ACCESS Oaktown! iN THE NEIGHBORHOOD WITH cREATIVE gROWTH
Access Oaktown celebrates Creative Growth Art Center’s neighborhood and community of nearly 50 years. A two-day gallery opening and poster launch party with special guests and partners selected by Creative Growth artists will kick off a month-long poster installation across the Lake Merritt, Uptown and Downtown areas of Oakland.
Access Oaktown intentionally coincides with Oakland’s Art Murmur (First Friday) on March 3, 2023 with a gallery opening and art show celebrating the personal histories of our neighborhood as told by Creative Growth artists. The public launch of the posters with a gallery opening will take place Friday evening between 5:00pm-8:00pm at Creative Growth Art Center. On Saturday, March 4th from 11:00pm-3:00pm, CG will offer a participatory mapping activity. Access Oaktown is funded by a grant from the City of Oakland to support the festival of our neighborhood, presented by Creative Growth artists.
We hope to see you Friday and Saturday to celebrate the printing, distribution, and sale of these one-of-a-kind, artist made posters celebrating locations in our neighborhood!
Explore the map of poster locations and other Favorite locations selected by creative growth artists below!
Gail Lewis presents:
SWAN’S MARKET
"These are anthropomorphic cats of me (as a child) and my mom, Lueburda. Back in the day we would go to Swan's Market together." - Gail Lewis
Image: Gail Lewis adds her classic anthropomorphic characters to a photograph of the outside of Swan’s Market, featuring its red outside tower that reads, “Swan’s” in vertical white lettering. Crossing the street, Gail digitally draws her mother and herself as cats walking upward, in neat human outfits.
Larry Randolph presents:
GOD’S GYM
This gym was once the original site of Creative Growth. CG Artist William Tyler recalls when it burnt down January 10th 1980 and was featured on Channel 7 News.
Image: A block of color penciled bodybuilders embrace each other in the center of this print. They smile and wear purple and yellow bathing suits. Yellow blocks of text float around their heads: “Lucken Luray Loray” and “Loping Lagonya Lorlen”. A brief teal background sits behind them, turning into a floor of yellow with floating red hearts. Around this block of color is a thick white trim with black text and symbols: “God’s Gym, to be in by with Creative Growth for about jobs in being artists”, “God’s gym was one time the location of Creative Growth many-years ago” and images of hearts, dumbbells, paper towels, and other exercise equipment.
Terri Bowden presents:
THE NEW PARKWAY THEATER
Joe Spears reflects on seeing our Beyond Trend fashion documentaries at the New Parkway: “It was a good movie and I like that space. We saw the fashion show film. It was fun. We heard the screen TV and we heard ourselves.”
Image: Terri Bowden celebrates The New Parkway by starting with a google maps image of the front of the theater. Bowden adds two edited photos of the top halves of people. The one on the left has a pink shirt that says, “MIND BLOWING”. The one on the right wears a floral shirt, but is interrupted by a majestic white horse. Both people have hyper blond hair, white skin, red cheeks, and their arms rest on their chests.
John Martin presents:
THE CROWN: ROYAL COFFEE
“I go everyday and I get coffee. It’s pretty good. She gives me coffee in the morning and clothes and stuff”. - John Martin
Image: John Martin celebrates Royal Coffee with this white paper Riso print using three colors. Brown ink fills the face and neck of a person with short hair, glasses, and a content face. Their head is connected to a block of bright red shirt. Below them, protruding to the left, is a deep blue truck - a classic Martin symbol.
Andrea Leber presents:
THE GRAND LAKE THEATRE
Creative Growth artist Andre Leber’s fondest memory of this movie theater was watching Beetlejuice. “They have good movies, good popcorn, and good diet soda.”
Image: White vertical paper is filled with two large off-set symbols. The top, slightly left is a blue block with yellow text that reads, “grand lake theatre” hovering above a yellow cityscape. The second half hosts brown hand-drawn text, “beetlejuice”, “grand lake theatre” and a brown etched building. The bottom reads, “510 405 7586 94661” and “Oakland CA 2200 Grand Ave”.
Susan Janow presents:
EAST BAY PARATRANSIT LOADING ZONE
“It’s the bus that I take to get here. I like taking it to get here. I love it. I just see everything “It’s got the maroon red and blue stripes on the side. I like the drivers.” - Susan Janow
Image: A horizontal white page includes hand-written text, “East Bay Paratransit” and a hand-drawn Paratransit bus labeled “348”. Below, two identical Paratransit bus prints look leftward. The leftmost is red, the rightmost is a perfect blue.
Walter Baldwin presents:
THE PARAMOUNT THEATER
This is a special theater to many of our neighbors. Tanisha used to attend Gospel Plays with her cousins & aunties and Susan Janow saw a Christmas Play with her family there.
Image: Walter Baldwin celebrates the Paramount Theater with this colorful, vertical white page print. Baldwin uses purple outline to depict cars, trees, and buildings in the bottom third of the page. The top third is filled with the famous paramount mosaic of two orange and red columns, topped with curious faces. Between them vertical text reads, “Paramount”. Blue sky fills the background.
Dinah Shapiro presents:
THE LAKE MERRITT BIRD SANCTUARY
“Watching the beauty of nature coming together as one. You’ve got every single bird in there.” - Creative Growth artist Dinah Shapiro
Image: A white horizontal page includes two large square symbols. In the top half, a blue square is filled with white-space birds of various sizes and types. Below, a horizontal block square is filled with green etchings of lanky trees and bushes. A faint pink and orange smudged background fills the top half.
Jorge Gomez presents:
19TH STREET BART STOP
“It’s sort of fun and neat. You can see the outside, the buildings, the freeway. You see lots of people. It takes you everywhere.” - Jorge Gomez
Image: Jorge Gomez depicts the 19th street BART stop in this Riso print. The top half of the vertical page is filled with green printed etchings over white space. Gomez depicts buildings, streets, and other colliding city symbols. The bottom half is white space filled with blue etchings of class BART symbols. Three BART trains move over horizontal BART tracks. Below, Jorge depicts tiles and columns akin to the classic inside of BART stations.
Lynn Pisco and Lulu Sotelo present:
LA BONITA TAQUERIA
Creative Growth artist Lulu Sotelo recommends “eating tacos, tortilla, burritos, and chile” at this sweet Mexican spot staffed by “good, nice people.”
Image: A horizontal white paper is filled with black outlined blue and orange printed images celebrating La Bonita Taqueria. Horizontal, graffiti-style text reads “Nachos & cheese”. Vertical text reads “horchata”.