Richmond Art Center invites creative gift-makers, holiday shoppers and art lovers to experience the 59th Annual Holiday Arts Festival!
The Holiday Arts Festival is a beloved tradition at Richmond Art Center for over half a century. In 2021 we’re getting into the holiday spirit over two months – November and December – with both in-person and online activities that celebrate the joy of making, discovering, and gifting arts and crafts.
Online Arts & Crafts Hub
Online Artist Listings
November 4 – December 31, 2021
The Arts & Crafts Hub is an online space for Bay Area artists and makers to share and/or sell their work during the holiday season. It is a retail space for holiday arts and crafts shopping, but it is more than that too! Hub launches November 4!
Artists, click HERE to register your listing in the hub.
Ceramics Sale
In-Person Ceramics Store at Richmond Art Center
Thursdays and Saturdays, 10am-2pm, November 4 – November 20, 2021
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA
Our popular Ceramics Sale is back in-person this year with an opportunity to shop local and handmade for your holiday gifts! Stop by Richmond Art Center anytime during gallery hours from November 4 through to November 20 and purchase beautiful and usable ceramics such as plates, cups, bowls, made by our students, teachers and friends. The Ceramics Sale will be set up in our galleries and new pieces will be added weekly.
All sales benefit Richmond Art Center.
Make a Gift That Brings Joy
Free Workshops Online and In-Person
Workshop announcements and registration links coming soon!
Is there anything more special than receiving a holiday gift that is handmade by the person giving it to you? This free workshop series is designed for folks who need a nudge towards starting their holiday craft gift projects.
Join us for art-making, dancing and more! This fun day for the family is not to be missed!
Family Day is coming back to Richmond Art Center with a special celebration of Día de los Muertos on Saturday, October 23, 12pm-3pm. Kids of all ages and their grown-ups are invited to join us in RAC’s courtyard for art-making, dancing, music and more.
This free family event will feature an Alebrije workshop, performances by Puerto Rican youth Bomba ensemble Quenepas, and storyteller Olga Loya. RAC artists-in-residence Liberación Gráfica will be there screen printing tote bags and the Great Tortilla Conspiracy will also be printing up some tortilla art!
Schedule of Activities:
12pm-1pm First Alebrije workshop with Rachel-Anne Palacios
1pm-2pm Performances by Bomba group Quenepas followed by storyteller Olga Loya
1pm-2pm Second Alebrije workshop
Tissue paper Mexican paper flower making, scavenger hunt, printmaking, community altar, and music by DJ Dion Decibels will run 12pm-3pm.
Covid-19 Prevention protocols: Mask wearing and signing a Visitor Waiver will be a condition of entry. We will track attendee numbers in the courtyard and galleries to ensure spaces do not get too crowded.
Día de los Muertos
Día de la familia de otoño 2021
Sábado 23 de octubre, de 12:00 a 15:00 horas | GRATIS
Richmond Art Center (patio), 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond
¡Únase a nosotros para hacer arte, bailar y más! ¡Este divertido día para la familia no se lo debe perder!
El Día de la Familia regresa al Centro de Arte de Richmond con una celebración especial del Día de los Muertos el sábado 23 de octubre, de 12 pm a 3 pm. Los niños de todas las edades y sus adultos están invitados a unirse a nosotros en el patio del RAC para hacer arte, bailar, escuchar música y más.
Este evento familiar gratuito contará con un taller de Alebrije, actuaciones del conjunto de bomba juvenil puertorriqueño Quenepas y la narradora Olga Loya. Los artistas residentes de RAC Liberación Gráfica también imprimirán bolsas de tela y la Gran Conspiración de la Tortilla también imprimirá un poco de arte de tortillas.
Programa de actividades:
12: 00-13:00 Primer taller de Alebrije con Rachel-Anne Palacios
13:00-14:00 Actuaciones del grupo Bomba Quenepas seguido por la narradora Olga Loya
13:00-14:00 Segundo taller de Alebrije
Papel de seda La fabricación de flores de papel mexicano, la búsqueda del tesoro, el grabado, el altar comunitario y la música de DJ Dion Decibels se llevarán a cabo de 12 pm a 3 pm.
