Junior Center of Art and Science
Create and explore with us after school! Our classes are engaging hands-on fun for young artists, makers, and inventors aged 6-13. Classes are small, student-centered experiences where youth can build skills, experiment with a variety of media, and connect with their creative selves.
All classes take place at 558 Bellevue Ave. Oakland, CA.
Registration opens on Monday, 7/21 at 12:00 PM
Registration closes on Wednesday, 9/3 at 4:00 PM
Participants will combine poetry and drawing to create their own handmade books. We’ll explore simple bookbinding techniques, using stitching and folding to assemble personalized booklets to be filled with memories. Books will include drawings and free-verse poetry. The drawings will have a focus on linework, emphasizing confidence of line and contour drawing. There will be creative writing exercises focused on sensory descriptions of familiar spaces. The focus is on creative expression and blending words with visual art in a fun, low-pressure environment. This workshop is specifically for families.
This community workshop is part of our Home After All gallery exhibit. Learn more about Home After All.
Gracianne Kirsch is an Oakland-based queer and trans artist working in the mediums of painting, drawing, poetry, and video. Kirsch received their BA in Art Practice and Social Welfare at University of California Berkeley in 2022, and their MFA in Art Studio from University of California Davis in 2024.
Kirsch’s work has been shown at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Basement Gallery at UC Davis, Pence Gallery, and Worth Ryder Gallery. Kirsch will be featured in an upcoming show at 120710 Art Space.
Saturdays at the Lab is a unique series of weekend art workshops connecting professional artists with our local community. Designed to foster creativity and collaboration, these hands-on sessions welcome participants of all skill levels to explore new techniques, exchange ideas, and experience the transformative power of art.
See our other Saturdays at the Lab workshops
We’re committed to making all programs at the Junior Center of Art and Science accessible and inclusive. Our spaces are wheelchair-friendly, and we welcome learners of all abilities and learning styles. If you or your child need accommodations, please let us know—we’re happy to help! Read our Accessibility Statement here.
You can indicate any accommodation needs or concerns when registering your child under the “Special Instructions about my child” section. You can also reach out directly at contact@juniorcenter.org
The Junior Center of Art and Science (JCAS) is a 501c nonprofit dedicated to cultivating curiosity and creative exploration through the arts and sciences. By blending creativity with experiential learning, we inspire big ideas and illuminate the everyday connections between art and science.
Your participation in these events not only nurtures your own creative potential but also supports our mission to provide equitable access to art and science programs for youth and families across Oakland and the greater East Bay Area. Learn more about us.
Gracianne Kirsch’s work in Home After All draws from their childhood spent in a rural home built by their father on a mountain top in Redwood Valley, California. The body of work meditates on an accumulation of memories of home, family, growing and changing in the rural Northern California landscape.
On view July 21 – Sept 12
Opening Reception July 25th 6:30 -8:30
Drawings featuring interior domestic scenes balance simultaneous isolation and crowding. Objects accumulate and clutter the living space. Poems chronicle the little and large dramas of a sibling-filled upbringing. But at the same time, there is a quietness, a stillness, and a loneliness of rural separation and neglect. Compositions are either cluttered with junk or floating with emptiness. This balance of weight and air encompasses the complexity of recollection and childhood emotion.
Gracianne’s video “Pond Scum” recalls their father’s attempts at building a pond on his land. Pond Scum sets childlike whimsy alongside the reality of Northern California’s changing ecology and droughts. The effects of the Mendocino Complex Fire on the property, the family, and the community loom over much of the work from this era, occasionally surfacing in Kirsch’s poetry and visuals (such as in the titular drawing, Home After All).
Finally, recent work shows changing visions of “home.” Growing up, moving away, and coming out build into a tender story of queer home-making and visits back to family homes.
Participants will combine poetry and drawing to create their own handmade books. We’ll explore simple bookbinding techniques, using stitching and folding to assemble personalized booklets to be filled with memories. Books will include drawings and free-verse poetry. The drawings will have a focus on linework, emphasizing confidence of line and contour drawing. There will be creative writing exercises focused on sensory descriptions of familiar spaces. The focus is on creative expression and blending words with visual art in a fun, low-pressure environment.
We are offering this workshop two times, once for teens and once for families
Gracianne Kirsch is an Oakland-based queer and trans artist working in the mediums of painting, drawing, poetry, and video. Kirsch received their BA in Art Practice and Social Welfare at University of California Berkeley in 2022, and their MFA in Art Studio from University of California Davis in 2024.
Kirsch’s work has been shown at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Basement Gallery at UC Davis, Pence Gallery, and Worth Ryder Gallery. Kirsch will be featured in an upcoming show at 120710 Art Space. Kirsch received the UC Davis inaugural Letters & Science Award for Excellence, the Fay Nelson Award from the department of Art and Art History at UC Davis, the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Award from BAMPFA for visual art. Kirsch was given the Jury Award for “Play Pretend Feelings,” screened in the Davis Film Festival. Kirsch’s work has been published twice in Makeshift Magazine, an SF publication.
