We still have spaces available in our next Professional Development for Educators workshop series!
Bring Art to Your Classroom Workshop Series
Our engaging and informative Bring Art to Your Classroom workshop series is aimed at K-6 public, charter and private educators based in West Contra Costa who are interested in integrating art into other core subject areas, such as language arts, social studies, math and science or teaching art as a stand-alone discipline. This series is offered as three consecutive Saturday workshops. They are led by teaching artists familiar with students of various backgrounds and abilities.
Upcoming Workshops
Our next Bring Art To Your Classroom Professional Development Workshop series will talk place on July 30th, August 6th and August 13th from 1-5.
If you are interested and can attend all three dates, please apply here.
Position open until filled. Hoping to hire by September 1, 2016
Richmond Art Center: The Richmond Art Center is the largest visual arts center in the East Bay, and we offer exciting arts experiences for all ages. We do this through hands-on learning, well-equipped studios, traveling Art in the Community programs and contemporary exhibitions in our galleries.
Every year, we serve thousands of students through classes and programs taught by professional artists, both onsite at the Art Center and at sites throughout Richmond. Our four galleries allow us to mount rotating exhibitions that display the works of emerging and established Bay Area artists.
Art in the Community Program: The Richmond Art Center began in 1936 with the vision of one woman devoted to sharing her love of art with the Richmond community. Today, we bring high quality art-making experiences to young people and families across Richmond and neighboring cities. Art in the Community classes:
Essential Functions: The Richmond Art Center is looking for a collaborative, experienced and self-motivated Program Coordinator to join our Education team. Our Art in the Community program is growing and we are looking to hire an additional coordinator to meet the growing demands of our sites. Under the direction of the Art in the Community Director, and working closely with the existing Coordinator, the new Coordinator’s primary responsibility is the coordination of offsite Arts Education Programs. This includes visits to sites, providing oversight of the program implementation, and supervising the teaching artists and volunteers responsible for instruction at various sites in Richmond and San Pablo. This team member also supports and helps shape the development of new relationships with collaborating organizations, the expansion of our programs, and the planning and implementation of our professional developments series for teaching artists. This wide-ranging position requires a strong commitment to equity & social justice, the ability to strategize creatively, and an outgoing and collaborative personality. The hours of position may increase over the course of this year.
Responsibilities:
In collaboration with the AIC Team, manage our partnerships with schools, community organizations and agencies which host the Art in the Community programs.
Supervise teaching artists and volunteers. Give constructive feedback and monitor instructional outcomes.
Participate in the development or revision of program policies and best practices. Make recommendations based on field experiences and program data.
Document and report on program implementation (enrollment, instruction, and compliance with agreements).
Attend and represent the AIC program at relevant partner and community meetings
Monitor teaching artist timesheets, requests for payment and/or reimbursement.
Assist in the planning and implementation of AIC professional development offerings.
Manage program tools and supplies.
Generate, review or update AIC supporting materials.
Coordinate the staffing of AIC tables at community events.
Other duties as assigned by the Art in the Community Director.
Qualifications and Dispositions:
Art program administration experience a plus
At least 3 years of Teaching Artist experience
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Ability to work in a range of community and program settings
Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
Thrives in a flexible and collaborative work environment
Ability to make independent decisions on the spot
Experience working with diverse learners across a range of age groups a plus
Experience planning/delivering professional development experience a plus
Personal creative practice a plus
East Bay resident preferred
Ability to lift 50 lbs
Access to a car for all scheduled work hours
Compensation and Benefits:
$18- $20 DOE
Vacation, sick and holidays.
Richmond Art Center membership and NARM benefits
Quarterly free class at Richmond Art Center
To apply:Please send a cover letter, resume, and list of three professional references to applynow@richmondartcenter.org
Thanks to you, our wonderful supporters, the Richmond Art Center won the top honors Parents’ Press Best of the Bay 2016 for our Arts and Crafts Summer Camp, Teen Focused Summer Camp, After-School and Enrichment Programs, and Art Classes!
We’re humbled and thrilled to receive these honors, and look forward to serving your families with even more exciting art offerings in the future. Thank you for believing in us and supporting the Art Center with your votes!
We’re excited to announce that we’ve received a Summer mini-grant through the Richmond Community Foundation and will be partnering with RYSE Youth Center to design and create a new mural on the ramp wall of our 25th Street Entrance.
