The Art Center’s abuzz with lots of things to do, so here’s our short list for you!
Be sure to send in your application for the Holiday Arts Festival if you want to be a vendor. Deadline is end of day, September 22! Apply here.
RSVP to our Back to School Community Celebration: an event with dinner, art making and music! Make new friends and enjoy the Art Center with us. RSVP here.
From the article: “The Richmond Art Center celebrated its 80th anniversary last Saturday with the opening of “Making Our Mark and Making New Paths,” an exhibit that builds a family tree of artists and their mentees. The show includes work by 14 artists who jumpstarted their careers by showing work at RAC, alongside pieces by younger artists they have mentored and believed in.
“Making Our Mark and Making New Paths” was inspired by RAC’s mission, which is to give voice to new artists and open the galleries to new visions, said curator Jan Wurm. The idea behind the show was to “reflect the Richmond Art Center as a place where young artists could both show their work and find support as they grow into the different phases of their artistic, creative lives,” she said.”
Making Our Mark and Marking New Paths are on view in our galleries Tuesdays through Saturdays, free of charge. We invite you to visit this inspiring and important collection soon.
Enroll your kids in our Parents’ Press award-winning classes this Fall! Our Studio Education team has selected their top three favorites… see which one is right for you and your family.
Calder Circus (Ages 6 – 8)
Be inspired by the magic of Alexander Calder’s 1927 Circus to create dioramas, small wooden figures, animals and other fantastical creatures. We will work in variety of mediums including clay, found materials, fabric and paint.
Forms in Clay (Ages 8 – 11)
Work with clay! In this class, young artists will learn a variety of techniques for making functional vessels in clay. We explore how clay has been used to make functional forms throughout history and around the world. Work will be fired, decorated, and glazed. We will see the whole ceramics process through from start to finish, and even learn some of the science behind ceramic!
Teen Printmaking (Ages 13+)
Teens will explore the processes of printmaking. Through demos and experimentation, students will learn a variety of techniques and will design and print their own unique prints to take home.
The Richmond Art Center’s ongoing See and Make Art Free Family Workshops were started in 2014 to broaden our arts offerings and include our community in new experiences around the making of art. Centered at the main branch of the Richmond Library, each workshop starts with a story, continues with an art-making project, and then finishes with a guided tour of the galleries at the Art Center.
Our August class marked a special new partnership experience with the local Richmond-based nonprofit, Girls Incorporated of West Contra Costa County. Their goal: to inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold, provides school and community based programming that serves the unique needs of girls, ages 5-18, living in West Contra Costa County.
Crystal Banagan, Associate Director of this local branch of Girls Inc., partnered with our Art in the Community and Studio Education teams to put on the August Bookmaker Faire event.
The class was led by the Art Center’s teaching artist Dawn Gonzales and our Studio Education Coordinator Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo. “It was such a success and by far one of my favorite teaching experiences,” said Gonzales. “I was happy to see children and adults of all ages making lots of books and I hope that they will continue to teach others what they learned.”
Participating families worked together, making keepsake books with Turkish map folded papers inside. The class decorated their handmade books, read a story about sharing family stories, and had an all around great time making and enjoying time with the people we hold dear. Everyone who joined the class got a brand new book to take home.
“I was so happy to plan and watch this partnership come to fruition, with so much success,” said Branfman-Verissimo. “The See & Make Art Free Family Workshops were started to broaden and include our community in new experiences around the making of art centered at the library and this partnership did just that and more. It was really great to bring Girls Inc into the library and shine a light on their hard work side by side learning how to make our own handmade books to tell our stories.”
We look forward to more creative partnerships with our neighboring community partners. To learn more about our See and Make Art Workshops, contact our Studio Education office at education@richmondartcenter.org. (The class is offered on the last Saturday of each month and is free to families and children. Be sure to check out our Events calendar for upcoming workshops and other free events.)
DUAL ART-MUSIC PARTNERSHIP: RICHMOND ART CENTER AND DEL SOL STRING QUARTET WEAVE ART AND MUSIC IN CELEBRATION OF 80TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR
A grant awarded by Chamber Music America provides for the SF-based Del Sol String Quartet Residency at the Richmond Art Center, bringing chamber music and accompanying art classes to local K-12 schoolchildren.
