By BK Williams

Rancho Market Mural, Designed by Richard Muro Salazar

Public art reflects a community’s values and history, and how we see the world—the artist’s response to our time and place combined with our own sense of who we are. It is placed in public sites, and is there for everyone, a form of collective community expression.

Richmond has had in effect a "Percent for Art" ordinance setting aside 1.5% of eligible capital improvement project budgets for the acquisition of public art.  Additionally, there is a 1% fee for public art to private developers on applicable projects.  Public artwork is directed through the Arts and Culture Commission which advises the city in its artistic and cultural development in preserving Richmond’s heritage. The city’s budget shows the Percent for Art has amassed in excess of one million dollars for this fiscal year.  There was approximately $1.7 million dollars available as of the end of 2022.  (A&C Ordinances, Policies, and Procedures.)

By Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early

Two years ago, Richmond Civic Center Plaza was the scene of a protest vigil organized by Estefany Sanchez and her two sisters. Estefany is a Richmond resident and an Army veteran whose experience of sexual harassment in the military led her to identify strongly with the tragic case of Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year old soldier at Fort Hood in Texas.

Bridge Storage and Artspace are celebrating LatinX heritage month by hosting their very first LatinX art show. The exhibition runs from August 10th  to October 28th in the main gallery located at 23 Maine Ave, Richmond, CA 94804. 

By Jamin Pursell

My name is Michael Arbulu. I am the owner and lead designer of Arbulu Art Design here in Richmond. I have been running my studio since 2019. Arbulu Art Design provides custom design and fabrication services for homeowners and businesses in our local community. 

My studio was born out of the belief that art can and should be a part of everyday life. My goal is to bring a customer’s unique vision to life, drawing upon my skill in fine art, industrial and graphic design, and fabrication experience. I approach design from the viewpoint of an artist and come up with creative solutions to design challenges big and small, to fit ideas into a myriad of spaces—outdoor decks, custom furniture, art deco pieces, and many other objects.

On Saturday, June 18th, the Richmond community came together to celebrate Juneteenth. Our city’s annual parade and festival, always well-attended by Richmond residents and the wider Bay Area community, hasn’t taken place since the pandemic began in 2020. While President Biden only designated Juneteenth as a federal holiday last year, the return of Richmond’s festivities marks over two decades of celebrating the holiday in Richmond.

Interview with Richmond Art Center's curators of the Emmy Lou Packard exhibition

Landscape Near Half Moon Bay (1950s), Emmy Lou Packard. Linocut with hand coloring.
Courtesy of Donald Cairns and Richmond Art Center

Emmy Lou Packard: Artist of Conscience
Exhibition: June 22 - August 20, 2022
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
Gallery Hours: Wed-Sat, 10 am - 4 pm
Exhibition and events are free to the public

The new exhibition at Richmond Art Center, ‘Emmy Lou Packard: Artist of Conscience,’ is curated by Robbin Légère Henderson and Rick Tejada-Flores. The curators spoke with Richmond Progressive Alliance on Monday, June 27.

Happy Pride from the Richmond Progressive Alliance!

We celebrate the beautiful and expansive LGBTQ+ community.

We honor our queer and trans ancestors who suffered from government persecution, hate crimes, HIV/AIDS, shame and social stigma. We also commemorate those who fought for liberation. We remember that Pride was born of protests against police brutality (amidst the criminalization of “same-sex” dancing), including Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco in 1966 and Stonewall in New York City in 1969.

We commit to resisting homophobia and transphobia in our lives and in our laws, international persecution of LGBTQ+ people, and the racism within the LGBTQ+ community.

Please enjoy this pride playlist, a compilation of songs submitted by LGBTQ+ RPA members. Listen on Spotify, or as individual YouTube links:

By Jamin Pursell

Richmond Rainbow Pride is having its 8th annual Pride event on Sunday, June 5th 2022 at noon, broadcast on twitch.tv. Established in 2014, Richmond Rainbow Pride is a group of LGBTQIA individuals and allies who live, work and play in or near Richmond and who have come together for the collective benefit of the LGBTQIA community.

By Katt Ramos

North Richmond Farm

Within one month of purchasing the North Richmond Farm, Urban Tilth learned that our dreams of growing a healthy, community driven vision for positive development in North Richmond was being threatened by a new massive Panattoni Inc. project planned for the parcels on the eastern boundary of our farm. This development would severely impact the North Richmond farm as well as the youth in the nearby elementary school.

By Shiva Mishek

Rosie Lee Tompkins, 1985. Photo courtesy of BAMPFA.

In the mid-1980s, psychologist Eli Leon stumbled across the work of Rosie Lee Tompkins at a Marin flea market. He devoted the rest of his life to collecting her quilts. At the time of his death, Leon had amassed over 500 works by the artist, who chose to live in complete anonymity.

Rosie Lee Tompkins is the pseudonym of Effie Mae Martin Howard. The now-renowned artist was born in rural Arkansas in 1936, where she was one of fifteen children in a sharecropping family. Tompkins moved to Richmond in early adulthood, during the Great Migration of African Americans away from the Jim Crow South and into western states. She lived and worked as a nurse in Richmond until her death in 2006.