"The exhibition has never had a permanent home," The E'ville Eye wrote on October 1 about the 40th Annual Emeryville Art Exhibition. For four decades the show has set up in donated spaces around the city, turning buildings that would otherwise sit unused into temporary cultural venues.
That line applies to more than one show this fall. The Rotten City Cultural District gallery on Bay Street is also changing addresses this month. The new art that will still be in place when Arts & Culture Month ends on October 30 is the work that doesn't need a room. It hangs on the Greenway, on a park wall, at the Senior Center, and on two buses that drive through town every day.
Forty Years of Borrowed Rooms
The Emeryville Art Exhibition began in 1987. According to The E'ville Eye, city leaders wanted to change Emeryville's image as a declining industrial town and give residents an event of their own. This year's edition has 210 works by 106 artists who live, work or keep studio space in Emeryville. M. Louise "Lulu" Stanley and Archana Horsting, both longtime members of the 45th Street Artists' Cooperative, have been in all 40 exhibitions.
For the fifth straight year the show is at Public Market Emeryville, 5905 Shellmound Street. It's open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., through October 25. Five years at one address is a long run for this show. Historically, more than 3,000 people have visited it over the course of October. The closing event on October 25 is Poetry at Celebration, with an ekphrastic poetry workshop led by former Emeryville Poet Laureate Sarah Kobrinsky, where writers respond to pieces in the show.
If you're making a weekday stop at the Market, Jamaica Again opened on August 27 in a corner stall that had been empty for a long time. The menu includes jerk chicken, oxtail and curried goat.
The Gallery That Moved Up Bay Street
The Rotten City Cultural District, the city-backed arts program behind most of this month's calendar, is going through the same kind of move. The E'ville Eye's September retail report said JINS, the Japanese eyewear brand, will take the Bay Street space near UNIQLO where the RCCD gallery has been. The gallery is moving toward the north end of the center, into the former Xfinity space next to Tipsy Putt at 5688 Bay Street. The report describes the new space as larger, with room to expand programming.
The first show in the new space is Beyond the Lamplight x Steadfast Gallery. Current and former Pixar artists are showing personal work made outside their studio jobs. The program grew out of a short-film series that started at the Emeryville Film Festival. The opening reception is tomorrow, Friday, October 9, from 6 to 10 p.m.
The moves come as the city collects recognition for that program. At its October 6 meeting, the City Council was scheduled to accept a Helen Putnam Award for Excellence for building the RCCD programs. The city's flagship exhibition is in a borrowed hall, and its award-winning gallery is relocating within a shopping center. Both run on space someone else controls.
The Art That Stays Put
The permanent additions from this year's Arts & Culture Month are all outdoors or in public buildings. According to The E'ville Eye and the RCCD events page, the new pieces are:
- Erin Fong: 20 colorful signs along the Greenway, opening October 17
- Heather Hardison: an exterior mural at Stanford Park, 5724 Doyle Street, opening October 17
- Joey Rose: an exterior mural at the Public Market's northern breezeway
- Chris Granillo: an exterior community mural at the Emeryville Center of Community Life
- Roberto Gastelmundi: an Art Deco redwood bench at the Senior Center
- Thomas Jones: an interior mural at the Emeryville Citizens Assistance Program
- Mila Moldenhawer: original artwork wrapped on two Emery Go-Round buses
RCCD doesn't say which routes the two wrapped buses run, so finding them is up to chance. Even so, they cover more of the city in one afternoon than any gallery wall does. The Joey Rose mural also ties the two threads together. It sits on the outside of the building hosting the borrowed-room exhibition, and it will stay when the show comes down on October 25.
Learning the New Map on Foot
Most of the second half of the month is tours, and several of them pass the newer outdoor work. Several require an RSVP and some are ticketed. Some of the online calendar copy still mixes in 2025 dates, so check the event-specific listing before you go. The details below come from those listings.
| Date | Event | Where it starts | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 10, noon–5 p.m. | Bay Street 2nd Saturdays makers market | 5616 Bay St. | Free |
| Sun., Oct. 11, 1–3:30 p.m. | Citywide public art bike tour | City Hall, 1333 Park Ave. | Free, RSVP |
| Sat., Oct. 17, 12:45 p.m. meet | Art as Graham Crackers Along the Greenway | 64th and Doyle | Free, RSVP |
| Sun., Oct. 18, noon–3 p.m. | Emeryville Historical Society walking tour | Park Avenue Plaza, Park Ave. at Halleck | $10 members, $25 non-members |
| Wed., Oct. 21, 5:30 p.m. | Get Lit: A Lighted Sculpture and Bar Shuttle Tour | Public Market Breezeway, 5959 Shellmound | $20 |
| Thu., Oct. 22, 5:30–8:30 p.m. | Roaming Feast on Horton Street | Polaris Café, 5858 Horton St. | $60 |
| Oct. 24–25, noon–5 p.m. | 45th Street Artists' Cooperative Open Studios | 1420 45th St., 4250 Horton St., 4333 Holden St. | No price listed |
| Fri., Oct. 30, about 6:30 p.m. | Coco in the Park with community ofrenda | Huchiun Park | Free |
The weekend of October 17 and 18 is the best time to see the new outdoor pieces. Fong's signs and Hardison's mural both open Saturday. That afternoon's Greenway walk hands out 3D glasses for viewing murals along the route. The Eventbrite listing gives the meeting point as 64th and Doyle at 12:45 p.m., which puts the start a short walk from Stanford Park.
On Sunday, the Emeryville Historical Society tour meets at Park Avenue Plaza. Its Eventbrite listing describes a route through the city's North End, with stops from the society's Greenway Tour and a preview of its upcoming Butchertown Tour. It ends at a local business with a beverage, pizza and Q&A. Two other listings name different places to finish, so the ticket page is the most reliable guide to where you'll end up.
Get Lit on October 21 covers the same ground after dark, by shuttle, with a stop at lighted sculptures. Riders can meet at 5:30 p.m. in the Public Market Breezeway or at 6:30 p.m. in the parking lot across from the Market. The $20 covers the tour and driver, and food and drinks are extra. The Roaming Feast the next night begins in the Wareham Development atrium with drinks and snacks from Polaris Café.
Open Studios Covers What the Tours Don't
The Open Studios weekend fills in the rest of the picture. The 45th Street Artists' Cooperative opens studios in three buildings, at 1420 45th Street, 4250 Horton Street and 4333 Holden Street, from noon to 5 p.m. on October 24 and 25. It's the same weekend as the art exhibition's closing, so you can see work by Cooperative members in the borrowed hall on Shellmound and in the places where it was made.
The month ends on October 30 with an outdoor screening of Coco, the Pixar film made in Emeryville, at Huchiun Park. There will be a community ofrenda, and the show starts around 6:30 p.m. The city's notice says bad weather may cancel the movie. By then the exhibition will have left the Public Market. The Greenway signs, the Stanford Park mural, the Senior Center bench and the two wrapped buses will still be in place.
David R. Valva has spent decades watching Emeryville's warehouses become studios, offices and storefronts, and he follows which spaces change hands and why. If you own near the Greenway, Doyle Street or Horton Street and want to know how this stretch of the city is changing, start with a free Oakland home valuation and a conversation with David.
