Reflecting on 2020, facing a new era…

Posted on November 12, 2020

End-of-Year Appeal

Hello Friends,

Thank you for being part of Richmond Art Center’s creative community. For nearly 85 years Richmond Art Center has been sharing art classes, events and exhibitions in Richmond, CA. But this year has been one of the most challenging times in our history; the Covid-19 pandemic turned our world upside-down, while the uprising for Black lives and racial justice called us to take time for internal reckoning.

We have moved forward with new ways of working, new partnerships and new projects. (See below some highlights for 2020.) But despite our successes Richmond Art Center took a serious financial hit with the temporary closure of our facility, and in October we had to reduce staff by 50%. Economic hardships, fires and smoke, and a stressful election have compounded challenges for our staff, volunteers, students and community. But through all this, it is art and creativity that have allowed us to find ways to come together, to heal, and to imagine.

We ask for your help to keep going. Please make a donation today to our Annual Fund.

Your donation, whatever the amount, will support our efforts to sustain our current activities, develop more remote programming, and remain poised to resume all of our programs once we reopen our facility.

In appreciation of your support, and in celebration of our 58th Annual Holiday Arts Festival, WE HAVE THANK YOU GIFTS! CLICK HERE to visit our website to see the cool and creative thank you gifts on offer.

Gifts not your thing? Click here to see other options for making a contribution to our Annual Fund.

We look forward to welcoming you back to Richmond Art Center soon. Until then, we hope you stay safe and well.

With gratitude,

José Rivera
Executive Director

Patricia Guthrie
President, Board of Directors

Support Richmond Art Center (and see the thank you gifts)

Thank you to staff, volunteers, teaching artists, students, partners and the community who came together in 2020 to…

Launch online art classes; working with over 30 teaching artists to run 50 classes and workshops reaching over 600 students
Expand our scholarship program to offer discounted and free classes to over 80 students
Host Morning Cup and Family Make; a summer series of free online classes for youth and adults
Create over 40 distance learning videos for 32,000 WCCUSD students and the general public
Commission Art Lives Here; paid seven local artists to create new work that responds to the isolation of shelter-in-place and find ways to connect with community
Create a Public Art Tour to honor some of the beloved artwork in our neighborhood
Distribute 100 free art kits with custom activity books to youth in Richmond
Develop a new e-newsletter for sharing ideas for folks to stay creative at home while sheltering-in-place
Reimagine our annual Holiday Arts Festival as an online and curbside event
Produce Creative Self-Care; a series of artist videos sharing art and self-care stories during the stressful time of the election
Present in our galleries:
- Art of the African Diaspora; the biggest and longest running event of its kind featuring work by over 150 artists of African descent
- The Future is Fluid; photography giving visibility to the non-binary community
- Right Here, Right Now, Richmond; Richmond Art Center’s first exhibition to feature work by Richmond artists in over thirty years