{"id":113610,"date":"2025-12-30T13:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T13:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/113610\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T13:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T13:20:15","slug":"local-color-fosters-community-for-san-jose-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/113610\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Color fosters community for San Jose artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As Tachiya Bryant\u2019s work as a multimedia artist in San Jose began to gain momentum, she knew she needed a dedicated studio to take the next step in her career. But renting a workspace in the pricey South Bay was simply out of her budget.<\/p>\n

Then, at a panel discussion Bryant moderated on the connection between African-American women\u2019s hair and identity \u2014 a central theme of her art \u2014 she met another artist who works for Local Color<\/a>, a nonprofit that leases affordable studio space to creatives in San Jose.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long before Bryant, 28, was renting a shared studio from the group for $400 a month. She\u2019s since filled her workspace with canvases and art materials, including bags of synthetic braiding hair, which she\u2019s used to create a series of masks for a project Local Color exhibited this year at its gallery in downtown San Jose.<\/p>\n

Recently, she also designed a practice jersey for the San Jose Sharks inspired by traditional Adinkra symbols for the team\u2019s Black Excellence Celebration in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely made my dream of becoming an artist, and actually having space to branch out,\u201d said Bryant, a San Jose native. \u201cIt was through having a space that I was able to refine my art. It wouldn\u2019t be possible without Local Color.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local Color was founded 10 years ago by San Jose-based artist Erin Salazar. Initially a pop-up art space, the nonprofit evolved to partner with developers to transform commercial buildings slated for demolition into studio spaces for local artists.<\/p>\n

\"ArtistArtist Janet Appleton talks about her artwork titled \u201cSpinal Lily,\u201d a cyanotype mounted on wood, during an artists talk at the Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Currently, Local Color has 25,000 square feet of studio space at two locations for more than 50 artists, including painters, graphic designers and multicultural percussion groups. Last year, the nonprofit opened its Noble Workshop and Gallery, a small space on the ground floor of an affordable housing complex, which hosts free exhibitions, workshops and public art programming.<\/p>\n

Wishbook donations to Local Color will support free, community arts events at the gallery and help fund a mentorship program that pairs youth with professional artists. In a past program, participants worked with a screen printer to design and sell their own tote bags.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this added layer of cool that comes with the artist,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cAnd it allows them to see art as a vehicle in the future to whatever degree that matters to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janet Appleton, a photo artist and events coordinator at the nonprofit, moved to San Jose from San Francisco about three years ago. Appleton, 39, described the arts community that Local Color supports as more generous and inclusive than the more established art scene she left behind 50 miles north.<\/p>\n

\"ArtistArtist Janet Appleton poses for a photograph next to her artwork titled \u201cSpinal Lily,\u201d a cyanotype mounted on wood,\u201d at the Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you need a studio, you can get a studio,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd if there\u2019s exhibitions, you\u2019re going to be there with your community.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Noble gallery this fall, Appleton and Bryant each showed pieces as part of an \u201cexperimental\u201d exhibition titled \u201cinterwoven: the threads that bind (US).\u201d On an evening in October, two dozen people gathered at the gallery to hear the two artists and others discuss their work.<\/p>\n

Appleton described the process for creating her photo piece, known as cyanotype printing, which involves placing an object on a surface coated with a chemical solution, exposing it to ultraviolet light and rinsing with water to produce a striking white-and-blue image.<\/p>\n

Bryant initially appeared nervous to speak before the group. But she quickly gained confidence describing the inspirations for one of her masks, including a poem by the 19th-century African-American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar, as well as Black Dandyism, a movement that embraces Victorian-era fashion to defy expectations of race and class.<\/p>\n

\"ArtworkArtwork titled \u201cCoquette,\u201d made with crochet braids, pearls and cotton balaclava, by artist Tachiya Bryant at the Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Bryant explained how the work reflected her experience growing up in San Jose, where she often felt like an outsider as a young Black woman and girl.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little bit harder for me to embrace my culture and my identity because assimilation was kind of like my way of survival,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added that creating a project that celebrates Black women\u2019s hair has helped her process those feelings and confront hurtful stereotypes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think about hair as a sense of expression,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a sense of, this is me, this is who I am. I think in a place where you\u2019re expected to behave or dress a certain way, it\u2019s important to use things like that, as small as they may seem, as just ways to fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Local<\/p>\n

Local Color executive director Erin Salazar looks at artwork at the Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/p>\n

Artist Yuting Wang talks about her artwork titled \u201cMirror of Listening,\u201d to her right, watercolor on Khadi paper, during an artists talk at the Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

\"Stephanie<\/p>\n

Stephanie Barajas, far left, genARTS Silicon Valley Programming Lead + Curator at the Noble Workshop & Gallery, chats with Artist John Paul Amaral, center, at the gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/p>\n

Artist Celia Lahham, left, chats with artist Yuting Wang at the Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/p>\n

Artist Cynthia Yadira Gonzalez, left, chats with artist Tachiya Bryant at the Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

\"Artwork<\/p>\n

Artwork on display at Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

\"Noble<\/p>\n

Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/p>\n

Artist John Paul Amaral poses next to his artwork titled \u201cEterna Noite,\u201d made with glass beads, fluorite beads, ruby in fuchsite beads, sodalite beads and thread, at the Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

\"Artwork<\/p>\n

Artwork on display at Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/p>\n

Artist Yuting Wang poses next to her artwork titled \u201cMirror of Listening,\u201d watercolor on Khadi paper, at the Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

\"Stephanie<\/p>\n

Stephanie Barajas, genARTS Silicon Valley Programming Lead + Curator, at the Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

\"Local<\/p>\n

Local Color executive director Erin Salazar poses for a photograph at the Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 12<\/p>\n

Local Color executive director Erin Salazar looks at artwork at the Noble Workshop & Gallery in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Wish Book for Local Color. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ABOUT WISHBOOKWish Book is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operated by The Mercury News. Since 1983, Wish Book has been producing series of stories during the holiday season that highlight the wishes of those in need and invite readers to help fulfill them.<\/p>\n

WISHDonations to Local Color<\/a> will directly support free, community arts programming at Noble Workshop and Gallery. Goal: $10,000<\/p>\n

HOW TO GIVEDonate at wishbook.mercurynews.com\/donate <\/a>or mail in this form.<\/a><\/p>\n

ONLINE EXTRARead other Wish Book stories, view photos and video at wishbook.mercurynews.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Tachiya Bryant\u2019s work as a multimedia artist in San Jose began to gain momentum, she knew she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[42335,7,967,23,100,5466,2944,88,90,89,420],"class_list":["post-113610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-all-readers","tag-california","tag-entertainment","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-nonprofits","tag-photos-and-videos","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}