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Oakland Museum of California Announces Extended Weekend Hours by Popular Demand

(OAKLAND, CA)By popular demand and in order to better accommodate members of the community, families, and other visitors from Oakland, the Bay Area, and beyond, Oakland Museum of California will extend its hours every Saturday and Sunday beginning July 26 and 27 to 10 am–6 pm (weekend hours are currently 11 am–5 pm). The first weekend of the newly extended hours will coincide with the closing of popular exhibitions SuperAwesome: Art and Giant Robot and Vinyl: The Sound and Culture of Records, affording visitors a final chance to experience these shows and OMCA’s other offerings in art, history and natural sciences. All Museum amenities will be available during the expanded weekend hours including the OMCA Store and Blue Oak café. The Museum parking garage will be open 9 am–7 pm. For more information including exhibitions and program schedules, visit museumca.org.

The new extended hours are just one of OMCA’s responses to extensive visitor research undertaken in recent years to assess the Museum’s accessibility and better serve the community. Visitors surveyed expressed a desire for earlier opening and later closing times on weekends to accommodate busy schedules and families. OMCA’s long history of putting visitor needs and participation at the center of its programing and amenities includes:

“We take community input very seriously,” says OMCA Director and CEO Lori Fogarty. “Engaging the public in our decision-making process makes us responsive and relevant and the kind of museum that people return to and see the evolution of visitor participation in our exhibitions and events—our visitors and community think of us as their museum, and we strive to achieve this trust and connection in everything we do.”

NEW MUSEUM HOURS
Beginning Saturday, July 26, the Museum’s hours change to:

Wednesday      11 am to 5 pm
Thursday 11 am to 5 pm
Friday 11 am to 9 pm
Saturday 10 am to 6 pm*
Sunday 10 am to 6 pm*

*Previously 11 am to 5 pm

All Museum amenities will be available during the expanded weekend hours including the OMCA Store and Blue Oak café. The Museum parking garage will be open 9 am–7 pm.

ON VIEW EXHIBITIONS

SuperAwesome: Art and Giant Robot
Through July 27, 2014
This exhibition features the work of 15 contemporary artists associated with the groundbreaking magazine Giant Robot, an ahead-of-its-time celebration of Asian and Asian American pop and alternative culture. Founded in 1994, Giant Robot grew from being a small, punk-oriented zine to a multiplatform art space with a robust online presence, retail stores, a restaurant, galleries, and related events. Organized by OMCA Associate Curator of Design and Material Culture Carin Adams, and guest curated by Giant Robot visionary Eric Nakamura, OMCA’s exhibition presents new and recent works in a variety of media by exciting artists to emerge from this edgy scene.

Vinyl: The Sound and Culture of Records
Through July 27, 2014
Explore the social and cultural phenomenon of listening to, collecting, and sharing records in Vinyl: The Sound and Culture of Records. Delve into a uniquely Californian take on this popular medium with experiences ranging from individual and group listening stations to informal talks and live performances. Listen to music produced by influential Bay Area independent labels, examine notable record collections, explore displays of vibrant album cover art, and hear interviews with record collectors—all in an innovative listening space. With opportunities to discuss record culture and play music with vinyl experts and aficionados, Vinyl invites you to become a part of the exhibition itself. This exhibition is organized by Senior Curator of Art René de Guzman.

The Smallest of Worlds
Through August 31, 2014
OMCA unveils a selection of intricate dioramas by the Aguilar sisters, from the collection of celebrated San Francisco artist Rex May, who helped to popularize Latin American folk art with a collection of over 1,400 Peruvian, Brazilian, Nicaraguan, and Mexican pieces. Created by the Aguilar family, artisans from Oaxaca, the four dioramas on display capture everyday Mexican street scenes such as a flower market and a cantina. Dollhouse-like pieces portray fleeting moments in a truly unique and nostalgic way with a playfulness that brings the depicted figures and objects to life.

Judy Chicago: A Butterfly for Oakland
Through November 30, 2014
As acclaimed artist, author, feminist, educator, and intellectual Judy Chicago turns 75 this year, the Oakland Museum of California joins prominent museums across the country in presenting a nation-wide retrospective of her work. For the first time, digitized images from A Butterfly for Oakland, Chicago’s 1974 site-specific installation on the shore of Lake Merritt, are on view in OMCA’s Gallery of California Art, in celebration of Chicago’s four-decade career. Chicago created A Butterfly for Oakland as the culminating event in her ‘atmospheres’ series between 1969 and 1974. Using a combination of commercial fireworks and road flares, the display was then lit by hand, resulting in a “painting” of colored smoke. While the ‘atmosphere’ only lasted for about seventeen minutes, the display was captured by photographers and a film crew. The installation is curated by OMCA Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture Christina Linden.

