Category Archives: Art Institutes & Facilities

Your GUIDE to Artisan Holiday Gift Events

Here’s my best effort at a comprehensive list of arty/crafty sales in the next week or so…. I’ll try to do this next week too. If folks have additions to this list, please send ’em in. (Remember, only 15 shopping days left… and even fewer for those celebrating Hanukkah).

Here are a couple of the small but sweet pieces I picked up Friday night… all from the Oakland School for the Arts. Top two are by Maya Ramirez, and bottom two (my favorite picks of the night) are by a 6th grader named Lucie Scanlon. I LOVE them. The left one is titled “Adios love” and the right, appropriately, “Red Eye Bunny #5.”

maya ramirez, lucie scanlon

Thursday, December 10th

  • Oakland Unwrapped! Holiday Buy Night (5pm – 10pm)

    More than a craft fair, this event is a serious alternative to malls, featuring shops & artists from Oakland Unwrapped!, Pro Arts and Oakland Grown! Lots of food, music, entertainment & more!
    http://www.oaklandunwrapped.org/

Friday, December 11th

  • Oakland Unwrapped! Holiday Buy Night (5pm – 10pm)

    More than a craft fair, this event is a serious alternative to malls, featuring shops & artists from Oakland Unwrapped!, Pro Arts and Oakland Grown! Lots of food, music, entertainment & more!
    http://www.oaklandunwrapped.org/

  • Roots of Resistance Holiday Market & Art Showcase (7pm – 11pm)

    A night of Indigenous art, performance, dance, drum, food, vendors, artisans, celebration and solidarity. A free community event where you can support local artisans by purchasing your holiday gifts.
    http://www.snagmagazine.com/2009/11/snag-holiday-market.html

  • Swarm Gallery Shop/Show (6pm – 9pm)

    A curated pop-up shop exhibition including small work installations, limited edition prints, art books, art t’s by Oaklandish, jewelry and much more.
    http://www.swarmgallery.com/gallery/exhibitions/Shop_Show.htm

Saturday, December 12th

  • The Crucible: Family Friendly Holiday Gift Art Sale and Open House (10 am to 4pm)

    Support local artists and community arts education for youth and adults while you get your last minute shopping done at the Bay Area’s most unusual holiday celebration.
    http://www.thecrucible.org

  • Mills College Fall Open Studios (12pm – 5pm)

    The current MFA students in the Mills College studio art program are pleased to announce the semiannual graduate open studios day.
    http://www.millsmfaopenstudios.blogspot.com/

  • 24th Annual Holiday Kwanzaa and Christmas Gift Show (11 am to 7pm)

    As Oakland’s and the Bay Area’s original African American Holiday Crafts Show, this grand event is in its 24th year and is undoubtedly committed to sustaining and growing African American crafts exhibitors, small businesses, wholesome families and communities.
    http://www.kwanzaagiftshow.com

  • Holiday Art Glass Sale (10 am to 4pm)

    Bruce Pizzichillo and Dari Gordon create unique glass artwork in their Oakland studio; including decorative vases, bowls, tumblers, jewelry and sculpture. Their studio is open to the public just twice a year, with substantial markdowns for the holidays.
    http://www.quepasaglass.com/

  • KPFA Crafts & Music Fair ($10 San Francisco, 10am – 6pm)

    The 39th Annual KPFA Crafts & Music Fair, the largest weekend holiday craft fair of its kind in Northern California, features 220 craftsmakers and artists from throughout the country, a gourmet food pavilion and live performances by some of the area’s leading world musicians.
    http://www.kpfa.org/craftsfair/

  • Mercury 20 – Winter Arts Fair (11am – 5pm)

    We will be featuring the work of local artists that have created work specifically for the holidays.
    Come enjoy hand made one of a kind work and holiday goodies. Buy local and support Oakland arts!
    http://www.mercurytwenty.com/Winter_arts/WinterArts.html

  • Stocking Stuffers Craft Fair @ We Art Space (11am – 4pm)

    Original ready-t0-hang art, and hand-crafted items such as jewelry, clothing, housewares, and more…
    http://WeArtSpace.com/

Sunday, December 13th

  • The Crucible: Family Friendly Holiday Gift Art Sale and Open House (10 am to 4pm)

    Support local artists and community arts education for youth and adults while you get your last minute shopping done at the Bay Area’s most unusual holiday celebration.
    http://www.thecrucible.org

  • 24th Annual Holiday Kwanzaa and Christmas Gift Show (11 am to 7pm)

    As Oakland’s and the Bay Area’s original African American Holiday Crafts Show, this grand event is in its 24th year and is undoubtedly committed to sustaining and growing African American crafts exhibitors, small businesses, wholesome families and communities.
    http://www.kwanzaagiftshow.com

