A Selected Timeline of Arts and Cultural Development in Silicon Valley
Ruth Tunstall Grant - Timeline of Accomplishments

First posted April 2015, updated February 2017.

The following gives a selected timeline of arts activism and cultural development in Silicon Valley. To give additional context for arts and community building, it focuses on key individuals who moved beyond the mainstream and worked communally to expand the conversation and breadth of opportunity for those sidelined. A few examples of the destruction of culturally significant places, structures or artworks are also included for context. The timeline is not comprehensive, and any amplification, refinement, and dialogue about it are welcome.

At the end of the timeline is additional art and historical context with a list of organizations.

Kuksu ceremonial pendants made of red and black abalone shells are found in archaeological sites in downtown San José and CA-ALA-329 in Coyote Hills, Fremont. Jewelry is one example of the long history of Ohlone art.

Juana Briones purchases the 4,400-acre Rancho la Purísima Concepción in the Palo Alto foothills from two Mission Santa Clara (Clareño) Ohlone men and brings her vision to the land: a hilltop home for her family with an architecturally rare construction. A humanitarian and initiator of creative spaces, she builds community, models freedom and courage, and advances opportunities for women.

Purchase of three marble sculptures created by artist Edmonia Lewis, who identifies as African American and Ojibway/Chippewa and works out of Rome in a neoclassical vein. The Friends of San José Library purchases Bust of Lincoln. San José leader and suffragist Sarah Knox Goodrich purchases Awake and Asleep . Lewis is the first internationally known artist to come exhibit in San José.

Art Association is formed in San José. The first Art Association exhibition is held at the Normal School, now San José State University (SJSU).

Arson demolishes San José's Market Street Chinatown (one of five in the city). Within weeks, the site is voted for San José's new City Hall.

Stanford Museum of Art is established (revival in 1963).

Hakone Estate and Gardens, designed and built by Isabel and Oliver Stine, is established. Inspired by the 1915 Pan-Pacific Exhibition, Isabel Stine travels to Japan. Upon seeing Fuji-Hakone National Park, she retains architect Tsunematsu Shintani and landscape gardener Naoharu Aihara to build her own Hakone Gardens in Saratoga.

Pacific Art League is founded in Palo Alto (founded as Palo Alto Art Club; name would be changed in 1984).

Artist/actress Marjorie Eaton initiates a family-like arts colony in Palo Alto built around the stage Juana Briones set at her home on the hill. The colony flourishes for most of the century, encouraging women in the arts and crossing racial barriers during decades of de facto segregation in Palo Alto. (Eaton and her colony would be featured in a local documentary video in the 1970s and in a local publication in the early '80s.)

Muwekma Ohlone language songs sung by Muwekma Elder Jose Guzman, the great-grandfather of Muwekma Tribal Councilwoman and Language Committee Co-Chair Sheila Guzman-Schmidt, are recorded in Niles. Linguist John P. Harrington records 27 songs from Guzman, which are currently housed at the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology.

San Jose Art League established.

Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga is established, including the third artist residency program of its type in the United States. (Now known as the Sally and Don Lucas Artist Residency Program, it continues to support new contemporary work.)

YWCA of the Mid-Peninsula opens as a recreation center for businesswomen. It expands to provide recreational and social services for women that meet the organization's mission of "empowering women and eliminating racism," and exhibits local artists, including self-taught painter Huellar Banks from East Palo Alto. (The organization would be based in Palo Alto until its closing in 2003.)

The de Saisset Museum is established at Santa Clara University (SCU), covering art and history; includes Santa Clara Mission art from the Galtes Museum, formerly housed in the basement of O'Connor Hall. (The de Saisset would develop a focus on exhibitions exploring social justice issues.)

SJSU art professor John De Vincenzi, WWII veteran, is a key arts and community organizer, from the San Jose Art League to the Italian American Heritage Foundation of San José. He keeps substantial archives. Atlanta-born artist/educator Mary Parks Washington works with De Vincenzi in expanding the South Bay's arts vision beyond cultural barriers.

John De Vincenzi becomes chair of the Gallery Advisory Committee to the San José Fine Arts Commission. The advisory committee carries out the planning process for the proposed conversion of a San José public library building into a city art gallery.

Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, is founded as first non-university art museum in the county.

Spurred by his volunteer activities in Mississippi during 1964's Freedom Summer, Frank Cieciorka, graphic artist, former SJSU student and activist, develops the iconic clenched-fist image of the New Left.

Artist/educator Cozetta Gray Guinn and her physicist husband Isaac "Ike" Guinn establish Nbari Art, a shop and museum-quality gallery in Los Altos, featuring imported African art and African American art.

With a grant from Signetics, artist Talala Mshuja starts the Nairobi Cultural Center in East Palo Alto, which includes classes for children.

San Jose Civic Gallery (now known as San José Museum of Art) opens.

Artist Mary Jane Solis and activist Adrian Vargas (founder/director of San José's Teatro de la Gente, 1967–1977) co-found El Centro Cultural de la Gente, the South Bay's first Chicano/Latino cultural center, in downtown San José. El Centro features exhibitions; art programs; Lorna Dee Cervantes and her Mango Press; performance by Teatro de la Gente; and Luis Valdez, the father of Chicano theater. [Solis would serve as gallery curator (1973–1976) and mural program manager (1978–1981). El Centro's first staff member Elisa Marina Alvarado would later go on to cofound Teatro Visión, where she continues as artistic director to this day.]

Painter Paul Pei-Jen Hau and Mary Hau open the Chinese Fine Arts Gallery in Los Altos.

Emphasizing performing arts, PJ and Roy Hirabayashi found San Jose Taiko and collaborate to revitalize San José's Japantown, one of only three Japantowns left in the country.

Artist Gen Guracar, Mountain View, organizes dozens of women for the valley's first large-scale quilt project, The People's Bicentennial Quilt .

Visual Dialog, a quarterly magazine with essays, dialogs, reviews, and columns, edited by artist Roberta Loach, Los Altos, first appears. The publication challenges discrimination against women.

Historian Connie Young Yu writes The People's Bicentennial Quilt: A Patchwork History a book telling the story behind each quilt square. [First edition, UP PRESS, East Palo Alto, 1976; revised edition, Saratoga Historical Foundation, 2010.]

SJSU faculty member Jessica Jacobs leads artists in developing city exhibition space with broader representation and more freedom than the now "established" SJMA. Jacobs and a number of her students pioneer the first modern art galleries in San José, starting with Merz Gallery (later to be replaced by Wordworks).

On the Peninsula, First Generation—Deanna Bartels (now Tisone), Betty Estersohn and Joan Valdes—use new video technology to explore and document Bay Area art, including that of artists Marjorie Eaton and Bea Wax.

Consuelo Santos Killins directs Pacific Peoples Theater and begins three decades of activism—with the San José Fine Arts Commission, California Arts Council, Santa Clara County Arts Council, SJSU's Institute for Arts and Letters, Santa Clara County Mental Health Association, and Friends of Guadalupe River Park. She pushes for substantive school and community arts programs and more diverse participation across the board.

Artist Anthony Quartuccio paints a mural above the altar of Holy Cross Church (1906) in an early Italian immigrant area of San José. (It would be lost in a fire in 2015.)

San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles opens in Los Altos, the first U.S. museum to focus exclusively on quilts and textiles as an art form. (It would be essentially a collaborative, volunteer organization for its first two decades.)

Professor Diane Middlebrook becomes director of Stanford's Center for Research on Women (CROW, founded 1972). [In 1979 Professor Dr. Carl Djerassi would found the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. Initially administered through the art exhibition program of CROW, he and Middlebrook would establish an independent, comprehensive program by 1982. CROW would later become the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (1983), with exhibitions at Serra House, and still later, Clayman Institute for Gender Research (2004).]

Nairobi Cultural Center moves north to San Mateo County.

Photographer Mary Andrade creates a vehicle for art as co-founder, co-publisher of the bilingual La Oferta, the oldest continuous Hispanic publication in San José.

With Paul Pei-Jen Hau as its guiding spirit, artists and friends found the American Society for the Advancement of Chinese Arts (ASACA).

