ISSUE 5 Art Lives Here: New Artworks Unveiled | Classes for At-Home Creativity | See and Make Art: Let’s Get Mucky | And Other News
Art Lives Here
Image: Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo’s banner and Agana’s mural now adorn RAC’s facade Photo by Francisco Roja @pac_pops
Two New Artworks Reflect Community on RAC’s Facade
Art Lives Here is a series of RAC commissioned projects designed to support artists and build community connection during shelter-in-place. Two new projects from the series were unveiled this month…
For This is life long work (2020), a 13 foot high banner by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, the artist collaborated with RAC staff and teaching artists through a discussion on community care. The resulting conversation shaped Branfman-Verissimo’s work.
Richmond-artist Agana spent two days creating her site-specific mural that now adorns the columns flanking RAC’s Barrett Street entrance. After five months of RAC’s facility being closed to the public, it was so exciting to have an artist working onsite again!!
Remake your clothes!! This is a great online class for sheltering-in-place creativity! Rag Lab online workshops explore ways to create interesting garments using pre-worn clothing and found materials. Get yourself a new wardrobe without even leaving the house! Instructor: Vida Vazquez
Adult Class | Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, Aug 25 – Sep 8 | Sign up for one or all classes!
Learn to render animals using techniques with media including pen and ink, watercolor brush markers, acrylic markers, colored pencils, wax pastels, and paint. Great for students wanting to try new media! Instructor: Jennifer Linderman
Adult Class | Thursdays, 1-3pm, Aug 27 – Sep 24 | Sign up for one or all classes!
Family MAKE is a family-friendly online space for exploration and creativity. This week teaching artist Lauren Ari will lead participants through a short drawing activity. Bring plain paper and a pen or pencil.
Save the Date! Registration for Online Fall Art Classes will open September 14.
Free Arts Kits are Coming… Staff are working hard developing youth arts kits that will be distributed for free at a community event. More info soon!
We cleaned. The month RAC’s entire 24,000 square foot facility was professionally fogged and cleaned. We’re ready to open as soon as it’s safe to do so.
*Staff Pick* In the community… Bridge the Ballot is an hybrid live/virtual exhibition on view Bridge ArtSpace (Sep-Nov). Join curator Jenny Balisle, Claudia Jiménez and the artists for a virtual reception and panel discussion on September 25 at 7pm.
ISSUE 4 Collaborate with Artist Dawline-Jane Oni-Eseleh | Art is Wellness Events and Classes | A Moment to Reflect Together
Special Project
Image courtesy of Dawline-Jane Oni-Eseleh
Collaborate with Artist Dawline-Jane Oni-Eseleh
During shelter-in-place RAC is working with artists to build opportunities to make meaning of our experiences through art.
Dawline-Jane Oni-Eseleh is an artist (and Teaching Artist at RAC!) whose current work is focused primarily on the shifting urban landscape. Oni-Eseleh’s project with RAC aims to capture brief moments from people’s lives to create a physical record of our time apart.
She invites the Richmond community to share images with her via Instagram @disfordiletante which document some of the simple, candid moments of this time.
Oni-Eseleh says of her project, “My hope is to create a larger ‘snapshot’ of these times that goes beyond the news, to show how connected we still are in our day to day.”
Explore the wide world of mixed medium sculpture with hands-on projects inspired by the work of prominent artists in paper, textiles, cardboard, and recycled materials.
Teaching Artist Erin McCluskey Wheeler invites participants to collect a few pencils, crayons, or pens, to join her to play The Doodle Game! All ages and families welcome!
New to drawing? This class is geared towards ABSOLUTE beginners, and is a great opportunity to jump in. La maestra habla español. Teaching Artist: Rebeca García-González
Introducing… Date Night! Bring a date or a pal and join artist Vida Vazquez for a night of socializing and art-making. Sliding scale/pay what you can to participate. Materials list coming soon.
Adult Meet-Up | Thursday, July 23, 7-8:30pm
Stillness, Slowness and Introspection
An Invitation to Reflect Together
As we sit with the historic and current realities of systemic oppression that the Black Lives Matter movement has called global attention to, we invite our community to take a moment for time to reflect and process.
As we sit with the historic and current realities of systemic oppression that the Black Lives Matter movement has called global attention to, we invite our community to take a moment for time to reflect and process.
RICHMOND, CA: Richmond Art Center launches RAC UPLOADED, a new online art program. RAC UPLOADED includes workshops, classes, demos and virtual meet-ups featuring accessible materials and media for at-home creativity.
Online offerings for adults, youth, children and families
Making screen time active and engaging
Fee, sliding-scale and free options
New classes starting weekly
“Art-making offers a great opportunity to bring people together during shelter-in-place for creativity and connection,” says José Rivera, RAC’s Executive Director. “When designing their classes our Teaching Artists thought carefully about what experiences people might be needing as they self-isolate; tactile experiences, opportunities for new forms of expression, opportunities for meeting new people. There is an important connection between art and wellness, and right now we need art more than ever.”
CLASSES: Classes include both single workshops and cumulative sessions running one to four weeks. Adult classes running this month include Fundamental Drawing taught by Rebeca García-González, Rag Lab a series of upcycled fashion workshops by Vida Vazquez, and Visual Journalingwith Dawline-Jane Oni-Eseleh. For young artists and families, class offerings include Beginner Origami, Mixed Medium Sculpture, and Pop-Up Paper.
DEMOS: A series of live artist demonstrations will create experiences for students to pick up techniques and tips through watching artists in action. Demos will range from digital illustration to botanical monoprints to edible clay (!).
