The Bay Area’s Black art community will receive a regional showcase this fall when the Museum of the African Diaspora presents the third year of Nexus: SF/Bay Area Black Art Week.

Beginning September 30, the five-day event will bring museums, galleries and independent artists into a shared program devoted to Black visual art. Nexus reaches several parts of the Bay Area, with events planned in San Francisco, Oakland and the Marin Headlands. For MoAD Executive Director Monetta White, its growth reflects a history extending well beyond the annual event.

“The third edition of Nexus demonstrates how it’s grown into something more profound than any single exhibition, program, or artistic genre,” she says. “Nexus is a celebration that embraces collective creativity emerging from the same unified spirit, and all in the same week. This energy stems from generations of local Black artists, galleries, institutions, and thought-leaders who built this culture here in the Bay Area, and their contributions laid the ground for what Black creativity means today.”

MoAD will begin the week with Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages, the San Francisco artist’s first institutional solo exhibition in the city. The museum will also debut After the Island: Ornament and Ceramic Practice in the Jamaican Diaspora, developed with Toronto’s Gardiner Museum. Dorian Reid will open Black Cat Revolution as part of MoAD’s Emerging Artist Program.

Nexus will extend outside traditional exhibition spaces. The Artists Party returns October 1 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, with DJs and a musical guest still to be announced. MoAD will host its annual Afropolitan Ball at the San Francisco Ferry Building on October 3. The black-tie event serves as a fundraiser for the museum. White sees Nexus as a way to introduce audiences to the breadth of Black art being produced throughout the Bay Area. “I hope a first-time visitor walks into one exhibition or event and realizes they have only scratched the surface,” she says. “This community isn’t contained in one building, neighborhood, or mode of expression.”

Partner programming will offer visitors additional ways to engage with artists during the week. Open studios and artist conversations are planned, along with performances and dinners. One of this year’s new projects is Art eXodus: From North to South, The Coast, a four-day exhibition and program organized by Jac Forbes at Four One Nine. The project will connect artists from Los Angeles with members of the Bay Area art community.

Several galleries are also preparing exhibitions for Nexus. Jessica Silverman will present a solo show from Sadie Barnette and Lineage, its first exhibition with Lava Thomas. Jenkins Johnson Gallery will feature David C. Driskell’s Wake Up Everybody, while COL Gallery will present Antwoine Washington’s LIFE BE LIFING. In Oakland, Sheilby Macena and Simrah Farrukh will collaborate on Hold Me Tender, drawing from their Haitian-American and Pakistani-American perspectives.

Major museums will participate through exhibitions already on view. The de Young Museum will feature Nengi Omuku’s The Gathering, while SFMOMA will have O. Smith: Artivist. The Oakland Museum of California will present its Mildred Howard retrospective, Poetics of Memory. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will feature Dread Scott’s The Body Politic.

For White, the eventual goal reaches beyond what happens during SF/Bay Area Black Art Week each fall. “Five or ten years from now, I want the spirit of Nexus and its ecosystem of community partners to carry throughout the year and connect to different cities,” she says. “Most of all, I hope we continue to grow the mission that Nexus was created with, in which emerging artists have just as much of a platform as institutions that have been here for decades. I want Nexus to maintain its standing as community-built and something nobody has to ask permission to be part of.”

Supported by The Svane Family Foundation’s Culture Forward program, Nexus continues through October 4, with the complete schedule available through the event’s website. Below are the highlights of the 2026 Edition of Nexus: SF/Bay Area Black Art Week.

Wednesday, September 30
Nexus begins at MoAD with the opening of Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages, After the Island: Ornament and Ceramic Practice in the Jamaican Diaspora and Dorian Reid: Black Cat Revolution. Later, Sharon Norwood, PJ Anderson and Jacqueline Bishop will discuss After the Island with MoAD’s Key Jo Lee.

Thursday, October 1
Jac Forbes opens Art eXodus: From North to South, The Coast at Four One Nine, connecting artists from Los Angeles with the Bay Area. Minnesota Street Project will debut Making (Space): Celebrating 5 Years of Black (Space) Residency, curated by Erica Deeman and Trina Michelle Robinson. The evening closes with MoAD’s Artists Party at YBCA, where a special performer will join the festivities.

Friday, October 2
Oakland takes a larger role on Friday with Oakland Art Murmur’s First Friday Art Walk and street fair. Johansson Projects will debut exhibitions featuring Gregory Rick, Sheena Rose and Nimah Gobir, while KINFOLX hosts a panel featuring Taylor Smalls, Jasmine Renee Ross and Akintunde Ahmad. At OMCA, Mildred Howard will sit down with Adrian Burrell for a conversation about her work.

San Francisco programming includes artist walkthroughs with Lava Thomas and Sadie Barnette at Jessica Silverman, plus the opening reception for David C. Driskell’s Wake Up Everybody at Jenkins Johnson Gallery. CCA will host “The State of Black Artists in San Francisco,” organized by Three Point Nine Art Collective.

Saturday, October 3
April Spears will lead a historical tour and art walk at the Ruth Williams Opera House in Bayview, followed by a community dinner and the fifth annual Afro LatinX Concert. Minnesota Street Project will showcase work from 15 Black artists supported by Creative Growth. MoAD’s Afropolitan Ball takes over the San Francisco Ferry Building later in the evening for the museum’s major annual fundraiser.

Sunday, October 4
The final day extends into Marin County, where Headlands Center for the Arts and MoAD will present a dinner and performance featuring Salimatu Amabebe. Back at MoAD, a special MoAD Mix will commemorate the Black Panther Party’s 60th anniversary with Keisha Jones and Black Panther Party Museum founder Dr. Xavier Buck. Ramekon O’Arwisters will also welcome guests into his Mission District studio, while The Monroe Arts & Cultural Center hosts a free program devoted to preserving Arthur Monroe’s legacy.

Author: Okla Jones

Read the original article on Essence.