Deadline to Enter: Monday, February 21 (free entry!)
All artists who live and/or work in Richmond are invited to submit work for Right Here, Right Now: A Biennial of Richmond Art. Now in its second iteration, this exhibition looks at the excellent and risk-taking new work being made in our city. The exhibition will be installed in Richmond Art Center’s South Gallery in March.
Background image: Artwork by Roz Ritter, Missing, 2019, Hand embroidery of pancreatic beta cells. Roz was an exhibiting artist in Right Here, Right Now in 2020.
Join us for a special reception on Sunday, March 6, 12pm-4:30pm for Art of the African Diaspora 2022! Mix and mingle with exhibiting artists, enjoy art and music, and let’s celebrate 25 years of the Bay Area’s Black Artists Exhibition at Richmond Art Center.
Space is limited, RSVP required, don’t forget to reserve your space!
Live Music by Sean Norris
Gathering During a Pandemic: Because of the Covid-19 pandemic we are organizing the reception a little differently this year. To maximize social distancing and the flow of people through the galleries, folks are invited to sign up for ‘timeslots’ to ensure spaces do not get overcrowded. Our courtyard will be open for mingling and refreshments, and gallery numbers will be monitored. Mask wearing is required.
CLICK HERE to learn more about Art of the African Diaspora in 2022.
Due to the surge in Covid-19 cases we are postponing on-site classes for the safety of everyone involved for a few weeks. Students enrolled in in-person actvities will receive updates about their classes.
Exhibitions
New winter exhibitions are scheduled to open on January 20, 2022. To prevent the spread of Covid-19, mask wearing and signing a waiver/tracking form are currently a condition of entry to Richmond Art Center. Only a limited number of visitors will be allowed in our galleries at one time. Read more about our Covid-19 Prevention measures here: richmondartcenter.org/about/covid/
Gallery Hours: Thursday through Saturday, 10am-2pm
Please check our website for updates and before you plan a visit to Richmond Art Center – things could change suddenly!
For any questions please email admin@richmondartcenter.org
Cover image: Detail of a color study by Rebeca Garcia-González for a large-scale mural to be unveiled at RAC in 2022. Rebeca is also teaching Fundamental Drawing this winter.
Thank you for being an important part of Richmond Art Center’s vibrant and creative community. We really appreciate your generosity — especially now when your continued financial support is so vital to keep Richmond Art Center running.
For 85 years Richmond Art Center has been sharing and nurturing creativity in Richmond, CA. We are the largest visual arts center in the East Bay, a showcase and hands-on learning center that gives wide-ranging audiences the opportunity to create, see and learn about art. And this last year was momentous. After an eighteen month closure of our facility due to Covid-19, in September we successfully reopened for classes, exhibitions and some fabulous community events (see below for some highlights of 2021).
But these successes came at a cost. Richmond Art Center continues to take a financial hit with reduced enrollments, limited capacity for community activities, and shortened gallery and studio hours. We have ambitious plans for 2022, but with Covid-19 numbers currently increasing, we know we need to be poised for whatever comes our way.
Your donation, whatever the amount, will support our efforts to sustain our current activities, develop new programs, and be ready to tackle our next challenge.
We look forward to seeing you back at Richmond Art Center in 2022. Until then, we hope you stay safe and well.
With gratitude,
José Rivera Executive Director
Carlos Privat President, Board of Directors
Thank you to our community who came together in 2021 to…
Make our facility sparkle with renovated galleries & public spaces!
Run in-person, online & off-site classes for over 1,300 students!
Present 5 in-person exhibitions, 6 online exhibitions & 6 artist talks featuring over 350 artists!
Expand our scholarship program & free classes (30% of students took a class for free)!
Bring hundreds of people together safely in our courtyard for special events celebrating local art & artists, Día de los Muertos, and Indigenous Peoples’ Day!
Begin an artist residency with print collective Liberación Gráfica!
Plus so much more… and we ask for your help to keep going!
“It gave me a sense of hope and that my circle of support was widening at a time when we were all feeling increased isolation.”
By Laura Kamian McDermott
In Summer of 2019 I dropped off my “Studio Ceiling, Giant Trade Center” tapestry at the Richmond Art Center for their annual Members Exhibition. I was elated to hear from the curator on the eve of the opening that this tapestry had earned me a 3-person exhibition to be held in the Summer of 2020! The other artists chosen were Steven Morales, a Richmond-based mixed-media artist who is influenced by materials and themes in his architecture practice, and Oakland-based ceramicist and painter Leslie Plato Smith whose work focuses on climate issues.
