Jingletown - An artist community that welcomes visitors to stay and take it all in
OAKLAND, Calif. - As you drive into Jingletown, art explodes from every corner, greeting visitors and beckoning them to come spend a little time in this remarkable Oakland community. Quilter Patricia Guthrie says, "That's what I really, really like is just visually getting here. And then once I’m here, there's just art before I get out of the car. It’s beautiful."
There are a couple of stories behind the name Jingletown. One dates back to 1850 when this spot was filled with dairy farmers who jingled bells to bring the cows in. The other story comes at the turn of the century. It is said Portuguese workers would come from home with money from a day’s work jingling in their pockets. Today there are more stories to tell.
Cynthia Elliot is with the Jingletown Arts and Business Community and says,"Jingletown is a quiet little neighborhood of Spanish-speaking heritage families, artists who are slowly being priced out." She adds, because of the boundaries, "We only have two or three streets that are thoroughfares, so you can walk about anywhere and we feel fairly safe."
Elliot says Jingletown was actually cut in half by the I-880 freeway and created two areas with their own personas. "The people above the freeway kept the name Jingletown, the church, the small homes, they kept the neighborhood going. And then this area, the small homes were torn down and turned into warehousing. And then when the warehouses all closed down in the ‘60s and ’70s, the artists pushed out of San Francisco, came in here, and that's how the neighborhood started."
Jan Watten moved here back in 1984, "I had graduated from school. I was a photographer and this studio became available and it's 1,400 square feet of beauty." She eventually turned that space into the first legal artist live workspace built by artists for artists. Today the Gray Loft Gallery both celebrates the established and embraces the emerging and says, "Here we are 11 years later, we've won best gallery in the Open Magazine Readers’ Choice Awards. We are considered a hidden gem. It's a destination gallery."
Her latest exhibit just launched, and while she doesn't do it often, this time she saved just a little space to showcase her work too saying, "Whenever I travel, whenever I go anywhere, I always have my camera. So I’m always photographing."
Just blocks away Chuck Deguida’s work in the Jingletown Art Studios, moves from what he calls femme art in one room to another with photos he calls Rust and Ruin and then "another series called disappearing America. Same thing" he explains, "old barns, old buildings, things that were falling apart, things that weren't going to be there the next time you drove by."
This once was the Mosaic Art Institute; it is now both a studio and an exhibition space. It is part of what Grammy award-winning musician Fantastic Negrito told the New York Times is one of his favorite ways to experience Oakland’s "history and culture of art galleries."
Chuck Deguida laughs and says, "Somebody called me and said, you know, you're in the New York Times. Wow, that is amazing. So, you know, it's kind of a destination and it's still creative space. It's still an artsy space. It's still a destination spot."
A spot filled with people like quilter Patricia Guthrie who you will often find at her sewing machine. "I do abstract quilts. So the technique that I use is traditional, but I do something very different on the top hand side, hand printed abstract designs." This is a new chapter for Guthrie who spent years in a classroom before finding her passion.
"I was on the faculty of Cal State East Bay, chair of human development and women's studies for years, "she explains. "And after I retired, I didn't want to write the great American novel." So she took up quilting.
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Down the hall in the Jingletown Art Studios, Karol Hilker puts the finishing touches on a painting that highlights many of people she has met since moving here. "So I started it when I moved here in January. And yeah, so all the artist around here in it, people in the neighborhood. Yeah, it's all real people.'
In her Jingletown, the joy and the sense of community is undeniable. Hilker points to the painting that show someone, "Holding their dog. And this is one of the artists here, Ryan, and that's his dog. And his brother came by," so his brother is in the painting too.
A glimpse of a small but remarkable place that Elliot likes to think of as "kind of a place where innovation starts."
A place you can drive through, but one that beckons you stop and stay awhile.
The Gray Loft Gallery has an open exhibit now.
The Summer Salon runs from July 14 through August 26
Opening Reception: Friday, July 14, 5:00 – 8:00 pm
Tessier Wine Tasting Sunday, July 23, 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Closing Reception: Saturday, August 26, 4:00 – 6:30pm
