ART FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE: The Long Beach Open Studio Tour

1 day ago

5 min read

By Gina Valencia | Photos by Izzy Juarez

Every October, the private becomes public across Long Beach. The Long Beach Open Studio Tour (LBOST) is a free, self-guided event held during the first four weekends of October in celebration of Long Beach Arts Month. Visitors can walk, bike, or drive to explore local artists working in their home studios, backyards, and creative spaces from 1:00pm to 5:00pm each tour day.

The tour, started by artists Lisa Wibroe and Tina Burnight in 2009, was born from a simple observation: many accomplished artists in Long Beach had few opportunities to connect with the community beyond their studio walls. In 2021, Lisa and Tina passed the torch to architect Javier Sola and his wife, artist and musician Cherie Sola, who have carried the tradition forward and broadened it.

"However, we quickly realized that the tour not only highlights artists but is a way to build community." - Cherie Sola

"We didn't truly know what we were in for when we took over as organizers," Cherie said. That focus has sharpened with a new partnership with Art Clout, a grassroots creative collective that supports local artists by hosting gallery shows and exhibits around the city. "Now that we have partnered with Art Clout, we can see that vision expand even more."

Four Weekends, Over 100 Artists

The tour's four-weekend, neighborhood-by-neighborhood format wasn't the original design. It started as a single weekend, but Lisa and Tina soon realized one weekend couldn't capture a city with this many working artists. "There was no easy solution to capturing all of Long Beach, including Signal Hill," Javier said. "So we looked at geography and the distribution of artists in order to divide the city into quadrants." Managing that growing pool remains a challenge, but organizers strive to keep selection open and broad. This year's event includes over 100 artists, with younger artists and niche mediums joining in greater numbers each year.

LBOST sits inside a busier citywide calendar every October, coinciding with Long Beach Arts Month and National Arts and Humanities Month. The Downtown leg sometimes lands on the same weekend as the DTLB Art and Design Walk, and the tour has partnered with other arts organizations on shows and kickoff parties, with Art Clout closely involved in planning this year. The tour remains free, self-guided, and ticketless by design. "Keeping the tour free is about making it as open to the community as possible," Cherie said, with funding coming from a modest artist fee, an Arts Council for Long Beach microgrant, and a growing roster of sponsors.

Micro Galleries Of Long Beach

That connection between art and neighborhood is mirrored just down the sidewalk, at one of Long Beach's other grassroots arts efforts: the Micro Galleries of Long Beach, tiny freestanding exhibition spaces similar to little free libraries. Built by local artists Dave and Carol Clark in the summer of 2023 to showcase their own work, there are now dozens scattered across the city, offering artists a free public venue with no gallery walls at all.

*Carol & Dave Clark stand beside one of their micro galleries*

This year, the Clarks' involvement extends beyond their own galleries: both are part of the committee organizing LBOST. Carol is serving as treasurer, while Dave is handling the tour's backend web design.

Dave doesn't see the two efforts as formally linked but acknowledges the overlap. "The Tour's intention is to open artists' studios so the public can experience where and how an artist works," he explained. While "a micro gallery's intent is to bring art to the public through its placement along a public walkway... the art is there to speak for itself."

This year, LBOST is flagging studios that also host a micro gallery on its digital map, which Dave said should raise visibility for both. Still, he notes, "it is the residents walking about who are the actual traffic" for a micro gallery, a more passive kind of engagement than a scheduled studio visit.

What the two share, Dave said, is organic, community-built momentum. Gallery 17, the first micro gallery, "was never intended to be more than" a single structure in front of his house; it's since grown to 40 galleries through word of mouth alone, sustained by volunteers, from the artist who makes decals for free to a contractor friend who donates his labor. "This is not a business or a side gig. We only ask for someone to cover the cost of materials, nothing more."

That hands-off spirit extends to curation. Unlike LBOST, where visitors talk directly with artists in their working spaces, a micro gallery has no one present to explain the work. "The curation process is nothing more than letting any interested artist choose the month to exhibit in," Dave said. Content is filtered for a public audience, but otherwise "it is really up to the artist to create an exhibit that either connects to the public as they intended, or to supply a statement that does that for them." Monthly opening nights, held the first Saturday of the month, occasionally turn into informal gallery crawls when several Wrigley-area galleries exhibit simultaneously.

Together, LBOST and the micro galleries reflect two sides of the same community goal: one invites the public into an artist's process, the other places finished work directly into daily life, both reshaping how Long Beach residents encounter art not as something to seek out downtown, but as something already embedded in their own neighborhoods.

EASTSIDE STUDIO SPOTLIGHT:

Margie Darrow (Bentovoja)

This year, Margie is in the final stages of a large series titled "XplOrdinary Garden."

"My current studio 'In Process' is figuring out the flow, display, and how the pieces work together to form a larger narrative," she said. Showing work mid-process changes the conversations with visitors, too:

"[It] creates deeper conversations naturally, which I am more comfortable with." As a narrative artist, she says most pieces carry more than one story: a historical thread from her own life that absorbs whatever is happening around her while she works.

She's also found professional value in it. "Artists are small businesses, and studio visits build relationships," she explained. "A lot of people don't understand how to work with or hire an artist, so it's a great opportunity to ask questions." This is her second year on the citywide tour.

UPTOWN STUDIO SPOTLIGHT:

Nadine Wener

South African transplant Nadine has lived in the city for over two decades. She works inside her house, often late into the night, on miniature portraits and embroidery art, then moves finished pieces to her garage, which doubles as a showroom.

"People visit here to see my work and buy," she said. "I sell a good amount during open studio and really enjoy meeting people."

Visitors are often struck by her output:

"My goal is to sell as much as I can to as many people, so that I can make more art."

Most of her work consists of watercolor portraits, some oil paintings, and embroidery. This will be Nadine's fourth year on the tour, exhibiting from her garage and yard, where she sets out chairs, snacks, and drinks so visitors can linger and mingle, turning a single studio stop into a neighborhood gathering.

Long Beach Open Studio Tour Dates:

Oct 3-4 Belmont

Oct 10-11 Uptown

Oct 17-18 Downtown

Oct 24-25 Eastside

Web: lbopenstudiotour.com

IG:@lbopenstudiotour

Micro Galleries of Long Beach

Web: mgoflb.org

Dave Clark

Web: daverclarkartist.com

IG: @daverclarkdesigns