Inside Out Issue 4

Inside | Out

a n e w stat e o f m i n d at t h e Oa k l a n d m useu m o f ca li fo rn ia

Oakland Revealed Inspired ways to e xperience our ama zing cit y

The View from City Hall Mayor Jean Quan energizes the local art scene

A Conversation with Daniel Clowes The graphic novelist takes comics to new heights

SPRING 2011

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welcome

Welcome to Oakland!

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hen my family and I moved to Oakland close to eleven years ago, our impetus was very practical. We simply wanted a home we could afford and that would accommodate our growing family. Little did we know that we would fall in love with this place; today we can’t imagine living anywhere else.

My appreciation of Oakland has grown enormously since joining the staff of OMCA five years ago. I’ve learned so much about the city’s incredible history, and I’ve renewed my appreciation of its artistic legacy. And I’ve explored— both in our galleries and throughout the region—Oakland’s exceptional biological diversity. Indeed, when people ask me why the “Museum of California” is located here, I respond that Oakland is the perfect microcosm of California.

Even as we celebrate our hometown, our exhibitions and programs also place Oakland in a broader context. On view this spring are two exhibitions that demonstrate the breadth of OMCA’s scope: a major survey of Los Angelesbased artist Michael C. McMillen, and Splendors of Faith/ Scars of Conquest, an exhibition that examines the magnificent art and artifacts of the missions of what was once New Spain. This spring it is more evident than ever that we are a museum that acts locally and thinks globally.

One of the most gratifying aspects of the Museum’s recent reinvention is the civic pride expressed by members and visitors alike. I’m often stopped in our galleries by a visitor saying, “Oakland needs this Museum.” To which I happily reply, “and the Museum needs Oakland!”

Lori Fogarty Executive Director

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OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA

t o p t o b o t t o m : a b i g ai l h u l l e r ; g r e g h a b i b y i m a g e s

In these pages, we celebrate Oakland inside and out. Inside OMCA you’ll find many ways to discover Oakland. You can also look ahead to the reopening of our Gallery of California Natural Sciences in 2012, which will feature a section on Oakland and its habitats. Through our new initiative, the Oakland Standard, you can experience forward-thinking trends fostered right here in Oakland. And our new mayor, Jean Quan, offers a perspective on Oakland that is shaped by her longtime commitment to education and the arts.

contents

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features 8

departments

Oakland Inside Out

Thought you knew Oakland? Think again.

Our hometown is bursting with creative energy, diversity, and natural beauty. This special section looks at new ways to discover local treasures: inside the Museum, out in our community, and at the sweet spot where the two converge.

4 Gallery News A look at our current special exhibitions and an exciting new addition to the Gallery of California History.

5 Retail Tales Shop the OMCA Store for unique books, jewelry, and gifts by some of Oakland’s top talents.

CLOC K W I S E F R OM TOP : S H A U N R OBE R T S ; MEE N O PEL U CE ; A B I G A I L H U LLE R

6 Thought Leaders Acclaimed graphic novelist Daniel Clowes explains his lifelong infatuation with comics. Clowes will be the subject of a major survey at OMCA in 2012.

16 38 Million Stories Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is breathing new life into an already thriving local arts scene.

17 Member Spotlight Meet two of the many dedicated volunteers who make the annual White Elephant Sale such a meaningful event.

Opening Season Sponsors:

18 Calendar A guide to the Museum’s exhibitions, events, and programs.

The Story of California. The Story of You.

Oakland Museum of California

Inside Out is published three times a year by the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak Street, Oakland, CA 94607. www.museumca.org. ©2011.

Editor: Kelly A. Koski

Contributors: Ann Dickson, Lori Fogarty, Maggie R. Pico, Sunny Green, Gail Bernstein, Rue Flaherty Produced by: Diablo Custom Publishing dcpubs.com

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g allery news

Creative Hollywood One of the newest additions to the Gallery of California History, Creative Hollywood tells the story of visionary talents who elevated moviemaking to an exciting new art form. This interactive exhibit also invites visitors to gain firsthand filmmaking experience with opportunities to design costumes, create animation, and add sound effects to movies. If you’ve ever wondered if you have what it takes to become the next Walt Disney, Edith Head, or Steven Spielberg, here’s your chance to find out.