Euphrat Art Gallery (1971), De Anza College, is resurrected after funding loss from Proposition 13, differentiated by an unusual vision of collaboration across cultures and disciplines. Jan Rindfleisch, director, develops a unique college/community partnership that produces innovative, vibrant museum programming for over three decades. (Gallery becomes the Euphrat Museum of Art in 1992.)

Poets Juan Felipe Herrera and Margarita Luna Robles organize poetry readings in downtown and East San José, and at the Euphrat Gallery.

Artist Ruth Tunstall Grant directs and expands the children's art school at the San José Museum of Art, initiating art classes in underserved city schools.

San José State University professor José Colchado creates murals, working with youth in the East Side Union High School District and Janie Perez, director of the Barrio Leadership Training Program (later known as East Side Youth Center).

Activist artist Julia Iltis creates artwork for political posters. Stop the Repression! (1982) commemorates the fi nal speech made by Monsignor Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, the day before his 1980 assassination. Guilty of the Gospel promotes a 1984 presentation in honor of four U.S. women missionaries martyred in El Salvador in 1980. (Both would be added to the Oakland Museum of California's All of Us or None Archive in 2010.)

Mythili Kumar founds Abhinaya Dance Company, teaching and performing Bharatanatyam, a South Indian classical dance.

In Palo Alto, artist Trudy Myrrh Reagan starts YLEM: Artists Using Science and Technology to exchange ideas, explore the intersection of the arts and the sciences, and consider the impact of science and technology on society.

Jan Rindfleisch, Lucy Cain Sargeant and Kim Bielejec Sanzo create the Euphrat exhibition and publication Staying Visible: The Importance of Archives ; foreword by Paul J. Karlstrom, West Coast director, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. The pivotal project focuses on women in the arts, featuring multiple interviewers and authors.

Arts Council of Santa Clara County is established.

SJSU art professor Marcia Chamberlain organizes the first Computers in Art, Design, Research, and Education (CADRE) conference and publication, and becomes the first director of SJSU's CADRE Laboratory for New Media, an interdisciplinary academic and research program dedicated to the experimental use of information technology and art.

Cecilia and José Antonio Burciaga become Resident Fellows living at Stanford's Casa Zapata—she as a top university administrator, he as resident artist, both working closely with student and community needs. [For the next nine years, José (aka Tony, Toño) would create murals at Casa Zapata, use comedy to attack racism and narrow divisive thinking, and publish poetry and writings.]

Jeanne Farr McDonnell starts the Women's Heritage Museum, with a focus on California history and culture. (To create a larger organization, in 1997 it would become the International Museum of Women.)

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Association of Santa Clara Valley inaugurates the Freedom Train on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The train travels the 54 mile– Caltrain route from San José to San Francisco to approximate the distance of the historic 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. led by Dr. King to spur passage of the Voting Rights Act. (The group will organize the annual event for the next 30 years.)

While serving on the Arts Council of Santa Clara County, Ruth Tunstall Grant initiates Hands on the Arts as an Arts Council project. (The all-day children's art festival would become a joint venture of the Arts Council and the City of Sunnyvale the following year, and beginning in 1988, an annual city event.)

Activist Connie Young Yu, longtime promoter of the art of marginalized Chinese and Chinese Americans, highlights renowned painter Hau Bei Ren (Paul Pei-Jen Hau) in her book Profiles in Excellence: Peninsula Chinese Americans , published by the Stanford Chinese Club.

Rick Sajor and Margarita Luna Robles convene "The Arts Lobby" to increase Latino representation on the San José Art Commission and to monitor policies in the arts locally and regionally.

Consuelo Jimenez Underwood (Huichol, mestiza), Cupertino, begins teaching at SJSU. (She would develop and head the textile department for over 20 years, simultaneously illuminating indigenous and hybrid cultures and border issues.) Salwa Mikdadi Nashashibi, Lafayette, founder and director of International Council for Women in the Arts, participates in a Euphrat Museum exhibition and publication on refugees. (She would later co-author Forces of Change: Artists in the Arab World , the catalog for an unusual 1994 traveling exhibition of artwork by contemporary Arab women sponsored by Nashashibi's organization.)

