Dan Masterson is one of the artists, and one of the volunteers keeping the place open. "We get visitors here from all over the world, right now we're projecting six to eight thousand visitors coming through the water tower."
The domed brick architecture visible inside is one reason to come in, but Masterson says the other is the art. "We are a consignment gallery it is all local artists, we represent 70 local artists, now, and we have all manner of media, everything from fine art and wall art, ceramics, glass, wood, fiber art just about anything you can imagine, lots of jewelry."
Clovis artist Hilda Vandergriff says it's a great place to show and sell her art. "Wonderful response, I'm getting people from out of state like Minnesota buying art, people from Switzerland coming in they love looking at the artwork here."
While there's a variety of arts and crafts in different styles and of different subjects, Masterson acknowledges there's one predictably dominant theme. "Lots of pictures of water towers, that's one of the things people are looking for when they come in, they are looking for things about Fresno and things about the water tower in particular."
Vandergriff loves the location. "Oh it's wonderful, it's historic and I think it's great, it gets a lot of exposure from people visiting here."
In addition to being the art by hand gallery and gift shop the old tower remains a visitor's center. Not just for out of town folks, the goal is to give local folks another reason to come back downtown.
