty names, from Amanda Adkins and Carolyn Castaño to Ever Velasquez and Michiko Yao.
The Wignall's poster describes the premise this way:
"Monsters challenge the status quo, while goddesses illuminate unknown possibilities. Together, they create a space between myth and reality where viewers are invited to reflect on what must end, what can emerge anew, and how another world might be possible."
That language comes from the Wignall's exhibition poster.
The guide points to several works by name: Ruby Osorio's Listening Harpie, Amy Swartelé's Long Pig Goddess, Mary Anna Pomonis's Hecate and Eirene, and Maya Mackrandilal's performance-based Inimicus Curiae/Enemy of the Court. It also singles out Janet Levy's From the Earth through the Sky and Ever Velasquez's Obatala as pieces that blur the line between goddess and monster. The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin's preview named Velasquez's Tlateochiualiztli. Chaffey's season brochure pictures Ching Ching Cheng's Pussy Willow, a 2024 sculpture about 40 inches tall made of ceramic, vinyl, synthetic hair, pipe cleaner, steel and acrylic paint.
A companion exhibition is running at the Los Angeles Valley College Art Gallery through October 17. After that date, Haven Avenue is the only place to see the project, for the four weeks left in the Wignall's run.
The museum's guide says some exhibitions may contain mature or sensitive content. That's useful to know before bringing younger children.
The Workshops Build on Each Other
The Wignall's public workshops are free, and materials are provided. You can take any of them alone, but the fall schedule is set up so that each one feeds the next:
- "Gods and Goddesses" Collage Workshop with Susan Arena, Thursday, October 15, 12:30 p.m., room CAA-218. Arena is one of the exhibiting artists. She'll cover layering, cutting, drawing and painting to make a mixed-media collage based on the show. All ages are welcome and no experience is needed. The museum's web listing says it ends at 2 p.m. and the poster says 2:30.
- Paper Marbling, Thursday, October 22, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., CAA-218. You float paint on a thickened liquid bath, shape it into patterns and transfer it to paper. The workshop can get messy, so the listing suggests suitable clothes. Gloves and a limited number of aprons are available. You'll go home with several marbled sheets.
- Sketchbook-Making, Monday, November 9, 3 to 5 p.m., CAC-105. Artist Brody Albert leads this session on making a hand-stitched journal from scratch. If you went to the marbling workshop, you're encouraged to bring your marbled pages to use in the book.
- Prep for ZOMICS Zine Festival, Thursday, December 3, noon to 2 p.m., CAA-218. This free info session covers ZOMICS, a festival of zines and comics, along with the application process and tips for presenting work. The festival itself is set for Wednesday, March 24, 2027.
If you go to all four, the collage and marbled pages end up in a handmade book, and a hand-stitched book is a natural first zine for March.
When the Banshees Leave, the Calaveras Arrive
The handoffs continue in the galleries. CALAVERAS & Día de los Muertos OFRENDA: A Community Exhibition opens October 26 in the CAA Student Gallery on the Rancho campus and stays up through November 22. Students, faculty and staff from all three Chaffey campuses designed and decorated the calaveras. The Wignall and Student Life, Equity and Engagement organized the exhibition, and Professor Patricia Gomez of Ethnic Studies organized the ofrenda with community contributors.
From October 26 through November 14, the goddesses-and-monsters show and the calaveras are on view on the same campus at once. Five days after the Wignall closes, the Theatre Arts Department's fall production opens with a family of its own monsters.
| Date | Event | Location | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Through Nov. 14 | A Racket of Banshees | Wignall Museum | Free |
| Oct. 26 to Nov. 22 | Calaveras & Día de los Muertos Ofrenda | CAA Student Gallery | Free |
| Nov. 19, 20, 21 at 7 p.m.; Nov. 22 at 2 p.m. | The Addams Family musical | Chaffey College Theatre | $15 |
| Sat., Dec. 5, 2 p.m. | Holiday Concert, Community Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble | Chaffey College Theatre | $10 |
| Fri., Dec. 11, 7 p.m. | Being Alive choral concert | Chaffey College Theatre | $10 |
Professor Christa Havenhill directs The Addams Family. Its story follows Wednesday Addams, who has fallen for a young man from what the program calls a "respectable family," and a dinner where his parents meet hers. Professor Pat Aranda directs the December 5 holiday concert. The Chamber Choir and Concert Choir perform Being Alive on December 11 under Professors Bethany Encina and David Rentz. For tickets, call the Chaffey College Box Office at 909-652-6067.
Why a College Museum Runs Its Calendar This Way
The linked schedule follows from what the Wignall is. It calls itself a teaching museum and an interdisciplinary art space, and it has managed the Chaffey College Art Collection since 2022. Rebecca Trawick is its Director and Chief Curator.
The museum opened in 1972 as the Rex W. Wignall Museum/Gallery. Its namesake joined Chaffey's agriculture faculty and later led the college. A $2.1 million renovation, celebrated at a grand reopening in 2019, added a modern gallery, instructional space and a covered outdoor patio. Home Edition ran from early September to mid-November in 2022, and Reading Room: Zines, Comix & Other Radical Texts followed the same pattern in 2024.
The next exhibition is already scheduled. Women's Rights Are Human Rights: International Posters on Gender-based Inequality, Violence, and Discrimination opens January 11 and runs into early March. Professor Emerita Elizabeth Resnick of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design organized and curated it.
The campus has changed around the museum, too. Chaffey's three-story, 76,000-square-foot Library Learning Commons opened with a ribbon cutting on February 12, 2026. A Juneteenth mural by Samuel Dunson hangs on its second floor. The college hasn't published visitor access rules for the building, so a mural visit is best planned with the college first.
Chaffey's astronomy department runs public presentations at the Milliken Planetarium "at times," but the department's page doesn't list dates or show titles.
Getting In
Fall 2026 hours at the Wignall are Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. The museum is closed Fridays, Sundays, holidays and between exhibitions.
- Parking: The museum suggests the Omnitrans Parking Lot, R5. From there, walk west along the promenade for accessible pathways. The North Parking Lot, R4, also works.
- Permits: Visitor permits are sold by the day only, through ParkMobile Zone 6601 or at the on-site kiosks, for $1 per hour or $4 per day.
- Accommodations: For disability-related accommodations, contact Rebecca Trawick at [email protected] ten instructional or business days before the event.
- Museum phone: 909-652-6492.
The ten-day accommodations window matters for the November 9 sketchbook workshop, since requests need to go in by late October. The $4 day pass covers a full afternoon if you pair the Wignall with the calaveras in the CAA Student Gallery between October 26 and November 14.
Gregory Shipp has followed the Inland Empire for close to four decades, and part of that work is knowing which local institutions, like Chaffey's arts calendar, keep the area interesting from one season to the next. If you'd like to talk about the foothill side of Rancho Cucamonga, or what nearby resources like these mean for your own plans, Gregory Shipp is happy to meet with you. Schedule Free Consultation.