San Jose Multicultural Artists Guild is formed from Maiko Women's Poetry and Drum Ensemble, Tabia African American Theater Ensemble, and Teatro Familia Aztlán, with executive director Arlene Sagun. (Venues would include social service agencies, battered women's shelters, juvenile detention facilities, Juneteenth and Kwanzaa celebrations, plus academic and community sites for Dia de los Muertos arts exhibitions. Mary Jane Solis would curate their Day of the Dead exhibitions from 1986– 2013.)

Dr. Jerry Hiura chairs San José Arts Commission (SJAC) and appoints Mary Jane Solis chair for Multicultural Arts Development (1987–1995). Almost 92% of grant allocations in the mid-1980s goes to six large-budget institutions, such as the San Jose Symphony, San Jose Cleveland Ballet, and SJMA.

Joel A. Slayton is named director of CADRE Laboratory for New Media.

Artists Betty Kano of Berkeley and Flo Oy Wong of Sunnyvale found the Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWAA) in the Bay Area to "promote the visibility of Asian American women artists," who lack recognition even in their own traditional culture. Local artists Terry Acebo Davis and Dawn Nakanishi participate.

Maribel Alvarez, Mary Jane Solis, Rick Sajor and Eva Terrazas envision arts programming as a vehicle for civic dialogue and social equity and found Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA) in downtown San José.

Multicultural Arts Action Group (MAAG), led by two MACLA board members, Rick Sajor and Sonia Gray, with representatives from existing multicultural arts groups, is established to encourage more civic support for small organizations meeting different cultural needs.

After the Northern California Chapter hosts the 1989 Women's Caucus for Art (WCA) National Conference, artists Ruth Waters and Marta Thoma develop Peninsula and South Bay chapters. [The South Bay Chapter would become Silicon Valley Women's Caucus for Art (SVWCA) in 2014.]

Under Mayor Janet Gray Hayes, the City of San José establishes the Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) to work with the San José Art Commission. Yankee Johnson becomes its Director (1990–1999).

SJMA opens a new wing.

Mayor Susan Hammer (1991–1999) appoints the Mayor's Task Force on Multicultural Arts Development and issues the "Vision 2000 Report" to address immediate needs of the growing diverse multicultural community and its artists.

Mexican Heritage Corporation is founded, the first and only multicultural arts organization to be considered a "major institution" by the City of San José. In its first year, MHC establishes the Mariachi Festival in San José.

The Multicultural Arts Incubation Pilot (MAIP) becomes a national model for supporting the development and stabilization of multicultural arts programming. Artist Joe B. Rodriguez, arts program manager (1990–2011) for the OCA, implements the program. (Between 1992–2004, the city would invest and secure federal, state, and foundation grants totaling over $1 million for Arts Incubation initiatives. Thirty MAIP graduates would generate $3.2 million of new revenues by the end of their third year, creating arts-related jobs and enhancing local economic potential.)

Ruth Tunstall Grant founds Genesis / A Sanctuary for the Arts in San José with exhibitions, presentations, performing arts, and artist studios, bringing together different cultures at three locations—Ryland Street, 40 North First Street, and The Alameda—with Claude Ferguson as artistic director. (At the Alameda site, she would renovate and build studios in a warehouse that is now The Alameda Artworks studios. Tunstall Grant also would develop the art program for foster youth at the Santa Clara County Children's Shelter.)

The Association for Viet Arts is founded by Hoa Trinh Glassey and Man Bui to foster excellence in Vietnamese-American performing, visual, and literary arts. AVA is the first nonprofit Vietnamese arts organization in the Bay Area.

Chike Nwoffi ah starts Oriki Theatre, Mountain View, to provide a shared experience of authentic African culture, from recreating an African village to school programs and seasonal productions.

In East Palo Alto, Bart Decrem founds Plugged In, one of the nation's first digital-divide programs.

The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe reclaims the arts of naming and installation. Tamien Station, an intermodal passenger transportation station in San José, is named after the valley and tribal region which the Spanish priests recorded as Thámien when they founded the first site of Mission Santa Clara de Thamien in 1777. Tamien Station is named to honor the ancestors of the Muwekma Ohlone after its construction uncovered a major ancestral heritage archaeological site containing around 172 ancestors. (A planned permanent exhibition of artifacts found on the site has not yet been constructed.)

