Amid the drug store offerings of Halloween consumer goods, any Dia de los Muertos-themed item invariably sticks out.
Decorations featuring iconic skulls and cempasúchil marigolds, or candy branded with characters from Pixar’s film “Coco” speak to the growing commercialization of a holiday once outside of the corporate limelight.
But the holiday has more cultural significance in Mexico, where it orginated. And on Saturday, the Richmond Art Center will share that tradition with a Dia de los Muertos-themed Fall Family Day, featuring art, music, and even remote-controlled miniature low riders from the collection of Cruz Arroyo, who runs a popular tamale stand in Richmond.
Sandra Martinez and her children, Giuliana and Alejandro, make calavertias (Sasha Schell photos)
“There’s instances where I’ve seen somebody put on a Day of the Dead event, but it’s more of an entertainment program or event. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it misses the actual ancestral connections that are really important and really real,” said Roberto Martinez, exhibitions director at the Richmond Art Center. “I think it’s important to teach, to educate people about such an important cultural event.”
Martinez has worked closely with a number of local artists like Daniel Camacho and Ernesto Olmos, among others, to plan a day of festivities to inspire the anticipated 300 to 500 attendees.
Camacho, whose exhibition “De Fantasías y Realidades” is currently on display at the Richmond Art Center, will lead the day by setting up a community ofrenda in the main hallway. His calaveritas workshops will make the skulls that adorn the altar alongside offerings of food and objects brought by community members hoping to celebrate those they have lost.
“The idea is to share a bit about my culture. It’s a very important day in Mexico. I know people want to express their feeling about those who have passed,” said Camacho. “This brings families together. That’s the important thing.”
Daniel Camacho (wearing hat) leads a calaverita workshop for Dia de los Muertos. (Sasha Schell)
Ernesto Olmos, an artist and specialist in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican traditions, will give a presentation on the cosmology and history of Dia de los Muertos. For him, making offerings on an ofrenda are not mere gestures, but rather a vehicle connecting the living to those that came before.
It’s about honoring our ancestors, Olmos said, and about how we perceive the dead.
“If you’re going to build something, do it real,” he said. “Put fruit, talk to them, cry.”
Olmos fears that the true meaning behind the day is sometimes forgotten as the entertainment-oriented side of the holiday is highlighted. But traditions that had been hidden “in the kitchens, in the dress, in the language,” are being rediscovered as older people talk more about the custom, he added.
Organizations such as the Richmond Art Center are instrumental in preserving this history and these traditions, Martinez said.
The event at the Art Center is an opportunity to strengthen the cultural traditions that have been diluted through the process of assimilation, he said. “Places like this are important to keeping that.”
Class Registration Opens Wednesday, October 26, 10am
Winter classes are now posted on our website (don’t worry if the class says ‘Fully Booked’ this will change once registration opens). Browse listings now and plan which class or workshop you’ll sign up for. And don’t forget to get your scholarship applications in early for classes starting in January!
Celebrate your ancestors by making sugar skulls for Día de los Muertos with artist Keena Azania Romano. This video is bilingual in English and Spanish.
Artist Hector Munoz-Guzman Teaches New Class for Youth
We spoke with teaching artist Hector Munoz-Guzman about his artistic development, current projects, and the class he will be teaching at Richmond Art Center this semester.
As a new teaching artist at Richmond Art Center can you please introduce yourself to our community.
My name is Hector Munoz-Guzman. I am a painter and mixed media artist, and I’m from South Berkeley.
What has your artistic journey been like?
In high school I studied digital media at The Youth Institute in downtown Berkeley. This program introduced me to a lot of different media: drawing, collage, digital art. I also took IB Studio Art with Kimberley D’Adamo. This is where I really started to think seriously about what art I create and who it is for. The work I created in IB Studio Art got me accepted into Parsons School of Design. I later transferred to RISD [Rhode Island School of Design] where I started focusing on large scale paintings. I continued to make mixed media work as well.
