Art & Culture Archives | Page 2 of 6 | East Bay Magazine

Leading With Lifestyle

Lou Fancher November 5, 2021 Comments Closed

Ayesha Curry’s Sweet July At Sweet July, fashion and design are represented by far more than clothing and home goods. The new one-stop retail shop and café, opened in downtown Oakland in January 2021 by restaurateur and best-selling cookbook author Ayesha Curry, houses a lifestyle. Within the store’s luminous space, the tale of a beautiful life lived in graceful and inclusive harmony in which peace, fellowship and kinship prevail is narrated in part with carefully curated products delivered largely by Black-owned businesses as well as products created by Bay Area-based makers, mostly women. The “story” of a well-designed, fashionable life is staged in the store’s quietly sophisticated brick-and-mortar interior setting designed by Curry and Christine Lin of Bay Area design firm Form +...

Art & Culture

Hoot Couture

Lou Fancher November 5, 2021 Comments Closed

Rachel Konte’s OwlNWood In the midst of the 2007 recession, Danish-born designer Rachel Konte stepped away from a 15-plus-year career in corporate fashion and her then-current high-level position as design director at Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco to consider future options. “My whole career had been exciting and exhausting, so finding myself thinking of what to do next and founding OwlNWood and then Oakollective, a popup fashion shop I started with a friend, was me dabbling,” Konte says. In 2021, Konte’s “dabbling” led not only to the Oakland resident becoming the founder/owner of the design and consulting studio OwlNWood and co-founder/operator of Oakollective—the shop is now inactive—but also to becoming chief of brand for Red Bay, the roaster and cafe her husband, Keba Konte,...

Art & Culture

Making a Splash

Lou Fancher November 5, 2021 Comments Closed

Wearable art arrives in the East Bay Among the many rewards and luxurious pleasures of investing and dressing in wearable art is the possibility of draping the ocean around one’s neck—while simultaneously protecting its invaluable ecosystem and tiny treasures. Or literally, metaphorically and perhaps politically, lighting up a social gathering with an illuminated handbag that advocates, in its message, equal pay for all. Alternatively, an outfit might—without shouting rage, but by means of powerful words and imagery—establish unequivocal support for social justice, nonprofit arts organizations, preservation of our natural world and the protection of wildlife. In extended forms, wearable art brought into homes will “dress” and invigorate tables, beds, walls, counters, doors and any other su...

Art & Culture

A Midsummer Date-Night’s Dream

Lou Fancher August 6, 2021 Comments Closed

Dinner and a show with California Shakespeare Theater Canvasing the Bay Area for an optimal come-out-of-Covid date night, one option shouts for attention: California Shakespeare Theater’s “Season of Shared Light” that in 2021 flings open the venue’s sweeping golden Orinda Hills backdrop and the broad outdoor Bruns Amphitheater to community groups, performing artists and cultural organizations from across the Bay Area and beyond. Customarily known as Cal Shakes, the theater company—now in its 47th season—is nationally recognized for innovative and contemporary storytelling rooted in classical theater’s traditions and literature, high-quality production values, an extensive commitment to education demonstrated through year-round programming and a popular summer conservatory, and deep investm...

Art & Culture

Making Moves

Casey O’Brien August 6, 2021 Comments Closed

Local creators thrive despite pandemic During the last year of the pandemic, we’ve all developed new hobbies: baking bread, making cocktails, gardening. But for the Bay Area’s Etsy sellers, “making” is more than entertainment; it’s a livelihood. During the course of the pandemic, the Bay Area’s makers devoted themselves to creating products inspired by their homes, from wine barrels to succulents, and the results have paid off—for some makers, this has been the most successful year of their business. Beth Albers and Claire Whitehead developed their Etsy Shop, Emma Claire Shop (www.etsy.com/shop/EmmaClaireShop), after meeting at their daughters’ competitive cheer competitions. The two women share an interest in design, and wanted to open a business together. Succulent globes hung up in Disn...