View it. About the exhibition My art is my children. I make what I like and share it with the world. With projects I make in detail, I look at what’s in front of me. Anything I’ve made in the past has been improved over the years through studies. Whenever I make something, I always keep an exact few samples for myself. Sometimes I wear them for display, like a human tree, and/or have them displayed where I work. I also keep samples of a work-in-progress in progressive steps from start to finish. Hoping to have answers for questions posed Read More …

As winter is upon us and the nights are getting longer, NIAD artist Jean McElvane has chosen the perfect Top 20 playlist: all songs about dreams and dreaming. Enjoy!

What do the winter holidays mean to you this year? At NIAD, this is the time when we look back at the year’s accomplishments and learnings, recognize the hard work of staff, appreciate our supporters and donors, and prepare for the year ahead. While sheltering in place has in some ways felt like a held breath, in fact we have continued to grow this year in ways we previously thought impossible. We’re emerging from a year of reinvention and activism, with hard-won tools for staying connected across distance, and continuing work for change through greater equity. As a community, we Read More …

Welcome back for the second edition of our Holiday Gift Guide. This latest version features loads more gift ideas for you including a few terrific paintings and drawings (perfect for any wall). Another highlight of the guide is an inspirational pen + ink mantra from Serena Scott (you might want to keep this for yourself.) Also along are Alan Perez’s charming ceramic movie monsters (this one is a tribute to Jaws and perfect for the cinephile on your list) as well as Samantha Kershnar’s delightful ceramic restagings (this one is a Christmas celebration.) For your sports fan you’ll find Michael Read More …

This year, NIAD is more thankful than ever for you, our community of support.  Amidst the uncertainty of the pandemic, you stepped forward to ensure that NIAD grew in its resilience and capacity.  As a result, NIAD is stronger now than a year ago, preparing to expand artist resources in the coming year.  The Virtual Studio will continue; we know NIAD artists will return to 23rd Street in Richmond; and we’ll develop a wider range of community-based programs to connect them. Working in three places, NIAD will serve more artists and reach more of our community – with you.  As Read More …

About the exhibition Sometimes when giving a gift, you want the form to fit the function. Sometimes when giving a gift you want practical and beautiful over just, well, beautiful. And sometimes when giving a gift, you want something so funky and so unique, you know you didn’t already give it to the recipient last year. With the first edition of our Holiday Gift Guide, we’ve got you covered. In this guide we have some truly amazing jewelry from Maria Radilla and Esme Silva. We have a really lively vessel (don’t often read that combination of words, do you?) from Read More …

Getting lost is our greatest freedom. Take a path without knowing the end or the stones. Plunge into cold or boiling water, is it really water? Freedom is wandering. The steamer descends the blue slopes of Big Colorado under coal explosions. Helmeted armies take their strength in the yellow eye and the red sun of the Moscow river. The hills fall like cakes out of the oven yes ja! yes ja! shouts the red child. *These texts were intentionally google-translated to be lost. View the exhibition. (image: Untitled (D0324), Matthieu Morin)

Like every year, the NIAD studio is preparing for its annual Harvest Festival.    Usually this means two turkeys (or more) are cooking in the NIAD kitchen, roaster pans of brussels, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, greens, and princess rolls, and every different kind of pie you can think of are waiting in the wings.  The studio tables are cleaned and cleared and invitations have gone out to volunteers, family and friends to join us around the table. Last year’s was the biggest ever.    This year, we’re Zooming in – literally and figuratively. We’ll be together next Read More …

NIAD artist Jean McElvane is back with another listicle of terrific songs. This time the list is elemental. Or as Ted said to Bill (in the first installment of the Bill & Ted movie franchise), “All we are is dust in the wind, Dude.”