Leslie, Steven and I started having rotating potluck dinners at each other’s houses to get to know each other better and talk art. In January of 2020 Amy Spencer, the RAC Exhibitions Director, came to our studios to choose work for the summer show. Then came March 2020…
Throughout the shutdown, all four of us kept in touch, checking in on each other, our families, our art practices, and how we were all coping. It was comforting to have these brand-new connections in my life. It gave me a sense of hope and that my circle of support was widening at a time when we were all feeling increased isolation. Big thanks to Amy, Leslie, and Steven for staying in touch!
Fast forward to Fall 2021… We are cautiously entering better times! The galleries at the Richmond Art Center are now open and they are offering some in-person classes in addition to the online classes they hosted throughout the pandemic. Our show, now titled “Opossum Magic,” based on an opossum trapped in Leslie’s studio, is one of 4 shows on display during this tender moment of reopening. The theme of our show centers on our shared use of materials and inspirations from our everyday life in our creative work. My “Jagged Skyline of Car Keys” series, based on keys from my junk drawer, is on display as well as several other tapestries. Also included is a large-scale felted I-Cord (knitted tube), hung in the abstract gesture and knotted shape that the felting process helped set it into. I also updated my Armenian Alphabet series, spelling out some new words related to our shared pandemic experience and re-opening: “Breath, shunch”, “Community, hamaynk”, and “Connection, kap.” My work is interspersed with Leslie and Steven’s throughout the gallery. All our works are full of rich textures and vivid colors, a great celebration for the RAC’s re-opening! We were able to hold a Covid19-friendly reception on October 16th, making use of the outdoor courtyard. It very nearly felt like a normal reception and was so good for the soul. Thank you Care and Dance for coming out! Throughout the show I’ve been meeting friends and family, some of whom I haven’t seen in over two years, at the gallery for intimate small group visits. It has been a sweet and hopeful way to re-gather. As of this writing, two of the key skyline pieces have sold from the RAC show, and I’ve also sold a few pieces off of my website and Instagram earlier in the year. Priorities shifted during the past couple of years, and I’m glad to see personal art purchases bringing joy and comfort into people’s homes.
Opossum Magic is on display through November 18th. I hope those of you who are nearby get a chance to see it in person! Let me know if you are planning a visit, I’m 10 minutes away and may be able to meet you. And check out the three other exhibits while you are there:
Laura Kamian McDermott wrote this piece for the Tapestry Weavers West newsletter. Thank you for sharing it with us also, Laura! tapestryweaverswest.org
Top Image: Leslie Smith (left), Steven Morales (center), and Laura Kamian McDermott (right) at Richmond Art Center. Note, masks were temporarily removed for this photo. Please wear your mask at RAC. 🙂
Feliz día de los Muertos | Get Creative, Give Creative | Don’t Miss Out | Upcoming Classes Open Studios Invitation
Feliz día de los Muertos
Remembering Our Loved Ones
It’s Día de los Muertos and we remember friends and family members who are no longer with us.
Thank you to everyone who came to our Día de los Muertos Family Day celebration on October 23. It was a wonderful day of community and creativity. We’ve shared some photos from the day on our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/RichmondArtCenter
59th Annual Holiday Arts Festival Get creative and give creative this holiday season Online and In-Person* Activities | Starts November 4
Richmond Art Center invites creative gift-makers, holiday shoppers and art lovers to experience the 59th Annual Holiday Arts Festival! With the Arts & Crafts Hub, Ceramics Sale, and free gift-making workshop series, the Holiday Arts Festival has something for everyone to get creative and give creative this holiday season.
Stay tuned later this week for an e-announcement with everything you need to know about the Holiday Arts Festival this year!
*In-person activities are subject to change as we see further developments in the Covid-19 pandemic. Mask wearing and signing a Visitor Waiver is a condition of entry to RAC. We track attendee numbers in the courtyard and galleries to ensure spaces do not get too crowded. Read more about Richmond Art Center’s Covid-19 safety measures HERE (https://richmondartcenter.org/about/covid/) .