Protocolos de prevención de Covid-19: El uso de mascarillas y su firma aceptando nuestras reglas como visitante será una condición para la entrada. Realizaremos un seguimiento del número de asistentes en el patio y las galerías para garantizar que los espacios no se llenen demasiado.
*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.
Top image: Gail Rubin, Tribute to Natalia Arbelaez, 2021. Created in “Handbuilding: Women in Contemporary Ceramics” with Colleen Garland and featured in Works From Home
Folks are invited to come for all or part of the program. Please note, space on the exhibition tour is limited.
SPECIAL GUESTS
Anne Begay, Diné, Co-founder of AIM-Denver Chapter in 1970; Rigo 23, Artist
POETRY / SPOKEN WORD
Tongo Eisen-Martin, San Francisco Poet Laureate; Doggtown Dro, Rapper, poet and artist; Meres-sia Gabriel, Richmond based writer, Panther Cub; Arnoldo García, Chiapas Support Committee; CieraJevae, Richmond Poet Laureate; Sheila McKinney, Richmond Youth Poet Laureate; Flavia Elisa Mora, Poet and Migrant Artivist; Kathy Peltier, Leonard Peltier’s daughter; Brian Tripp, Karuk, visionary artist, poet and esteemed elder
Please RSVP HERE if you would like to attend Gathering in the Spirit of Gwarth-ee-lass.
Like most Indian people, I have several names. In Indian Way, names come to you in the course of your life, not just when you’re born. Some come during childhood ceremonies; others are given on special occasions throughout your life. Each name gives you a new sense of yourself and your own possibilities. And each name gives you something to live up to. It points out the direction you’re supposed to take in this life. One of my names is Tate Wikuwa, which means “Wind Chases the Sun in the Dakota language. That name was my great-grandfather’s. Another name, bestowed on me by my Native Canadian brethren, is Gwarth-ee-lass, meaning “He Leads the People.”
Leonard Peltier, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, 1999
BIOS
Anne Begay, Diné
Born in New México and raised traditionally by her grandparents, Anne was sent to boarding schools in Oklahoma and New México. She survived that experience and later attended Haskell Indian Nations University and the University of Nebraska where she joined the Student Senate and majored in History. While there she also studied English and stage acting.
She enlisted in the US Army and joined AIM – American Indian Movement – co-founding the Denver Chapter in 1970. She worked at the Denver AIM office while still in the Army.At the time of her discharge, Wounded Knee Occupation, 1973, was taking place, Anne helped with that effort. She gave birth to her single daughter, Kathy Peltier 1975. She and her daughter Kathy, joined the Longest Walk in 1978. Anne raised Kathy on her own, remaining close to her and the Movement to this day – mainly as a “keyboard warrior.”
Together with Kathy she makes regalia and traditional beaded jewelry that they bring to rallies, speaking events, dances and pow-wows. This supplements Kathy’s travel expenses to see her father who is presently at Coleman Prison in Florida. They have been collaborating with Rigo in the Leonard Peltier Statue Project since 2018.
Doggtown Dro
Rapper, poet, artist. Pan African, Abolitionist and Revolutionary.
Tongo Eisen-Martin
Tongo Eisen-Martin is the current poet laureate of San Francisco. He is the author of Heaven Is All Goodbyes, published as part of City Lights’ Pocket Poet series, and someone’s dead already. Heaven Is All Goodbyes was shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize, received the California Book Award for Poetry, an American Book Award, and a PEN Oakland Book Award. Eisen-Martin is also an educator and organizer whose work centers on issues of mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings of Black people, and human rights. He has taught at detention centers around the country and at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, and is the founder of Black Freighter Press. His second book in the City Lights Pocket Poet series, Blood on the Fog, will be released in the fall of 2021.
Arnoldo García
Known as a colibrí, Arnoldo García is a community-based poet, musician and organizer. He is the co-author of XicKorea: poems, words, rants together with Beth Ching and Miriam Ching Louie and editor of Poets against War & Racism | Poetas contra la guerra y el racismo, a chapbook anthology of multinational and multiracial poets. Arnoldo is a member of the Chiapas Support Committee, which supports the Zapatistas and Indigenous land justice movements. Arnoldo is a restorative justice practitioner training youth, adults and new and experienced community activists and organizers to create deliberate relationships across communities rooted in self-determination and deep justice. You can read his work at artofthecommune.wordpress.com.
