[PR Pond]
This September, El Dorado Arts Council will introduce a new attraction to Main Street: The Confidence Lab, a dedicated space for temporary “pop-up” arts projects, including installations, student works, play readings, live music, and other activities. The space will occupy the bottom level of Main Street’s historic Confidence Hall, and will be managed and programmed by El Dorado Arts Council in a public-private partnership with the City of Placerville.
Designed to enliven downtown Placerville, the Confidence Lab will feature compelling artistic projects that are as entertaining as they are enriching. For its maiden voyage, Confidence Lab will host theatrical performances during the Applecore Fringe Festival in September. In the future, it is hoped that Confidence Lab will be joined on Main Street by an ensemble of new spaces dedicated to the cultivation of arts and culture in El Dorado County. Together, these spaces would constitute a Cultural District in downtown Placerville, a project that would preserve and celebrate Placerville’s rich history while simultaneously propelling Placerville into a new era of artistic expression and cultural engagement.
The Confidence Lab is merely the newest tenant of Confidence Hall, a building that has housed everything from fire engines to city council members over the last century and a half. Built in 1857, and rebuilt in 1860 following a fire, Confidence Hall, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is one of Placerville’s most recognizable and beloved historic buildings. Beginning its life as the home of the eponymous Confidence fire engine, the building later hosted Seventh Day Adventists, county fairs, and the police department before becoming the Placerville City Hall in 1902. Since the 2005 relocation of City Hall to its current Center Street location, Confidence Hall has been awaiting the next phase of its historic life. As it always has in the past, Confidence Hall will once again play a vital role in the Placerville community when the Confidence Lab opens in September.
