For 36 years Emeryville Celebration of the Arts has found a home for the annual exhibition in almost as many different buildings within the city limits. This year’s venue at Public Market Emeryville brings us full circle to the first exhibition site in 1987.

Built in the late 1870’s, the original brick and redwood structure is one of many industrial buildings that appeared when the First People’s sites were replaced by the enormous wave of emigrants following the gold rush. The building later served many purposes including a stockyard, an asphalt roofing company, and a truck terminal before it became part of the Public Market development in 1980’s.

In museums with permanent collections, a curator is charged with the care, preservation and documentation of works in the permanent collection. This person is also involved with the conception and organization of temporary exhibitions in the museum building working closely with an exhibition designer and professional installation crew.

In museums, galleries and other art spaces a curator and exhibition designer are working with a known space. Emeryville poses a unique problem as the space in which the annual is to be installed, lent by generous property owners, is often not known until a few weeks before the opening reception. Thus, in Emeryville the curator takes on another roll as architect, re-designing an industrial or commercial space to hold the one to two hundred works selected annually from submissions by Emeryville’s large creative population.

Once the site is determined, we go into construction mode, building walls to support the works, carving out space for events, sales and administration all of which must comply with city regulations. Each year we re-invent an art space, building from the ground up. Tools and materials used in this process have to be delivered to each new site and then returned to a storage space generously provided at the city’s Public Works facility.

Thus, a project comparable to one that would culminate in a permanent art space for the community, is re-invented yearly and is only possible through the generous help and cooperation of many community members, businesses, corporate and private donors, city government and, of course, the participating artists who volunteer as art installers, gallery personnel, and hosts for the opening reception.

Kathleen Hanna
Curator

Jurors

Kathleen Hanna
Curator

Kimberley Acebo Arteche

Emebet Korn