Focusing the Design Strategy for the History Gallery

On the "Design Drawings" page, you can read a summary of our design process throughout the project, but I wanted to give a current description of our design strategy for the Gallery of California History.

The overarching theme of the 30,000-square-foot gallery—Coming to California—evokes not only the arrivals and departures of people throughout human history, but also the notion of coming to terms with “California” as a state of mind.

DESIGN STRATEGY

In keeping with a tradition of innovation that characterized the original Cowell Hall of California History, the new Gallery of California History is employing an unusual combination of exhibition design, development, and installation techniques, guided by four underlying design principles:

•  collaboration and co-design—all exhibits and programs are being designed by a mix of specialists, generalists, and a variety of stakeholders and museum visitors;

•  sustainability—the design process embraces creative reuse of exhibit and installation furniture, materials, and equipment; builds upon prior scholarship; and incorporates planning for sustainability of programmatic elements, such as docent tours, education programs, and special events;

•  flexibility and change—the design is being informed by substantial prototyping during design development, a “soft” opening to test the designs; and individual elements are being designed for change over time;

•  interdisciplinary—emphasis on the interplay among the arts, sciences, environment, and cultures of California.

 THE BUILDING

All exhibition and program design embraces the unusual award-winning architecture. The regular repeating concrete walls will serve as wayfinding markers throughout the gallery space. Views into the garden will be framed and enhanced as lively interpretive spaces.

THE COLLECTION

To showcase the Oakland Museum of California's large and comprehensive collection, new exhibits will accommodate a large number of objects - with identification and interpretaion throughout. Additionally, discovery drawers will allow access to more artifacts than are currently on display.  

THE INTERPRETATION

Interpretation will take many forms in the new gallery. Wherever possible, we will use personal stories and original quotes to provide context and meaning for the artifacts. Visitors will be invited to add their voices to the History of California.

Resource centers will help visitors make the connections between historic periods of change and current issues and impacts. Immersive environments—from a Japanese internment camp to a railroad box car and Hollywood screening room—will allow visitors to engage with the sights and sounds of California over time. Interdisciplinary exhibit elements will trace the impact of the environment on the people, from the indigenous peoples whose ways of life were intertwined with their environment, to “life on the edge” created by California’s natural disasters, to contemporary California lifestyles of health and recreation.

 A “Hands-On History” Center (working title) will provide in-depth experiences for further exploration, especially for children and families. The Center will include flexible programming spaces as well as opportunities for visitors to learn about the techniques and processes used by historians, an area for quiet reflection, and even exhibits like “Gross History” that will allow kids to see the quirkier side of the past. A Contemporary History exhibition space will be utilized both for special exhibitions such as the Museum’s annual Days of the Dead installations, and for more experimental exhibitions that involve community participation, visitor response, and interdisciplinary collection presentations.

 

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