Online Events

Alex Saum-Pascual: New Poetics

The poet and new media artist Alex Saum-Pascual shares her experiences using common tools in unconventional ways toward a new poetic practice.

CANCELED—Monumental: Part Two, with Lava Thomas and Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle

Join two socially minded visual artists as they continue their examination of public art commissions, artwork removal, and the impact of such activities on local communities.

Designing for the Indigenous Theater

Costume and fashion designer Asa Benally explores the process of designing an Indigenized space within the American theater. 

A New Vocabulary: Labor, Narrative, and Radical Possibility in the Work of Black Feminist Artists

Courtney Desiree Morris, Jacqueline Francis, and Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle explore the labor of Black feminist artists in creating beyond the constraints of heteronormative white supremacy.

Looking Back at Night Watch: A Floating Media Arts Installation That Activated and Animated the San Francisco Bay with Shimon Attie

The multimedia artist Shimon Attie discusses his work addressing important sociopolitical issues of our time, including Night Watch, on view on BAMPFA's Outdoor Screen.

Nonbinary Waters / Aguas no binarias: Approaching the Work of Sebastián Calfuqueo

Sebastián Calfuqueo and Natalia Brizuela explore the differences between the Indigenous world and Western culture through their works.

Virtual Roundtable Reading: When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

Would you make a deal with a magical tiger? This uplifting story brings Korean folklore to life as a girl goes on a quest to unlock the power of stories and save her grandmother.

Colonial Practices and Cultural Repression by the Municipality against the Community Museum of the Valle de Xico, but “It Is Our 25th Anniversary and We Are Still Here.”

Abigail De Kosnik: New Archives

Join Abigail De Kosnik as she discusses how new media can create the archives that form a foundation for collective action and social innovation.

Lisa Wymore: New Movements

Join Lisa Wymore to discover movement as a fundamental condition of human existence. 

Virtual Gallery + Studio: '20/'21 Time Capsule: You Rock!

Finding a time capsule is like discovering a message from the past. What kind of message would you like to leave for others to find? 

Ronald Rael: New Ways of Building

Professor of Architecture Ron Rael discusses how new tools can change our creativity and the design methods that change how we live and who we are.

A Watercolor Painting Date with Leslie Baum

Translate an interior scene or outside view into a watercolor at this online “painting date”

with Chicago-based artist Leslie Baum, a shared art-making experience for ages 10 and up.

Art Lab Studio Session with Seth Bogart

In the spirit of the BAMPFA Art Lab, let’s hang out and make some art together. Guest artist Seth Bogart joins us from his LA studio to share work and chat about recent inspirations.

Livestream: Sound of Wave in Channel

An eleven-hour marathon experience of word and sound with poet Stephen Ratcliffe and the Thingamajigs Performance Group, followed by a live Q&A.

Livestream: Destiny Muhammad on Rosie Lee Tompkins

Local jazz harp legend Destiny Muhammad presents her new work Rosie Lee Tompkins: Guided by Something More Powerful, an improvised sonic suite livestreamed from the gallery of Tompkins’s artwork.

Livestream: Our Stories, Our Sounds

Recent alumni of the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts program for young artists premiere their work-in-progress video opera, developed with the mentorship of writer Beth Lisick and composer Lisa Mezzacappa.

Black Life: Sam Vernon

Artist Sam Vernon offers a talk on the occasion of a new print project made in collaboration with the BAMPFA Film Library. Register for this event and receive a print piece in the mail!

Julia F. Andrews on Women Artists in Twentieth-Century China: A Prehistory of the Contemporary

Art historian Julia F. Andrews presents a lecture reflecting on the rise of women as artists and as female subjects for art, in the context of the evolving status of women in twentieth-century China.

2020 MFA Artists’ Talk

Hear the 2020 graduates of UC Berkeley’s Master of Fine Arts program talk about their work on view at BAMPFA.

Indira Allegra, Josh Faught, and Jenelle Porter on Kay Sekimachi: Lineage, Legacy, and Weaving

Artists Indira Allegra and Josh Faught talk with Jenelle Porter, guest curator of Kay Sekimachi: Geometries, about how Sekimachi has impacted their approaches to working with fiber and about the history of teaching and learning weaving in the Bay Area.

Say It Like You Mean It: Textile Collage as Storytelling

Join artist and educator Sara Knight to explore storytelling through textile collage in this workshop for all ages and skill levels.

Workshop: Evacuation Routes

In the evolving context of “public space” in response to COVID-19, artist Zeph Fishlyn takes you on a live journey through the landscapes of your neighborhood, exploring notions of habit and perception. Begin at your own front door and join a Zoom call via cellphone.

Black Life: Adrian Octavius Walker

Black Life co-curator Ryanaustin Dennis interviews mixed-media artist Adrian Octavius Walker at Pt. 2 Gallery in Downtown Oakland a day before the opening of the Represented Group Exhibition, where Walker will be exhibiting new print work.

Quilts, Blankets, and Tapestry: Contemporary Art and Textiles with Aaron McIntosh, Marie Watt, and Ebony G. Patterson

Discover the innovative practices of three artists who have turned to textiles—incorporating or referring to them in their work—in this discussion moderated by BAMPFA Director Julie Rodrigues Widholm, presented in conjunction with Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective.

Livestream: SPELLLING

Berkeley’s own SPELLLING weaves rich sonic textures into dramatic compositions that are equal parts dream-state ritual and earthy funk, showing off her expressive vocal styles.

Livestream: Among Quilters: Carolyn Mazloomi and Ora Clay on Rosie Lee Tompkins

Two leading African American quilt artists explore Rosie Lee Tompkins’s work and its resonance with their own in a live conversation moderated by Elaine Yau, cocurator of BAMPFA’s Tompkins retrospective.

Virtual Art Lab Drop-In Session

Do you miss the experience of making art in a collaborative, companionable space? In the spirit of BAMPFA’s Art Lab, join facilitator Alayna Boots Tinney for a free-form, all-ages drop-in art session, using any materials and techniques you choose.

Workshop: Back Patches with Feral Fabric

Join this intergenerational workshop and find out how undomesticated cloth can be! We’ll look at fabric’s history as a radical tool for communication and make back patches and flags that reflect ourselves, our communities, and our values.

Roberta Smith and Lawrence Rinder on Rosie Lee Tompkins

Join New York Times art critic Roberta Smith and BAMPFA Director Emeritus Lawrence Rinder for a lively and searching conversation about the art of Rosie Lee Tompkins.

Vote Feminist Parade

Artist Michele Pred presents a feminist digital art parade that combines recordings of two parades performed in New York and Oakland with live music, guest speakers, sing-alongs, and more.

Workshop: Drawing to Soothe the Mind and Relax the Senses

Meet multidisciplinary artist Rob Moss Wilson on Zoom to explore drawing techniques for feeling free, getting loose, and having fun. All ages welcome!