We are pleased to announce the Richmond Art Center was recently awarded three program grants from the California Arts Council totaling $47,000. This fall, we will provide free field trips to 1500 Richmond elementary students, guided tours of current exhibitions and art-creation workshops at the Richmond Art Center.
In addition, we will expand our in-school and after-school art programs in Richmond schools this upcoming school year. The awards are an indication of the quality of Richmond Art Center community programs and value of arts as an essential component in youth education.
Image: Top: Richard-Jonathan Nelson, Untitled, 2019. Courtesy of the Artist, Bottom: Ruth Tabancay, What’s In You and On You: Normal Flora and Pathogens (detail), 2018 Mary Jeys, Waving Hand, 2018, Dennis A. Giacovelli, Untitled (Self-Portrait), 2018. Second Class (E5) Engineman: Navy 1969- 71, Vietnam 1970.
Richard-Jonathan Nelson’s solo exhibition examines how craft can be used to depict Black bodies in an imagined future. Through hybridizing traditional craft practices – like embroidery, weaving, and quilting – with digital art, Nelson’s work challenges the history of the mass media’s “uploading” of Black Diaspora as a monolithic culture, and reimagines the Black body as a place for futuristic progress. Nelson’s work draws reference from African-American low country herbalism, cybernetic Afrofuturism and his family’s history working with fabric.
About the Artist: Richard-Jonathan Nelson is a multi-disciplinary artist who uses textiles, video, and digital manipulation to create alternative worlds of speculative identity. His work is multi-layered, chromatically intense, and mixes images of the natural world with reference to hoodoo, queer culture, and Afrofuturism. Born in Savannah, GA (1987) and working in Oakland, CA, Nelson received his MFA from California College of the Arts in 2017. His work has been exhibited at Southern Exposure, Embark Gallery, Root Division in San Francisco and Aggregate Space in Oakland.
ABOUTFACE Community Gallery Exhibition Dates: June 11 – August 16, 2019
This large-group exhibition brings together Veteran self-portraits from the Arts and Culture Commission of Contra Costa County’s ABOUTFACEprogram. Over 100 self-portraits will be presented, for the first time bringing together the numerous ABOUTFACE works created over multiple years of the program. Collectively the pieces form a ‘unit’ that represents the varied stories of Veterans transitioning from military to civilian life.
About the program: In 2015 the Arts and Culture Commission and the Physical Rehabilitation Service at Veterans Affairs Health Care in Martinez developed ABOUTFACE to improve the lives of California’s Veterans through arts programming. Based on the belief that individuals have the capacity to heal themselves, ABOUTFACE engages Veterans through painting workshops focused on artistic skill development and self-expression. The two-day workshops are team-taught by a teaching artist and a qualified therapist, with a Veteran coordinator present. Workshop activities include meditation, peer discussion, sketching each other, and painting a final self-portrait.
Parts Unseen West Gallery Exhibition Dates: June 11 – August 16, 2019 Reception: Saturday, June 8, 5-7pm
This exhibition brings together recent works by three artists who received the Spotlight Award for their work in the 2018 Members’ Show: Bill Abright, Jennie Braman, and Ruth Tabancay. While working in disparate media, these artists share an interest in transfiguring and deconstructing the human form.
About the Artists: Bill Abright was introduced to clay by Bruce Duke at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton in the late 60’s. He completed his graduate degree at San Francisco State in 1974 working with Bud McKee, Stephen De Staebler, Joe Hawley, and David Kuraoka. Abright recently retired after 40 years teaching ceramics at the College of Marin. Jennie Braman is an artist and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is full-time faculty in Studio Art and Art History at Berkeley City College in Berkeley, CA, and served as Chair of the Art Program for the last decade. Braman’s current drawings investigate the nature of representation and the creative language of the body. Ruth Tabancay‘s passion for science led her to study bacteriology in college, and after a stint as a hospital laboratory technologist, she went on to medical school. After 11 years in private practice, she left medicine to study art. Her works refer largely to her previous studies in microbiology, anatomy, and geometry. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley; UC School of Medicine, San Francisco; and California College of the Arts.
