Thank you to all of our volunteers for helping us out with Upcycle, our opening and closing receptions and for helping out with gallery installations! We would like to give a special thanks to Mary Gillis who is an extraordinary force transitioning our galleries from start to finish! Thank you Mary! You ROCK!
Thank you to all of our volunteers who were able to attend the Tea with Volunteers meeting on April 30th. It was a hot Spring day, but was nice underneath the shady trees in the Courtyard. Our open discussion was really helpful and allowed the volunteers to speak freely about their ideas and suggestions. We will definitely implement some of those ideas and keep an open door policy with our volunteers because you matter in a major way!
Art in the Community Director Rebeca Garcia-Gonzalez shares an update on the conclusion of the Annual Student Show and the beginning of the program’s popular STEAM Camps:
About the Art in the Community Show:
Our Art in the Community student show concluded this Saturday, May 30. The work will be returned to students this week, before public school ends. The work made by Washington Elementary will go on tour, thanks to Point Richmond artist Virginia Rigney. The pieces will be shown at Jubilee and Interactive Resources over the next weeks.
At no cost to you, your online purchases can help support the Art Center!
We all buy stuff on-line. It’s easy and convenient. With a tiny bit of advance planning, you can designate the Richmond Art Center as the recipient of a donation each time you buy. Your purchase price will not be increased; the donation comes from the company from which you are buying. Here are two ways to make this happen:
Our Cinco de Mayo parade will never be the same again! Not only was the Richmond Art Center one of the parade’s official sponsors for the first time ever, the partnership between our Art in the Community programs and the Peace and Unity Cinco de Mayo Parade Committee resulted in two colorful floats and lots of community participation.
The floats were designed and built by Latino families from San Pablo and Richmond who attended a free, eight week float design class taught by teaching artists Neil Rivas and Patricia Rodríguez. The idea behind this class was to get teens involved in a civic effort that would encourage them to learn about the parade’s history, submit a proposal for a public art piece, and take an idea through the entire design process. The classes were possible thanks to the generosity of the San Pablo Koshland Fellows and the parade’s steering committee.
The art of more than a thousand students is on display during the Center’s 3rd Annual Art in the Community Student Show, running through Friday, May 29. To celebrate the exhibition’s opening, a free, public opening reception was held on Sat., May 9, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
This year the show doubled in size, featuring the ceramics, digital prints, metal works, prints, screen prints, murals, super hero costumes, floats, paintings, zines, collages, stop motion animation and mosaics of our after school and residency programs. More than 18 Richmond, San Pablo and El Sobrante sites were represented.
On Tuesday, May 5, 2015 get ready to give for 24 hours to benefit your favorite local nonprofits. This is a great way to donate to organizations doing fantastic work like the Richmond Art Center. One of the oldest arts organizations in the Bay Area and the largest arts center in the East Bay, the Richmond Art Center provides quality programs and experiences in studio art, art in the community, and in exhibiting works of emerging and established Bay Area artists. We provide an invigorating environment where one can make, see and learn about art!
Here is your chance to make a difference! The Art Center’s goal is to raise over $3,000. Spread the word among your friends, acquaintances, and networks about the importance of East Bay Gives! Encourage them to make their own donations to Richmond Art Center and other participating charities. Like the East Bay Community Foundation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter, so that you can share posts about the event and the Art Center’s progress. Donate often on May 5th! Click here to make your donation.
Art in the Community Director Rebeca Garcia-Gonzalez shares an exciting update on how the program is engaging Richmond families in support of one of the city’s most important cultural celebrations of the year, Cinco de Mayo:
“Latino families are the students in a new class the Richmond Art Center is offering in collaboration with the Cinco de Mayo Parade Committee, the Latina Center and Richmond High School. The families are designing two floats that will become part of the Peace and Unity Cinco de Mayo Parade. The idea came from the parents and community members who are part of the parade’s organizing committee. They wanted the teens to participate in an art-making experience in connection with the parade’s floats. Such an experience, they believe, can help build community and channel teen energy towards a creative and engaging project. These art classes are free to the students, and are financed in part by the generosity of the San Pablo Koshland Fellows.
An amazing team from KTVU stopped by last month to produce this short documentary about our work. The video aired last night at the Lesher Center for the Arts before a talk by Robert Edsel, the author of The Monuments Men.
Our third annual Upcycle maker event is just one month away — Saturday, April 25 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm.
We’re busy planning a full afternoon of art-making for the whole family. A dozen upcycle workstation will feature hands-on activities to let you turn materials that would otherwise be headed for the landfill into art. Cool, right?
Well, we need a little help sourcing some of these materials and figured our amazing and creative community would be a great place to start.
We are seeing so many articles and studies these days which point to the many benefits of arts education. This latest article, Arts Education Transforms Societies, from the Huffington Post creates a link to what we’ve been saying for a while: Creativity and independent thinking are the skills that will create tomorrow’s entrepreneurs.
Plus these amazing statistics and facts about Arts Education:
1,500 CEOs from around the world named creativity as the leading skill needed for business success.
Arts education increases employment rates by raising high-school graduation rates.
Low-income students who are highly engaged in the arts are more than twice as likely to graduate from college as their peers with no arts education.
Low-income students with a high participation in the arts have a dropout rate of 4 percent, in contrast to their peers with a low participation in the arts who have a dropout rate of 22 percent.
This year, our Art in the Community program will bring free programs to teach more than 1,600 local children through dozens of after-school and summer programs at elementary, middle and high schools, community centers, the Richmond Main Public Library and our most recent addition, a day-time program at Washington Elementary School in Richmond. These programs are entirely supported through the generosity of foundations, businesses and individuals.