Each year on November 11, NIAD gathers with Creative Growth and Creativity Explored, our neighboring progressive art studios, for a day of in-service learning. While there are many ways our communities collaborate, this day offers staff a moment to reflect on the work we do, supporting artists and the culture of long-term mentoring and shared creative practice. In response to requests by staff at NIAD and Creative Growth, this year’s training combined an emphasis on self-care with somatic tools for working with trauma and resilience – many of them in use already at NIAD, CG, and CE. Given that many Read More …

Yo tuve una tierra, pero ahora tengo flores en el techo. Habían muchas flores en la tierra donde yo crecí, allá, en México. Afuera, habían flores rojas cerca de mí, y mi papá había sembrado cempasúchil, la cual, regaba agua tres veces al día… Si, necesito más flores. I used to have land, and now I have flowers on my ceiling. There were many flowers on the land where I lived in Mexico when I was growing up there. Outside, there were red flowers in the fields close to me, and my dad had potted cempasúchil marigolds that he would Read More …

Today’s long read: The panel by the renowned Black artist, part of his “Struggle” series, was last seen in 1960. But someone had a hunch where it was. (by Hilarie Sheets) “The painting has been hanging in my living room for 60 years untouched,” one of the painting’s owners said, adding that she bought it with her husband when she was 27. She said the pair had initially put off contacting the Peabody Essex Museum early in the year because they were traveling to Florida. A child of immigrants, the owner said she grew up in the South Bronx and Read More …

Today’s long read: “When Turning 13 Is Not the Typical Rite of Passage” by Alysia Abbott in the New York Times “When I saw him for his birthday, I brought him a new shirt from the Gap, a seasonal toy from CVS — the same presents I bought him last year and the year before. We got him a cake and lit candles, but it was not clear whether he knew it was his birthday, or even what this means. That is, that he is special. That’s what birthdays are about, to focus attention on our beloveds, their specialness. I Read More …

We’re delighted to announce Dorrie Reid has a new double album out now on our music label NIAD Sound Recordings. A blend of spoken word, stories and reminiscence, as well as original songs and covers of some classic folk tunes, My Special Magic Place offers you a lyrical and lively look into Dorrie’s world and history. Today, Bandcamp is sending all royalties directly to the artists (they usually keep a percentage), so maybe wait until tomorrow to add this to your music collection. And while you’re there, Jonathan Velazquez’s EP and Eddie Braught’s solo debut album are still available.

NIAD artists work – with few exceptions – every weekday of the year. Since 1982, artists have persisted in activating NIAD’s Community, Studio, and Exhibitions programs – several of those first studio artists are still practicing at NIAD today. In general, this community’s continual, long-term search for what is sustainable leads us. What seems to work is to maintain creative dialogue – to navigate the tension between rage and hope, a held breath and the reminder to breathe, and to persist in building relationship between seemingly opposed feelings, tendencies, and perspectives. But we can’t do it alone, and we can’t Read More …

…Through this pandemic and its effects, we’re realizing that we have built so many structures and modes of behavior that are detrimental for many of us and the other species we share the planet with. In this selection, I tried to pick works from the collection that allude to transforming forces; whether it is a light connecting people and shadows, a blender creating a cacophony in its orbit or a beak devouring the mound nearby. View the show.

NIAD artist Jean McElvane explains, “The idea for this post came from just thinking about what shapes have in common. Here are my Top 20 favorites featuring ‘Shapes’.” Enjoy.

We know that many people are holding their breath for the events of next week – we are too. But at NIAD, we’re staying present and excited for everything that is coming to fruition TODAY. At Thirsty Thursday tonight at 6PM, Ed Rymsha and Michelle Hamilt from Fenwick & West LLP will talk with Shana Harper, one of NIAD’s longest practicing artists.  Shana is the first artist to take leadership by talking about her work at Thirsty Thursdays, and NIAD couldn’t be better represented.  We hope you’ll join us.  And tonight after Thirsty Thursday, Shana and other members of NIAD’s Read More …

NIAD Art Jean McElvane says, “Here are the top 20 favorites featuring water, air, and other similar features. The idea for this email came from the last list (to wake & yawn for), as spoken for the first video below.  And what the whole world (all living things) needs every day.” Enjoy.

About the exhibition pod mapping: a tool designed for accountability, care and restoring harm. microcosms of community in daily life + in the time of pandemics and revolutions. mutual aid between two, twenty, two hundred, two thousand, and more. (thank you Mia Mingus of the bay area transformative justice collective for developing this term.)  About the selector sam ho is an oakland-based artist from taiwan and peru. their practice encompasses painting, sculpture and graphic design. as a queer, non-binary artist of color, they have found their art home and chosen art family at CTRL+SHFT collective.  View the exhibition. (image: Christian Vassell Read More …