On the first Friday night of each month, a large wall of an Oakland office complex morphs into an outdoor theater. A projector on a nearby rooftop shows videos a hundred feet tall on the exterior of a building at the corner of West Grand and Valley Street. The spectators — most of whom also attend the monthly event called Art Murmur in nearby galleries — stand or perch on the curb to watch the show.

THERE IS HERE

Gertrude Stein wrote of Oakland, her childhood home, “There is no there there.” Some say Oakland is now the hot spot for emerging Bay Area artists. “Oakland is so rad and real, everybody’s moving over,” one viewer said at a recent screening.

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OAKLANDISH

Informal art openings in Oakland’s Uptown district led to the first Art Murmur in 2006. Now galleries have organized a nonprofit to run the monthly event, which includes live performances and a fleet of food trucks. The Great Wall also debuted in 2006.

WORLDLY (BUT G-RATED)

Videos are curated from submissions from around the world, but in 2010 a showing of “Behind the Pixar Screen” by Pixar employees drew a huge crowd. “I’d like people to say they saw something cool in Oakland,” said Chris Curtis, a developer and founder of the Great Wall, who owns the building on which the films are projected. This month’s show included animated films from South Korea, France and China.

PROFITING AND NON-PROFITING

A show’s cost can run to the thousands of dollars; the projector rents for $1,500; the eight to 12 filmmakers are paid $50 each. Tenants of the building, including the Oakland Ballet and the Oakland Symphony, make their own contributions to the Oakland arts scene. Financing for the screenings comes from grants, business groups and private sponsors.

OTHER OUTSIDE(R) ART

During recent Occupy Oakland demonstrations, artists painted slogans on the sidewalks, including the catchy “Currency causes chaos.” Nearby, the Creative Growth Art Center shows work by artists with developmental and physical disabilities.

BOUNDLESS

The Art Murmur has grown to a shout: one summertime crowd was estimated at 10,000. One performance on the Great Wall featured Project Bandaloop, whose dancers were strapped into rock-climbing gear and suspended on bungee cords. The dancers leapt into the night sky as the audience swooned.

This article also appears in the Bay Area edition of The New York Times.