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Oakland Museum of California Announces Friday Night Public Programs For Pacific Worlds

(Oakland, CA) May 6, 2015—Members of the public will be invited to participate in celebrating the cultures of the Pacific through dance, musical performances, family activities and community gatherings beginning this spring at the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA). Created to accompany major exhibition Pacific Worlds, opening May 30 at the Museum, an array of public programs are offered throughout the spring and summer during popular weekly late-night event Friday Nights @ OMCA. Additional details will be available on the OMCA events page, museumca.org/events.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Pacific Worlds
May 30, 2015–January 3, 2016

Celebrating the vibrant historic and cultural relationships, past and present, between the Pacific Islands and California, Pacific Worlds examines the deep and many-layered histories of this region’s interactions with the Pacific, and explores the on-going connections between Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians, along with Filipinos, Native Californians, and American collectors and colonists.

Turning the familiar idea of California as the western frontier on its head and re-positioning the State as “the East Coast of the Pacific,” Pacific Worlds weaves together never-before-seen objects and ephemera from the Oakland Museum of California’s collections along with contemporary California Pacific Islander artwork and community voices. Through the exhibition, visitors will experience how Pacific Islanders in California today maintain cultural practices including dance and music, food, fiber arts, tattooing, surfing, and other practices.

Pacific Worlds is presented to coincide with the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in San Francisco. The exhibition is made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Celebrating 50 Years of Excellence, the Oakland Museum Women’s Board, Matson Foundation, James Campbell Company LLC and Stephen and Susan Chamberlin. Additional support is provided by the OMCA History Guild.

SCHEDULE OF PUBLIC PROGRAMS, ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS

Pacific Worlds Community Welcoming
Friday, June 5, 2015, 6 pm

OMCA exchanges welcomes with the Bay Area’s Pacific Islander community, inviting visitors from all walks of life to come experience Pacific Worlds, the new exhibition featuring stories from Pacific people and culture. Beginning with acoustic music and dance performances, including Tongan ukulele, Hawaiian hula, and Māori pōwhiri, as well as Samoan artist Uilisone Fitiao and Tappe Fa’amuli leading a procession from the lush Museum gardens to the exhibition in OMCA’s Great Hall. The welcome will acknowledge the Pacific Islander communities and individuals who helped to make the exhibition possible.

Cost: Included with Museum admission. During Friday Nights @ OMCA, from 5 to 9 pm, admission is half-price for adults, free for ages 18 and under. Members are always free.

Friday Nights @ OMCA
Select Fridays in June, July, and August, 2015, 5–9 pm

The Oakland Museum of California’s popular weekly night market gets infused with island flavor during the months of June, July, and August, in honor of special exhibition Pacific Worlds. Visitors will enjoy performances by dancers and musicians, and try hands-on art activities for the kids. All this plus the best of Bay Area music, food, art, and culture, including half-price admission for adults, free admission for ages 18 and under, California beer, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages at the Blue Oak beer garden, Off the Grid food trucks, a local artist pop-up shop, gallery tours and pop-up talks, and extended hours in the OMCA Store. Special Pacific Worlds-related programming during Friday Nights @ OMCA includes:

June 5:

5–8 pm: Family-friendly Hawaiian kapa stamping on mini tote bag
6:30–7 pm: Hula demonstration with Kumu Lani Cid of Halau Makana
7–9 pm: Contemporary Tongan and urban island music by Eddy Dyno
7:30–8:30 pm: A lecture by Reggie Meredith on Samoan material culture

June 12:

5–8 pm: Family-friendly Hawaiian kapa stamping on mini tote bag
6–8 pm: A workshop by Reggie Meredith and Uilisone Fitiao on siapo and tatau design

June 19:

5–8 pm: Family-friendly Hawaiian kapa stamping on mini tote bag

July 17:

6:30–7 pm: Hula demonstration with Kumu No’eau Rick Smith of Halau Na Mamo No’eau
7–9 pm: Traditional Hawaiian music by Faith Ako

July 24:

7–9 pm: Union City-based alternative rock band Little Sister

August 21:

6:30–7 pm: Hula dance demonstration with Kumu Mahealani Uchiyama of The Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance
7–9 pm: Unique Polynesian music by Mahea Uchiyama

Cost: Half-price gallery admission for adults, ages 18 and under are free. Admission for Members is always free. Cash bar. Prices vary for Off the Grid food trucks.

Voices of the Pacific Experience
Friday, June 26, 2015, 7 pm

In this unique program, creative writers and performers with roots in the Pacific bring to the fore key issues that foreground their communities’ experiences in California and the U.S. mainland. Through story, poetry, and other expressive mediums these artists share the values, concerns, and aspirations of their people through song and story. Performers include:

Visitors will hear the voices of these artists in the theater, then have the opportunity to visit major exhibition Pacific Worlds to hear more stories from contemporary Pacific Islander communities in California.

Cost: Included with Museum admission. During Friday Nights @ OMCA, from 5 to 9 pm, admission is half-price for adults, free for ages 18 and under. Members are always free.

ABOUT FRIDAY NIGHTS @ OMCA
The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) presents Friday Nights @ OMCA, a regular evening series every Friday from 5 to 9 pm. Friday Nights @ OMCA features extended Museum hours, special programs, a food truck market from Off the Grid, a beer garden from Blue Oak café, live music, dancing, hands-on family activities, and more. Museum admission is half-off for adults, free for ages $18 and under. Event parking in the Museum garage is $5. Presented in partnership with Off the Grid: Lake Merritt @ OMCA. Friday Nights @ OMCA is made possible in part by generous support from Bank of America and the Koret Foundation. Friday Nights @ OMCA art programs are made possible by generous support from the Walter and Elise Haas Fund. Media support provided by East Bay Express.

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. Regular 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. OMCA offers onsite underground parking and is conveniently located one block from the Lake Merritt BART station, on the corner of 10th Street and Oak Street. The accessibility ramp is located at the 1000 Oak Street main entrance to the Museum. museumca.org

ABOUT PPIE100
February 20, 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), the World’s Fair celebrating the completion of the Panama Canal and showcasing San Francisco—its recovery from the ashes of the 1906 earthquake and fire and its world trade potential. Throughout 2015, the PPIE100, a consortium of cultural, civic, and historical organizations around the Bay Area, will conduct centennial programs to commemorate the PPIE’s historical significance and to reflect on its legacy. For more information, visit ppie100.org.

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