2019 Members’ Show Main Gallery Exhibition Dates: June 11 – August 16, 2019
Each year, the Richmond Art Center invites our members to participate in our annual Members’ Show, which is showcased in the Main Gallery. One of the oldest and largest non-juried member exhibitions in the Bay Area, this tradition presents a wide variety of media, styles, and subject matter by aspiring, emerging, and established artists, many of whom are colleagues, teachers, and students of the Richmond Art Center.
Members, students, teachers, artists, and donors – all enjoyed the second annual Party Richmond celebration of art and art lovers on Saturday, April 13! (See our Facebook album for pictures from the event!)
Each year Richmond Art Center honors three organizations and individuals who have contributed generously to the long-term wellbeing of RAC. This year those three included the Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation, Betty Ann and Ray Barnett, and Hilda Robinson. We are honored to count these three as friends and supporters of RAC over many years.
After the awards ceremony, the crowd gathered for our live auction featuring art works by Peter Voulkos, Claire Falkenstein, Ed Penniman, Jos Sances, Rudolph Serra, Fred Alvarado, Stephen Bruce, and Randy Strong. In addition, unique opportunities to go salmon fishing on the Feather River, fly over the Bay Area in a private plane, travel to Santa Fe, enjoy a champagne party at RAC, and or take personal painting class, complete with wine and hors d’oeuvres with Ric Ambrose, were auctioned off to the highest bidder.
The evening included entertainment by dancer Maggie Powers, magician David Hirata, and jazz guitarist Hideo Date. Los Moles of El Cerrito provided a broad sampling of their moles, with decadent desserts donated by Maria’s Gourmet Bakery in El Sobrante.
Many thanks to our sponsors Jacobs & Company, LLC, Mechanics Bank, Ellengale Toki and Owen Oakley, Susan and Stephen Chamberlin, Patricia Guthrie, and James Wheeler and Joyce Shon. And many, many thanks to the spectacular John Ziesenhenne, world famous auctioneer.
This year was our most successful auction ever! We raised more money than last year to support our scholarship program for youth and adults. Thanks for all of your help and for participating in this annual event. See you next year!!
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Images clockwise from top left: Jos Sance’s Or, the Whale; Marguerite Browne and Maggie Powers; guests participating in the live auction; and artist Hilda Robinson (center) with Karen Jeffrey Anthony and Denise Jeffrey
By Emaline Lubinger-Chavez (Pinole Valley High School)
The ability to create and share art has always been a huge part of community. From artists working together to create murals, to a shadowy figure in the night clinging to an overpass to get the graffiti just right. Fences made from street signs, a scribble on a bathroom mirror, a camera set to capture all these things that burn gold against the gray monotony. Some work is seen as vandalism, however, no place would be the same without the clashing colors splashed across bridges, walls, and boulevards.
Recently, the Richmond Art Center opened its doors to the beautiful chaos of art waiting just outside. Young artists from middle and high schools across western Contra Costa County took advantage of the space awaiting them and filled every inch of the Community and West Galleries. Paintings, photographs, sculptures and more almost overwhelm the eyes. Over 400 pieces cover the walls from floor to ceiling; each one a window into an artist’s life.
These sorts of spaces are incredibly important to young people today. As a certified young person, I can say that many of us struggle with anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and general confusion. It’s like reading the back of a pill bottle. But art is a salve on the leaking wound of the soul. It calms and cools the raging fire within us and gives us space to think and reflect on life. The annual WCCUSD Student Art Show pushes kids to create art, which in turn pushes them to better understand themselves and the world around them.
