Projects
video record of Occupy Oakland
Portraits from the Occupation is an artist project by Alex Abramovich and Lucy Raven. The project comprises a series of video interviews with sixteen individuals involved with or impacted by Occupy Oakland. The interviews were recorded in March and April 2012...
poster-printing workshop and discussion
On February 25, 2011, the Oakland Standard honored the history of political posters and the Museum’s acquisition of the All Of Us Or None (AOUON) collection with an evening of printmaking and conversation. The evening paid homage to the iconic images...
communal meal and conversation
April Ful's Night was an outdoor communal meal and conversation centered on Egypt’s 2011 revolution, and the subsequent uprisings throughout the Middle East. Over roasted goat and fava bean 'ful' (Egypt's national dish, pronounced "fool"),...
graffiti mural
Living Concrete is a graffiti mural on OMCA's Oak Street Plaza. At a live event on January 21, 2012, Oakland graffiti artists Ras Terms, Safety First, Resta, and Tecka transformed what had been a 500 square foot blackboard (more info here) into a collaborative mural...
blog by our editor in residence, Andrew Leland
A blog documenting expeditions into California's social, cultural, and natural histories. Short multimedia essays explore the museum's inner workings along with the author's deepest emotions. Eminent Bay Area writers and artists make frequent guest appearances.
home movies on the big screen
Every year on Home Movie Day, amateur films are screened at over fifty venues around the world, including the Oakland Museum of California...
interactive installation by Jensen Architects
Oak Plaza, on Oak between Tenth and Eleventh Streets, is the threshold of the Oakland Museum of California. The Oakland Standard commissioned an architectural intervention to enhance this area, OMCA's main entrance, by making it a more dynamic, convivial, and flexible...
short film about mundane moments at OMCA
Nothing Happens for Long is a collaborative short film project by Jonn Herschend and Andrew Leland, commissioned by the Oakland Standard at OMCA. The film presents interviews with real OMCA visitors describing their ordinary (even banal) experiences at the museum. These...
four events that explore urban farming and celebrate agrarian culture
Seed Circus is a series of four events: Felt, Forage, Culture, and Seed. Each event includes hands-on demonstrations and talks, and promotes engagement with the natural world within an urban environment. The topics extend from craft to animal husbandry, from food to...
short documentary about the OMCA Women's Board and their White Elephant Sale
The Oakland Standard commissioned two filmmakers, Les Blank and Courtney Stevens, to make a short documentary about the Oakland Museum Women's Board and their famous White Elephant Sale. The film, White Gloves, premiered November 4, 2011 in OMCA's James Moore...
knit graffiti installation
Yarn bombing is a recent form of street art in which knit or crochet work is installed in public space. The art form is said to have begun in 2005, when artist Magda Sayeg knit a cozy for the door handle of her Houston boutique, and has since spread around the world. From...
online travelogue
Artist J. Otto Seibold grew up in Martinez, California, across the street from John Muir's home, which is now the John Muir National Historic Site.
In conjunction with OMCA's exhibition A Walk in the Wild: Continuing John Muir’s Journey, the Oakland...
Here’s to the Oakland Standard! Clink.
On February 4, 2011, we launched the Oakland Standard with a late-night celebration at OMCA. It was a conversation, dance party, baby shower, and a toast to Oakland....
Mark Dion at the Oakland Museum of California
On September 11, 2010, there was a conversation between two of America’s leading cultural figures, artist Mark Dion and writer Lawrence Weschler. Dion’s exhibition The Marvelous Museum: Orphans, Curiosities, and Treasures opened the night before at the Oakland...
program about the contemporary back-to-the-land movement
On the evening of May 13, the Oakland Standard hosted Hay Fever, an event about Californians' relationship with the land. The concept for the event, and most of the presenters, hailed from Nevada City, California, an old mining town in the Sierra Nevada foothills that...
symposium about engaging the public with online collections
In 2010, the Oakland Museum of California was gifted the All Of Us Or None collection (AOUON), an archive of 24,000 political posters.
The posters were collected by Michael Rossman, a Berkeley free speech activist who dedicated his life to gathering and documenting...
OMCA staff, past and present
So Many Dynamos is shorthand for the cast of dedicated characters who are employed by the Oakland Museum of California. This project is a tribute to OMCA staff, past and present.
Between the art, science, and natural history departments, OMCA has a staff of about a...
