Hazel Salmi

Hazel Gowan Salmi was an American visual artist, educator, and arts administrator. She was a painter, as well as the founder and director of the Richmond Art Center. She lived in Point Richmond, California for many years.

Early life and education

Hazel Gowan Salmi was born on November 11, 1893, in Rockport, an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California. She was the child of Stella Bella and Ernest Albert Gowan.
She graduated from California School of Design in 1912. She continued her arts education at Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design in San Francisco, the University of California, Berkeley, and at California College of Arts and Crafts.
In 1916, she married Martin Emanuel Salmi. They had one son.

Career

In 1921, Salmi decided to move to the San Francisco Bay Area permanently, settling in Point Richmond, California. There were no art classes or resources, so she started to teach art classes. In 1936, Salmi began teaching classes under the Emergency Education Program of the Works Progress Administration. In 1938, the City of Richmond granted Salmi an old Health Department building to use for classes and exhibitions.
In the 1940s, Salmi and other artists petitioned the City of Richmond to include a permanent art center as part of the new downtown Civic Center development. In 1950 Richmond Art Center became an independent 501 nonprofit. The Richmond Art Center's new facilities building opened in 1951, as part of the downtown Civic Center development. From 1936 until 1960, Salmi worked as the founding director of the Richmond Art Center.
She died at age 92 in a convalescent hospital in San Pablo, California.