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Michael C. McMillen: Train of Thought Michael C. McMillen is best known for creating large installations that are powerfully resonant and stunningly atmospheric. OMCA’s chief curator of art, Phil Linhares, curated this survey of forty years of McMillen’s work, which includes tableaux, paintings, and films.

Among the installations on view are Pavilion of Rain, 1989; Train of Thought, 1990; Deliverance, 1992; Red Trailer Motel, 2003; Time Below, 2003; and Lighthouse, 2010. A 200-page book, available in the OMCA Store, accompanies the exhibition. Train of Thought opens on April 16 (Pavilion of Rain and Lighthouse are currently on view) and closes Aug. 14, 2011.

Michael C. McMillen: Train of Thought is made possible in part by generous support from the Oakland Museum Women’s Board, the OMCA Art Guild, Dr. and Mrs. Philip D. Schild, and Agnes Bourne and Jim Leubbers.

OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA

Splendors of Faith/ Scars of Conquest Central to the Spanish conquest of what is now northern Mexico, the southwest United States, and California was the effort to convert indigenous people to Catholicism—and art was a major component of the Spaniards’ mission enterprise. Splendors of Faith/Scars of Conquest, which originated in Mexico at the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, is an extraordinary exhibition of 110 artworks and artifacts from the original missions, many never before seen outside their original locations.

To illuminate modern perspectives on the highly charged subject of colonialism, OMCA is presenting a companion installation, Contemporary Coda, that features works by artists—Latino and Native Californian—with provocative takes on age-old themes, conflicts, and iconographies. Both exhibitions will be on view through May 29, 2011.

The Oakland Museum of California presentation is made possible in part by generous support from the Oakland Museum Women’s Board, OMCA History Guild, and the Academy of American Franciscan History.

Sponsors:

TOP A N D BOTTOM : J A S O N LEW ; F A R LE F T : S H A U N R OBE R T S

The New and the Now Two special exhibitions and a new installation provoke ideas and stir the imagination

Retail tales

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YOUR Corner Store The OMCA Store proudly supports a host of local artisans, designers, writers, and mapmakers. Check out the following homegrown treasures, available now.

Designs for Living Rings and Things Oakland jewelry designer Mark Poulin has added a line of colorful rings to his popular collection of cast sterling and enamel pendants, earrings, and other adornments.

Repurposed Purses By day, Bess Petty works as a graphic designer at an Oakland sign company; after hours, she transforms the leftover vinyl scraps into sweet coin purses that she sells through her own company, Bird vs. Bird.

Streamlined Push Toys Los Angeles sisters Eden and Jordan Yaskil are the talents behind Manny & Simon, which creates eco-friendly products for babies and toddlers. Their push toys—simple wooden animals on wheels—are wonderful examples of timeless design.

Books, Guides, and Maps Wilson Celebrated screenwriter, author, and cartoonist Daniel Clowes has written an engaging graphic novel about an opinionated misanthrope who resides in—you guessed it—Oakland.

Placemats for Doodlers Modern Twist, a design company based in Oakland and San Francisco, makes a fun line of washable placemats—just the thing to keep kids (and adults) engaged and inspired at mealtime.

Other Goose In this new take on Mother Goose, local author and illustrator J. Otto Seibold gives classic nursery rhymes a funky, fresh flavor.

Print Workshop This how-to book, by Christine Schmidt of San Francisco’s Yellow Owl Workshop, is chock-full of ideas, advice, and encouragement for wanna-be printers and printmakers.

Bay Area Creek Maps OMCA publishes definitive guides to the creeks and watersheds of the Bay Area.

Pick up a map of your neighborhood and explore its intricate waterways.

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thought le aders

A Conversation with Daniel Clowes The Oakland-based graphic novelist discusses his career in comics

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Q: How did you first get into comics?

A: Comics were part of my world ever since I was born. I had a brother ten years older than me who bequeathed me this giant stack of comic books and magazines. I grew up without television until age eight or nine, so those were my only source of entertainment. I remember, before I could even read the words, piecing them together by the pictures and spending hours trying to replicate the illustrations. As a kid, I thought I could maybe be a guy who does inking for Marvel comics. I had no great notion I could do anything as fun as I’m doing now. I didn’t even have an inkling of that five years into my professional career.

Q: What is it about the genre of comics that appeals to you so much?