As a part of our planning process we want to include the voices and ideas of the RAC community. Please follow this link: http://goo.gl/forms/QlalsCOXyAoaIIwE2
to answer the question “What makes Richmond beautiful?”
We hope you’ll include your input and join us for the unveiling in early Fall (details to be announced).
Warmly,
Dominique Enriquez, Studio Education Director, and
Summer art camps in and out of the Art Center were abuzz with exploration. Our in-house camps featured classes in ceramics, comic book illustration and glass-blowing. Our Art in the Community Camp finished up their STEAM camp with a trip to the Exploratorium to see the Strandbeests and a presentation of recycled masks and costumes created under the guidance of teaching artist Sofie Siegmann.
Scenes from an Exhibition: Thank you to Dolby Chadwick Gallery for these images of Terry St. John and his exhibition, Close Views and Distant Vistas. Our Annual Members Show and Our Town complete our summer offerings at the Art Center. Please come down Tuesday through Saturday to see some wonderful art!
About the interviews: The Richmond Art Center is fortunate and proud to work with a diverse and growing number of artists and teachers who work with our students at the Art Center as well as in our local communities. We want to share some of these wonderful people with you, to inspire your own artistic path, take a class, or learn more. See all of our interviews here.
In this interview, meet Jan Langdon, who has been the heart of our Weaving Studio for 16 years! She is retiring at the end of July and we thank her for her many years of devotion and inspiration she’s given to the Art Center and all of her students. If you’d like to see more of Jan’s work, we’re excited to announce that she will be a 2017 Members Show Spotlight artist.
Bio: Jan began weaving after reading “Silas Marner” while in high school in the 1950s. Her parents bought a loom from some “people in the country,” and with help from an experienced weaver , she started what has become a life-long pursuit. After high school, Jan attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art for two years, and then spent a summer at Haystack Mountain School. Jan studied with Lili Blumeneau, Anni Albers and Jack Lenor Larsen. She spent time in studios in Boston, Ogunquit, ME, then in Palo Alto before going to “The Weavers” shop in Berkeley in the early 1960’s, when she also began teaching classes.
Q. What do you find most inspiring about teaching art?
A. What inspires me about teaching are the mutual challenges shared between students and teachers. It becomes a transformative experience.
Q. How did you become involved with the Richmond Art Center?
A. In 2000 I had just left San Francisco City College after a decade of teaching. The Richmond Art Center weaving department needed a teacher and I was aware of the splendid studio room and equipment. That was 16 years ago when I accepted the position and I’ve enjoyed teaching every year.
Q. Please tell us about the Richmond Art Center’s Weaving Studio and why it’s so special!
A. One important feature is the additional studio time available outside of class time. It not only means larger projects are attempted, it encourages a community between between those students able to take advantage of the additional hours. I feel privileged to have had students of great diversity and dedication continuing to learn to make good textiles with me at Richmond. It’s an experience that is very important to me.
Q. What was your path to becoming an artist? Please share some of your favorite work.
A. I was influenced by my older sister who was pursuing a college art degree during my high school years. Her drawings, paintings and books were a big window on the art world for me. Meanwhile, I was very much always “making something” on my own. Sewing was a strong early interest.
Q. Who are your inspirations?
A. Contemporary fiber artists. The North American Indian textiles. Tribal art, especially fiber and cloth. I did not study with Ed Rossbach but his work is at the top of my appreciation list. Lillian Elliot was a friend in my 60s Berkeley years. I was a big fan of her work. Currently, I like conferring with Peggy Osterkamp over weaving questions and I admire the approach Carole Beadle presents in her teaching.
Q. What do you like to do when you’re not at the Art Center?
A. I live near the Pt. Reyes National Seashore and Tomales Bay wetland so I walk and hike trails close to my home.
Q. What’s on your bucket list?
A. Trying to reduce clutter in my life! I am spending creative time sorting through past information…I need a BIG yard sale.
Q. If you could meet one artist, living or not, who would it be and why?
A. That’s too difficult to imagine! Work and personality are two different aspects to consider. Work speaks to me.
Thank you, Jan, for your interview, and for the years of artistic inspiration you’ve given to the students at the Richmond Art Center.
Thank you for participating in our first-ever Art Bank: Investing in Art Futures, aka a fabulous week of fundraising!