  • KPFA Crafts & Music Fair ($10 San Francisco, 10am – 6pm)

    The 39th Annual KPFA Crafts & Music Fair, the largest weekend holiday craft fair of its kind in Northern California, features 220 craftsmakers and artists from throughout the country, a gourmet food pavilion and live performances by some of the area’s leading world musicians.
    http://www.kpfa.org/craftsfair/

  • Mercury 20 – Winter Arts Fair (11am – 5pm)

    We’ll be featuring the work of local artists that have created work specifically for the holidays.
    Come enjoy hand made one of a kind work and holiday goodies. Buy local and support Oakland arts!
    http://www.mercurytwenty.com/Winter_arts/WinterArts.html

  • Stocking Stuffers Craft Fair @ We Art Space (11am – 4pm)

    Original ready-t0-hang art, and hand-crafted items such as jewelry, clothing, housewares, and more…
    http://WeArtSpace.com/

Online

And if you can’t bear to leave the warm glow of your computer monitor, you can always support local Oakland artists by buying their wares through Etsy, which is a pretty great site in my opinion. If you click on their shop local section (http://www.etsy.com/shop_local.php), you can type in Oakland, CA and get an abundance of Oaktown artisans…

Homemade

And of course, if you happen to be artistically inclined, or even the slightest bit creative, who says you have to shop at all? Be your own artist… get creative and have some fun making gifts to share with your loved ones. Those are truly the best gifts of all, because they come from the heart, and not just the wallet.

Creative Growth Gallery – Art Murmur (Act II)

Next stop on our Friday night tour was Creative Growth Gallery on 24th Street near Broadway for their annual holiday show & sale… and what a stop it was! I can’t believe I’ve never been to this place. I think it’s one of those Oaktown secrets. Or maybe I’m just slow.

The Creative Growth Art Center provides studio arts training by professional artists to adults with mental, physical, and developmental disabilities. The center’s mission is “to provide a safe environment that fosters and nurtures the creative process, and to promote and market the art of people with physical, developmental, and emotional disabilities.”

creative growth oakland

It was the first of its kind in the nation when established over 30 years ago, and it’s been going strong ever since… producing works of art exhibited in, and collected by, such revered institutions as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, San Francisco’s MOMA, and other major museums & galleries throughout the world.

In 2008 they completed a full one-million dollar plus renovation of their building, to provide their 140 artists “a better, safer and more organized studio and healthier place to be.”  They also opened a gallery in Paris called Galerie Impaire, in order to further the representation of their artists, and provide greater exposure of disabled artists’ works to contemporary art collectors.  These folks aren’t kidding around.

They currently have a holiday window display at Barneys in San Francisco (77 O’Farrell Street), and recently teamed up with celebrated fashion designer Marc Jacobs to produce a limited collection of wallets, t-shirts, and tote & shoulder bags, designed by four Creative Growth artists: Louis Estape, Dan Miller, William Scott, and Gerone Spruill.  Awesome.

From the look of things Friday night, I’d say their holiday sale is one not to be missed… I only wish I was telling you about it beforehand and not after, but you’ll just have to mark your calendars for 2010.

creative growth in oakland

welcome to magic show, william tyler, art at creative growth

There was an incredible display of the widest variety of art I’ve seen at any of the galleries in Oakland.  They had everything from handmade clothing, to 70’s style latchkey rugs and embroidery work (I bought one of these and it is very cool!), paintings, prints, mixed media, pottery, housewares, greeting cards… the list goes on and on.  In addition to the gallery displayed pieces, the studio area (which is HUGE) was filled to the gills with tables and bins and boxes of bargain basement priced art.  $10 tables, $5 tables, $2 bins…   I bought my Christmas cards (see below) and gifts to boot.

creative growth holiday sale, creative growth art

studio art sale at creative growth, creative growth oakland

Holiday Sale at Creative Growth

Here’s a shot of the cards I got… designed by Lolita Triplette… isn’t it groovy? I love the little dragon tree-topper!

Lolita Triplette christmas card

They also got me for an annual membership.  Gotta support the arts!

And hey, if you missed this one and want to check them out, they have other events throughout the year.  Go to their website and either become a Facebook fan to be kept informed about upcoming events, or better yet, become a member.  You’ll be supporting a fantastic organization, and you’ll get 10% off any art purchases.  What a deal!