I was raised by a single mom who was an immigrant from Mexico. So art didn’t seem like a possibility for a career. But I developed a tag – Gold Rust – that’s about finding the beauty from the limitations you have. I take this into my art practice; being resourceful with materials, making something out of my experiences.
Recently I was awarded a Civic Arts Grant from the City of Berkeley. With this award I’m creating a 7 foot by 24 foot mural depicting me and my family growing up in South Berkeley. I want to honor my family and the place that I grew up.
Artwork by Hector Munoz-Guzman
What other projects are you working on?
My work will be in a number of exhibitions over the next year. I recently did a studio visit with a curator from MACLA [Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana] in San Jose who is going to include three of my paintings in a show there that will open in December. I’m also going to be exhibiting my work in galleries in San Francisco and Los Angeles in 2023.
In the past I have exhibited at Fall River MoCa in Massachusetts and Bureau Gallery in New York.
What do you like about teaching?
I feel like teachers can be extremely impactful on their students. I’m still in contact with my teachers. They gave me a safe space to feel creative. And I was then granted the opportunity to study at renowned art schools. So I just want to use what I’ve learned and give it back to my community.
Can you tell us about the Mixed Media Illustration class you are teaching at Richmond Art Center this semester?
It’s a class for youth between the ages of twelve and seventeen. The emphasis of the class is using mixed media for personal expression. I will support students with skill development using different media – crayons, pencils, collage, paint – and help them find media they feel comfortable with. But the main focus of the class will be encouraging students to explore and develop their own narratives, characters and subjects. Students will develop a body of work that is connected to where they come from; that tells their stories and expresses the ideas that are important to them.
Is there anything else you’d like to share about the class?
I just want to offer a space for students to feel they are making work that is important to them. That they are making work for themselves first.
Artwork by Hector Munoz-Guzman
Visit Hector Munoz-Guzman’s Instagram account @hectorfmunoz to see more of his work.
Mixed Media Illustration will run on Thursdays, 5pm-7pm starting on October 26 and running through to November 16. CLICK HERE to learn more about the class. (And don’t forget we have needs-based scholarships available!)
Due to rising operating costs and changes in funding, we are making the difficult choice to increase our class prices. This increase will be starting Winter Quarter 2023.
We understand this will have an impact for students. We want to assure you that we will continue to offer needs-based Art Boost scholarships for community members, and encourage you to explore our membership program for class discounts.
Cast on, knit, purl and bind off to make adorable scarves, hats, and blankets! We will demystify gauge, tools and patterns so your projects will fit well and look beautiful.
Make your own paint! This course covers working with different tools, binders and surfaces; how to extract color from mineral and botanical based materials; and how to engage observational and experimental methods.
RAC’s community ofrenda featuring beautiful artwork by Danial Camacho is up in our west gallery.
Daniel invites community members to contribute items that honor their loved ones. He says, “Through an ofrenda we commemorate and remember the life and death of our loved ones. It is a celebration that allows us to carry them in our hearts and welcome them back to the world of the living for one night.”
Daniel invites the community to contribute a photograph of their loved ones and an object that represents something they loved, for example their favorite drink or snack, or a toy.
Items can be bought to Richmond Art Center any time during gallery hours (Wed-Sat 10am-4pm). The altar will be on display from October 15 through to the end of Día de los Muertos on November 3.
Daniel Camacho’s work is also currently on view at RAC in the exhibition De Fantasías y Realidades (September 14 – November 17, 2022).
SPECIAL EVENT: Join us on Saturday, October 15,12pm-3pm for a special celebration of Día de los Muertos. CLICK HERE for more info.
Eva-Maria Spampinato is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and historian investigating art and design through the modes of craft, alchemy and the natural world. We spoke with Eva-Maria about her creative practice and the upcoming class Artechnē: Art & Technology of Paints she will be teaching at Richmond Art Center.
Please introduce yourself. Where are you from and what is your background?
