These days San Francisco artists are swapping canvases for community web portals — or at least that’s the case in the East Bay.

That’s because the East Bay Culture Corridor (EBCC) has become a cultural hub uniting four cities on the web at 510Arts.com, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Here, cities of Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Richmond are working together to improve their art communities. “The arts are one of our greatest assets, and economic development and the arts go hand in hand,” said the economic development director for the city of Berkeley in the article.

These cities joined forces four years ago, but the addition of the web portal will help the cities better market the art institutions and spur economic development, the article said.

“This is a labor of love, done on a shoestring budget to help local artists and organizations get more visibility,” said a member of the East Bay Community Foundation, which helped support the EBCC with the San Francisco Foundation.

The global village is stronger than ever.

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