A: I’m a visually oriented person. Originally I just wanted to draw; that was the big appeal. Comics are the one visual narrative medium that you have absolute control over. Even though they take a long time, you can get them out by yourself and have control over the way the story is told and how it looks and all the other little things about it. That’s very satisfying.

Q: You were one of the de facto leaders of a Bay Area movement in the early 1990s that helped revolutionize the way people think of comics,

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OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA

“I couldn’t stop writing because Wilson could give you something on every subject, and a character like that comes along very seldom.”

ABIGAIL HULLER

hen his latest graphic novel, Wilson, was named one of the top fiction books of 2010 by Time magazine, it may have seemed like a seminal moment for Daniel Clowes. But that was actually just the latest in a long line of impressive achievements for the Oakland-based writer and illustrator: an Academy Award® screenwriting nomination, multiple comic-industry honors, and a serial in The New York Times Magazine, to name just a few. Beginning early next year, OMCA will host a survey of Clowes’s work, which includes some fifty publications in ten languages and is largely credited for giving the graphic novel literary gravitas. While Wilson’s protagonist is an alienated and lonely middle-aged Oaklander, Clowes lives near Piedmont Avenue with his wife, son, and pet beagle. He’s currently at work on two books, both due out this year, and adapting a screen version of Wilson for director Alexander Payne. Here, Clowes chats with Inside Out about his career, the graphic novel genre, and his adopted hometown.

incorporating social commentary and subversive themes. What was that time like?

A: It wasn’t like a revolution where you’re out in the streets joining hands with your fellow man. You’re doing the exciting stuff in your room by yourself. But there was a group of us that had been influenced by people like Robert Crumb, and we had a sense that there was a lot of stuff you could do with comics that hadn’t been done before. We were slowly realizing that these could appeal to a general audience. It felt like almost anything you did was new.

Q: Where did the idea for Wilson come from, and how did the story end up being set in Oakland?

A: Wilson was a character who just emerged without anyone asking him to. My dad was sick, and I was in the hospital with my sketchbook, trying to amuse myself by doing as many comics as possible. After doing ten or fifteen, I couldn’t stop and Wilson just emerged. I couldn’t stop writing because Wilson could give you something on almost any subject, and a character like that comes along very seldom. I was also working in a lot of coffee shops at that time, and he felt like someone who could be in that world I was inhabiting. He felt like a guy that could be hanging out on Grand Avenue or Lakeshore or Piedmont.

Q: Oakland has gained a national reputation as a fertile place for artists. Why do you think so many artists have been drawn here lately?

A: Up until ten years ago, artists could still live in San Francisco, but now that’s just impossible. San Francisco also feels kind of precious, like everyone knows everything already, whereas Oakland feels a little bit undiscovered. I think people like that.

Right: Daniel Clowes, seated at right, with OMCA Senior Curator of Art René de Guzman.

Clowes encounter OMCA will present Daniel Clowes: A First Survey, opening in early 2012.

The exhibition, cocurated by René de Guzman and independent guest curator Susan Miller, will include hundreds of original drawings and artifacts and will be accompanied by a full-color monograph.

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[Gallery of California History]

For a glimpse of Oakland’s RICH history, check out:

Rancho San Antonio < In the section called Coming for Land, visitors will see an 1863 map of the formerly Mexican area known as Rancho San Antonio, which covers a large area of what today is East Oakland.

TOP TO BOTTOM: SHAUN ROBERTS; JASON LEW

The Great Quake < The Chevron History Hangout features a steam pumper that was brought from Oakland to fight the fires in San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake; it was driven by William Williams, Oakland’s first African American firefighter.

Pipe City Perspective < In the winter of 1932–33, some 200 homeless people took refuge in abandoned concrete pipes at the foot of 19th Avenue in Oakland; the makeshift encampment was nicknamed Pipe City. The Gallery features a large pipe that replicates one of the originals; visitors can sit inside it and listen to an audio account of what life was like for Pipe City’s residents.

Power to the People < In the 1960s, Emory Douglas served as the minister of culture for the radical Oakland-based Black Panther Party. Asked to curate a case for OMCA’s Forces of Change exhibit, Douglas gathered materials that illuminate the Panthers’ community work, including their free food service program.

spring 2011

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3 8 Million stories

A Quantum Leap forward for the Arts Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is reinvigorating the cultural life of her beloved city

“OMCA does a great job of integrating its collection and its work with the community.”