RICHMOND, CA — SEPTEMBER 2, 2016 — As part of its much anticipated 80th Anniversary year, the Richmond Art Center is partnering with the Del Sol String Quartet (Del Sol) in a residency funded by a grant from Chamber Music America. The residency by the Del Sol String Quartet, organized in partnership with the Richmond Art Center, has been made possible with support from Chamber Music America through its Residency Endowment Fund. Hailed by Gramophone as “masters of all musical things they survey” and two-time top winner of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the Del Sol String Quartet is a leading force in 21st century chamber music.
As part of its basic mission over the past 80 years, the Richmond Art Center has always worked to expand the cultural experience of local students to include music and the confluence of music and the process of making visual art. This grant by Chamber Music America creates the opportunity to present students (grades K-12) with the direct live experience of chamber music. This particular residency highlights the stimulating impact of music on art-making as well as the concentration art-making lends to the listening of music. With a deep commitment to education, Del Sol has reached thousands of K-12 students through inventive school performances, workshops, coaching and residencies.
photo credit: RJ Muna
The Del Sol String Quartet will perform three concerts, thematically focusing on three approaches to expression. Finding parallels in the art in the exhibition and the music performed, the students will have the opportunity to make art engaging some of the same elements in projects geared to the musical manifestations of these elements.
There are three planned performances as part of the Fall residency. Further details about each program can be found on the Richmond Art Center’s website: https://richmondartcenter.org/events. Suggested donation of $10 for adults attending the concert. RSVPs for workshops are requested. Please email us at admin@richmondartcenter.org or call our front desk at 510.620.6772.
Saturday, September 24th 2 p.m. (for elementary school children and their parents) Why Patterns? Del Sol String Quartet Performs Music by Terry Riley
The first performance explores pattern and repetition. In response, the audience will view the work of artist Squeak Carnwath as she uses shape and strong color together with repetition to define and order space.
Saturday, October 8th 2 p.m. (for middle school students) What’s Your Story? Del Sol String Quartet Performs Music by Gabriela Lena Frank, Lembit Beecher, Huang Ruo
This second performance reveals narrative elements in music. In parallel, the work of artist Hung Liu examines the unfolding of history, ideas of portrait and identity, and the power of art and music to create the beauty, hold memory, and draw on that energy to inspire.
SFArts.org had a wonderful endorsement. This is what SF/Arts curator Christian L. Frock had to say about Making Our Mark:
“Making Our Mark and Marking New Paths were organized in celebration of the Richmond Art Center’s 80th anniversary this year. It represents an artists list for the ages to celebrate one of the Bay Area’s longest running alternative nonprofit art spaces and features some 28 participants including Squeak Carnwath, Enrique Chagoya, Mildred Howard, Hung Liu, James Melchert, Richard Misrach.”
The Art Center also has a very special partnership this season with the Del Sol String Quartet, who returns to our galleries for three events pairing art and music with workshops for local students. The residency by the Del Sol String Quartet, organized in partnership with the Richmond Art Center, has been made possible with support from Chamber Music America through its Residency Endowment Fund.
Images left to right: Wanxin Zhang, Deborah Oropallo, Hung Liu
Our new President of the Board of Directors, Inez Brooks-Myers, reflects on her personal history with the Richmond Art Center. Click here to learn more about our Board and the people who provide governance of the Art Center.
Inez in our Weaving Studio. Inez is passionate about textiles!
My mother, Hattiemay, loved the Richmond Art Center. After she retired, she volunteered on Friday mornings, answering the telephone, taking messages and greeting Art Center guests. My father, Ed, was president of the Richmond Civic Music Association, bringing artists like Robert Merrill and the Vienna Boys Choir to perform in Richmond. My parents set an example of volunteer civic service.
The Richmond Art Center has been important to me since I was a student at Lincoln Grammar School. I went to the Art Center, located above a garage on 9th Street, just behind the Macdonald Avenue branch of the Mechanics Bank. Hazel Salmi worked with my Girl Scout Troop, helping us to qualify for badge work.
In 1951 I was excited to attend the dedication of the new Richmond Civic Center, where our Governor, Earl Warren (later Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court), spoke. The new location of the Art Center made it more visible, and greater studio space allowed for a variety of artistic endeavors. Richmond’s leaders understood the importance of art in the daily lives of the people of the community—not only making a painting or a sculpture—but the ability of each of us to appreciate those things that are tactile or visual, that are beyond words. Placing the Art Center in the Civic Center was indicative of the commitment that the city had to the cultural life of its citizens.
