Visual Arts

The Center for ArtEsteem will be leading a hands-on art activity at Claremont Branch to help us celebrate National Night Out and Claremont's 100th year. This activity will be for all ages and for all levels of experience.  The Center for ArtEsteem empowers individuals to be self-aware and inspired through art, creativity, and education, and to make positive choices to break the cycle of violence for themselves and their communities. In all of their work, they promote to understanding that we can choose peace over conflict and love over fear.

Come see an interview with local comic artist/painter Guy Colwell to celebrate the release of his new book, Delights: A Story of Hieronymus Bosch, to be released August 13, 2024. 

Working from the scant details of Bosch's life, Colwell imagines the artist's conflict as he creates his famous triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights," confronting the intersection of faith, creativity, pleasure, and commerce. 

During this workshop, participants will learn the basics of the sewing machine through creating a zipper pouch. Through the project, attendees will learn how to attach a zipper to a project and use a zipper foot. Simultaneously, this project will include a fabric stamping station where participants can stamp their pouch with household materials such as lemons, keys, and rubber bands to create custom patterns on their fabric.

This event is for teens and young adults.

Learn how to create your own unique and artistic fabric collages using a technique called rough edge appliqué! We will learn about how to prepare and collage fabric onto clothing or as a standalone art piece by attaching fusible interfacing, basting, and pinning. We will also hear about how these pieces can be incorporated into clothing or finished with an overview of quilting and bias tape.

This event is for teens and young adults. 

Join us for a wonderful art talk! FASHIONING SAN FRANCISCO: A Century of Style

In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, come participate in our Gond painting workshop.  Gond painting is a famous folk art of the Gond community, one of India’s largest Indigenous groups.  The paintings often portray the interdependence among all living things and is known for its striking use of color.

Learn from highly skilled artist and teacher, Mayashree, how to use geometric shapes and patterns to create a beautiful Gond painting.

Express your creativity on canvas with our paint-by-numbers activity. It’s a canvas with guided numbered spaces that match to a corresponding color. See the image unveil before you! 

Join us for this fun and relaxing two-part activity with music, art references and a final product you get to take home. 

Open to teens and adults. No experience needed. Drop-in (no registration required).

*Limited supplies provided 

Cuadros Por Números

Abril 9 & 16, 4-6 PM

Join us again at the Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch in the Community Meeting Room for an afternoon choir performance starring UC Berkeley's choral ensemble NICE, Dil Se (a Southeast Asian A capella group), Mahiwaga (a Filippino A Capella group) and Berkeley Chinese A Capella (Chinese A Capella group)

All ages welcomed!

Now that everyone has a smartphone, and millions of (mostly forgettable) images are posted daily, can photography still challenge, engage, delight, and unsettle us? How have visual artists used photography to participate in the postmodern redefinition of art as social engagement and cultural critique? Learn about three contemporary photographers—Vik Muniz, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Zanele Muholi—whose work involves new materials, new processes, and new subjects.

Join us on this auspicious day, the day after 'arrival of spring' in the lunar calendar. Artist Pauline Tsui will present a talk on customs of the Lunar New Year, with origins of the Dragon Dance, stories of the Zodiac animals, and a description of how people celebrate the Spring Festival today. After the talk, explore basic techniques of Chinese brush painting. You will learn to paint flowers and animals and learn to write simple characters and phrases.

Space is limited. Please call West Branch Library at (510) 981-6270 to register.