The Experience, Emeryville: Celebration of the Arts 40th Art Exhibition!

The Experience:

Landmark exhibition showcases 210 works by 106 artists connected to Emeryville.

Immerse yourself in the Art Scene and celebrate Emeryville’s vibrant arts community!

WHERE: 5905 Shellmound St, Public Market Emeryville.

WHEN: October 3 through 25, 2026, 11am-6 pm. Wednesdays through Sundays.

OPENING: Gala Opening Night Reception on Friday, October 2, from 6-9pm

The 2026 Emeryville Art Exhibition will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year, marking four decades of bringing artists, residents, businesses and visitors together through one of the city’s most enduring cultural traditions.

First presented in 1987, the exhibition was imagined when City leaders, interested in shaking the city’s reputation as a decaying industrial town, sponsored an art exhibition to ‘clean up’ the city’s image, highlighting Emeryville’s creative community while creating an event residents could proudly call their own.

“The Emeryville Art Exhibition is what art has always been meant to be: accessible, inclusive, affordable and engaging,” said John J. Bauters, Director of Emeryville Celebration of the Arts. “Art is the medium through which ideas, perspectives, questions and emotions take form, and our exhibition is the forum where the community gathers to receive, discuss, embrace and share in them.”

The Emeryville Art Exhibition has never had a permanent venue. Each year, an Emeryville property owner contributes an available space for the monthlong show, transforming an unused space into a community cultural event space.

Once again the exhibit returns to the Public Market due to the generosity of Oxford Properties. Production of the event is supported by sponsors: City of Emeryville, Public Market and Wareham Development.

Featured here: “Sigöldugljúfur Canyon at Summer Light” by Raph Greenberg, photography print, 2024, 20˝ x 14˝

Oxford Properties Group

Each year the exhibition space is donated by a local Emeryville business. For the fourth year in a row, Oxford Properties Group has generously offered the space for the Annual Exhibition at Public Market Emeryville. Situated at the south end of this lively artisan food destination, exhibition visitors will find ample parking and dining options.

Celebration of the Arts

The Annual Emeryville Art Exhibition is sponsored by Emeryville Celebration of the Arts, Inc. Their mission is to foster an appreciation of the arts and artists of Emeryville, to promote the city as a culturally vital and progressive center for living and working, and, most recently, to partner with the City of Emeryville in the Rotten City Emeryville Cultural Arts District, a program of the California Arts Council.