90th Anniversary Exhibition
One Artist Contributes, Then Another, Then Another
90 Years of Richmond Art Center
Exhibition: September 2 – November 19, 2026
Opening Reception & 90th Birthday Party: Saturday, August 29, 12pm-3pm | Learn more…
Location: Main Gallery
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
The galleries will be closed Saturday, September 5, 2026, in observance of Labor Day, and Wednesday, November 11, 2026, in observance of Veterans Day.
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
One Artist Contributes, Then Another, Then Another explores Richmond Art Center’s 90-year history as a continuum, connecting artists, artworks, and community voices across nine decades. The story begins in 1936, when artist and educator Hazel Salmi founded Richmond Art Center as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) arts and crafts program. Guided by the belief that art is essential to community life, that arts education should be accessible to everyone, and that civic participation is the foundation of lasting cultural institutions, Hazel Salmi’s values continue to shape the Center today.
Centered on the connections forged through teaching, learning, and creating together, the exhibition brings archival materials into conversation with works by artists who have shaped Richmond Art Center across generations. Letters and audio recordings from Hazel Salmi open up to historic photographs of Richmond Art Center’s art studios, newspaper clippings documenting the Center’s growth, exhibition posters and student artworks reveal how the Center evolved alongside Richmond’s dynamic community and responded to its needs. These archival materials are paired with works by influential teaching artists, renowned Bay Area artists, and emerging contemporary voices, all of whom share a connection to Richmond Art Center.
Rather than presenting a linear history, this anniversary exhibition traces Richmond Art Center through relationships between artworks, archives, artists, teachers and students. It reveals an institution continually shaped by people who believed, as Hazel Salmi did, that art is a public good and that communities are strengthened when people create together. Ninety years is not the finish line; it is a moment to recognize a legacy still unfolding, one artist, one student, and one contribution at a time.
Image: Hazel Salmi’s paint box
