ArtEsteem launched our capital campaign to ensure sustainability in Oakland’s ever-changing cityscape. The establishment of The Center for ArtEsteem at 3111 and 3115 West Street, less than two blocks from our original location on 33rd and West where we formed our identity and made decades of healing, creative, and educational impacts is indicative of a universal pull to maintain our deep-rooted legacy in West Oakland.
Our Phase I building at 3111 West Street is constructed, complete, and ready to be filled with ArtEsteem’s foundational energies of love, joy, and creativity. This Open House will serve as a showcase and celebration, demonstrating the building’s design, features, and potential as an arts, healing, and administrative space.
ArtEsteem hired Madrone Design Studio, headed by native Hawaiian architect and landscape designer Catherine Chang and staffed by a diverse team of junior architects. Working with a culturally informed and responsive team who operate from a culture of listening and respect has allowed our capital campaign to prioritize our cultural and programmatic needs. This process has resulted in a unique space that stands out to ArtEsteem’s residential neighbors and provides an optimal community resource. We want to serve as an example of an organization that uplifts and provide spaces for resilience, imagination, and ingenuity, an imperative aim to mitigate the oppressive systems that have divided and degraded marginalized peoples and spaces.