Oakland School for the Arts – Art Murmur (Act I)

So last Friday was another First Friday here in Oaktown, and this time I did it a little bit differently. My plan was to focus on galleries and spaces that were specifically set up with holiday sales…

My friend and I were on our way to grab a bite and a drink at Flora, probably my favorite restaurant in Oakland. At this point in time, that’s a pretty high compliment given the slew of fantastic restaurants that are springing up seemingly weekly. Oakland’s dining scene has been getting a lot of press and it’s very exciting. Here are a few samples…

East Bay Express:  America’s Next Great Dining Town

Wall Street Journal:  Oakland’s Temescal Goes From Rundown to Reborn

NYTimes:  36 Hours in Oakland

Diablo Magazine:  One Fine Night: Oakland’s Uptown

I’ve written about Flora before, and I’ll do an even more in-depth story in the future… I have plans for a whole Art Deco series thanks to a suggestion from my friend Jessica. But in the meantime, all you need to know, is they make fantastic cocktails and out of this world food. You’ll likely have to book early to get a reservation on a First Friday, but I’ve had good luck dropping in early and just grabbing a seat at the bar. A fancy libation and small plate delight and you are on your way to murmuring right!

We made our way down the block to a space we had passed earlier while parking… it wasn’t a gallery I was familiar with, and it wasn’t a spot on my list of to-see’s for the night, but hey, when you’re murmuring, you gotta kinda roll with it. And this was clearly a scene worthy of an adjustment to our plans. There was a crowd of people outside and an even larger crowd inside, snaking their way through a labyrinth of gallery walls chock full of art, accompanied by live music, spoken word, and improv rap.  This was a cool scene, and it was mostly kids… real kids.  We had serendipitously stumbled upon the holiday sale of the Oakland School for Visual Arts.

OSA, oakland school for the arts, oakland holiday sale, osa holiday sale

The Oakland School for Visual Arts (OSA) moved to the Fox Theater‘s building (also to be covered during Art Deco Days!) in January of this year. The brain-child of former Mayor Jerry Brown (Wikipedia), OSA is school is a public charter middle & high school with a mission “to provide students with intensive conservatory-style training in the arts while maintaining a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum.” They offer seven core artistic programs: Arts Management, Dance, Instrumental Music, Literary Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, and Vocal Music. Students wishing to attend have to audition to show they’ve got the artistic muster to make it… think Fame!

They currently maintain an attendance rate of 94%, one of the highest in Oakland. And their first senior graduating class (2006), graduated with 100 percent of the class accepted to four-year colleges (Wikipedia). That’s pretty impressive.

In fact, the whole scene was quite impressive. The huge turnout… the talented musicians… the amazing works of art (at bargain basement prices too!) I, for one, emptied my wallet in support of this school and its young artists. My only complaint would be that the lines for buying the art were too long, and that’s not a bad problem to have. Yay for OSA!

oakland school for the arts, small works show and sale, OSA small works sale

oakland holiday art sale, oakland school for the arts

OSA Small works sale, OSA gallery, oakland school for the arts

Check back tomorrow for the futherings of our murmurings… And if you missed the holiday sales this past weekend, check back later in the week for my best effort at a comprehensive list of arty/crafty holiday fairs and events next weekend.

The Crucible

How can I write about metal art in Oakland and not speak of The Crucible? It’s an institution, and one of my favorite things about Oakland. This is what makes Oakland cool. That you can throw a festival of fire next door to BART, in which a column of fire is sprayed 80 feet into the air, with the bart tracks & trains running right by. What do the people from Walnut Creek think?!!

This multi-disciplinary non-profit facility is responsible for a good chunk of art at Burning Man, the annual Fire Arts Festival in Oakland (which moved to a new location near Fruitvale this past summer), and a slew of classes at their West Oakland Bart oriented location… everything from blacksmithing (of course), to ceramics, fire-dancing, moldmaking, and much more. Please check out their links, because I simply can’t tell you enough to truly do them justice.

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The word ‘crucible’ refers to a vessel or container used for heating substances to high temperatures. Below is an example of one they have sitting out front… It’s comprised of thick steel wrapped around an interior of concrete, and it is huge!

Another meaning of the word is “a place, time, or situation characterized by the confluence of powerful intellectual, social, economic, or political forces.” (dictionary.com) The Crucible truly is this, for they define themselves as a collaboration of Art, Industry, & Community, and rightfully so.

Their location in a historically depressed part of West Oakland rejuvenates the area with art, commerce, and education, accessible to all through classes, community events & service projects, and more..

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They recently received an NEA grant that allowed them to install a new ramp, making the facility wheelchair accessible. See below all the intricate metal work adorning it, icons of bay area history, glossed in fire-engine red enamel … our current city logo (the oak tree), the Port of Oakland, the Fox Theater, the Tribune Tower, the Bay Bridge, the Black Panthers, Rosie the Riveter and more.

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