GRAND OPENING! Flax art & design flagship store

Since 1938 the Flax family has been catering to the needs of Bay Area creatives, from Ansel Adams to Benny Bufano to Tony Bennett. With the exception of a few satellite stores for shorter periods of time (including Oakland in the 1950s), Flax art & design has peddled our artists’ materials in San Francisco. After a furious two-year search, CEO Howard Flax finally found a new home for our Flagship store- at 1501 MLK Jr Way in Oakland!

In many ways, we’re just following the exodus of talented artists to their new center. The outpouring of love from our new neighbors has been humbling and motivating. Virtually all of our “advertising budget” will instead be used to support the arts in Oakland schools, nearby galleries through the East Bay Open Studios and Art Murmur, the Museum of Children’s art and other local collaborations.

With our catalog and website, we’ve enjoyed success on a national level before, but nothing feels as satisfying as participating in an ongoing vibrancy on our home turf.

We open soon, on March 21 with a Grand Opening event on Saturday April 2.