Top and bottom banner image: Alebrije workshop with Rachel-Anne Palacios at Fall Family Day
Have something to share? Please email us at admin@richmondartcenter.org
Be Part of the 25th Anniversary of the Bay Area Black Artists Exhibition at Richmond Art Center!
Ad Deadline: Sunday, November 21, 2021
Founded 1997
100-150 artists participate annually
Major exhibition at Richmond Art Center
20-30 open studios annually
10-20 satellite exhibitions annually
Featured speaker events, special receptions, artist talks, live performances
Reaches an annual audience of over 5,000 Bay Area residents!!
Advertise in the Art of the African Diaspora Guide: The Catalogue is a 30+ page full color magazine published and distributed in conjunction with Art of African Diaspora. 3,000 copies will be printed and distributed to arts and community venues throughout the Bay Area. Click here to view the 2020 Art of the African Diaspora Catalogue
AD RATES:
CATALOGUE SIZE 11” H x 8.5” W
Back Cover: $500 – 10 3/4″ H x 7 3/4″ W SOLD
Front Inside Cover: $450 – 10 3/4″ H x 7 3/4″ W SOLD
Back Inside Cover: $400 – 10 3/4″ H x 7 3/4″ W
Full Page: $300 – 10 3/4″ H x 7 3/4″ W
1/2 Page: $175 – 4 3/4″ H x 7 3/4″ W
1/4 Page: $90 – 4 3/4″ H x 3 1/2″ W
Ad Deadline: Sunday, November 21, 2021
Questions? Please contact info@aotad.org
Terms: Art of the African Diaspora will publish your advertisement in the 2022 Art of the African Diaspora Catalogue. Total circulation 3,500. Ads must be submitted in digital format (pdf or eps file), full color, 300dpi and ad slick/print-ready (to size), sent via email to amy@richmondartcenter.org no later than November 21, 2021. Ad payment in full must be received by November 21, 2021 . All sales and transactions are final. The Art of the African Diaspora Steering Committee reserves the right to assign advertising space. Ads also appear in an online version of the publication.
100% of funds go to the Art of the African Diaspora Steering Committee, who is solely responsible for producing and publishing the Catalogue.
Prefer to pay with a check?CLICK HERE to download the pdf ad form. Checks should be made payable to Richmond Art Center. Completed forms and checks should be mailed to Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804 by the ad deadline.
Feliz día de los Muertos | Get Ready for the Holiday Arts Festival | Seeing Urban Nature new class Be Part of the 25th Anniversary | Upcoming Classes | In Memoriam
Feliz día de los Muertos
Día de los Muertos Saturday, October 23, 12pm-3pm* at Richmond Art Center FREE
Family Day is back at RAC with a special celebration of Día de los Muertos happening this Saturday, October 23, 12pm-3pm. Featuring Alebrije workshop, performances by Puerto Rican youth Bomba ensemble Quenepas, storyteller Olga Loya, and more!
Holiday Arts Festival – Artist Registration Open!!
Join the Arts & Crafts Hub for the Holiday Arts Festival (https://richmondartcenter.org/haf/) ! This online space is for Bay Area artists and makers to share and/or sell their work during the holiday season. New/recent/past work, holiday crafts, end-of-year sales, mini-exhibitions, posters for change, messages for peace… it’s all welcome!
Julia Beery spoke with us about her new class Urban Nature Journaling (https://www.hisawyer.com/the-richmond-art-center/schedules/activity-set/260599) . She says, “Students who take this class will start to see that you don’t need to be a scientist to understand the natural world, anybody’s observations are valid.”
Art of the African Diaspora 2022 Artist Deadline to Register: Sunday, October, 31, 2021, 11:59pm
Artists, be part of the 25th Anniversary of the Bay Area Black Artists’ exhibition at Richmond Art Center! Art Of The African Diaspora is a non-juried group exhibition featuring work by artists of African descent. The showcase exhibition is held at Richmond Art Center and is accompanied by self-guided open studio tours and satellite exhibitions throughout the Bay Area.
Lynn passed on October 10 after a swift battle with cancer. A talented and prolific textile artist, Lynn was a kind and welcoming member of Richmond Art Center’s weaving community. Her quiet cheer and giving spirit will be greatly missed by all who knew her. Her friends are planning an exhibition of her past 15 years of work (date TBD).