The Arts Council, under new director Bruce Davis, convenes a forward-looking countywide event to applaud the "arts as an intervention for social ills," connecting arts with government, schools, youth, veterans, social services, and prisons. Director Davis (1994–2011), working with Diem Jones, Lissa Jones, and Audrey Wong, expands the Arts Council's community importance and increases seed funding to small and mid-sized organizations.

Working with Muwekma, Amah-Mutsun and Esselen Nation Costanoan/Ohlone tribal communities, artist Jean LaMarr creates a mural (restored in 2013) The Ohlone Journey, located in Ohlone Park in Berkeley, which celebrates Ohlone life and culture on four walls. The local Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, led by chairwoman Rosemary Cambra, uses performance art, academic research, language revitalization, and public art to build community.

Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley (1996–2006) is inspired by Mayor Susan Hammer, a leader in regional cultural planning. The initiative advances cultural policy and art education. [Executive Director John Kreidler (2000–2006) would implement a 10-year cultural plan for Silicon Valley, and produce two major publications on participatory arts with Pia Moriarty (2004) and Maribel Alvarez (2005). Arts Council of Santa Clara County would later be renamed Arts Council Silicon Valley.]

David Yohn (Ojibway), executive director, and Diane Way (Lakota/Cheyenne), artistic director, start ABLEZA: Native American Arts and Media Institute in San José. Exhibitions are held at the American Indian Center, part of the Indian Health Center off The Alameda, a long-standing community gathering point. (ABLEZA programming would include a 1999 virtual art exhibit entitled Honor and Pain, juxtaposing computer-rendered photos of traditional powwow dancers with sports mascots and images on commercial products.)

Mary Jane Solis initiates an extended period highlighting arts programming in conjunction with her work in community and public relations at the Office of Human Relations, Santa Clara County.

Mexican Heritage Plaza, a cultural center built with San José Redevelopment Agency funds, opens in San José.

ZERO1, the Art and Technology Network is founded by Andy Cunningham. (Joel A. Slayton would serve as director, 2008–2016.)

Silicon Valley De-Bug, a media, community organizing, and entrepreneurial collective coordinated by Raj Jayadev, is established in San José. Part of SV De-Bug's core group, community artists Adrian Avila, Charisse Domingo, and Jean Melesaine, would tackle projects with photo-essays and videos.

Diane Way becomes the first Native American artist to win the Literary Fellowship in Playwriting from Arts Council of Silicon Valley. In addition to her visual art, Way taught script writing and oral tradition at SJSU and Stanford.

MACLA is recognized in 2003 by Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley as Santa Clara County's "most practiced and mature site of cultural-citizenship-building through participatory arts."

Jianhua Hsu establishes the Silicon Valley Asian Arts Center in Santa Clara, offering exhibitions of local and Chinese art, seminars, music recitals, publications, art education and community fundraising events.

Self-taught muralist Frank Torres makes positive impact on gang infestation through community collaborations: murals at Pop's Mini-Mart, Payless Shoes store, the visitors' room at the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice, and the Elmwood Correctional Facility (Elmwood's history).

Empire Seven Studios and Gallery is founded by Juan Carlos Araujo and Jennifer Ahn in San José's Japantown, as "a beacon to underground art culture in the South Bay."

Content Magazine, The Innovative and Creative Culture of Silicon Valley , is started by Daniel Garcia, Cultivator.

Activist Tina Morrill starts Art Box San José, a community-driven project depicting art on utility boxes.

The Juana Briones House, a key link to a woman who was a California change-agent in multiple fields, is torn down. A careful deconstruction occurs, both to salvage materials and to preserve a section of wall that shows its unusual construction.

Juan Carlos Araujo and Jennifer Ahn establish the E7S Mural Project in San José to promote community murals.

Raj Jayadev writes an essay about De-Bug's approach and philosophy: "The Anatomy of an 'Un-Organization': Explaining #DebugScience."

