Richard Misrach Raffle

Richard Misrach, 5.15.00 7:32 am, photograph

The Emeryville Celebration of the Arts is excited to announce a new feature to this year’s 40th Anniversary Exhibition.

Through the generous donation of local artist and renowned photographer Richard Misrach, we are holding a monthlong raffle event to give away one of his incredible photographs, fully framed, to one lucky winner. The photograph, titled “5.15.00 7:32 am” is one of a series of photographs taken on the morning of May 15, 2000, of a cloud formation over the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay. The piece will be on display in the Exhibition throughout the month of October. The piece is valued at $15,000.

Between October 2 – 25, visitors can purchase raffle tickets in person at the sales counter in the Exhibition space. All the funds raised by ticket sales will be used to cover the entry fee of artists invited to participate in next year’s Exhibition.

Our goal has always been to make community-based art affordable and accessible to the Emeryville community. During a year of transitions for the Exhibition, we realized that we could no longer require local artists to be expected to staff the Exhibition at the expense of their time. Artists also expressed a desire for us to identify people with gallery sitting and sales experience to work the exhibition hall to help improve art sales. The Board of Directors decided to require the exhibition fee and gave new Exhibition Director John Bauters direction to identify ways we could both keep the show affordable for artists while also ensuring we offered a high-quality product for our artists and visitors.

When John reached out to Richard and proposed the idea of raising the funds to meet these goals through the generosity of a renowned local artist, Richard was an immediate and enthusiastic YES.

We are excited about the potential this new feature to the exhibition might hold for the future of our sustainability and accessibility goals. Thank you, Richard, for stepping up to support this effort, and to the many artists who took the time to contact us and better understand our behind-the-scenes efforts to be responsive to your feedback during this time of transition.

Raffle tickets can be purchased exclusively at the Exhibition during hours of operation. Rules and prices regarding the raffle will be posted at the sales counter and on our website. The raffle winner will be drawn at the conclusion of the Poetry Reading Event on October 25, 2026, shortly after 4pm.