About the CenterOur Mission

Berkeley Art Center (BAC) serves the diverse and creative citizens of this unique regional area, through the presentation of visual art exhibitions and related programs that are relevant, engaging, and inspiring.

News and Reviews

The Daily Californian — January 29, 2012
Bay Area artist Deborah Oropallo digitally reinterprets

Take one look at Deborah Oropallo’s artwork, and you haven’t seen anything. This Bay Area artist’s hybrid prints are so intricate that one’s eye must linger and settle to take it all in, peeling away the layers to extract a narrative...

Berkeleyside — January 24, 2012
Book explores impact of Berkeley Art Museum’s Peter Selz

When Peter Selz arrived in Berkeley in 1965, the university only had a small art gallery to display its modest collection of art. Selz had been recruited from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City to oversee the construction of a new, contemporary museum, the Berkeley Art Museum on Bancroft Way...

East Bay Express — November 23, 2011
Piece Work – Lena Wolff and friends occupy Berkeley

Known for her large collaged paper versions of traditional American quilts, replete with stylized animals, plants, and decorative motifs, Lena Wolff is exploring hard-edged minimalist abstraction of the kind we associate with 1960s painters like Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland, Ellsworth Kelly, and Victor Vasarely...

Berkeleyside — November 11, 2011
Paper Quilt Project raises thought-provoking questions

...Elements of the show play into the theme of the traditional patchwork quilt: compositions that unite miscellaneous and incongruous parts into a harmonious collaborative whole...

 

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Board and Staff

Board of Directors 2011
Elliot Halpern, President
Sheldon Greene, Treasurer
Maria Jenson
Josh Oliver
Susan Roth
Elizabeth Sher
David Snippen
Larry Stefl

Major Contributors

As a private, non-profit organization supported in part by the City of Berkeley, the Berkeley Art Center would like to thank the major contributors that make our exhibitions and programs possible:

Alameda Arts Commission

Alameda County Arts Commission,    ARTSFUND Grants Program
Paule Anglim
Anonymous
Christopher Brown
City of Berkeley
City of Berkeley Civic Arts Commission
John Freedman
David Levine
Open Circle Foundation
Steven Oliver
W A Gerbode Foundation
Zellerbach Family Foundation

Friends CampaignAlso, a big thank you to our 2011 donors. (List to be posted soon).

Contact Us

Berkeley Art Center
1275 Walnut Street
Berkeley, CA, 94709
(510) 644-6893 phone
(510) 644-0343 fax
info [at] berkeleyartcenter.org


We would like to thank our program sponsors and business contributors:

Program Sponsors Oliver & Company Berkeley Rotary Trumer Pils Cooperative Center FCU Monterey Market Twig and Fig Read Oak Realty DoubleTree Poulet Saul's Restaurant and Deli Dr. Joel Boriskin Dr. Lesli Handmacher, O.D. Masse's Pastries Vintage Berkeley Mythos Fine Art Meyer Sound TRAX gallery

History

Designed by Robert Ratcliff Architects in 1967, the Berkeley Art Center was built by the Rotary Club as a gift to the City of Berkeley, and was instituted as a city program until BAC adopted its private, non-profit status in the late 70s. A beautiful arts and crafts-style structure in Live Oak Park, North Berkeley with an outdoor reception area, BAC has established itself as leading local gallery presenting the work of talented regional artists in diverse media.

Exhibitions
& Programs

Berkeley Art Center hosts a variety of visual art exhibitions and related programs for its membership and the general public. Recent exhibitions have included: Metaphysical Abstraction: Contemporary Approaches to Spiritual Practice; Process & Place: The Transformative Potential of Artist Residencies; and COLLECT, the center's bi-annual fundraiser and art auction featuring the work of nearly 75 local artists. Exhibitions serving members and a wider group of regional artists include the annual juried exhibition, Juried@BAC, now in its 27th year; East Bay Open Studios Preview Exhibition @ Berkeley Art Center in conjunction with Pro Arts, and the center's annual Members’ Showcase, a non-juried exhibition including work in all media from Berkeley Art Center members. Related programs have included the center's widely praised Artist Lecture Series (this past year including Robert Bechtle, Tom Marioni, Kara Maria and Lulu Stanley), artists’ talks and walk-throughs, panel discussions, Visual Thinking Strategies workshops and other educational opportunities appropriate to the exhibitions on view.

Audience

Berkeley Art Center’s audience serves and represents the diversity of the city and region in which it operates, and includes the active participation of over 10,000 individuals on an annual basis. As a fully handicapped-accessible facility, Berkeley Art Center is also accessible to a large section of the senior and disabled population. Artists comprise a significant part of BAC’s audience: in 2008, over 250 artist members displayed work in the center’s annual Members Showcase exhibition, from which three were chosen for a small group show, and BAC received 750 artist entries for its Annual National Juried Exhibition. Nearly 600 student artists from Berkeley public schools, K-12, displayed their work in the 2009 Youth Arts Festival. Young people benefit from participation in the Youth Arts Festival and from special, youth-oriented programs, as well as through internship and volunteer opportunities.

Collaborations
& Partnerships

Berkeley Art Center works with a wide variety of local organizations and agencies to strengthen its programming and advocate for the arts. Recently, these have included Berkeley Cultural Trust, Berkeley Convention and Visitors Bureau, Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Berkeley Association, Kala Art Institute, Pro Arts, Poetry Flash, the Alameda County Arts Commission, and JFK University’s Museum Studies Department, as well as many others.