Exhibition District is a nonprofit established to paint 40,000 sq. ft. of blank space in downtown San José. Organized by local muralist Erin Salazar, the plan is a follow-up to work done by muralists like Paul J. Gonzales and Phuong-Mai Bui-Quang. (ED murals completed to date include Labor of Love, a tribute to the working men and women who built the valley on the side of the Workingman's Emporium on N. First Street, and Life Abundant in the Face of Imminent Death , on the Hotel De Anza.)

Artists Robin Lasser, Trena Noval, and Genevieve Hastings create Our Lives in This Place at the request of the city. The project is part of Envision San José 2040 planning for "urban villages" such as East Santa Clara Street from Seventh to 17th Street. Community members are brought together and voice ideas to make the neighborhood more interesting. "Imagine" postcards featuring these ideas are created and circulated via a kiosk that travels the neighborhood.

2016 Bay Area Society for Art & Activism develops a timeline for the Bay Area's history of art and media activism: http://artandactivism.org/timeline/.

For the Women's March in downtown San José, about 30,000 people marched for civil rights, many wearing handmade pink "pussyhats," in diverse, intergenerational groups. As part of a global awakening and rededication, they spoke up through words, music, attire, and artful signs about concerns, values, and hope.

For additional information pertaining to the greater San Francisco Bay Area:

See the digital archive/wiki FoundSF.org; docspopuli.org, a digital archive of protest and advocacy artwork of the 20th century; and Women Eco Arts Dialog, promoting ecological and social justice art.


Art and Historical Context:
For more information about mid–20th century San José area arts development, starting with artist/activist John De Vincenzi and including the Arts Council Silicon Valley (1982), see Rindfleisch, Jan. Essay. First San José Biennial. San José Museum of Art, 1986. For subsequent context and discussion, starting with community activist Consuelo Santos Killins and artist/activist Mary Parks Washington, see Rindfleisch, Jan. "Roots and Offshoots: The Blossoming of Silicon Valley's Art Community." Californian Vol. 37 (October): 5–15.

For information regarding arts activity beyond nonprofits, see Alvarez, Maribel. There's Nothing Informal about It: Participatory Arts Within the Cultural Ecology of Silicon Valley. Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley, 2005.

Large organizations that served as historical markers

The early local contemporary art scene
The scene was anchored by the academic/exhibiting centers of SCU, Stanford University, and SJSU, augmented by the new community colleges, and by city arts commissions, other organizations, art associations, centers, leagues, guilds, societies, estates, and clubs usually of a regional nature, such as Los Gatos Art Association, or related to a specific arts medium. Some of these are listed below to give a larger feeling of the Silicon Valley art scene as it developed.

Other larger arts or related organizations:
The TechMuseum of Innovation: 1978 idea of Junior Leagues of Palo Alto and San José, resulted in "the Garage" in the former convention center on San Carlos Street, 1990; "The Tech" relocated in a new building on S. Market Street, 1998.

Children's Discovery Museum (1990)

1stACT Silicon Valley (2007–2013): leveraged a "network of networks" for leadership, participation, and investment in art, creativity, and technology.

Silicon Valley Creates (2013–present): a merger of Arts Council Silicon Valley with 1stACT Silicon Valley, with multiple programs.

Office of Cultural Affairs, City of San José Office of Human Relations, Santa Clara County

Specialty historical museums:
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum (1929; 1966 new museum), San José History San José (activities began 1949, managed by city; incorporated 1998) with African American Heritage House, Chinese American Museum at the Ng Shing, Greenwalt House (Museum of the Boat People and Republic of Vietnam), Portuguese Historical Museum at the Imperio, and more. California History Center Many Silicon Valley cities have their own historical organizations and museums.

Alternative arts organizations and endeavors open to emerging artists:
Los Gatos Art Association (1948 first discussions)

Smith Anderson Gallery (1969): begun by Paula and Phillip Kirkeby in Palo Alto.

Palo Alto Cultural Center (1971)

Gallery 9 (Menlo Park in 1970, moved to Los Altos in 1973): a cooperative gallery.

Works/San José (1977): a community art and performance center inspired by Tony May, was an offshoot of Wordworks, inspired by Jessica Jacobs. The latter continued until it morphed into SJICA.

