Exhibition dates: June 16 – July 29, 2005
100 Families Oakland: Art & Social Change

Gallery 555
555 12th Street, Oakland, CA
Lobby Hours: Monday through Friday 7 a.m. – 6 p.m.;
Third Thursdays 7 a.m. – 8 p.m.
located in downtown Oakland
Open and free to the public. BART, AC Transit and Wheelchair accessible.

Presented by the Oakland Museum of California Professional Services division
Professional Services Exhibition Archive

Beginning in April 2005, over 25 families embarked on an artistic journey to explore the art making process – as individuals and families, and as a community. This exhibition features the powerful and thoughtful artwork created during a 10-week workshop series held at the East Oakland Youth Development Center.

Working side-by-side with professional artists, families came together to experiment with a variety of art mediums that included ceramics, painting, body sculpture, craft making, gardening and printmaking. Parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, children and teenagers made up this dynamic group of project participants.

The art displayed here represents a small fraction of the work created by over 100 participants. The individual pieces selected for this show highlight the talent of each participant and family. The collaborative body sculptures, quilt, and mural demonstrate the power of art to bring together a group of people to work creatively and collaboratively around issues important to their families and community.

This exhibit also honors the work of the founder of this project, F. Noel Perry – a talented artist whose paintings of his five sons reveal his connection to his own family. The photographs of each family and of the artists who participated in the East Oakland site is testimony to the diverse and rich family structures we had in the program. Each individual and family unit brought a wealth of creativity, optimism and excitement about their projects and a commitment to working together towards a common goal.

The mission of 100 Families Oakland: Art & Social Change is to enliven the creative spirit and celebrate the power of families and neighborhoods in Oakland through the inspiring and transformative process of making art. By engaging families from four different Oakland neighborhoods in making art and sculpture that is centered around the theme of family, a better understanding of self, family, and community is achieved.

This exhibition is brought to you by F.N. Perry and the CCA Center for Art and Public Life, and presented by Oakland Museum of California and Shorenstein Realty Services.

Gallery 555 is managed by the Oakland Museum of California’s Professional Services Division. Professional Services is a museum department that shares the institution’s resources with the community by developing fine art and artifact exhibitions in public venues. For more information about Professional Services, please go to www.museumca.org/off-site.

Oakland City Center is a focal point for commercial and government activity in downtown Oakland. For more information about Oakland City Center, go to www.oaklandcitycenter.com.