My name is Eva-Maria Spampinato and I am an artist, researcher and historian. So I actually call myself the Historical Artist. I grew up in Albany. I’m a first generation American, my mother is from Sweden and my father is from Argentina. These two strong cultures have fueled my craving for art, since I was a little girl, with the desire to connect with my heritage through travel and study.
Tell us about these studies.
I received an art history degree from UC Santa Cruz, and studied at The Florence Academy of Art in Gothenburg, Sweden. To blend my academic training with my art practice I then did my graduate studies at the Royal College of Art in London, in the History of Design program in a collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum. In this course, I specialized in historical artisanal epistemology. In other words, alchemy, art and materials.
Really, two decades of studying, traveling and life experiences represents how much I really wanted a traditional craft apprenticeship that didn’t exist when I was a little. So I pieced together different programs and made my own way.
Cobalt frit glass, azurite pigment and maya blue pigment
Can you please talk a little bit more about what artisanal epistemology is?
It’s how a craftsperson learns through empirical values. They use observation and experience simultaneously, rather than theory, to develop a creative practice. This is what I teach my students; how they can use exploration and curiosity to learn their craft and open new pathways for creative outlets.
Yes, it’s about making paint through very hands-on and practical alchemy. I will not approach the class in a scientific way. I’m going to introduce experiences in order to open up one’s intuitive sensory knowledge. This is the traditional way, before the modern period.
In Artechnē (pronounced art-TECH-nay), students will start with a sourced material – like ochre from Oakland Hills, botanicals and even insects – to learn how color is extracted to create pigments. I will show how to engage with the tools. There’s going to be a lot of grinding, sieving, mulling, precipitation, washing, drying and more grinding! Then we’ll use different binders to create watercolor, egg tempera and pastels. Lastly, students will test the paint on different surfaces.
Eva-Maria Spampinato’s students testing their paints
The emphasis of the class is on the craft: to learn how to listen to the materials as they are ground, to smell them, to sense their resistance and response. I will also include historical information alongside the hands-on learning, so students can appreciate the historical context for this craft.
Who is your class for? Do students need any art experience?
Artechnē is for anyone who is open to trying something new. No experience is necessary. It is especially great for people who want to learn to be comfortable with non-scientific processes or want to shift their perspective on materials and objects.
Artechnē is about opening our senses to new ways of thinking. I want to empower my students with curiosity so they can investigate anything and connect to nature’s offerings. So they can be comfortable finding their own processes. These lessons can be applied to many parts of our life. It’s playful!
An experiment using red cabbage and showing a solution’s color response at different temperatures.
Artechnē: Art & Technology of Paints runs on Thursdays 1pm to 3pm from October 27 through to November 17 at Richmond Art Center. CLICK HERE for more information and to register.
Top image: Eva-Maria Spampinato making cobalt frit glass for her MA dissertation. Photo by @celiadowson_ceramics
View the show on Berkeley Community Media Channel 28 on Monday 10/10 at 8:30pm, Wednesday 10/12 at 5pm, and Thursday 10/13 at 5pm (or on YouTube HERE)
For over thirty years Wee Poets on Channel 28 has supported literacy development through interviews with thousands of Bay Area children. This month Richmond Art Center is in the spotlight with host Sally Baker interviewing young artist Camila Robles and Executive Director José R. Rivera.
Image Above: Diego Rivera & Emmy Lou Packard painting for the Golden Gate International Exposition, on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, 1938-40. Photograph Gelatin silver print, vintage. Courtesy of Throckmorton Gallery and Richmond Art Center
“Emmy Lou Packard: Artist of Conscience,” organized by the Richmond Art Center, was an interpretive exhibition – accompanied by a print publication and panel discussion event that was supported by a Humanities for All Quick Grant. The exhibition explored the legacy of artist and activist, Emmy Lou Packard (1914–1998), a remarkable, though over-looked, artist known for her paintings, prints and murals, as well as her social and political activism. We caught up with Amy Spencer, Project Director of “Emmy Lou Packard: Artist of Conscience,” who has shared Packard’s rich history with us, and has given us a look into the Richmond Art Center’s recent exhibit and programs exploring Packard’s life and work supported by a Humanities for All Quick Grant.