We’re committed to making all programs at the Junior Center of Art and Science accessible and inclusive. Our spaces are wheelchair-friendly, and we welcome learners of all abilities and learning styles. If you or your child need accommodations, please let us know—we’re happy to help! Read our Accessibility Statement here.
If you have any accommodation needs or concerns, reach out directly at contact@juniorcenter.org
Support our nonprofit gallery space and help us continue fostering creativity, community, and access to the arts. Your contribution directly empowers emerging artists and makes inspiring exhibitions and programs possible for all.
Let’s celebrate the arrival of Mid-Summer with Circles and Mandalas! This month’s full moon occurs on Lunar Lammas (Mid Summer), so we celebrate the harvest and the fullness of the year by making circle shaped art. Many cultures around the world celebrate this occasion by baking round bread, gathering in a circle, honoring the harvest and the moon.
Create your own circular-shaped art to honor your personal journey and that of the collective. We will draw from a variety of collage materials, paint, hot glue and beyond to create 2D or 3D circles, mandalas, moons, mobiles and more. Get creative and crafty while connecting in a circle of Oakland community!
Your ticket includes all materials and refreshments, so just bring your creativity! This guided art-making experience offers plenty of flexibility, allowing you to explore and create at your own pace.
Denise Doyle is a lifelong Bay Area Mixed-Media Teaching Artist based in Oakland. She teaches classes, workshops and retreats for humans of all ages. Denise believes in the power of art as a pathway to deeper personal insight and profound transformation.
Saturdays at the Lab is a unique series of weekend art workshops connecting professional artists with our local community. Designed to foster creativity and collaboration, these hands-on sessions welcome participants of all skill levels to explore new techniques, exchange ideas, and experience the transformative power of art.
Every Second Saturday of the month, we unwind with a Sip & Make session, blending artistic exploration with a relaxed, social vibe.
See our other Saturdays at the Lab workshops
We’re committed to making all programs at the Junior Center of Art and Science accessible and inclusive. Our spaces are wheelchair-friendly, and we welcome learners of all abilities and learning styles. If you or your child need accommodations, please let us know—we’re happy to help! Read our Accessibility Statement here.
If you have any accommodation needs or concerns, reach out directly at contact@juniorcenter.org
The Junior Center of Art and Science (JCAS) is a 501c nonprofit dedicated to cultivating curiosity and creative exploration through the arts and sciences. By blending creativity with experiential learning, we inspire big ideas and illuminate the everyday connections between art and science.
Your participation in these events not only nurtures your own creative potential but also supports our mission to provide equitable access to art and science programs for youth and families across Oakland and the greater East Bay Area. Learn more about us.
We are so excited for another fantastic year of Summer Camp. This year we have been approached by the UC Berkeley Social Origins Lab to be a partner in their research.
About the Social Origins Lab (SOL)
The Social Origins Lab is a developmental psychology lab at UC Berkeley led by Professor Jan Engelmann. They study how children think, learn, and grow in comparison to our closest living relatives, chimpanzees! To answer these big questions, they bring research games to schools, camps, museums and programs, all across the bay area. You may have seen them at the Lawrence Hall of Science, the Oakland Zoo, or even at your school. The research games are designed to be fun, engaging, and age-appropriate for kids of many ages; younger students may be read stories and asked questions about the different characters, while older kids may be tasked with cooperative memory games alongside a friend. In our partnership, Berkeley SOL will be working with kids aged 6-12.
Why it’s important
We are excited by this project and partnership with SOL. By studying how we develop emotionally, socially, and cognitively, this research improves lives at every stage and helps shape smarter policies and better support systems for everyone. We are also dedicated to forging a continued partnership with SOL in a way that is intentional and helpful for our community. There will be workshops and presentations on their work with developmental psychology and chimpanzees. We will also make sure that findings on the research conducted this summer will be equitably accessible. If you have any thoughts on how you would like to see this partnership unfold, please feel free to contact us at contact@juniorcenter.org
Ideal for ages 5 – 12, our Teaching Artists lead each party through an age-appropriate project which will leave your child and their friends feeling inspired and confident in their creative abilities.
Our 2 hour birthday party packages come complete with everything you need for your young creative’s special day:
Please make all birthday party requests at least a month in advance. Regrettably, we cannot accept any requests with less than 3 weeks notice.
Some customization can be accommodated, reach out to Program Director Elisa Oceguera at eoceguera@eastbaycreativelab.org for more information.
Join us for STEAM Night 2024 at Franklin Elementary in Oakland, CA.
STEAM is an educational approach that combines Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. STEAM is an evolution of STEM education that adds the arts to the mix. It’s designed to help students develop critical thinking, creativity, and innovation skills.
Here at the Junior Center we harness the power of creativity and experiential learning to inspire big ideas and illuminate the everyday connections between art and science.