Since my childhood days, art has been eliminated from public school classrooms. The Richmond Art Center is doing something about that. This year, some 2,000 Richmond school age students have been give free lessons in art at schools and community centers all over the city. Our Art Center offers on-site classes to adults, teens and children and continues to delight the public with free art exhibitions. I personally enjoy coming to the exhibitions, especially those focused on textiles, crafts and design. In this 80th anniversary year for the Richmond Art Center, my hope is that we can each appreciate the good works we have inherited and improve on them for the generations to come.
In Fall 2016, the Richmond Art Center continues to celebrate 80 years of community art making in Richmond and its surrounding areas with its Back to School community event. This all-ages event is open to Art Center constituents old and new and serves as a means for our community to celebrate and contribute to its 80-year milestone for our students, teaching artists, and larger Art Center community. Guests will participate in hands-on activities, including art making and contributing to a “Making Our Mark” memory wall.
Images by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo
This event serves as a celebration and small fundraiser for the active Richmond Art Center community including its students, instructors and extended Art Center family. The $25 sliding scale ticket includes informal dinner and one drink ticket. In addition, the first 80 attendees at the door will receive a hand-thrown bowl for their meal and to take home, made by the Art Center’s Ceramics Manager Marisa Burman.
The main event will take place in the Richmond Art Center’s Courtyard, with additional art making activities in several studios, including button making and screenprinting tote bags, led by teaching artist Michael Perkin. Music for the evening will be provided by San Francisco-based DJ The Juice (http://www.mixcrate.com/mightyjuicy). This event has sponsored in part by Lagunitas Brewing Company.
Guests can also visit the Main, West, South and Community galleries, where the Fall Exhibitions Making Our Mark and Marking New Paths will be on display. For more information about this exhibition, please visit: https://richmondartcenter.org/exhibitions/making-our-mark/
ARTISTS ENRIQUE CHAGOYA AND YVETTE DEAS PRESENT WORK ADDRESSING CULTURAL APPROPRIATION AND SOCIETAL (MIS)REPRESENTATION AT RICHMOND ART CENTER’S FALL 2016 EXHIBITION
Former teacher/student, now artistic colleagues, Chagoya and Deas exhibit recent works in Making Our Mark, the 80th Anniversary Exhibition on view at the Richmond Art Center.
RICHMOND, CA — AUGUST 30, 2016 — Identity and culture are thematic arcs to be considered in many of the works presented in the Richmond Art Center’s 80th Anniversary major exhibition, Making Our Mark, which opens on September 13 and runs through November 12, 2016. Now as colleagues at Stanford University, two of Making Our Mark’s featured artists, Enrique Chagoya and Yvette Deas, began their association as teacher/student, bringing forth another vital theme in this unique exhibition: showcasing a generation of established and internationally recognized artists and the younger generation of artists they have supported and guided in their growing careers.
The lens focused on cultural appropriation, societal representation and misrepresentation, and the underlying political implications connects the work of Chagoya and Deas. The artists share a commitment to the considered, the illuminated, and examined. In Chagoya’s Untitled (After Yves St. Laurent) and in Deas’ American Pie, the viewer is arrested by work which magnifies actions and sharply directs attention to the very meaning of fashion, entertainment, and art as freely appropriating culture and subverting historical truth.
Drawing from his experiences living on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border in the late 70s and in Europe in the late 90s, Chagoya juxtaposes secular, popular, and religious symbols in order to address the ongoing cultural clash between the United States, Latin America and the world. Recently his work has been addressing issues on immigration and the economic recession. Deas is drawn to the intersections between the multiple selves people construct for public and private consumption and examining the traces left behind. Her art explores narratives manifested through coded understanding and juxtapositions that explore gender, race and sexuality.
Enrique Chagoya Untitled (after Yves Saint Laurent) Color etching, 2016 Edition: 12 Publisher: Magnolia Editions 22 ¼ x 38 ¼ in. Courtesy of Magnolia Editions and the Artist
Yvette Deas American Pie Mixed media on panel, 2008 48 x 60 in. Courtesy of the Artist
“Chagoya and Deas share a finely tuned sense of verbal and visual language, social constructs, and culture,” says Jan Wurm, Director of Exhibitions. “These underlying values and assessments link their work in a shared attitude of reflection. That this is seeped in popular culture provides accessibility also for the viewer.”
