Annual Holiday Arts Festival Takes Sabbatical for 2014
The Richmond Art Center has announced that its annual Holiday Arts Festival is taking a sabbatical for 2014.
“Organizing this annual community event is a labor of love and one that we all look forward to each year, but as a nonprofit and the largest visual arts center in the East Bay, we are often managing multiple priorities with limited resources. We determined that taking a sabbatical from the Festival this year would ensure that we are able to maintain the high quality of our on-the-ground programs,” says Richard Ambrose, executive director for the Richmond Art Center. The Festival will return in December 2015.
The Richmond Art Center has been celebrating many milestones this fall.
The Center’s Art in the Community programs, which bring free art-making classes to Richmond children, have experienced unprecedented growth and demand and have doubled in number in just one year. Over the Sept. 13-14 weekend, the Art Center hosted hundreds of people at the opening reception for new exhibitions, including a showcase of works by world-renowned artist Richard Diebenkorn and numerous artists from the Bay Area Figurative Movement.
These exhibitions, which underscore the Art Center’s historic role in supporting emerging and established artists, are complemented with a series of free programs and an expansion of the Center’s gallery hours to include Sundays.
“Thankfully, there will be many ways that the community can celebrate with us and support our work this fall,” said Ambrose. “I hope many come to see the impressive art on display in our free galleries, join our first Saturday Art Tours (Saturday, Oct. 4, 3:30pm), make art during our free Skeletonfest event (Saturday, Oct. 25, 1:00 – 3:00pm), take part in one of our 70 classes or workshops, or participate in one of the numerous exhibitions-related events, including the closing reception for our fall exhibitions (Sunday, Nov. 16, 3:00 – 5:00 pm).”
“The Holiday Arts Festival has been an important fundraiser and we continue to rely on ongoing financial support of our programs,” said Ambrose. “Right now, people interested in supporting the work of the Art Center can take advantage of two dollar-for-dollar matching grants programs we have in place.” Donations of $200–$999 will go twice as far due to an anonymous foundation, which will match donations one-to-one, up to the first $10,000. The City of Richmond is also generously matching gifts of $1,000 or more, dollar for dollar, up to the first $100,000. Donations can be made online or by calling 510-620-6772.
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