CieraJevae
CieraJevae is a Richmond Native serving her community as an artist educator, a healer, Poet Laureate, writer, activist, and scholar. She reps her ancestors, & shines light on the lived experiences of the divinity in Black women & girls through poetry and performance. She is the published author of her new collection of poems, Unto Ivy’s Rib, as well as the author of two chapbooks, Testimonies of Richmond, and Incarcerated Words. She obtained her B.A in Sociology, and her MFA in Writing. She currently serves as the Media, Arts, and Culture Manager at the RYSE Center.com For more, go to her website at cierajevae.com.
Sheila McKinney
Sheila McKinney (she/her) is a 16 year old poet attending Pinole Valley High School. She serves on the Debate team, the African American Student Union, as well as WISE (Women in STEM Education). She is the first Youth Poet Laureate of Richmond, CA. She started writing and performing in 2020-2021, and already has co-facilitated a series of poetry workshops locally and nationally. Sheila uses poetry as a form of activism and as a tool for moving the world into a more just and loving place. Working with youth and learning from her peers has been one of the highlights of her experience as Richmond’s Youth Poet Laureate and a RYSE member.
Flavia Elisa Mora
Flavia Elisa Mora is a queer, Mexican migrant artivist, raised in La Mission, San Francisco. Amongst her interdisciplinary art practice, her main two focuses are muralismo and poesía.
Flavia is a published writer, she has performed poetry throughout the Bay Area, and is one of the lead artists for the mural, “Alto al Fuego en la Misión” located on 24th and Capp. Her passions for both muralismo and spoken word poetry collide through her understanding that both forms are vessels for preserving history, intergenerational healing tools, and expressions of the soul.
Flavia’s prioritization of her own healing ties with her belief that revolution starts from the heart. She hopes that through her art, she can help create space for inspiration and positive change in her community.
Kathy Peltier, Dine’h/Navajo
Ya’ at’e’e’h, hello my name is Kathy Peltier. My parents are Anne Begay and Leonard Peltier. I’m an enrolled member of the Dine’h/Navajo Nation. I’m also Lakota and Turtle Mountain Ojibwe. I currently reside in Southern California.
Kathy Peltier is a dancer, beadwork artist and world traveler. She started dancing when she was two years old, and has attended powwows all over the US as a traditional dancer. Kathy’s travels also include touring with Red Sun Rising to Australia as part of a dance troupe. To book Kathy for travel you can contact her via her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kathy.peltier.12 or on Instagram @wazi_kat.
DJ Petrelli
DJ Petrelli is a revolutionary artist living in San Francisco.
Rigo 23
Rigo 23 has exhibited his work internationally for over 30 years placing murals, paintings, sculptures, and tile work in public situations where viewers are encouraged to examine their relationship to their community, their role as unwitting advocates of public policy, and their place on a planet occupied by many other living things.
Rigo’s projects have included inter-communal collaborations with Native Tribes in North and South America; long-term partnerships with political prisoners; and alliances with underrepresented and disenfranchised individuals and communities. @rigo23studio@peltierstatue
Leonard Peltier’s 77th Birthday and Reception for Rigo 23’s Time and Again
Sunday, September 12, 3pm-6pm
Richmond Art Center’s Courtyard, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
Please join us at Richmond Art Center on Sunday, September 12 from 3pm to 6pm for a special reception to honor Leonard Peltier’s 77th birthday – the 45th he spends behind bars. Congratulations Leonard on another year of Dignified Resistance.
We will also be celebrating the opening of Rigo’s 23’s exhibition Time and Again.
Special guests Kathy Peltier, Leonard Peltier’s daughter, and Anne Begay – co-founder of American Indian Movement’s Denver chapter and Kathy’s mother – will be in attendance. As well as AIM West Executive Director Tony Gonzales and José Cuéllar (a.k.a, Dr. Loco), who will perform a flute solo.
COVID-19 Prevention protocols: This event will be held outdoors in Richmond Art Center’s courtyard. To prevent the spread of COVID-19 we are requesting all guests RSVP. Temperature checks, mask wearing, and signing a Visitor Waiver will be a condition of entry. Learn more about what RAC is doing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 HERE.