Chagoya and Deas will participate in one of the Making Our Mark Artists’ Talks related to the exhibition, where they will discuss their individual practices and how they have experienced the teacher/student relationship and the importance of the guidance and support. This event will take place in the Richmond Art Center’s Main Gallery on Saturday, November 5 at 3 p.m. and is free to the public. For more information on the event, please visit: https://richmondartcenter.org/event/making-mark-artists-talk/
From September 13 through November 12 in three galleries, Marking Our Mark will highlight 14 established and nationally known artists who have supported, and enriched the programs and exhibitions at the Art Center over many years. These artists include Christopher Brown, Squeak Carnwath, Enrique Chagoya, Lia Cook, Allan deSouza, Mildred Howard, James Melchert, Hung Liu, Richard Misrach, Richard Shaw, William T. Wiley, and Wanxin Zhang, artists who reflect various philosophies and media (painting, ceramics, fiber, sculpture, and photography). The opening reception for this exhibition will take place on Saturday, September 10, from 5-7 pm. For more information about this exhibition, please visit: https://richmondartcenter.org/exhibitions/making-our-mark/
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog of artwork and interpretation by the Director of Exhibitions, Jan Wurm. The complete list of artists included in Making Our Mark are Dru Anderson, Megan Atherton, Christopher Brown, Ethan Caflisch, Squeak Carnwath, Enrique Chagoya, Lia Cook, Sofia Córdova, Yvette Deas, Allan deSouza, Nathan Dollarhite, Michael Hall, Scott Hewitt, Mildred Howard, Hung Liu, Nicholas Makanna, Bruce McGaw, James Melchert, Richard Misrach, Kate Nartker, Deborah Oropallo, Shari Paladino, Johanna Poethig, Richard Shaw, Ehren Tool, Mary Hull Webster, William T. Wiley, and Wanxin Zhang.
About the Richmond Art Center:
The Richmond Art Center is the largest visual arts center in the East Bay, delivering exciting arts experiences to young and old alike who reflect the diverse richness of our community. The Art Center features hands-on learning, well-equipped studios, Art in the Community programs and contemporary exhibitions in its galleries.
Every year, the Richmond Art Center serves thousands of students through classes and programs taught by professional artists, both onsite at the Art Center and at sites throughout Richmond. The Art Center’s four galleries mount rotating exhibitions that display the works of emerging and established Bay Area artists. Artists such as Richard Diebenkorn, Jay DeFeo, Wanxin Zhang, Hung Liu, William Wiley and Peter Voulkos have been showcased here.
The Richmond Art Center originated in 1936, when local artist Hazel Salmi, who worked for the WPA, traversed the streets of Richmond with a suitcase packed with art supplies, eager to teach art to anyone interested. Today, everything at the Art Center continues to breathe life into Salmi’s original vision: That within every person lives an artist.
Our catalog is full of many great classes and workshops (and don’t forget our Parents’ Press award-winning classes for kids), we’ve highlighted a few we don’t want you to miss!
Social Media for Artists: Get an introductory artist’s guide to using social media as a promotional tool for your work and your brand. Printmaking Extravaganza: Learn various types of printmaking: carve linoleum, experiment with collagraph, drypoint, and monoprinting. Color Theory: Learn color theory through painting a still life object from life. Encaustic Hot Wax: Learn to use a beeswax-based painting technique that was first practiced by the Greeks in the 5th century. Experimental, Expressive Drawing: Express yourself and your personal form of handwriting. Stacking Rings: Design and create a series of rings that interact with each other harmoniously despite their differences. Patterns and Color: Weave with sumptuous wool yarns and learn techniques for blending colors, using solid or multiple colors together on a single bobbin and using techniques unique to tapestry weaving. Bookbinding: Learn structures, techniques, and materials of bookbinding. Slipcasting: 3D Collage: Get an introduction to making clay multiples with plaster molds. Calder Circus (Ages 6-8): Be inspired by the magic of Alexander Calder’s 1927 Circus to create dioramas, small wooden figures, animals and other fantastical creatures.
Participating families worked together, making keepsake books with Turkish map folded papers inside. The class decorated their handmade books, read a story about sharing family stories, and had an all around great time making and enjoying time with the people we hold dear. Everyone who joined the class got a brand new book to take home.
The main event will take place in the Richmond Art Center’s Courtyard, with additional art making activities in several studios, including button making and screenprinting tote bags, led by teaching artist Michael Perkin. Music for the evening will be provided by San Francisco-based DJ The Juice (http://www.mixcrate.com/mightyjuicy). This event has sponsored in part by Lagunitas Brewing Company.
