Alameda Art is You

Alameda has a varied and vibrant visual arts scene—though not everyone knows it. 

In the shadows of the arts communities in San Francisco and Oakland, which feature art both edgy and established, Alameda's creative spirit can be overlooked by those who see the island as a quaint family town, pleasant and pretty, if a little fusty.

But it doesn't take much looking to uncover Alameda's arts community. As  d'Arci Bruno, the Gallery Director of K Gallery at Rhythmix Cultural Works says, "There is a little artist in all of us." And, indeed, there is much on the island to cater to the particular artist that lurks in each person who makes their way into this town.  

The wide variety of people and agencies involved with the arts in Alameda are united in at least one thing: You are invited to join in. The key here is accessibility, whether it is K Gallery's weekly Art Jam (Wednesdays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.), where visitors can come and "make stuff." Or the myriad of open classes at the Frank Bette Center, or the approach of Park Street gallery's Everybody Get Up,  that, "It's OK to sell art at affordable prices so that the people who enjoy and appreciate it can actually own it."

Alameda also has more established institutions. The Alameda Arts Association, which recently opened a gallery at Alameda Towne Centre, has been in operation since 1944. 

The Frank Bette Center for the Arts, housed in a cheery yellow building on the corner of Paru Street and Lincoln Avenue, has become a fixture of Alameda's art scene.  Offering workshops, gallery space and resources for those seeking to start their own arts activities or classes, Frank Bette embodies the participatory nature of community art. 

Rhythmix Cultural Works, not far from the Park Street Bridge, offers a family-friendly space, including hula hoop dancing classes and circus camp, while their art gallery doesn't shy away from sophisticated, developed art.  

Autobody Fine Art and Everybody Get Up, both located at 1517 Park St., provide art for those who might usually fill their arts appetite by traveling to the other side of the Webster Tube.  Displaying a similar sensibility to many of the galleries that populate Oakland's Art Murmur, Autobody features contemporary art with no punches pulled, and Everybody Get Up provides a space for artists with a post-R. Crumb 'zine aesthetic.

A generous number of Alameda businesses are also supportive of local artists, displaying rotating exhibits on their walls.  Lucky Juju and the Pacific Pinball Museum, JavaRama, Julie's Coffee and Tea Garden, Spritzer's, the Alameda Library, Alameda Marketplace, and the Alameda Theater, among other business, regularly turn their flat surfaces into gallery space.

The Estuary Art Attack, in which art studios and business open their doors to all who'd like to enter, runs from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the second Friday of every month.

But, just as Alameda arts seek to serve the community, it is the support and participation of Alamedans that keeps Island arts alive, says Debra Owen, executive director of the Frank Bette Center. "The creative impulse is fundamentally what makes us human," says Owen.  "It exists only through the will of the community. We must have a willingness to invest in our creative spirit.  In order to move forward, we have to say 'yes.' I am saying 'Yes.'"