A controversy involving Verge revealed deep cracks in Sacramento’s art scene — and left many wondering why it had to go down like this

By Hannah Ross | Solving Sacramento The Sacramento arts scene may be on the brink of transformation. Since a pandemic that had threatened to gut local arts scenes globally, the community has worked tirelessly first to survive, and then to rebrand, shift, change — to become the dynamic and inclusive creative space the city envisions for itself.& But the reformation is not without its growing pains.& Following the public call-out of Wide Open Walls over an ill-executed cultural project in Little Saigon, Verge Center for the Arts has come under scrutiny over the evictions of two resident artists from their studio spaces. Those artists, Daniel Alejandro Trejo, who had leased a studio at Verge for about seven years, and Esther Marie Hall, who had a studio there for about two years, were notified of the evictions from Verge’s Studio Artist Project on March 15 via a letter from Verge board member and general counsel Phillip Cunningham that alleged Trejo and Hall “work(ed) internally to ruin [The Project] for everyone else.” The letter also noted that the evictions were to ensure “the safety of its staff and the good of its program.” The two artists claim they had simply been asking...