Laney Ceramics installation shines in Autumn Lights Festival at Lake Merritt

By Chandra Faulkner and Gregory Lowrie

The Autumn Lights Festival lights up Lake Merritt’s botanical gardens for one colorful weekend every October, when the nights start early.

“It doesn’t really get magical until the dark hour,” Tora Rocha, art curator for the festival, said.

The artists who contribute to the festival don’t get paid, but they can sell their pieces in the museum store.

Rocha believes they contribute out of love for the garden. Rather than displaying this kind of work in a gallery or in the middle of a desert (like Burning Man), they get to see their work tucked into nature.

“The fact that you have one community, the arts community, rallying around another, the garden community, I think that speaks volumes about Oakland.”

The gardens welcome a wide variety of community artists, including one nine-year-old artist named Dahlia who has contributed clay creations for two consecutive years. Last year it was rockets; this year, squids.

For five years now, Laney Ceramics has contributed ceramic lanterns to the festival, lighting the winding paths of the raised-bed herb garden called the Sensory Garden.

Nancy Cresta, a retired art and design instructor who is now a Laney student, came to ceramics instructor Anna Vaughan about the possibility of having students contribute to the festival through contacts she had at the festival. 
Seeing it as a great opportunity for independent projects and the experience of participating in a group show, Vaughan agreed and acts as the show’s curator.

The Laney contribution, “Mudlights,” featured pieces from 36 students of all ceramic levels this year. The pieces were created free of any theme or design requirements other than it can be illuminated, resulting in a vast array of work.

The collection included Japanese-inspired pagoda lanterns by Cresta, female bust shapes by Vaughan, miniature structures, abstract shapes, statues and more.

Rocha has watched the art submitted by Laney Ceramics evolve into more interesting pieces year to year. “Now they come up with some wild stuff,” she said.

She’s grateful for the relationship they have with Laney Ceramics, and wishes more students would apply from other art departments.

“I’m a Merritt alumni, so I’m partial to the Peralta system,” she said. Students who wish to apply to be involved with Autumn Lights can look out for a call to artists on their website and on Facebook around March 2018.

Visit the Gardens at Lake Merritt at 666 Bellevue Ave in Oakland, 9 a.m. — 5 p.m. daily. The Gardens welcome the community with free admission.

More photos below:

More student work below:

Chandra Faulkner and Gregory Lowrie are Tower Staff Writers. Email Chandra at chachachachandra(at)gmail.com and Gregory at grilla0899(at)gmail.com.