Some artists prefer to work in complete solitude, isolated with their materials and their creative visions. Others, however, thrive in the hive of an artistic community, supporting and sometimes mentoring each other, collaborating, and arguing about intent and process.<\/p>\n
Oakland\u2019s The Dome Center for Art, Music and Dance has been the perfect example of the latter live\/work environment since 1976, when sculptor Peter Voulkos bought a dome-shaped former food-processing building, partnered with ceramicist Marilyn Levine, and turned it into a space that has nurtured four generations of Bay Area artists, both visual and performing.<\/p>\n
Yet until now there has never been a major museum exhibition dedicated to The Dome and its artists. On view at San Francisco\u2019s di Rosa Center through Sept. 12, \u201cThe Dome Show\u201d remedies that omission. It features work from Voulkos, Levine, Bella Feldman, Tom Holland, Clay Jensen, JoAnn Gillerman, Donald Farnsworth, JP Long, Takming Chuang, Juan Santiago, Leah Virsik and others, some of it selected from di Rosa\u2019s permanent collection.<\/p>\n
Kate Eilertsen, di Rosa executive director and chief curator, lived in Oakland for 20 years and knew many Oakland-based artists. So when The Dome reached out to di Rosa\u2019s curator of exhibitions and programs, Twyla Ruby, about the upcoming 50-year anniversary of the complex\u2019s founding, they both visited it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were blown away,\u201d Eilertsen said in a phone interview. \u201cI fell in love. That visit inspired the exhibition. Peter Voulkos was an amazing influence on so many mediums.\u201d<\/p>\n
The synchronicity between The Dome\u2019s vision and the di Rosa\u2019s was clear. \u201cThe Dome\u2019s spirit of experimentation and collaboration mirrors the ethos of the di Rosa collection itself,\u201d Eilertsen said. \u201cOur organizations have a shared belief in supporting and championing artists, embracing the offbeat, and creating space for new ideas and ways of thinking, which we\u2019re excited to explore in this show. We would be so happy if we had artists on campus all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
In selecting works to be shown in \u201cThe Dome Show,\u201d the co-curators wanted to create a feeling of \u201csalon,\u201d Eilertsen said, and also wanted to highlight some of the female artists, such as Levine, Feldman and Gillerman, who have not gotten as much recognition as they deserve.<\/p>\n
Feldman, for example, was a mentor to sculptor\/painter JP Long, whose works from his \u201cCarbon & Canvas\u201d series are featured in the exhibition. Long was a teenage student at the California College of Arts & Crafts when he encountered The Dome. \u201cI always wanted to get into it,\u201d he said. This wasn\u2019t easy, but at age 21, Feldman hired him as her second assistant. He considers himself part of the fourth generation of artists working at The Dome.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a mutual mindset\u201d between him and the sculptor known for her work in steel and glass, Long said. Feldman told him, \u201cI don\u2019t fear failure. Fear is your greatest handicap.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Long only knew Voulkos briefly before The Dome founder died, he described his observation of the interactions between Voulkos, famous for prioritizing \u201cprocess over polish\u201d and ceramicist Levine, known for the precise detail of her representations of leather shoes, bags, briefcases and other objects.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Long remembered a story Levine told him about when she was a grad student. \u201cThe assignment was to make a pair of shoes. She spent so much time making one shoe so realistic that she didn\u2019t have time to make the second shoe,\u201d he said. So she made a \u201cpeg leg\u201d sticking out of the first shoe. Voulkos\u2019 much more \u201ceverything in the moment\u201d approach had a resonance with Levine\u2019s often-impish humor.<\/p>\n
Both Voulkos and Levine also figure in another concept behind \u201cThe Dome Show,\u201d Eilertsen said. \u201cCraft has gotten a bad reputation [in the art world],\u201d she said. But in this show, the intersection of craft and art is shown perfectly. \u201cCrafts are a Northern California strength. When I go out, I see craftsmanship at its finest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Dome Show\u201d exhibition also includes \u201crarely seen and never-before-exhibited works,\u201d according to di Rosa materials. These include a colored pencil work on handmade paper by Judy Chicago from \u201cThe Birth Project,\u201d made in collaboration with Donald Farnsworth in the early years of The Dome; a clay-and-fiberglass sculpture by Levine; and a work from Feldman\u2019s \u201cUtility\/Futility\u201d series \u201cthat transforms domestic, feminized utilitarian objects into monumental sculpture.\u201d<\/p>\n
A concurrent exhibition at Orchard Galleries will present contemporary work by current Dome artists alongside historic pieces by Feldman and Joseph Slusky. Together, the two venues will host a series of collaborative events and public programs throughout summer 2026.<\/p>\n
Long suggests viewing the exhibition as a way to see the diversity and richness of the voices.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see the connections,\u201d he said. \u201cThe way they are playing off each other. When you walk into The Dome [itself], you know people are thinking about what their role is there, and in the history of art. The building was almost totaled. [Instead it became] a community of misfits who have propped each other up all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Di Rosa materials conclude: \u201cAt a time of ongoing uncertainty for arts institutions, The Dome Show affirms the resilience of artist-led communities and their essential role in shaping the cultural life of the Bay Area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Upcoming events:<\/p>\n
Love Supreme: Fundraiser for Coltrane Arts + di Rosa<\/p>\n
June 6, 5-7pm; $20<\/p>\n
\u201cLive\/Work\u201d:\u00a0Panel discussion about history and future of live\/work spaces in Bay Area<\/p>\n
June 27,\u00a06-8pm; $10<\/p>\n
Artist talk with Takming Chuang, Clay Jensen, JP Long\u00a0<\/p>\n
Focus on thematic and material connections cross-generationally in The Dome. Also featuring screening of Elizabeth Sher\u2019s short film on Bella Feldman\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aug. 1,\u00a04-5:30pm;\u00a0$10<\/p>\n
World premier of short film \u201cThe Dome\u201d by Tom Franco, and closing party<\/p>\n
Sept. 5,\u00a06-8pm;\u00a0$20<\/p>\n