Four years after several Oakland advocates, bloggers, and blog readers saved the space from becoming a surface parking lot, the Uptown Art Park is opening this Friday night! Thanks to hard work by staff in the City’s Public Art Program and funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Oaklanders and Uptown visitors will soon be able to enjoy several sculptures by local artists. (Read more about our advocacy for the art park in the many blog posts listed at the bottom of this post.)
Here are the details for the grand opening event:
Uptown Art Park Grand Opening!
What: Nine Sculpture Art Pieces by Local Artists, Music, Tours, Food Trucks
Where: Telegraph & 19th Street
When: Friday, April 5th from 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/events/170069043142598/
Get There: 19th Street BART Station or Free Broadway Shuttle… or bike there from West Oakland with the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, Walk Oakland Bike Oakland and Bikes4Life: Riders of all ages gather at 5:30pm at Bikes4Life, 1600 7th Street @ Willow in West Oakland (take BART to the West Oakland station) for 1.5 mile ride to the event. Free bike lights courtesy of the City of Oakland (limited supply –arrive by 5:30pm). Bike valet parking provided by Richmond Spokes.
I’m really looking forward to this event. Advocating for this art park and making it a reality was one of the highlights of my years of blogging and Oakland advocacy. It was amazing to see so many people come together to make this happen. We all kept sending emails and attending meeting after meeting, even when it seemed unlikely to many that we would succeed. Though I don’t keep up with my blog anymore, I would love to see Living in the O readers at this event. This is a great opportunity to celebrate one of our shared successes!
Here are some photos I took of the art park two weeks ago, as the art was being installed:
Previous posts on the Uptown surface parking lot/arts space:
- 9/28/12: The Uptown art park Bike Bridge sculpture on the horizon
- 9/7/12: Uptown art park to open this fall, City puts out call for art
- 7/26/11: Bike Bridge – Gateway to the Uptown sculpture garden
- 3/16/11: Our dream of an Uptown sculpture garden is becoming a reality
- 10/7/10: We did it! The Uptown sculpture garden will soon be a reality
- 5/6/09: The power of the blogoaksphere
- 5/5/09: Another chance to stop the Uptown surface parking lot
- 4/29/09: CED Committee approves surface parking lot, but changes overall outlook on parking and transit
- 4/20/09: Take Action: Stop the Council from approving a surface parking lot in Uptown!
- 3/30/09: Imagining an alternative to a surface parking lot in Uptown
Living in the O 
Great to celebrate a success and now let’s figure out how to get the rest of the park activated and paid for–we have 4 years (at least) to do it! More on this at the new blog I launched this week, http://www.loakal.com
finally!! glad to see it bloomed way after i left updown 🙂
cheers!