San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
A feast for the eyes
Oakland Museum of California
From the famed Brutalist galleries by Kevin Roche overlooking Lake Merritt to the artpacked gardens originally designed by Dan Riley, the Oakland Museum of California is among our favorite destinations — and it’s just blocks away from BART.
Shows have highlighted hyperlocal scenes and subjects from Bay Area hip-hop to Heath Ceramics, Burning Man and the Black Panther Party. With permanent collections that include work by Ruth Asawa, Richard Diebenkorn, Edward Weston and Hung Liu as well as its stellar Dorothea Lange archive, the legacy of California artists is highlighted like nowhere else.
If you’re hungry after all the art, the museum’s Town Fare restaurant offers bites by chef Michele McQueen.
The recent refresh to the campus by architect Mark Cavagnero
and landscape architect Walter Hood encourages patrons to linger and not just enjoy, but really utilize the indoor and outdoor spaces.
1000 Oak St. 510-318-8400. https://museumca.org
Creative Growth
— Tony Bravo
Downtown Oakland’s visual arts scene includes not only the popular First Friday art walk and galleries like Johanson Projects and Mercury 20, but also one of the world’s foremost art centers for developmentally disabled people, which has helped launch their work into the mainstream.
In the former auto body shop turned studios, artists study and create work that they exhibit in the adjacent gallery. The work spans from ceramic, painting and sculpture to clothing and textile art created for the annual “Beyond Trend” fashion show.
The space shows work internationally with artists like William Scott, Judith Scott and Dan Miller featured in major collections including the Museum of Modern Art and Smithsonian.
Creative Growth has been a community fixture for five decades and, along with San Francisco’s Creativity Explored and Richmond’s NIAD, has led the conversation advocating for neurodiverse artists.
355 24th St. 510-836-2340 https://
creativegrowth.org