Emeryville Put Its New Art on a Bench, a Bus and a Breezeway

There's a new Art Deco redwood bench outside the Senior Center at 4321 Salem Street. Roberto Gastelmundi made it, and it opened to the public on Saturday, Oct. 17. The same day, a new exterior mural by Heather Hardison opened at Stanford Park on Doyle Street. Chris Granillo's community mural opened on the wall of the Emeryville Center of Community Life, and Erin Fong put up 20 colorful signs along the Greenway.

Emeryville's best-known art event has spent four decades borrowing other people's buildings. This year's Arts & Culture Month took a different approach and put new work in places residents walk past every day.

A 40-Year-Old Show That Still Borrows Its Room

The 40th Annual Emeryville Art Exhibition is at the Public Market, 5905 Shellmound St., through this Sunday, Oct. 25. It's open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. This year's show has 210 works by 106 artists who live, work or keep studio space in Emeryville.

The show started in 1987, when city leaders wanted to change Emeryville's image as a declining industrial town. The E'ville Eye reports that it has never had a permanent home. It moves into donated spaces around the city and turns empty buildings into temporary venues. This is its fifth straight year at the Public Market. Two longtime members of the 45th Street Artists' Cooperative, M. Louise "Lulu" Stanley and Archana Horsting, have been in all 40 exhibitions.

The same outlet says opening night has historically drawn more than 1,000 people, and more than 3,000 visit over the month. That's a big crowd for a show with an end date. Once the exhibition closes, the works go back to the artists and the room goes back to its owner. This year's new public art opened in places that don't close at the end of the month.

The New Pieces, and Where They Are

Seven new works opened this month in two batches. Three opened on Oct. 1 and four on Oct. 17.

Each site gets different use. The Stanford Park mural faces a neighborhood park. The Granillo mural is at the community center, and the bench is outside the Senior Center. The Fong signs are on the Greenway, the path that runs north-south through the city. The bus artwork is the one piece that moves, so you'll see Mila Moldenhawer's work whenever one of the two wrapped Emery Go-Round buses happens to pull up. The Thomas Jones piece is an interior mural, so call the Emeryville Citizens Assistance Project before you go to see it.

To fit these into a walk, start with the City's public art maps and walking guides. The page has an interactive map, a downloadable pocket map, and walking-tour PDFs that include a Greenway route. The City says the mapped collection is current as of Dec. 31, 2024, so these October 2026 pieces may not be on it yet. Use the table above for those.

Two New Rooms on Horton and Bay Street

Indoor art got new space this month too. Gallery 4509 opened on Oct. 3 at 4509 Horton St., next door to the 45th Street Artists' Cooperative, and shows work by the co-op's artists. The City lists its opening exhibition as open Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., through Oct. 25.

The Rotten City Cultural District gallery has also moved. It used to be at Bay Street near UNIQLO, and a September retail report says that space is going to JINS, a Japanese eyewear retailer. That report didn't give an opening date. The new RCCD Art Space is at 5688 Bay St., in the former Xfinity space next to Tipsy Putt. Its first show is Beyond the Lamplight x Steadfast Gallery. It grew out of an Emeryville Film Festival short-film program and shows personal work by current and former Pixar artists, made outside their studio jobs. It's open Thursday through Sunday, 1 to 6 p.m., and the Rotten City Cultural District lists it as on view through Oct. 31. Neither new gallery has posted hours for after its October show, so check before making a special trip in November.

Upstairs at A Loft of One's Own, 5757 Horton St., a solo show opened on Oct. 9. The gallery's page spells the artist's name William Schwob, and the E'ville Eye lists him as Bill Schwab. The E'ville Eye says the show runs through Nov. 20, which makes it the longest-running Arts Month show on Horton Street.

What's Left on the Calendar

Arts & Culture Month wraps on Friday, Oct. 30, and a few shows run past that. Here's what's still coming, in order:

1. Tonight, Thursday, Oct. 22, 5:30 to 8 p.m. The Roaming Feast is a moving dinner along Horton Street. It starts at Polaris Café, the tucked-away spot with an atrium that was also part of this month's first Emeryville Restaurant Week.
2. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 24 and 25. The 45th Street Artists' Cooperative holds its annual Open Studios weekend. The City lists an Open Studios Tour at Gallery 4509 on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m.
3. Sunday, Oct. 25. Poetry at Celebration is the closing night for the 40th Art Exhibition at the Public Market. Former Emeryville Poet Laureate Sarah Kobrinsky leads an ekphrastic poetry workshop, where writers respond to works in the show.
4. Friday, Oct. 30, 6:30 p.m. Coco in the Park at Huchiun Park, 4311 Hubbard St. It's an outdoor screening of the Pixar film, which was made in Emeryville, with a community ofrenda.
5. Saturday, Oct. 31. Last day for Beyond the Lamplight at 5688 Bay St.
6. Friday, Nov. 20. Last day for the solo show at A Loft of One's Own.
7. Friday, Dec. 4, 5:30 p.m. The City's Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting at City Hall, 1333 Park Ave. This year it marks Emeryville's 130th anniversary.

Many of the public art tours this month required an RSVP, and some events are ticketed. The Rotten City Cultural District events calendar handles registration.

The Public Market Is Changing Around the Show

The art exhibition's host building is also changing. The Joey Rose mural is on the Public Market's Northern Breezeway, and the stalls inside have turned over since this summer's food map. Jamaica Again opened on Aug. 27 at 5959 Shellmound St., taking a stall that had been empty for a long time. Nosh reported that Liquified Juicery, founded by Ashley Comora, opened on Saturday, Oct. 10, selling cold-pressed juices, smoothies, elixirs and sea moss products. Xula Guatemalan Cuisine is set for a La Cocina stall in the market. It was supposed to open Sept. 15, but city permitting delayed it, and the E'ville Eye's September report didn't give a new date.

If you come for the exhibition's last weekend, you can see the Rose mural on the way in and try a new stall on the way out. The exhibition comes down after Sunday. The Rose mural, the bench on Salem Street, the mural at Stanford Park and the signs along the Greenway don't come with closing dates, and the City lists only an opening day for each.

If you've walked past a new mural lately and wondered who made it, the Mike Lane Group is always happy to talk about the details that make Emeryville feel like home. You'll find more local guides on our Emeryville neighborhood page, and we're glad to help whenever you want to talk about your own corner of the East Bay.