When husband-and-wife team Sage and Tari Loring started their arts consultancy agency, Local Edition Creative, the vision for their company wasn’t fully formed. It didn’t matter. They had been sketching it out, year by year, with the very act of keeping their eyes wide open and their feet on the ground.
That’s how they filled up Oakland with dozens of murals to rival its sibling city across the bay. That’s how they brought a sleepy Concord to life with a vibrant arts festival. That’s how they collapsed and expanded companies to give artists a lifeline and communities new life. And that’s how, more than two decades later, they’re still moving forward.
The Writing on the Wall
Upon moving to Oakland from Los Angeles in 2012, the couple settled in Jingletown, a funky pocket of Fruitvale full of artists’ lofts. It was close enough to BART to commute to their San Francisco jobs and a launching pad to the rest of the city.
“I spent an entire year riding my bike around every inch of Oakland in the morning before going to work,” says Sage Loring. “I did that just to explore all the graffiti and street art that was everywhere.”
He began to document his findings and post them on a new-ish platform called Instagram under the moniker “Fuming Guerilla.” (Fuming for his passionate sentiment, guerilla for his style.) What he didn’t post gripped his imagination—the potential for murals that could bring the area’s buildings to life. In 2013, he convinced the owner of 333 Lancaster St. (which houses Oakland’s White Elephant Sale) to pay for one, a depiction of Oakland’s “town and country” landscapes by artists Vogue, Ernest Doty and Sean Griffin that remains today. Fuming Guerilla Productions was born.
Meanwhile, Tari Loring was working for an experiential agency that produced corporate and branded events. When a conflict of interest came up between two clients—competing spirits companies—she took on one of them on her own. Technically, this was the birth of Local Edition, the legal establishment of their new business in 2017. But its soul was really embedded in Fuming Guerilla, through which the Lorings were gaining practice, connections and fulfillment bringing more art to public spaces. That same year, Local Edition Creative absorbed Fuming Guerilla and began to carve out the company’s niche.
Making a Scene
“Carve out” isn’t just a turn of phrase—it’s emblematic of the Lorings’ drive, a dedication to seeing things through even if they don’t quite know where they’re going.
While financially supporting their new company with the marketing and corporate work of their former jobs, they produced a series of big projects that established their name in town. By early 2019, they were able to focus solely on art consulting and production to pay the bills. Timing also worked in their favor.
“San Francisco was busting at the seams with all of the jobs that were happening there. There was nowhere else to live; it was too expensive,” recalls Tari Loring. “Developers were just starting to come over to Oakland and creating all these new high-rise projects or renovating old buildings.”
Opportunities were rife for Local Edition to offer developers a seamless process to answer city mandates for public art—and to support artists in the process. Making these connections proved a gap in the market. It also allowed them to fight back against a status quo that gave work to the same artists over and over again.
“We set out purposely to give people jobs,” Sage Loring says. “We’re talking about OG graffiti artists that were the ‘artists’ artists’—that were very well-recognized, beloved and recognized and respected, but who weren’t getting all the work.”
Local artists, underground artists, artists without MFAs, artists still in school: The Lorings made it their mission to get them paid, teach them how to negotiate and get their names out there. Together they transformed nearly two dozen sites from Jack London Square to Piedmont, West Oakland to Lake Merritt.
In the midst of getting Local Edition off the ground, another project was crystalling. Chinatown, compared to its neighboring areas, seemed sparse to Sage Loring. He partnered with Luke Lin, at the time a med student, to set some mural motion in action with the help of local volunteers. In 2016, they formed a nonprofit, The Dragon School, to help raise funds for production costs. Before “the band fell apart,” as Sage Loring says, the group created dozens of murals. In 2020, the Lorings revived the idea of Dragon School with a new nonprofit, Three Thirty-Three Arts, which remains a completely volunteer-led initiative.
“Things became very addictive because of the joy you saw. I never thought I was going to be so in love with volunteer work,” says Sage Loring. “It was just community love.”
Creating in Concord
Despite the tangible impact they made on Oakland and the deep connections they had within the community, the city began to price the Lorings out. In 2018, they moved further east, near Contra Costa County’s largest city, Concord. Upon landing, the energy was distinctly different.
“The arts community was very disparate and disjointed,” says Sage Loring. “There’s people here doing art, just like everywhere else, but no networks. It wasn’t anything like we experienced, and it was kind of disappointing.”
Vice Mayor and City Councilmember Carlyn Obringer can attest that the arts haven’t always been a priority for the city. As early as 2015, she faced an uphill battle just trying to get utility boxes painted. Of all the nine Bay Area counties, Sage Loring says, Contra Costa received the least amount of arts funding.
Both Obringer and the Lorings envisioned something bigger for the city. In December 2020, Local Edition proposed what would eventually morph into Creative Concord. The initiative was part movement, part event, a celebration of the region’s art, music and creativity.
Since its inception, Creative Concord has introduced an influx of public art—18 murals dotting the city—and the Art and Music Jam, a weekend-long showcase of art, poetry, music and more. The first, in 2022, took a year and a half of planning to get together. The payoff proved worthy when people of all backgrounds from around the county showed up to support each other. In October, the Art and Music Jam will enter its third year, promising even richer programming.
“They see the larger vision that art is not just murals,” says Obringer of working with Local Edition. “I love how they try to be involved in the community. It’s not just, ‘Hey we’re here to do our art thing,’ and you never see them again.”
As much as they’ve extensively planned and executed projects, as diligent and hardworking as they’ve been in their endeavors, presence has been key to all the Lorings have made happen. It’s allowed them to let their lives unfold and show them the way. Sage Loring references “kismet” a few times. Tari Loring’s take is less passive: “We go out, and we do things. We have ideas; we make them happen.”
The couple has expanded the efforts of Three Thirty-Three Arts, bringing art to school buildings in Concord. This year, several cities will bring Local Edition on as their public arts partner. What’s next is, hopefully, a continuation of all they’ve accomplished. What form it will take remains to be seen.
Creative Concord’s Art & Music Jam takes place Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 5-6, from 12-6pm at Todos Santos Park. For more info visit creativeconcordca.com.