Inspiration Points: Masterpieces of California Landscape
Through January 4, 2015
OMCA opens the vaults to showcase the very best in California landscape art from the museum’s holdings, including works by Ansel Adams, David Hockney, Richard Misrach, Albert Bierstadt, Imogen Cunningham, Eadweard Muybridge, Edward Weston, Chiura Obata, and more. Back by popular demand, Inspiration Points was the first special exhibition to be featured in the newly transformed Gallery of California Natural Sciences, exploring the human presence on the landscape through approximately 60 of OMCA’s best landscape paintings, photographs, and works on paper. Majestic scenes of unspoiled wilderness to exploited lands and dystopic visions showcase how artists have interpreted the landscape in a surprising investigation of California’s natural world.

Sunshine and Superheroes: San Diego Comic-Con
Through May 31, 2015
Examine the role of gender in comics, San Diego’s tourism industry, and the social and political ramifications of comics in Sunshine and Superheroes: San Diego Comic-Con, a new exhibition on the nation’s largest comics convention. Examine artifacts such as vintage comic books, Comic-Con paraphernalia, and superhero outfits, along with original student-produced videos and an interactive photo booth complete with costumes for visitors to try on. Led by OMCA’s Associate Curator of Contemporary History and Trends Suzanne Fischer and San Diego State University history professor Sarah Elkind, the exhibition is the third in the series titled What’s Happening, California? a partnership between OMCA and California State University in which professors and students co-create exhibitions on topics affecting communities throughout the state.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California
September 20, 2014–April 12, 2015
In the fall of 2014, OMCA will present a major collaborative exhibition with SFMOMA, on view at the Museum for four months while SFMOMA is closed during its expansion. Fertile Ground brings together important works from both museums’ collections, exploring how California artists have influenced and been influenced by artists, trends, and cultures on national and international levels. The exhibition explores four decisive periods that reveal different points of contact between California artists and the art world at large, beginning with the 1930s, when Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo were working in Depression-era California. The second period focuses on artists associated with the California School of Fine Arts, including Mark Rothko, Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, Ansel Adams, and Dorothea Lange. The third period is UC Davis in the 1960s and 70s, when groundbreaking artists William Wiley, Wayne Thiebaud, Robert Arneson, Roy de Forest, and Manuel Neri were members of the extraordinary faculty. Finally comes the San Francisco Mission Scene from 1990 to the present, when artists like Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, and Chris Johanson reflected the street culture of San Francisco’s Mission District.

Songs and Sorrows: 20th Anniversary of Días de los Muertos
October 8, 2014–January 4, 2015
Artistic and community voices from the past, present, and future will come together for this year’s Días de los Muertos exhibition, marking two decades of the Oakland Museum of California’s commitment to uniting Bay Area communities around healing and remembrance. Co-curated by OMCA Curator of Public Practice Evelyn Orantes and Guest Curator Bea Carrillo-Hocker, Songs and Sorrows will highlight contributions from pioneers of Días de los Muertos celebrations in the Bay Area and newer voices that continue to evolve this living tradition, the exhibition will include works from Jose Guadalupe Posada, Carmen Lomas Garza, and Jesse Hernandez, among others. The 20th Annual Days of the Dead Community Celebration, taking place in the Museum gardens on Sunday, October 26, 2014 and featuring tasty food, dance and music groups, colorful altars and more, brings the community together for this healing tradition.

ABOUT THE OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA
The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) brings together collections of art, history and natural science under one roof to tell the extraordinary stories of California and its people. OMCA’s groundbreaking exhibits tell the many stories that comprise California with many voices, often drawing on first-person accounts by people who have shaped California’s cultural heritage. Visitors are invited to actively participate in the Museum as they learn about the natural, artistic, and social forces that affect the state and investigate their own role in both its history and its future. With more than 1.9 million objects, OMCA is a leading cultural institution of the Bay Area and a resource for the research and understanding of California’s dynamic cultural and environmental heritage.

VISITOR INFORMATION
The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is at 1000 Oak Street, at 10th Street, in Oakland. OMCA is situated between downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt. Museum admission is $15 general; $10 seniors and students with valid ID, $6 youth ages 9 to 17, and free for Members and children 8 and under. During Friday Nights @ OMCA, admission after 5 pm is half-off for adults, and free for ages 18 and under. OMCA offers onsite underground parking and is conveniently located one block from the Lake Merritt BART station. The accessibility ramp is located at the 1000 Oak Street main entrance. museumca.org.
 

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