Emmy Lou Packard, Artichoke Picker, 1950s, Linocut. Courtesy of Donald Cairns and Richmond Art Center
Who was Emmy Lou Packard, and what was her impact as an artist and activist?
Emmy Lou Packard was a 20th century printmaker, painter, and activist whose work addressed issues of inequality—such as racial and gender discrimination, and low wages—that continue to confront us today.
Packard is perhaps best known for her relationship to the great muralist and painter, Diego Rivera. Born in Southern California in 1914, Packard lived briefly in Mexico as a child, where her mother convinced Rivera to give 12-year-old Packard art lessons. Later, when she was a young adult, Rivera invited Packard to be his chief assistant when he came to America to create the Pan American Unity fresco in San Francisco in 1940. Packard is depicted as a central figure in the mural—the artist in the red sweater standing at an easel.
Packard’s friendship with Rivera, as well as his wife Frida Kahlo, helped shape her political and artistic vision, yet it is her printmaking that made her a household name in the Bay Area during the 1950s and 1960s. Packard felt strongly that all people should be able to acquire beautiful art, and creating prints in multiples was the best way she could make her artwork accessible. Her prints promoted the dignity of labor, celebrated the beauty of the natural environment, and progressive principles such as peace, diversity and the joy of children. Packard’s most famous work, Peace is a Human Right (1949), was used in posters and billboards protesting nuclear weapons and the Vietnam war.
With support from California Humanities, Richmond Art Center presented the exhibition Emmy Lou Packard: Artist of Conscience (June 22 – August 20, 2022), the largest survey of Packard’s work ever put together. Curated by Robbin Légère Henderson and Rick Tejada-Flores, the exhibition included over 70 artworks, sketches, objects, and ephemera organized around key periods of Packard’s life and work. It was a critical and popular success: over 3,500 visitors attended the exhibition and related public programs at Richmond Art Center this summer.
Emmy Lou Packard, Peace is a Human Right, 1949, Linocut. Courtesy of Ian Thompson and Muna Coobtee and Richmond Art CenterEmmy Lou Packard Exhibition at Richmond Art Center. Photo by Richmond Art Center
What were some of the stories about Packard’s life and her art that were explored in your project’s public programming?
Public events presented with Emmy Lou Packard: Artist of Conscience offered the opportunity for audiences to dig deeper into Emmy Lou Packard’s artistry and influence.
Towards the end of her life Packard was admired by many young artists in San Francisco whom she mentored. Among these artists were Jesus “Chuy” Campusano, Luis Cortázar, and Michael Rios who called themselves “Los Tres.” Susan Cervantes, founder of Precita Eyes Muralists Association, was also a devoted mentee and friend, as were members of Las Mujeres Muralistas who painted the murals on the San Francisco Women’s Building.
For the exhibition the curators were able to borrow Packard’s original press, tools, and linoleum blocks from Precita Eyes. For a special public program master printer Art Hazelwood gave a demonstration of the press in action. With permission from Packard’s family, Hazelwood demonstrated Packard’s unique color-blocking technique using the linoleum block for Someone Has to Suffer, Madam (1950s). This work depicts a businessman with a pig’s head with war contracts in his back pocket. The pig-man has his arm around the shoulders of a grief-stricken woman. This is one of Packard’s more overtly political works, which comments on the human cost of stock market greed especially during war times.
Curator Rick Tejada-Flores takes a photo of Emmy Lou Packard’s family visiting the exhibition. Photo by Bill Johnston, Jr.
Richmond Art Center also collaborated with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Diego Rivera’s America for special events promoting the two shows, enhancing audiences for both exhibitions through performances by The Great Tortilla Conspiracy at each venue. The Great Tortilla Conspiracy created irreverent edible artwork (screen printed on tortillas) inspired by Emmy Lou Packard.
Step inside of the Richmond Art Center on the last day of the exhibition via this short Instagram videoVideo courtesy Richmond Art Center
