Good Fire: Tending Native Lands explores how Native communities in Northern California have used controlled fire—also called “good fire” or “cultural burning”—to care for the land and sustain traditions for millennia. Organized in collaboration with Native California fire practitioners, artists, ecologists, and cultural leaders, the exhibition reframes fire not only as a destructive force, but as an essential tool for supporting healthy ecosystems and vibrant communities.

Students on Strike is a new installation opening in the OMCA Gallery of California History. The installation explores the enduring legacy of student activism at San Francisco State University by comparing the 1968-1969 student strike that established the nation’s first Black Studies Department and first College of Ethnic Studies to the recent campus protests against the war in Gaza. Through historical and contemporary posters and photographs, the intimate feature shows how students have consistently demanded justice and accountability from institutions, then and now. 

This selection of new additions to the OMCA collection highlights the art and culture of the moment and illuminates history in the making. The works in the installation are the result of OMCA’s new collecting process that seeks to respond to timely issues that impact the communities of Oakland and California. Representing a move away from more traditional museum collecting priorities, Collecting the Moment shows some of the ways we center our institutional relationships with diverse community groups and voices. This ongoing and changing installation will reveal some of the many ways California artists, activists, and others claim cultural space, question societal norms, gain power, and engage the larger questions of our time.

Fairyland’s rich history is highlighted this spring at the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) in an installation titled Fairyland @ 75: A Legacy of Magic. Opening April 4, 2025, alongside the seasonal return of Friday Nights at OMCA, the installation invites visitors to learn more about Fairyland’s history, evolution, and enduring magic.