—Jean Quan­

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OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA

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o say that Mayor Jean Quan is an enthusiastic supporter of Oakland’s cultural scene is sheer understatement.

After all, she joined Oakland’s Board of Education as a parent activist to help save the city’s performing arts programs.

Later, as a councilperson, she sponsored free Sundays in the Redwoods concerts. An avid photographer, Quan—whose roots in Oakland run deep—is also the board chair of the Chabot Space & Science Center.

Surveying the city’s current state of the arts, Quan sees much to take pride in. “The art scene is booming,” she says, pointing to Oakland’s annual $100 million arts industry. “A good example is the growth of galleries and diversity downtown. It’s interesting to see new clusters of artists in neighborhoods like East Lake, Laurel, Central Oakland, Maxwell Park. You’ve got this Soho-like scene on 23rd and Telegraph and parts of West Oakland. In many cases, artists are helping to revitalize these neighborhoods.”

Quan is equally appreciative of OMCA’s role in this artistic resurgence.

“The Museum has blazed the way for museums of the future,” says Quan, the city’s first female and first Asian American chief executive.

Still, Quan wants Oakland—and the mayor’s office—to do more. “There are not enough artistic gathering places in the poorer parts of our city, and I’d like to build those.” She also envisions rerouting the monthly Art Murmur to take in more African American galleries and encouraging the Parks and Recreation Department to provide more after-school art programs.

It’s inclusive ideas like these that will help Oakland’s cultural milieu continue to evolve. But for Quan, this can happen only by nurturing the city’s defining qualities—its phenomenal depth, breadth, and diversity—which, she says, is what “gives us our edginess.” And no one’s prouder of that edginess than Jean Quan. “We like that we’re an opinionated city,” she says. “You know, two Oaklanders, three opinions!”

M eeno P eluce

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May 12 • OMCA Lecture: World War II Home Front Oral History Project Learn about the United States during World War II through oral histories from the UC’s Bancroft Library. Presented by the History Guild. 2 p.m.

May 13 • Gallery Talk Featuring former Chief Curator of the San Jose Museum of Art Susan Landauer and Chief Curator of Art Phil Linhares.

6:30–7:30 p.m.

May 15 • Family Explorations!

Explore the California Gold Rush with activities, gallery tours, and a musical performance by the Gold Rush Sisters. Made possible

by Chevron. 1–4 p.m.

T O P, L E F T T O R I G H T: J A S O N L E W ; S H A U N R O B E R T S

May 19 • OMCA Lecture: Mount Diablo Geoscapes Join John Karachewski as he explores Mount Diablo State Park.

Presented by the Natural Sciences Guild. 12:30–1:30 p.m.

JUNE June 10 • O ZONE: This is California!

Celebrate California through music, movies, food, and fun.

5 p.m.–midnight.

June 26 • Family Explorations!

Join us for hands-on activities that explore how things move, roll, slide, and bounce. Made possible by Chevron. 1–4 p.m.

ONGOING EVENTS Free First Sundays!

First Sundays are always free!

Made possible by Wells Fargo.

11 a.m.–5 p.m.

Architecture Tours by the Council on Architecture First Sunday of every month at 1 p.m.

OMCA Bike Tours Sundays, May 15, June 19, July 17. 10 a.m.–noon.

May 20 • California Futures Participate in a new exhibit concept. Brainstorm with staff and designer Martin Sprouse to develop OMCA’s new Mobile Unit. 7–9 p.m.

OMCA Highlight Tours Fridays and Saturdays at 1 p.m.

May 28 • Member Morning Members-only viewing of Splendors of Faith/Scars of Conquest.

9–11 a.m. Tour at 10 a.m.

Docent Tours of the Gallery of California History Sundays at 3 p.m.

Docent Tours of the Gallery of California Art Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Note that events and programs are subject to change. For updated listings, please visit museumca.org.

Museum Hours Monday

Closed

Tuesday

Closed

Wednesday

11 a.m.–5 p.m.

Thursday

11 a.m.–5 p.m.

Friday

11 a.m.–9 p.m.

Saturday

11 a.m.–5 p.m.

Sunday

11 a.m.–5 p.m.

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