Upcoming Public Art

In 2022, the Art in Public Place Program included a pilot for Visual Arts Grants as described here.  These grants offer artists with local project sponsors funding for works initiated by the artist, fostering creative and unexpected new works, outside the commission of murals or capital projects under the Art in Public Places program.  Four works are expected by or in 2023. Upon completion of works, the pilot will be evaluated for future calls.  

Additionally, the Sharon Wilchar Bus Shelter Temporary Art Program installs four new works by local artists every four months, for which a new call is anticipated in 2023.  The Purchase Award is installed annually in a City facility.  More information about each of these programs is below. 

Murals:

2022 brought not only a City commissioned mural as below, but was the site of a PangeaSeed Seawalls Festival, bringing 15 new murals honoring the best of being a shoreline City and the threats to the Ocean.  

Information on existing murals is available here. New murals can be added as part of the private development requirements of new developments, existing business or property owners seeking to shape the identity of their location or other non-profit initiatives. Murals can be supported by the City through a commission under the Mural program or a Visual Art Grant.  

Guillaume Ollivier’s Light on the Bay, 2022

Sharon Wilchar Bus Shelter Temporary Art

This program which features local artists was recently named for the former Public Art Committee Chair, Sharon Wilchar who served for over 30 years on the commission and installation of the City’s prolific art program.  For more information on Sharon Wilchar as honored at the occasion of her retirement from the City’s Public Art Committee see here.  

The 2023 call for artist due April 18,2023 can be found here.

Kazuko Watanabe’s work installed at the Bus Shelter on Powell Street in 2021

The Bus Shelter art installations brighten the mundane with original works from Emeryville artists celebrating flora and fauna. Artists have been chosen through a juried process and employ an amazing range of media, including pen and ink, digital collage, drawings, mixed media sculpture, oil on canvas, painting and collage, scanned plant material, acrylic and oil on panel, and neon sculpture. Learn more by visiting the Bus Shelters page 

Purchase Award

Rueben Rodgers, digital photograph, 2019, 30˝x30˝x.5˝ by Ronald Davis, purchased in 2021

The Exhibit Purchase Award Program, established in 2005, has built the city’s permanent art collection through the yearly acquisition of an art work. The program reinforces the city’s commitment to the arts and, at the same time, expands the city’s main government building to another purpose. City Hall now serves as a showcase for the engaging works of local artists to the delight of all those who work and visit the building. Learn more about the Purchase Award Program here 

Public Art in Private Developments

Additionally there are millions of dollars in new public art required of private development spread across sites at the Public Market, The Emery, Biomed, EmeryStation Overland, Bay Street and numerous others developments as required by the local Art in Public Places Ordinance requiring 1% of commercial development costs be devoted to Art and .5% of residential developments costs.  More information about requirements for private developments is available here 

Mark Bullwinkle’s 2022 installation at Park Avenue and Halleck Street commission by Anvil Builders for property at 1550 Park Avenue