Art museums are great, but it’s sometimes difficult to find spaces that cater to artists who create outside of the box (or from boxes, in the case of Samuel Yates). The Crocker Art Museum is wonderful, but it doesn’t have much in the way of abstract, modern art installations. And let’s not even get started on spaces for art in Rocklin.

But this past month, M5 Arts, a new cultural and artistic initiative in Sacramento, introduced Art Street, at 300 1st Avenue. Art Street was a temporary exhibit open from Feb. 3 through Feb. 25.

Although certainly unique, Art Street was actually an extension of the Art Hotel, which M5 Arts introduced last year from Feb. 5 through 13.

A quick background for those unfamiliar with the Art Hotel: dozens of artists from around Sacramento were invited to have free reign inside an old, abandoned hotel, creating art that travelled up to the ceiling and covered entire rooms. The catch? The hotel was going to be torn down a week after the exhibit closed for the creation of the Golden 1 Center.

The Art Hotel left a legacy. And now, Art Street has pushed the boundaries even further with over 100 artists and 65,000 square feet.

Contrary to its name, Art Street was actually located inside a large warehouse, with giant murals painted on the outside. Once spectators walked inside, they were bombarded by a cacophony sounds. Fuzzy background noise, music, humming and voice recordings all resonated within the warehouse. Small rooms were set up, some with paintings or photographs, but the vast majority filled with installations, sculptures and unconventional materials.

Like the Art Hotel, Art Street also had some interactive elements. Some areas asked for contributions, like sticky notes with thoughts and ideas stuck to a wall. (Here, I read puns, notes to other people, short phrases, grocery lists and reminders to smile, to love and to hate.) In one room, you pulled out a drawer for a buzzing white noise to fill the air. Sometimes there was paint, or pens to draw with or lights to flick on and off.

Most rooms, of course, weren’t meant to be interactive. Wooden branches and fairy lights twinkled in one room, with a purple glow adding an unworldly feeling. Another room had a row of mirrors, with broken shards just underneath, sitting on a box. Signs from the Women’s March decorated one wall. A narrow room (more like an alley) tucked in the back showed photographs and quotes from women who survived sexual abuse. Red dots lined the wall, symbols of anger, acceptance and acknowledgement.

But ultimately, Art Street was more than just a pretty warehouse. Several installations were intensely personal, addressing sex, violence, politics and social issues. The idea of a street was created to “allow artists and those in attendance to explore and experience the notion of a street as transportation, connection, pathway, community and much more,” according to M5 Art’s website (found here).

So in creating the Art Street, M5 Arts has given local artists a voice, an audience and the freedom to explore. But they have also embraced unconventionality by creating a gritty, strange and intentionally-confusing space for art. At the same time, they have asked their attendees to consider what it means to be part of a community. This is all rolled into a magnificent, thought-provoking, strange space for people to explore, changing the landscape of conventional spaces for art.