ABG in the Fall: Public Art, Award-Winning Initiatives, and the Estuary AIR Program
Updated: 1 day ago
Fall invites us to pause and reflect on the work that has come to fruition over the past season. We're grateful for the projects, partnerships, and collaborations we've been part of, and proud of all that has been accomplished along the way. Most of all, we'd like to thank our readers, supporters, artists, and art lovers for being part of this journey with us. In this newsletter, we're sharing updates from across ABG, including public art projects, award-winning initiatives, new creative spaces, community celebrations, and opportunities for artists and creatives in our network.
Project Highlights
City of Lafayette x Robert Minervini x ABG Art Group
Where Wild Roots Flourish by artist Robert Minervini. Photography credits: Arely Lopez
The City of Lafayette has a new mural in town, created by lead artist Robert Minervini as part of the Lafayette Downtown Mural Program. The artwork depicts General Lafayette overlooking a vibrant vista of Mount Diablo, celebrating the city's history, landscape, and sense of place.
Approved by the Lafayette City Council in 2023, the Downtown Mural Program was created to bring a series of murals to downtown Lafayette over four years through a community-guided process. Each mural is informed by public input, collaboration with local stakeholders, review by the Lafayette Public Art Committee, and final approval by the City Council. Working alongside the Lafayette Public Art Committee and project partners, ABG Art Group helped guide the development and implementation of the program, supporting artist selection, community engagement, and project management from concept to completion.
The newest mural is now complete and can be viewed at 286 Lafayette Circle. We hope you'll take a walk through downtown Lafayette and see it for yourself.
Interested in bringing a mural program to your city? Reach out to trent@abgartgroup.com to learn how ABG Art Group can help turn community ideas into lasting public art.
Mural Unveiling of Enduring Legacy at the Shoong Family Chinese Cultural Center
In our last newsletter, we shared a glimpse of the mural-in-progress at the Shoong Family Chinese Cultural Center, created by ABG Founder/artist Sorell Raino-Tsui (professionally know as Tsui Xiao Rui) with the support ABG's VP/artist Johara "Joey" Owens.
On October 17, the Shoong Family Chinese Cultural Center and the Oakland Chamber of Commerce hosted the official unveiling of Enduring Legacy. Community members gathered to celebrate the completed mural and learn more about the Center's history, its role in Oakland Chinatown, and the stories that inspired the artwork.
We're honored to see this piece become part of the Center and contribute to the cultural landscape of Chinatown Oakland.
Portal to the Past by ABG’s Elliot “Trent” Thompson Trent's New Sculpture in Livermore
ABG co-founder/artist Elliot "Trent" Thompson is currently completing Portal to the Past, a public sculpture created through the City of Livermore's Art in Public Places Program.
Commemorated by the Livermore Historic Preservation Commission in August 2026 and now part of Livermore's public art collection, the sculpture incorporates reclaimed materials found at the site of the original Wagoner Winery, an important part of the city's winemaking history. By giving these historic materials new life, Portal to the Past creates a physical connection to Livermore's past while inviting viewers to engage with the site and its history in a new way.
Portal to the Past can be viewed at 2596 Second Street in Livermore.
Rotten City Cultural District (RCCD) Highlights
RCCD Receives The Helen Putnam Award for Excellence
The City of Emeryville received the 2026 Helen Putnam Award for Excellence in Economic Development Through the Arts for the Rotten City Cultural District.
ABG Art Group partnered with the City of Emeryville and District Works to help develop and implement many of RCCD's signature initiatives, including the Artist Residency Program, Emeryville Film Festival, Emeryville Art + Culture
Month, the RCCD Creative Database (which you can be part of - just make your profile), and bringing RCCD's first home base to Bay Street.
The award recognizes Emeryville's commitment to leveraging arts and culture as a tool for economic development, placemaking, and community building. We were proud to join the City at the League of California Cities Conference where municipalities from across California stopped by to learn more about the district and its programs.
This award also reinforces the important role arts and culture play in shaping places where people can connect, create, and belong. For ABG, it is a testament to the world we envision – a world where creatives are recognized as essential agents of change. We are honored to be part of this recognition and proud to support this work.
As RCCD Grows, So Does its Footprint
This month, we said goodbye to RCCD's first Bay Street home at 5610 Bay Street and moved just down the block to a new gallery space at 5688 Bay Street. Formerly an Xfinity storefront, the space was transformed into a dedicated gallery and residency hub that gives artists a highly visible place to create, exhibit, and connect with the public in the heart of Emeryville.
Millennial grey and store shelves are out. Sleek white walls for proper art installations are in.
And the new gallery has already hit the ground running!!!
Throughout October, Emeryville is celebrating Art + Culture Month with exhibitions, workshops, public art activations, pop-ups, performances, and immersive experiences across the city. The City of Emeryville formally recognized the occasion with a proclamation during its October 6 City Council meeting.
One of the first exhibitions to open in the new gallery is Beyond the Lamplight x Steadfast Gallery, bringing together current and former Pixar artists alongside artists from Steadfast Gallery. The exhibition features work created outside of the artists' professional practice and highlights the breadth of creativity found across these overlapping artistic communities.
Beyond the Lamplight x Steadfast Gallery is on view through the end of October at 5688 Bay Street, Emeryville. Our operating hours are Thursday through Sunday, 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
There's a lot happening this month. For the full calendar of events, exhibitions, and opportunities, visit rottencityculturaldistrict.com/events.
OPEN CALLS
The Estuary AIR Program
The San Francisco Estuary Partnership and collaborators are meeting the moment of climate change in the San Francisco Estuary. While traditional shoreline planning has focused on engineering and infrastructure, the scale and complexity of climate change demands new ways of seeing, feeling, and engaging with the world around us.
As sea levels rise across the globe, reshaping shorelines, ecosystems, and communities, the San Francisco Estuary Partnership's Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program is rooted in the belief that adaptation is not only a technical challenge, but a cultural one. With that in mind, the theme for this residency is Rising Seas.
Rising Seas invites artists of all mediums to explore the many dimensions of this transformation: from the physical reshaping of coastal landscapes to the emotional, cultural, and ecological impacts of living with water in a state of flux. Through your work, artists can help surface stories that are often overlooked in policy and planning spaces, such as stories of frontline communities, intergenerational memory, displacement, resilience, and care.
Eligibility: Artists may apply individually or as part of a group. Applicants must be at least 18 years old and live in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, or Sonoma County. A formal arts degree is not required.
All artists-in-residence (AIRs) will receive:
Three stipend installments across the six-month program
Support from the ABG Art Group with a history of supporting artists through artist-in-residence programs
Participation in a celebratory Exhibit event at the conclusion of the program
Dates and Deadlines:
Application Deadline: November 20, 2026
Residency Period: January 11, 2026 - May 31, 2027
Exhibit Period: May 3, 2027 - June 30, 2027
Applications are due November 20, 2026. To learn more about this program visit the Program Overview, FAQ and About Us pages.
That is all for now! We'll see you out in the field, at an opening, on a mural site, or somewhere in between.
Cheers,
The ABG Art Group Team
Comments