5905 Shellmound St.,
Public Market Emeryville.
October 3 through 25, 2026
The 40th Annual Exhibition Is in the Books
The Board of Directors for the Celebration of the Arts would like to thank everyone who made this year’s 40th Annual Exhibition a success! Special thanks to our friends at Public Market Emeryville for hosting our show in their beautiful space this year. Congratulations to the 106 community artists who were featured in this year’s exhibition. The feedback we received from gallery visitors was nearly universal: our guests loved this year’s show!
This was a year marked with significant milestones and transitions. Celebrating our 40th anniversary alongside the 40th anniversary of the Emeryville Artists Cooperative was a significant celebratory reminder of how integral arts and culture are to the identity of the Emeryville community. We also lost our longtime director, Sharon Wilchar, whose leadership for nearly four decades was integral to the shows’ perseverance and success over the years.
The Board would also like to thank John Bauters for providing professional and compassionate leadership to the city’s largest annual event during a very difficult transition for our organization.
Below are some highlights and memories for our followers that help capture moments from this year’s show. We look forward to seeing you again in 2027!
The Emeryville Celebration of the Arts Board of Directors
Opening Night Festivities at Public Market Emeryville
Teresa Kalnoskas, Winner of the
2026 Emeryville Purchase Award
Media
KRON4 Morning News (Oct. 1) 5.2 Million Viewers
NBC Bay Area News (Oct. 2) 2.3 Million Viewers
KRON4 Live! in the Bay (Oct. 5) 2 Million Viewers
East Bay Times (Oct. 21) 100,000 Print Subscribers
Visitors
Opening Night Guests (Oct. 2): 907
All Other Guests (Oct. 3-25): 1,957
Total Visitors Counted (Oct. 2-25): 2,864
Event Sales
Number of Art Pieces Sold: 31
Number of Print Bin Items Sold: 65
Total Number of Art Pieces Sold: 96
Total Art Sales Transacted: $66,529.75
Merchandise Items Sold: 80
Total Merchandise Sales Transacted: $1,470
Richard Misrach Raffle
Raffle Tickets Sold: 49
Funds for Artist Entry Fees Next Year: $4,900
Special Events
Poetry Workshop (Oct. 2) 25 participants
Sharon Wilchar Celebration of Life Event (Oct. 20) 150 attendees
Poetry Reading (Oct. 25) 40 participants & guests
Artists' Private Preview Show on Opening Night
All photos courtesy of Patrick Tiu, Tiu Times Media
Richard Misrach Raffle
Richard Misrach, 5.15.00 7:32 am, photograph
Click here for Raffle rules and regulations.
The Emeryville Celebration of the Arts introduced a new feature to this year’s 40th Anniversary Exhibition.
Through the generous donation of local artist and renowned photographer Richard Misrach, we held a monthlong raffle event to give away one of his incredible photographs, fully framed, to one lucky winner. The photograph, titled “5.15.00 7:32 am” is one of a series of photographs taken on the morning of May 15, 2000, of a cloud formation over the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay. The piece will be on display in the Exhibition throughout the month of October. The piece is valued at $15,000.
Between October 2 – 25, visitors purchased raffle tickets. All the funds raised by ticket sales will be used to cover the entry fee of artists invited to participate in next year’s Exhibition.
Our goal has always been to make community-based art affordable and accessible to the Emeryville community. During a year of transitions for the Exhibition, we realized that we could no longer require local artists to be expected to staff the Exhibition at the expense of their time. Artists also expressed a desire for us to identify people with gallery sitting and sales experience to work the exhibition hall to help improve art sales. The Board of Directors decided to require the exhibition fee and gave new Exhibition Director John Bauters direction to identify ways we could both keep the show affordable for artists while also ensuring we offered a high-quality product for our artists and visitors.
When John reached out to Richard and proposed the idea of raising the funds to meet these goals through the generosity of a renowned local artist, Richard was an immediate and enthusiastic YES.
We are excited about the potential this new feature to the exhibition might hold for the future of our sustainability and accessibility goals. Thank you, Richard, for stepping up to support this effort, and to the many artists who took the time to contact us and better understand our behind-the-scenes efforts to be responsive to your feedback during this time of transition.
The raffle winner was drawn at the conclusion of the Poetry Reading Event on October 25, 2026, shortly after 4pm, by Richard himself. The winner was delighted
City of Emeryville Purchase Award
Teresa Kalnoskas
“Hachiya”,
oil, alkyd, and wax on linen, 2026, 48˝ x 76˝
Event Sponsors