FREE MEET-UPS: In addition to paid and sliding-scale events, RAC is running free drop-in gatherings for students to visit with each other virtually while participating in an art-making activity facilitated by a teaching artist. Family MAKE happens every Thursday from 4-5pm and is an all-ages family-friendly space for exploration and creativity. Morning Cup is geared towards adult students and happens 10am-11am every Friday (participants are encouraged to bring their favorite morning cup!).
Art Boost! Making art accessible to everyone is at the heart of the Richmond Art Center’s mission. Needs-based Art Boost scholarships are available for eligible children, teens and adults. The Scholarship Request Form is available on RAC’s website under ‘Art Classes’.
About Richmond Art Center: Richmond Art Center has been sharing art and creating experiences for making together in Richmond since 1936. We offer art classes and workshops for over 5,000 adults and youth per year to create, experience and share art at our facility and in local schools and community spaces. We also present rotating exhibitions of work by Bay Area artists, attracting over 18,000 visitors to our four galleries annually.
Media Contact: Amy Spencer, amy@richmondartcenter.org
The Richmond Art Center’s new executive director, José R. Rivera, might be the non-profit organization’s most improbable appointment of its 84-year history. The arts education and exhibition center is prominently located at Richmond’s Civic Center Plaza and has four galleries, over 600 members, hundreds of art classes, an operating budget of over $1.5 million and serves thousands of underserved youth and adults in workshops and community outreach presentations. Visibility is RAC’s middle name, it could be assumed.
We are saddened by the death of artist Clayton Bailey on Saturday, June 6 at age 81. Known for his innovative and irreverent ceramic and metal sculpture, Bailey was a lead figure in the Funk Art and Nut Art movements. He lived in Port Costa for many years, and from 2013 until recently ran the Bailey Art Museum in Crockett.
Bailey first exhibited at Richmond Art Center in a group show in 1970. He went on to be included in exhibitions every decade at RAC until 2009, when he participated in a two-person show with his wife, Betty Bailey, called Robots & Watercolors. This exhibition was organized by Richmond-artist John Wehrle and featured over thirty of Bailey’s metal robot sculptures displayed beside Betty’s whimsical watercolor paintings. Betty died in 2019.
A Statement by John Wehrle
In art and life Clayton Bailey was generous to a fault. His eccentric creations, whether ceramic or metal, were always exquisitely crafted and whimsically logical.
Clayton’s work personified a serious quirkiness that was emblematic of a rich vein of irreverent humor that found fertile ground in Northern California.
I first became aware of Clayton’s work viewing Dr.Gladstone’s ceramic discoveries at the de Young in 1975. I was working under the CETA program and painting my first mural there. The elaborate comic nature of Clayton’s installation was delightful and memorable.
Years later, our artistic paths crossed again when Jeff Nathanson included Clayton and myself, along with other Contra Costa artists in the introductory North by Northwest show at Richmond Art Center.
For RAC’s 50th anniversary exhibition in 1996, Jeff commissioned Clayton to make a commemorative edition of “Dr. Gladstone’s Snake Oil” ceramic jugs as a part of the celebration. I still treasure mine.
Dr. Gladstone’s Snake Oil by Clayton Bailey
And Clayton and I both owned 1950 Bullet Nose Studebakers, albeit at different stages of our lives.
So it was an honor and a privilege when Clayton agreed to exhibit his robots along with Betty’s drawings at RAC in 2009.
Robots and Watercolors, Richmond Art Center, 2009
Clayton’s robots exist in a world, inspired by Captain Marvel and Studebakers, where a brighter future of robot butlers is just around the corner. In today’s world of plastic and pixels these robots propel a metal flea market past into the future. The pleasure of Clayton’s work lies in the recognition of the alternator or the teapot transformed into an anthropomorphic dog or tipsy ballerina. They ultimately speak as much to the human condition as to the world of technological wonders.
“Art of the Heal”, East Bay Express, By Janis Hashe, June 17, 2020
When it’s safe to do so, the venerable Richmond Art Center will reopen under new leadership. José R. Rivera, the new executive director, is well aware he’s assuming control as the RAC faces multiple challenges.
“Richmond Art Center appoints Jose R. Rivera as new executive director”, Richmond Standard, By Mike Aldax, June 15, 2020
The Richmond Art Center has appointed Jose R. Rivera as its new executive director.
Patricia Guthrie, board of directors president for the Richmond Art Center, described Rivera as having “a wealth of management experience and a deep commitment to the arts and community which we feel will help move the Richmond Art Center forward at a time of great societal change.”
Mientras tomo el mando del Richmond Art Center, mi corazón está triste por el asesinato de George Floyd y las más de 100,000 vidas perdidas durante los últimos meses de la pandemia de coronavirus. Esto, por supuesto, es en suma a las pérdidas de Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade y muchos otros.
As I take over the helm of Richmond Art Center, my heart is heavy mourning the murder of George Floyd and the over 100,000 lives lost during the past months of coronavirus pandemic. This, of course, is on top of the losses of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade and countless others.
I am outraged and saddened by their murders. However, outrage is not enough. As philanthropy shifts its response to support our communities’ recovery, we wholeheartedly agree not to go back to the so called “normal”.
RICHMOND, CA: El Centro de Arte de Richmond (Richmond Art Center) se complace en anunciar el nombramiento de José R. Rivera para el cargo de Director Ejecutivo. La presidenta de la Junta Directiva, Patricia Guthrie, dijo: “El Sr. Rivera trae una gran experiencia de gestión y un profundo compromiso con el arte y la comunidad, que creemos que ayudará a sacar adelante al Richmond Art Center en un momento de gran cambio social”. La contratación del Sr. Rivera se produce después de una extensa búsqueda en la que participó la Junta Directiva, el personal del RAC y miembros de la comunidad.