I myself actually have a piece in the installation. A relatively small black and white photo, with words carved ruggedly into its surface, it stands out from the colorful almost piñata like masks above it. Across the way, the masks lock eyes with eerie portraits both painted and photographed. The contrast serves to show just how different everyone’s story is. And just how important it is that everyone’s story has a chance to be told.
We are all different. That is a simple fact of life. Art is how we express our differences. This installation provides a healthy and positive environment for young people to express themselves and be accepted as artists. For this, I am thankful.
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Top image: Elianna Moran, Over the Rainbow, 2019 (Pinole Valley High School, Grade 9). On view in 54th Annual WCCUSD Student Art Show, March 26 – April 24, 2019.
Join us for Party Richmond!
Awards and Fundraising Event
Saturday, April 13, 5:30 to 9:00 pm
Drinks & Dinner Hors d’Oeuvres, Awards, Live Auction, Entertainment
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Here are just a few of the wonderful live auction items that will be available at Party Richmond on Saturday. April 13:
Peter Voulkos, Got the Cobalt Blues, 1979, Lithograph, 44/200
Santa Fe Getaway, three nights at the Casa de los Arroyos
Claire Falkenstein, Untitled, 1970, 18″x 24″
Fly fishing for two on the Feather River
Don’t forget that early bird picket prices for Party Richmond end in on Friday, March 15. Lock in the best and lowest ticket price by purchasing your event tickets now – onlineor by phone at 510-620-6580.
Plan now for a fun evening of art, live entertainment, drinks and hors d’oeuvres, and seeing the Richmond Art Center in action!
Early bird price until March 15: $50 member/ $55 non-member
Tickets after March 15: $55 member/$60 non-member
Tickets at the door: $65
Doors open at 5:30 pm
5:30-7:00: Entertainment, food, & drink
7:00: Awards ceremony
7:30: Live auction
Proceeds from the event will go towards the support of the education programs of Richmond Art Center.
Get your tickets today.
For information about becoming a sponsor of this event,
please contact Catherine Millar, Director of Development
510.620.6780 | catherine@richmondartcenter.org
Saturday, April 13, 5:30 to 9:00 pm
Drinks & Dinner Hors d’Oeuvres,
Awards, Live Auction, Entertainment
Early bird ticket deadline coming up!
Don’t forget that early bird picket prices for Party Richmond end in one week on March 15. Lock in the best and lowest ticket price by purchasing your event tickets now – online or by phone at 510-620-6580.
Plan now for a fun evening of art, live entertainment, drinks and hors d’oeuvres, and seeing the Richmond Art Center in action!
Early bird price until March 15: $50 member/ $55 non-member
Tickets after March 15: $55 member/$60 non-member
Tickets at the door: $65
Doors open at 5:30 pm
5:30-7:00: Entertainment, food, & drink
7:00: Awards ceremony
7:30: Live auction
Proceeds from the event will go towards the support of the education programs of Richmond Art Center.
For information about becoming a sponsor of this event,
please contact Catherine Millar, Director of Development
510.620.6780 | catherine@richmondartcenter.org
Want to learn to make your own jewelry or small sculptures?
Now’s the time to take one of our exciting Jewelry and Metals classes that are starting soon… most classes begin the week of January 7, so time is running out! (Registering as early as possible ensures you a seat in the class, and also helps the RAC staff know which classes need to be cancelled due to low enrollment.)
All metals class students receive 3 hours per week of open studio during the following times:
Tuesday: 9:30 am -12:30 pm, 1:00-4:00 pm
Saturday, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
If you are a recent former student (Summer or Fall 2018) and wish to work in the studio without instructor supervision, you can sign up for Beyond the Classroom Metals, and use the studio for 3 hours per week during the above times
And if 3 hours is not enough, and you’d like to work for up to 6 hours per week, sign up also forMetals Open Studio. This can be added on to either Beyond The Classroom or any class, but can’t be taken alone.
Saturday, April 13, 5:30 to 9:00 pm
Want to learn to make your own jewelry or small sculptures?
