Confidence Firehouse Gallery showcases a curated rotating exhibition series which celebrates the unique culture of El Dorado County. The space occupies the bottom level of Main Street’s historic Confidence Hall, and is managed and programmed by Arts and Culture El Dorado in a public-private partnership with the City of Placerville.
The Gallery is merely the newest tenant of Confidence Hall, a building that has housed the Mountaineer Engine Company (later renamed to Confidence Engine Company), a roller skating rink, dance hall, El Dorado County fair, wrestling matches, religious services, a militia armory, meetings of service organizations, concerts, a public library, and Placerville City offices 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.
HOURS: Thursday through Sunday, 11 am - 4 pm
487 Main Street, Placerville, CA
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The 2021-2022 Gallery Exhibition Series is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Click here to see what is happening with our renovations of the building.
Current Exhibition in Confidence Firehouse Gallery
July 22, to September 19, 2021. In the early 20th century, Basque sheepherders carved distinctive figures into aspen trees. This exhibition features a collection of rubbings taken from these arborglyphs. Aspen groves make for the unlikeliest galleries. High in the remote meadows of the Sierra Nevada range there are works of art secreted away…
Read MoreUpcoming Exhibitions in Confidence Firehouse Gallery
The title of the show, A Room of Their Own, is a reference to the seminal essay, “A Room of One’s Own” (1929) by Virginia Woolf, which draws a link between the social, political, and financial limitations placed on women and the equally tight restrictions to their creative work and prospects for commercial success. Although the essay was written nearly 100 years ago, women…
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We give free rein of the Gallery to Scapegoat Collective, a group of progressive working artists dedicated to advancing art in El Dorado County.
Read MoreWHERE TO PARK: Street parking and parking in city lots is free for the first two hours. After the first two hours, cars must be moved to metered city lots. Parking fees enforced Monday- Saturday from 8:00 am - 6:00 pm.
Some options with walking times from our buildings include:
- Old City Hall/ W.S. Kirt Lot (closest parking, right behind our buildings)
- Mooney Lot - about 4 minutes
- Parking Structure - about 4-5 minutes (3rd floor is for permit parking only)
- Ivy House Lot - about 5 minutes
- Street parking - varying distance, must move car to a metered city lot after 2 hours