THE OAKLAND MUSEUM

(Reported by DeWitt Cheng)

11.17.09

Oakland Museum of California: Press Gallery Preview.

Review and images by DeWitt Cheng: Good news on the local museum scene! The Oakland Museum of California hosts a press preview of its renovated and enlarged Art and History Galleries, which are to reopen on May 1, 2010; the Natural History galleries will reopen in 2012. The art gallery concrete walls have been clad in white sheetrock, and new galleries have been created from old exterior courtyards; the building has thus been brought up to date without compromising the virtues of the original 1969 Kevin Roche design. The art too has been hung with great sensitivity: who knew there were so many works of distinction in the collection? (Okay, mea culpa.)

Photography is not permitted during the walk-through, so some OMC photos have been substituted here. With these infrastructure improvements (including a new, 62,000 square foot conservation and storage facility for its collection of two million objects) and the addition of flexible displays, lounge areas within exhibitions, interactive educational materials, and trilingual signage, OMC appears to be planning its future with creativity and vision, and reaching out to a diverse audience in keeping with Oaktown's demographic diversity.

Comment by AB: I just don't get it-- not allowing photographs. How about this idea? Don't allow writing either. In fact, don't even invite any press. And while you're at it, build a moat. That way you can control everything. You invite people like us to report on what you're doing, so let us report it... and picture it. DeWitt Cheng knows what to photograph and he's really good at it. Yet you opt for listless in-house DOA snoozers. So here you go...

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