The Claremont Village Art Walk is hosted every first Saturday of the month, allowing anyone to come view the works of creators around the community. Art shops, galleries and museums open their doors to everyone. It’s all completely free as well, but there are pieces available for purchase.
Every gallery at the event has a map of all the different buildings in town participating in the art walk that is free to take. There are nine galleries part of the walk scattered around the area, all featuring different artists and showcasing different mediums.
What used to be the Claremont Depot has been converted into the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art. The museum participates in the art walk and has free admission during the Art Walk, usually it costs money to get in.
Their current exhibition features instruments crafted by the same musicians who play them. There’s a huge crowd of people outside listening to these artists perform.
With the artist’s instruments on display inside the museum, they’d go grab it before going on stage.
Right across the street from the museum is the Ahmad Shariff Art Gallery. This May, the gallery is hosting a solo exhibition from artist Sandy Garcia, titled “A Brighter May: The Art of Possibility.” Garcia’s paintings lined every wall. Onlookers crowded the little gallery, but everyone was talking about the art and the artist. There was a pamphlet that explained that Garcia’s work tells her experience of being Mexican American.
The Pomona Valley Art Association runs Gallery SOHO. Their exhibit features all types of mediums, from paintings and photography to ceramics and jewelry. Everyone was going around and talking about the art there. Three artists were featured and attended the event, Sonia Sleeger an artist who paints and works in different mediums, ceramics artist Lynn Hendricks and abstract and portrait painter Sarah Park. Talking with all three of them, they all mention how much they love the art community in Claremont and how welcoming it is.
“I think it’s (the Claremont Village Art Walk) definitely given me an artist community that I didn’t have before coming here,” Park said. “So I do appreciate that aspect.”
Park mentioned that she felt like an outsider growing up in three different countries. Park said expressing these thoughts through her art helped her in that aspect. The art community sharing their stories helps them grow as an artist.
“Everyone has their like different mediums they do and just learning from other people and just, even just being just part of this community has been great,” Park said.
Sleeger mentioned that Gallery SOHO is what encouraged her to be more confident in her art and showcasing it with everyone.
Matthew Nightingale is the organizer for the monthly art walk for Gallery SOHO. He’s also a photographer and very passionate about art and bringing in more people into the art community.
“I wanna bring more strangers in, I wanna bring everybody I can because art is really a quintessential part of life,” Nightingale said.
He says that he sees art as something everyone needs in their life.
The Pomona Valley Art Association has an exhibition at the LA County fair every year, which is going on from May 2-26 at the Millards Sheets Art Center. More information on that can be found here.
The Claremont village art community welcomes everyone, the next art walk will be June 7.