San José Institute of Contemporary Art (SJICA) (1980): a member-supported, nonprofit organization committed to presenting visually compelling and conceptually challenging contemporary art.

dp Fong Gallery (1989–2007), San José.

Frederick Spratt Gallery (1993–2006), San José.

Anno Domini//the second coming of Art and Design (2000): a San José–based collective of artists and cultural entrepreneurs created by Cheri Lakey and Brian Eder. Primary organizers of South First Fridays Artwalk and Art Market.

Art Boutiki and Gallery (2001): comics store, art gallery, and live music venue in downtown San José.

Heart of Chaos Artisan Collective/Catalyst for Youth (2002): founder/executive director Joanne Hobbs

Kaleid Gallery (2006): an offshoot of San José's Phantom Galleries (a project exhibiting art in vacant storefronts & alternative spaces). Over 60 fine artists and designers from the San José area make use of a 6,000-square-foot retail space with individual exhibits in a variety of media.

Art Ark Gallery (2006) on the Art Ark Apartments property: an artisan village in the heart of San José's Martha Gardens Arts District, featuring the work of local artists in one-person shows and group exhibitions. Gallery coordinator, Valerie Raps (2006–present).

CreaTV San José (2007): a member-based, nonprofit community media center that helps the residents, businesses, schools and organizations in San José to effectively communicate their message to a broader audience using our public and education television and Internet channels.

Seeing Things Gallery (2012): downtown San José

Other arts-related events and organizations:
Tapestry in Talent Festival of the Arts (1976–2009; 2011)
Silicon Valley Open Studios (1986): a free annual event allowing the public to visit Peninsula and South Bay artists' studios is established.
Downtown Doors (2003): an art competition and outdoor exhibit for middle and high school students produced by the San José Downtown Foundation.
Luna Park Arts Foundation: organizers of the annual Luna Park Chalk Art Festival, San José

Arts organizations dedicated to particular media:
Bay Area Basketry Guild (1984), Judé Silva and Maxine Kirmeyer founders.
Citadel Print Center (1987), Glen Rogers Perrotto, Betty Bates.
Bay Area Book Artists (1995)
Bay Area Glass Institute (BAGI) (1996)
Orchard Valley Ceramic Arts Guild (2000)

Private independent arts organizations and events:
PreNeo Press
Anne and Mark's Art Party (2007)
Bill Gould's annual exhibition event at Artik Art and Architecture, curated by Kathryn Funk
M. Lee Stone Fine Prints (1976): focus on WPA and Depression era, social commentary, Chicano artists, industrial and cityscapes, and labor themes.

Reprinted from Creative Power: The Art and Activism of Ruth Grant Tunstall, 2019.

Best of Show, Studio 23, Bay City, Michigan

First Prize, Watercolor, Saginaw Area Artists Exhibition, Saginaw Art Museum, Michigan

Group exhibitions:

• Dan Danciger Jewish Community Center, Fort Worth, Texas
• Graphics, Mount Holyoke College, Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts

Award, Graphics, 29th Annual Exhibition of Afro-American Artists, Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia

• One-person exhibition, Haggerty Gallery, University of Dallas, Irving, Texas

Exhibition with catalog, Eight Afro-American Artists Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland

Exhibitions:

• Four Moderns, Brooklyn Museum, New York, review in the New York Times.
• One-person exhibition, Davis Art Center, Davis, California

Group exhibition, Jennifer Pauls Gallery, Sacramento, California

One-person exhibition, Memorial Union Art Gallery, University of California, Davis

Group exhibition, Invitational Silent Auction of Northern California Artists, Davis

Ghent, Henri. "Art by Black Americans," ARTWEEK, October 2, 1976, Vol. 7, No. 33, p 10.

