About Oakland Art Murmur

The mission of the Oakland Art Murmur is to support art and cultural venues that are dedicated to increasing popular awareness of and participation in the arts of Oakland. We promote the arts community through collective marketing and outreach efforts and organize a monthly First Friday Art Walk event, Art Murmur, which is free and open to the public.

Every First Friday of the month, member galleries are open to the public from 6-9 pm. Additionally 23rd Street between Telegraph and Valley is closed to car traffic, and craft, art, and food vendors are set up along this corridor.

If you are interested in participating as either a vendor click here or a member gallery, click here.

How to find us

Member galleries are generally located between 22nd and 26th Street and along the Broadway/Telegraph corridors. You may view the map for more specific locations. To get to the area using BART, get off at the 19th Street Oakland stop, which is only a few blocks away. The 12 (Grand St), 51A (Broadway), and 1(Telegraph) AC TRANSIT buses also come right to the Uptown District.

Parking

Download a map of Douglas Parking lots in the area, or view parking on our map.

History

Oakland Art Murmur began as an acknowledgment by eight arts spaces located in the Northgate and Temescal neighborhoods that a cooperative effort to promote the arts in the region would garner more attention for their individual visual art programs. This led to the first First Friday Art Walk in January 2006, when all participating spaces (which then included 21 Grand, 33 Grand, Auto 3321, Boontling Gallery, Buzz Gallery, Ego Park, Front Gallery, and Rock Paper Scissors Collective) held concurrent receptions. Art Murmur now includes ten galleries and seven mixed-use art spaces. The popular First Friday event has grown to include not only gallery receptions but also street performances, one-night art installations, and social and political activities. Attracting gangs of bicyclists, BART riders, and car-poolers, from across the Bay Bridge and beyond the Caldecott tunnel, t he Oakland Art Murmur continues to blossom and be supported by the community of Oakland