Art
Oakland’s art galleries are kicking off 2013 with a round of new exhibits, from abstract sculptures and bold paintings to photographs and seemingly mundane objects portrayed in a new light. Art enthusiasts can roam Oakland from Alcatraz Avenue to the waterfront this month in search of inspiration, distraction or a fun outing on a weekend afternoon.
The downtown Oakland school, founded in 2002 by Governor Jerry Brown who was then Oakland’s mayor, will celebrate its 10th birthday Thursday night with a performance at the Fox Theater. It is the only public charter performing arts school in Oakland, and is actually made up nine different schools, each spanning grades 6-12, that teach dance, instrumental music, vocal music, digital media, literary arts, production design, theatre, visual arts, and circus arts.
Jane Powell was a woman who loved her home. Powell, an author and home restoration expert who died in November 2012 from lung cancer, spent the final years of her life fighting the bank to keep her dream home, Oakland’s historical Jesse Matteson House, fondly nicknamed the Bunga-Mansion by Powell and her friends. After losing most of her income during the financial crash of 2008, Powell rallied to keep her home from going into foreclosure, all while struggling with illness….
Dr. Elliot Gann is standing in front of his beat-up and stickered black Mazda Protégé in the parking lot of West Oakland Middle School. In his left ear is a Bluetooth earpiece, which, as he eats a Trader Joes sandwich wrap, enables him to lament to a friend the parking ticket he just received. To his side is a worn green Atlantic suitcase that wobbles with a broken wheel. Inside, its contents are packed tight: two sets of studio monitors,…
Live experimental cinema returned to Temescal Sunday night with the opening night of the second season of Shapeshifters Cinema, a monthly series blending experimental video with live musical accompaniment.
On a barren West Oakland corner, amongst homes where the windows and front yards are gated and dead-bolted protectively from the world outside, now stands a “Tree of Life” — the Attitudinal Healing Connection’s debut traveling mural project. The mural and all seven of its transportable panels were unveiled Thursday afternoon at the West Oakland Youth Center’s construction site on Market Street. Construction on the facility, currently a skeleton of drywall, scaffolding and timber, isn’t expected to be complete until…
The Crucible’s second Hot Couture: A Fusion of Fashion and Fire will run on Friday and Saturday evenings, January 11 and 12. The show features works created by nine teams of fashion designers and artists who have partnered to make fashion pieces out of industrial arts materials.
At a press conference Wednesday morning, the Oakland Museum of California announced the theft of a historical quartz and gold-encrusted jewel box from its Gallery of California History. The burglary, which occurred early Monday, is the second the museum has recently experienced; in the early morning hours between November 12 and 13, gold nuggets were stolen from the same collection.
Through the windows of 4030 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Kevin Clarke can be seen lounging in a chair, typing away at his laptop with his full-sized bed in full view. Clarke’s bed and lounge chairs sit near the front window of a 2,000 square foot warehouse space, where everything from the vintage stove in his kitchen to his niece’s scribbled drawing tacked on his work space wall are all part of the gallery experience. “I like that it’s a little…