*In-person activity dates are subject to change as we see further developments in the Covid-19 pandemic. Mask wearing and signing a Visitor Waiver is a condition of entry to RAC events. We track attendee numbers in the courtyard and galleries to ensure spaces do not get too crowded. Read more about Richmond Art Center’s Covid-19 safety measures HERE (https://richmondartcenter.org/about/covid/) .
Have something to share? Please email us at admin@richmondartcenter.org
Julia Beery is a science illustrator with a passion for drawing all the animal, plant, and fungi who live in the Bay Area. Her most peaceful moments are spent capturing the curve of a petal in ink. When Julia is not creating science illustrations she likes to sew clothing and embroider what she already owns to make it feel new again. @juliabeery_art
Julia Beery spoke with Amy Spencer, Richmond Art Center’s Exhibitions Director, on October 21, 2021
Thanks for speaking with me today, Julia. As a new teaching artist at Richmond Art Center can you please introduce yourself to our community.
Hi, I’m Julia Beery. I was born in Berkeley and have spent most of my life in the Bay Area. I left for a while to attend school but am now back and living in Point Richmond. Where I grew up in Berkeley there are lots of wild and overgrown backyards. And I loved wandering around seeing all the birds and insects and animals. It often felt like I was in a forest, even though it’s a city.
How did you get started as an artist?
I’ve always been drawing. At some point during high school I started feeling shy about calling myself an artist. So I tried to find another way I could make a career from art, and went ahead and completed a degree in Art Conservation. Art Conservation is a blend of chemistry and art history with the goal to preserve artworks for future generations. I thought it was interesting but I still wanted to make my own work. Then I heard about the Science Illustration program at California State University Monterey Bay. I applied and got in. It was an incredible experience; a really great course and I felt part of a wonderful community there.
I’m fairly new to this career but I like how science illustration is collaborative. I like talking to scientists and developing work as part of a conversation. There is so much research and talking involved before you even start drawing.
Can you tell us about the Urban Nature Journaling class you are teaching at Richmond Art Center this semester?
This class is about finding ways to observe the natural world. My plan for the start is to bring everyone outside at Miller-Knox beach in Point Richmond to talk about the materials for field sketching. It’s a small kit – pencils, paper, watercolors. You really don’t need a lot of equipment to start.
I will then give some demonstrations and teach some simple drawing techniques designed to get students started looking, sketching and sharing. But it’s not just about drawing. We’ll also be doing things like writing, recording sounds, and creating swatches of color.
The goal is not to create a finished piece, but rather to get lost in the pleasure of observing and making art.
Is much science involved?
Nothing intimidating. There will be a quick intro to botanical terminology. At this time of year there aren’t so many flowers around, so we’ll focus on leaves a lot. We’ll look at their different shapes and arrangements, and then practice using the different terms to describe what we see. Hopefully we might find some mushrooms too, that would be cool!
What is one thing you think students will walk away with after taking your class?
I’m hoping that after taking this class students will feel they can look at their surroundings in their neighborhoods and observe them in a new way. I hope they get into the habit of taking their journal with them and recording what they see over time.
Nature journaling is, like any journaling, a record of a time and a place. One of the most important things to do is to record where you are and what time of year. Then you can really start to build your knowledge of the natural world.
Students who take this class will start to see that you don’t need to be a scientist to understand the natural world, anybody’s observations are valid.
Nudibranchs by Julia Beery
What art projects are you working on at the moment?
I’ve been doing a digital illustration series of nudibranchs, which are a kind of sea slug. I’ve been doing a lot of digital drawings since the pandemic. This work is in a group show at the Deep Ocean Explore Store in Alameda that will be opening this Saturday at noon. It should be up for a while if people are interested in checking it out. If you don’t know about nudibranchs, they are so much fun!
I’ve been doing a digital illustration series of nudibranchs, which are a kind of sea slug. I’ve been doing a lot of digital drawings since the pandemic. This work is in a group show at the Deep Ocean Explore Store in Alameda that will be opening this Saturday at noon. It should be up for a while if people are interested in checking it out. If you don’t know about nudibranchs, they are so much fun!
Urban Nature Journaling with Julia Beery starts on Thursday, November 4. The class meets weekly for four weeks from 12pm to 2pm. CLICK HERE to learn more and register online.
