Potluck in the Park & Artist Conversation: PULLEY

Berkeley Art Center warmly invites you to a joyful afternoon un nature, as part of our exhibition .
Potluck in the park | 1 - 3 pm
We’ll kick things off with a community potluck— bring your favorite dish or drink to share! We encourage vegan and low-allergen options so everyone can enjoy. Surrounded by trees and friends, it’s the perfect way to connect and celebrate!
Just be sure to gather your plate, utensils, and any leftovers before you head out — we’d love to leave the park as lovely as we found it!
Artist conversation | 3 - 4 pm
Join us in the gallery for an artist conversation between curator Christopher Robin Duncan and Shawn Sanders, a featured artist from NIAD. Together, they’ll dive into the ideas and creative collaboration behind , exploring both process and vision.

Live oak trees, great company, delicious food, and inspiring conversation — what more could you want?

Free and open to all — we’d love to see you there (RSVP encouraged but not required)

ABOUT PULLEY

The Berkeley Art Center presents, PULLEY, a radical experiment and mutual exchange between NIADartists and Christopher Robin Duncan. The show’s punchy title refers both to the physical mechanism that allowed for these works to be created during a workshop Duncan held at NIAD in 2023, and to the greater concept of a pulley system: a collection of wheels and ropes that operate in concert to lift an object. NIAD, an acronym that stands for Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development, likewise functions as a sort of pulley system offering the support and scaffolding for intellectually and developmentally disabled artists to explore, experiment, and elevate their creative practices within a collective and collaborative environment. In this show, the artists prioritize the magic alchemy of working in tandem with one another, with light, and with space.

RELATED PROGRAMS

• Saturday, September 20, 2025, 3 - 5 pm: Opening Reception
• Saturday, October 18, 2025, 1 - 4 pm: Artist Conversation & Potluck in the Park
• Saturday, November 15, 2025, 3 - 5 pm: Book Launch & Closing Reception

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Christopher Robin Duncan (b. 1974, Perth Amboy, New Jersey) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Oakland, California. Duncan utilizes the Sun and the Moon as well as Time and the Tides as conceptual and compositional prompts for both sonic and visual work. Duncan’s projects are a continual experimentation and exploration of time, in a micro and macro sense, and its effects via natural forces, the sun, the moon, the ocean, light, shadow and sound. Outside of his studio practice, he runs LAND AND SEA, for a time- an experimental venue, and publisher of books and records since 2010, with his partner Maria Otero. http://www.christopherrobinduncan.com

ABOUT NIAD

Founded in Richmond, California in 1982, NIAD Art Center is a progressive art studio designed for and by adult artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Along with sister studios Creativity Explored (San Francisco) and Creative Growth (Oakland), NIAD was dreamed into being by Florence Ludins-Katz and Dr. Elias Katz as a studio and exhibition space for disabled artists to create, display, and sell their artwork, as well as to engage in a creative community where each artist’s voice is valued and heard.

NIAD has since expanded into both in-person and virtual studio programs supporting 80 artists who exhibit their work at galleries, museums, non-profits, and fairs worldwide. Working alongside artist facilitators and support staff, NIAD artists sustain vital art practices and take an active role in the development of their careers as professional artists—careers that can span decades. NIAD has two gallery spaces at their facility on 23rd Street in Richmond and hosts rotating exhibitions with open gallery hours during the week and on the second Saturday of each month.

NIAD artists enjoy representation by established contemporary art galleries and their works are held in the permanent collections of prestigious institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art New York; SFMOMA; RISD Museum; MAD Musée in Belgium; and the Oakland Museum of California. For all its international acclaim, the NIAD community remains deeply rooted in Richmond and the greater Bay Area. Together, NIAD artists continue to redefine contemporary art.

NIAD Art Center contact: Lucy I. Zimmerman, Art Marketing and Partnerships Director, NIAD Art Center, [email protected], office: (510) 620-0290

ABOUT BERKELEY ART CENTER

Berkeley Art Center (BAC) is a hub for artistic exploration and community building that champions work by Bay Area artists and curators. Located in Live Oak Park in North Berkeley, we make contemporary art approachable at an intimate scale while serving diverse communities through exhibitions and artist-conceived events, workshops, and programs. Since its founding in 1967, BAC has exhibited work by important local figures such as Enrique Chagoya, Mildred Howard, Hung Liu, Jim Melchert, Taraneh Hemami, Lava Thomas, and David Huffman and Carrie Mae Weems, among others.

Berkeley Art Center contact: Marthe Benoit, Gallery Manager, [email protected], office: (510) 644-6893

Designed by Optical Sound Experience.

Host or Publisher Berkeley Art Center