Image: Kathy Peltier stands on the feet from Rigo 23’s statue of Leonard Peltier. Photo by Rio Yañez
Join us Friday, June 25, 3:30-5pm for an afternoon showcase of Richmond arts!
In collaboration between Richmond organizations NIAD, East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, Richmond Art Center, and RYSE, we bring you “Out of the Mouths of Beings”, hosted by Richmond’s own Youth Poet Laureate, Sheila McKinney!
This special online event will feature spoken word, dance, music, visual arts, and movement; building community, love, and togetherness in the virtual space.
Kick off the summer right and enjoy the abundance of creativity Richmond has to offer!
Richmond Art Center celebrates Pride with this special online event. Join PerSia as she reads A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss. This event is for kids and their families.
About PerSia: With a pedigree from weekly performances at the late, iconic Esta Noche, PerSia’s trajectory has gone on to include art curation, stand-up, television, and maybe a quinceañera or two, in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and México. Currently she is a regular performer in the nationally acclaimed “Drag Queen Story Hour” as well as an educator in residence at the Children’s After School Arts (CASA) program in the San Francisco Unified School District profiled on KQED Arts and National Public Radio.
About Drag Queen Story Hour: Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) is just what it sounds like—drag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores. DQSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.
“People can stand on the feet and have their photo taken, or they can sit next to them; it’s up to them. It’s an opportunity to show support, and also to experience a moment of communion.” – Rigo 23
Dear Friends,
We invite you to a special event in Richmond Art Center’s courtyard this Saturday to have your photograph taken with the feet from artist Rigo 23’s statue of Native American activist and political prisoner, Leonard Peltier.
Stand on the feet of the statue in support of Peltier, political prisoners, and all Indigenous peoples facing persecution.
Stand In Solidarity With Leonard Peltier Saturday, April 24, 1pm-3pm Richmond Art Center 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond (enter via Barrett Ave)
Special guests Kathy Peltier, Leonard Peltier’s daughter, and Anne Begay – co-founder of American Indian Movement’s Denver chapter and Kathy’s mother – will be at the event to meet participants. Kathy and Anne will also have some of their handmade jewelry and beaded work available for purchase, as they prepare to go visit Leonard very soon.
Participants will be photographed by artist Río Yañez, and all photographs will become part of the project’s archive. A selection of Yañez’s photographs taken during the event will be exhibited with Rigo’s Leonard Peltier statue at Richmond Art Center later this year.
Hope to see you this Saturday!!
In community, Richmond Art Center
Important Event Info:
Wear a mask and be prepared to practice social distancing
No appointments, folks will be photographed in the order they arrive. We apologize in advance if we don’t have time to photograph everyone!!
Enter Richmond Art Center via Barrett Avenue, we will direct you to the courtyard via the West Gallery.
Please note, the inside spaces of Richmond Art Center’s facility remain closed. No access to the galleries, studios or restrooms is available at this time.
About the Work: Rigo 23’s 12-foot-high likeness of Leonard Peltier, a Native activist incarcerated since 1977, is based on a small hand painted self-portrait that Peltier created in prison. Rigo 23 began work on this statue in 2016 and before it was first installed at American University, Rigo took its feet to sites of Native significance across the U.S., including Alcatraz Island, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. He then invited supporters to stand and be photographed on the feet of Peltier in solidarity. Since 2016 the statue of Leonard Peltier has toured all over America (most recently to SFAI) and hundreds of photos of people with its feet have been taken. Later this year Rigo 23’s statue will be exhibited at Richmond Art Center accompanied by a selection of these photos.
About Rigo 23: Rigo 23 has exhibited his work internationally for over 30 years placing murals, paintings, sculptures, and tile work in public situations where viewers are encouraged to examine their relationship to their community, their role as unwitting advocates of public policy, and their place on a planet occupied by many other living things. His projects have included inter-communal collaborations with Native Tribes in North and South America; long-term partnerships with political prisoners; and alliances with underrepresented and disenfranchised individuals and communities. Rigo’s first solo exhibition Time and Time Again: A tribute to Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt was presented at Richmond Art Center in 1996.
