Art Murmur 2.0

Art Murmur 2.0

ART | The Oakland art scene grows—and grows up.

The once-funky, low-key Oakland Art Murmur art scene that started as a loosely organized art gallery stroll on the first Friday of the month in 2005 has matured well beyond expectations. The original eight or nine artist-run spaces that mounted shows of emerging artists have expanded into a wildly successful scene with the gallery walk drawing up to 25,000 participants as well as national attention.

Art Murmur, according to its website, www.OaklandArtMurmur.org, now boats a network of 34 galleries, five project spaces, seven affiliated retailers, and even the New Parkway Theater. Exhibition and special events are cohesively organized by area on the website, making cultural tourism as easy as possible. If the massive First Friday Gallery Walk proves too overwhelming, there are two more intimate and less-rollicking options: a weekly Saturday Stroll self-guided art walk and a Third Saturday Walking Tour led each month by a different friendly neighborhood gallerist.

Two waves of emigration from increasingly unaffordable San Francisco have moved creative talent and entrepreneurial spirit in art, music, food, and tech startups, across the Bay Bridge to Oakland, a demographic shift feeding right into Art Murmur’s natural progression and evolution. At the same time, Art Mumur has embarked on a unified marketing effort, beginning in earnest with the 2012 fundraiser, Flourish, and then with the founding of Friends of Oakland Art Murmur, a nonprofit arm dedicated to spreading the word about Art Murmur by connecting supporters through membership with access to special events, invitations, and discounts.

Danielle Fox, director of SLATE Contemporary and a former Art Murmur executive director, recruited consultant Dalya Sachs to organize the first Flourish. Sachs put her previous experience as an event planner in her daughters’ school to good use, pulling off an impressive event at Mua in May 2012 that drew an audience of 200 and raised an impressive $20,000.

Sensing an opportunity to make Art Murmur more than “a postcard organization,” Sachs broached her “pie-in-the-sky” idea of starting the Friends membership group with Fox, who immediately agreed. Friends of Oakland Art Murmur was created to harness the energy and talents of those who saw the art scene’s potential for revitalizing the economy and creating community; Sachs serves as its director. A variety of events and programs ensued, including the gallery strolls and more family-friendly events like an art-gallery scavenger hunt. An energetic board has expanded Art Mumur’s reach and influence, too, and the city’s Cultural Arts and Marketing Department has helped foster a renaissance with matching funds for redevelopment projects. Meanwhile, Sachs, an enthusiastic Oakland arts champion, has forged cultural partnerships with the Downtown Oakland Association, the Oakland Museum of California, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the Oakland Ballet, and others.

Art Murmur special events these days have been extremely well regarded and comparable to galas at mature campus galleries. For instance, Art Murmur’s Fired in Oakland: The History & Future of California Ceramic Sculpture was a well-attended Aug. 7 symposium at Vessel Gallery that featured a keynote address by Nancy Servis of the National Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona along with discussions by local sculptors Christa Assad, Jim Melchert, Juan Miguel Santiago, John Toki, and Wanxin Zhang. And Flourish: Party + Art Auction was an Oct. 11 fundraiser at Classic Cars West that was emceed by former KPIX anchor Dana King, now a figurative sculptor. The event included live music from The Manouche Project, dance performances by members of Oakland Ballet, refreshments from some of Oakland’s premier restaurants and bars, and work donated by local artists, including a Pop art Batman piece by Mel Ramos put forth by Magnolia Editions.

“This auction presents a wonderful opportunity for both seasoned collectors and those new to collecting, to acquire works by artists with gallery representation at very modest prices,” Fox noted during Flourish.

“The arts and humanities are regularly beat up, and they’re not given enough credit for job creation,” Sachs said, emphasizing Art Murmur’s economic contributions to Oakland and neighborhoods stretching from Temescal to Uptown, “The ripple effect just spreads out if you have a really vibrant cultural scene.

“You’re seeing so much bubbling new commerce,” she said. “It’s because of Oakland Art Murmur. . . . Thousands of people come to this area on First Friday and are starting to come more and more to other events. It really has had an impact on the economic vibrancy and the cultural vibrancy of the city.”

Sachs would like to see further change financed by a development group with vision, creating a retail area—”capitalism in action”—albeit of a hip, contemporary kind, with a diverse mixture of businesses. She considers Art Murmur, with all its success, “a work in progress” in need of additional support—an office, more staffers—to continue its mission.

“Other cities that have decided, for economic drivers, I’m sure, to make an arts district, and highlight that, have done really well with it,” Sachs said. “It’s exciting and it can work.”

Jillian Piccirilli, Art Murmur director of operations, agrees on the economic and social benefits. “Outwardly facing, I think that Oakland Art Murmur’s great accomplishment is the popularity of the First Friday Art Walk. The diverse crowd that this event draws into the galleries is stunning. Inwardly facing, I think Oakland Art Murmur’s great accomplishment is the community that it has built among its gallery members.

“Oakland has long been home to artists, but those artists had few opportunities to exhibit in their hometown. Today, the Oakland Art Murmur organization has 46 member spaces throughout the city of Oakland, and our town is internationally celebrated as an arts hub,” Piccirilli said.

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DeWitt Cheng is The Monthly’s art critic.

Faces of the East Bay