Arts and culture
Two major murals representing scenes from Richmond’s past are getting a makeover. As part of the $4.1 million Richmond Art and Light Project, the “Past Perfect” and “Revisionist History of San Pablo Avenue” murals will get reconditioned by the original artist, John Wehrle. The Richmond Arts & Culture Commission had the murals painted on Interstate 80 underpasses intersecting two of the city’s major thoroughfares in the 1990s. “Past Perfect” on Macdonald Avenue depicts the arrival of a ghost trolley from…
Inside of a tiny house, there is another tiny house, showcasing the two houses in the artist’ life: the one she lives in, and the one she dreams of. This is an artwork that Richmond artist Erin McCluskey Wheeler will be showcasing at the “Today is the Greatest” exhibition, which starts at the NIAD Art Center Thursday and runs until Nov. 17. “Dollhouses, anything in miniature, travel kits, and wearability were all things that seemed delightful to me and pleased…
In joyful movements, a girl sways on a stage adorned with vibrant balloons and gracefully turns, showcasing her fashion creation to the audience. Her pink polyplicate dress billows like a blossoming peony as she twirls. This was the scene at “The Vibration of Awesomeness” fashion show earlier this month. The event at the Oakland Museum of California was organized by several community groups including the NIAD Art Center in Richmond. It is part of a series of events associated with…
Good fences make good neighbors — depending on who owns the fence. On a chain link fence by Richmond Parkway separating the Chevron refinery and a neighborhood downwind of it, community volunteers, including Mayor Eduardo Martinez, wove technicolor wooden slats through the metal bars on Earth Day. The artwork was covered with messages saying, “Richmond deserves clean air + water,” “Chevron!!! A horrible neighbor!,” and “Land = Liberation,” and topped with ribbons blowing with the wind from the Richmond plant…
Drumming a steady beat, David Flores lets the hip hop rhythm inspire him. He’s been writing rap lyrics for a long time but only really started writing poetry after working as an after school poetry teacher. While he and his students considered him a poet, he wasn’t sure Richmond, his hometown, would. Flores almost didn’t apply for Richmond poet laureate, paralyzed by self-doubt and the thought that his work wasn’t good enough. “You know what? I’m just going to go…
On a cloudy Saturday morning, Carmen Román and her husband, Pierr Padilla, filled the basement of the Golden Gate Library in Oakland with a symphony of sounds, using their feet, hands and traditional Afro-Peruvian instruments. A small group of children shrieked with glee and bumbled around the room, dancing as their parents nodded to the beat being created by Román and Padilla opening and closing the top to their cajitas, a box-shaped Latin percussion instrument, and hitting it with a…
The Richmond Art Center has overcome much in recent years, including the closure forced on all during the pandemic and more recently, a significant loss in donations over the summer. As 2023 looms, Executive Director José Rivera says that despite bouncing back from the major revenue losses of 2020, the RAC is still in need of additional funding to return to its pre-pandemic level of operation. When Rivera was appointed in 2020, the RAC was just over $110,000 in the…
The parking lot of Richmond’s Veterans Memorial Hall is filled with the growling of engines as rows of hulking lowriders set up for an upcoming show. Just beyond the crisp chrome clad lines of a blue Chevy Impala, Daniel Vargas and Cruz Arroyo gently unpack tiny versions those classic cars they love but never could quite afford. From afar, Vargas and Arroyo’s remote-control miniature models may seem overshadowed by their larger counterparts. But at one-tenth scale, these lowrider replicas are…
At the Main Library in Richmond, time seems to stand still. The two-story building’s glass façade — said to be the first of its kind for a public library in the United States — allows the sunlight to filter in but keeps the hustle and bustle of city life out. With time-worn floor tiles and antiquated ceiling lights, the library makes very clear that it’s been around for a long time — actually, since Harry Truman was president. Romanticization of…