Because of your generosity, we successfully matched our two anonymous grants and exceeded our week’s goal. We raised over $4500 through our online donation platform, and through direct donations at the center by cash and check. Combined with our matching grants, that means we raised a total of $7250!
Your donations go directly into supporting our Studio Education, Exhibitions, and Art in the Community programs, which also include our free events, artists talks and performances, and scholarship programs. Thanks to you, the Richmond Art Center continues to fulfill its mission of providing transformative, inspiring experiences to thousands of individuals and our community through creative exploration, experience and education.
During this week, we also connected with teaching artists, students, parents, Board members and other unsung champions of the Art Center. A number of donations were made in honor of our longtime weaving instructor Jan Langdon, who will be retiring after 15 years at the Art Center. Jan is an outstanding educator and an inspiration to her students, and we feel very fortunate to have worked with her for so many years.
This fundraiser shows that art matters to you as much as it does to us, and that together we can help shape the future of the Richmond Art Center. Let us continue to create art, to be inspired and to make our marks this year!
With huge thanks from the Development team and everyone here at the Richmond Art Center,
This year, we are proud to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Richmond Art Center. Your enduring support has helped propel the Art Center into unprecedented levels of growth across all three major program areas: Studio Education, Exhibitions, and Art in the Community. We cannot do this vital work without your help.
Over this past week, we’ve highlighted aspects of what makes the Richmond Art Center an enduring Bay Area treasure, with one unifying question: What mark will YOU make?Are you a painter, an illustrator, a ceramicist, a jeweler, a printmaker, a sculptor, a weaver, or someone else entirely? How do you make your mark at the Art Center and join the generations of art enthusiasts who have helped grow the Art Center into the dynamic institution it is today?
Whether you can give today with a donation to end our fiscal year in green, or contribute your time as a volunteer, or take a weekend workshop with us—your support matters. Together, we can make an enduring mark—a legacy for the next generation of artists and creative thinkers and contribute to a place where artmaking thrives.
Do you enjoy learning and creating? Have you taken a class or workshop in one of our art studios? Our Studio Art Education department, led by Director Dominique Enriquez and Coordinator Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, embraces artists of all ages and from diverse backgrounds, united in the fundamental principle that art matters.
With year-round classes offered in ceramics, jewelry making, printing, weaving, fiber arts, painting, drawing, and additional creative opportunities for youth and children, our Studio Arts Education department is primed for growth and expansion. Our teaching artists are an essential part of what makes the Art Center an inspiring space to develop art skills.
Donations of $25 or more can pick up a festive button featuring the artwork of teaching instructor Dawn Gonzales, a piece titled: Abstract Floral #1. If you love taking art classes, the Studio Art Education program is the best art investment you can make. Your support provides essential scholarships and maintains our excellent range of classes offered at the Art Center—every dollar helps and is vital to sustaining our art community.
We take pride in offering captivating slices of art history, art present, and art future: all in one visionary space at the Richmond Art Center, for free. Our Exhibitions Program presents between 14 and 16 exhibitions annually, covering an exciting, diverse range of artistic talents. From collections featuring the legendary Richard Diebenkorn, to beloved painter David Park, to the evocative Mildred Howard, to our local West Contra Costa Unified School District students… our driving focus is to make art accessible, interesting, and alive to our visitors. Curated by Exhibitions Director Jan Wurm, our galleries welcome over 14,500 visitors each year, with this number growing every day as more community members discover us as an important arts resource.
Most importantly, we want to keep these gallery spaces free and open to the public so that everyone has access to powerful art history in the making. We strive to offer free programming to both complement and enhance the exhibitions, like drawing workshops and music performances, and our acclaimed artists talks. The Richmond Art Center needs your support to maintain our nationally recognized exhibitions and to continue building a vital arts resource in our own community.
We still have spaces available in our next Professional Development for Educators workshop series!
Four Gold Stars for the Richmond Art Center!
Bio: Jan began weaving after reading “Silas Marner” while in high school in the 1950s. Her parents bought a loom from some “people in the country,” and with help from an experienced weaver , she started what has become a life-long pursuit. After high school, Jan attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art for two years, and then spent a summer at Haystack Mountain School. Jan studied with Lili Blumeneau, Anni Albers and Jack Lenor Larsen. She spent time in studios in Boston, Ogunquit, ME, then in Palo Alto before going to “The Weavers” shop in Berkeley in the early 1960’s, when she also began teaching classes. 
