What's up in Oakland

Grtrude Stein is famously supposed to have said about Oakland that there is “no there there.” Well, in 2009, it’s time to say that Gertrude was wrong. Sorry Gertrude, there is a there, THERE!

Oakland Museum:

Housed in an architecturally innovative three-tiered complex of galleries, gardens, terraces, and ponds, the Oakland Museum of California's collections, special exhibitions and educational programs provide a broader understanding of California's history, art, nature and people.



The African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present, a look at the little-known history of enslaved Africans brought to Mexico in the 1500s and their contributions to Mexican culture. Organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, the exhibition opens May 9 and continues through Aug 23, 2009.

The bilingual exhibition features paintings, prints, movie posters, photographs, sculpture, costumes, masks, and musical instruments. "It's a fascinating hybrid---a visual arts exhibition based on a cultural history," says co-curator Orantes.

Squeak Carnwath: Painting Is No Ordinary Object
April 25–August 23, 2009

This presentation of Carnwath’s work—the first organized by a major West Coast museum—includes more than 40 paintings not seen collectively since the artist’s last major exhibition, in 1994.As the title indicates, a painting is “no ordinary object” for Carnwath (American, b. 1947). Her recurring motifs—among them numbers, rabbits, and lists—reflect personal and universal themes; each meticulously applied layer of paint carries meaning and inquiry.

Kenneth Baker's review: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/06/DDCD180GNU.DTL&type=art
http://www.museumca.org/

Museum of Children’s Art:

MOCHA provides hands-on arts learning experiencing for children and their families in our museum, in schools and preschools, and in public venues. MOCHA also prepares educators to teach art and integrate arts learning across academic subject areas. They advocate for the arts as an essential part of a strong, vital and diverse community and emphasize outreach to children in low-income communities that do not typically have wide access to the arts.

http://mocha.org/

African American Museum and Library: The African American Museum and Library at Oakland is dedicated to discover, preserve, interpret and share the historical and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and the West for present and future generations.

AAMLO's archival collection is a unique resource on the history of African Americans in Northern California and the Bay Area. The over 160 collections in the archives contain the diaries of prominent families, pioneers, churches, social and political organizations.

http://www.oaklandlibrary.org/aamlo/

Pardee Home Museum: The Pardee Home, including its carriage house and water tower, is a centerpiece of Oakland's Preservation Park Historic District, within a short walking distance of such downtown landmarks as Old Oakland, City Hall, and Preservation Park

http://www.pardeehome.org/