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Exhibitions & Features

Exhibition Great Hall Angela Davis–Seize the Time

Angela Davis — Seize the Time, examines the image, influence, and activism of the Oakland-based icon. With a focus on her arrest, incarceration, trial, and the national and international campaigns to free her, Seize the Time will highlight Davis’s legacy as well as her ongoing role as an important contemporary figure for artists and activists.

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Exhibition Great Hall Into the Brightness: Artists from Creativity Explored, Creative Growth and NIAD

In collaboration with three profound Bay Area institutions, Into the Brightness: Artists from Creativity Explored, Creative Growth, & NIAD celebrates myriad works from contemporary artists with developmental disabilities.

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Feature Natural Sciences Gallery You Are Here: California Stories on the Map

We all use maps in our everyday lives—to navigate public transportation, find places to eat, and visualize big data like weather patterns or political opinions. But have you ever considered the deeper stories maps tell us?

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Feature Natural Sciences Gallery OMCA Kids: Nature Playspace

Little learners can unleash their curiosity and imagination in the newly created OMCA Kids: Nature Playspace. Located inside the Gallery of California Natural Sciences, the playspace is focused on the unique needs of children ages 2 to 5, along with their families and caregivers

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Feature History Gallery Black Power

Uncover the history of the Black Power movements in California with a compelling addition to the Gallery of California History. In response to the widely-popular 2016 exhibition All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50, this installation illustrates the creative ways Black anti-racist activists in California supported their communities and challenged the U.S. government.

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Feature Art Gallery Remembering Artist Hung Liu

Drawing from our collection, this installation features four of Liu’s works in our Gallery of California Art, offering a quiet setting for visitors to enjoy and appreciate her work, as well as space for remembrance and reflection, including opportunities to contribute memories of Liu. 

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UPCOMING

Exhibition Great Hall Por El Pueblo: The Legacy & Influence of Malaquías Montoya

Explore the living impact of Chicano artist, Malaquías Montoya, whose legacy as a public-serving artist, activist, and community elder serves as inspiration for younger generations within the Chicano community and beyond. Montoya’s posters, graphic prints, and murals highlighting political and social justice issues have helped define the Chicano identity for nearly five decades.

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Galleries & Garden

Gallery of
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Gallery of California
Natural Sciences Learn More
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Online Collections

Dorothea Lange Digital Archive
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Online Collections
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Gold Rush
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Picture This: California Perspectives on American History
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Past

Exhibition Great Hall Hella Feminist

Feminism. It’s a loaded word; as empowering to some as it is challenging for others. OMCA takes on this complex and timely topic with Hella Feminist, celebrating the lesser-known stories of feminism here in Oakland and the Bay Area.

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Exhibition Art Gallery Edith Heath: A Life in Clay

Trailblazer. Rebel. Revolutionary. Discover the story of Edith Heath, founder and designer of Heath Ceramics. Heath transformed the ceramics industry, creating dinnerware from California clay for “Sunday best” and everyday use.

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Exhibition Great Hall Mothership: Voyage Into Afrofuturism

Afrofuturism is a lot of things. It’s the past, present, and future reimagined through a Black cultural lens. Visionary, spiritual, and generative, it is art, music, literature, and cinema that expresses a just future where Black people and Black ideas thrive. It is fantasy and science fiction that envisions the African Diaspora and Black culture as central in a technically advanced and culturally rich civilization. It is also the ordinary—now— in this very moment and the everyday pleasures that may often be seen as mundane. Afrofuturism is a strategy for Black community building. 

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Exhibition Great Hall No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man

Marvel at the spectacular artwork and large-scale installations from one of the most widely-celebrated cultural events in the world when No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man takes over OMCA in Fall of 2019.

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¡El Movimiento Vivo! Chicano Roots of El Día de los Muertos

Celebrate the 25th anniversary of OMCA’s beloved El Día de los Muertos celebration with an exhibition inspired by the Chicano activists who introduced El Día de los Muertos traditions to the United States in the 1970s.

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Queer California: Untold Stories

Explore untold narratives of California’s LGBTQ+ communities in OMCA’s powerful new exhibition Queer California: Untold Stories. Go beyond the mainstream with stories focusing on transgender communities, people of color, women, and others who have often been left out of this history.

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