• One-person exhibition, University Center, Clark College, Atlanta, Georgia

Teacher and director of museum art school, San José Museum of Art, San José, California

San José State University (SJSU) and City of San José task force for safety

Board of Directors, YWCA Silicon Valley

Exhibitions:

• Ruth Tunstall Grant: Works on Paper, San José Museum of Art, San José, California
• Group exhibition, Public Involvement Gallery, Tapestry in Talent, San José

Appointment to Board of Directors, Cultural Council of Santa Clara County

• Board of Directors, Selection Committee, Works/San José
• Exhibition, Works, San José City Hall Exhibition

One-person exhibition, Seipp Gallery, Castelleja School, Palo Alto, California

Collectors Choice Auction and group exhibitions, San José Art League, San José

As Arts Council of Santa Clara County board member, starts Hands on the Arts annual festival, Sunnyvale, California Exhibitions:

• San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (SJICA), San José

Award, excellence in community service, 41st Santa Clara County Fair

One-person exhibitions, Allegra Gallery, San José

Opening exhibition of new Allegra Gallery, San José

• Santa Clara County Arts Council, Artistic Review grants panel
• Santa Clara County Woman of Achievement, nominated by Senator Dan McCorquodale

California Arts Council grants review panel

Board of Directors, Euphrat Gallery, De Anza College, Cupertino, California

Willi Award, New San José Renaissance Awards Banquet, presented by Councilmember Shirley Lewis

• Arts education delegation to China, People to People International; gives presentation

With others, starts Genesis at 183A Ryland Street, San José

• Advisor/consultant for starting and developing Euphrat Gallery's Arts & Schools Program, De Anza College, Cupertino
• Mayor's award to work with high-risk youth, City of San José (seed money for establishing the art program at the Children's Shelter, County of Santa Clara)

Exhibitions:

• Intercessor, Saint Joseph's Cathedral project, San José
• China Reflections, paintings, drawings, and monoprints, Allegra Gallery, San José
• Euphrat Gallery, De Anza College, Cupertino

Facilitator, Multicultural Center panel, Santa Clara County Arts Council Symposium "Challenges, Choices & Solutions: A Vision for American Art in the 1990s." Exhibitions:

• Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, California
• Group exhibition, Harlequin Gallery, Fairmont Hotel, San José
• Group exhibition, Altares: Contemporary Interpretations, SJICA with Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA)

Workshop presentation at "Breaking New Ground, Women's History Month Celebration," sponsored by Santa Clara County Commission on the Status of Women, Hyatt Hotel, San José

• Trustee/exhibition planner, Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, California
• California Arts Council artist-in-residence at Santa Clara County Children's Shelter
• Incorporates Genesis, A Sanctuary for the Arts, as a nonprofit 501(c)(3), serving as president

Director, Santa Clara County Children's Shelter Arts Program

Reopening of Genesis at 40 N. First Street, San José

Plans World AIDS Day with SJSU

Plans multicultural arts season with Joe B. Rodriguez, City of San José Office of Cultural Affairs

Group exhibition, Dialogues, Genesis Gallery, San José

Advisor to Board of Directors, MACLA; curates County Children's Shelter 1989–1997 retrospective

• Exhibition, A Contemporary Survey of Bay Area African-American Artists, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California

Alain Locke Award, Excellence in the Arts, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan Exhibitions:

• Ruth Tunstall Grant: Dream Dancers, San José City College, San José
• A Journey, Los Gatos Museum of Art and Natural History, Los Gatos, California

Exhibition, Ruth Tunstall Grant: Repeated Redirections, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara

Kids First Institute Award of Excellence, Silicon Valley Children's Fund

Hearts in San Francisco, painted sculpture public installation, fundraiser for San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California

San José Arts Commission, including Chair of Public Art Committee

Chair of City Hall Exhibits Committee

Crossroads, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, California

Japantown Mural Project, public art project

Mentor for artists; inspiration and cover image contributor for Jan Rindfleisch's book Roots and Offshoots: Silicon Valley's Arts Community, for which she is the subject of a major article

Exhibitions:

• Tunstall Grant art welcomed into the exhibition/collection of Lifted Spirits Women's Drop-in Center, a haven for homeless women at First Presbyterian Church, San José
• Ruth Tunstall Grant, Bay Area Collections, San José City College Art Gallery

Exhibition, Ruth Tunstall Grant, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara

• Creative Power: The Art and Activism of Ruth Tunstall Grant, book by Jan Rindfleisch with Barbara Goldstein and essay by Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins