Three Bay Area Cultural Organizations Join Together to Celebrate PRIDE Month in June

May 23, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO AND OAKLAND, Calif., May 28, 2019 – Three Bay Area cultural organizations – California Historical Society (CHS), The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM), and Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) – are joining together to celebrate PRIDE month with a wide range of programs at each institution, including exhibitions, a lecture series, special programming, and events to help tell the unique stories of the LGBTQA community and shine a light on its historical importance to the region, state, and nation.

This is the first time these three organizations have worked together to promote special programming, also complementing two ongoing exhibitions focused on LGBTQA communities: at The CJM, Show Me as I Want to Be Seen, through July 7, and at OMCA, Queer California: Untold Stories, through August 11. Over the weekend of June 22–23, members of each organization will receive reciprocal access to all three instititutions.

The California Historical Society programming includes a lecture series held every Tuesday evening during PRIDE month beginning at 6 pm at the CHS galleries at 678 Mission Street featuring authors, archivists, photographers, filmmakers, and historians. The lecture topics include a panel discussion (June 7) Understanding LGBTQA Histories Through Collections and Archives; a talk about Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution (June 11) with award-winning scholar and filmmaker Susan Stryker; a film screening and discussion of Major! The life and campaigns of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (June 18); and a presentation on California’s “Gay Revolution” in the Stonewall Era (June 25).

The Contemporary Jewish Museum’s current exhibition (on view through July 7), Show Me as I Want to Be Seen, asks how do we depict “the self” if it is unknowable, inherently constructed, and ever-changing? Positioning the work of French Jewish artist and writer Claude Cahun (1894–1954) and her lifelong lover and collaborator Marcel Moore (1892–1972) alongside ten contemporary artists—many of whom identify as LGBTQA and gender non-binary—Show Me as I Want to Be Seen examines the empowered representation of fluid and complex identity. The CJM will also host a one-day only Zine Fest on June 9, featuring zines and comic art celebrating self-expression in all its forms. On June 20, The CJM will participate in Call and Responses: Curator Swap, a new progressive gallery talk in collaboration with CHS and the Museum of the African Diaspora, which will bring together educators and curators to examine work on view at the three museums in connection with PRIDE.

In addition to its exhibition, Queer California: Untold Stories (on view through August 11), which explores many of the untold narratives of California’s LGBTQA communities through contemporary art and history, Oakland Museum of California will also host special events and film screenings during PRIDE month. This includes, among other programming, Friday Nights at OMCA on June 7 that features Queer California Drag Family Storytime (6-7 pm) and Queer California Film Series (7:30 pm); In Conversation: Queer Cinema on June 14, a powerful conversation about the history of queer movie-making and the absence of queer stories from mainstream cinema; and In Conversation: Black Trans Women on Resilience and Strength on June 15, a multigenerational discussion on transgender rights and policies to help us imagine a safe and equitable queer future.

During the San Francisco PRIDE parade on June 30, staff members from each of the three institutions, in partnership with several other Bay Area cultural institutions, will march in the parade together as part of Museums with Pride.

To learn more about these and other PRIDE events being organized during the month of June, please visit each organization’s website www.californiahistoricalsociety.org, www.thecjm.org, and www.museumca.org.

ABOUT CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY: Founded in 1871, the California Historical Society (CHS) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire and empower people to make California’s richly diverse past a meaningful part of their contemporary lives. In 1979 Governor Jerry Brown designated CHS the official historical society of the State of California. Today, CHS enacts its mission with a wide range of library, exhibition, publication, education, and public outreach programs that explore the complex and continuing history of the state and represent the diversity of the California experience, past and present. Our treasured collection—documenting the history of the entire state from the Spanish Era to the present day—is brought to life through these innovative public history projects that expand and diversify our audience and broaden our public impact.

ABOUT THE CONTEMPORARY JEWISH MUSEUM: With the opening of its new building on June 8, 2008, The Contemporary Jewish Museum ushered in a new chapter in its twenty-plus year history of engaging audiences and artists in exploring contemporary perspectives on Jewish culture, history, art, and ideas. The facility, designed by internationally renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, is a lively center where people of all ages and backgrounds can gather to experience art, share diverse perspectives, and engage in hands-on activities. Inspired by the Hebrew phrase L’Chaim (To Life), the building is a physical embodiment of The CJM’s mission to bring together tradition and innovation in an exploration of the Jewish experience in the twenty-first century.

ABOUT THE OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA: The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) tells the many stories that comprise California, creating the space and context for greater connection, trust, and understanding between people. Through its inclusive exhibitions, public programs, educational initiatives, and cultural events, OMCA brings Californians together and inspires greater understanding about what our state’s art, history, and natural surroundings teach us about ourselves and each other. With more than 1.9 million objects, OMCA brings together its multi-disciplinary collections of art, history, and natural science with the first-person accounts and often untold narratives of California, all within its 110,000 square feet of gallery space and seven-acre campus. The Museum will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2019 as a leading cultural institution of the Bay Area and a resource for the research and understanding of California’s dynamic cultural and environmental heritage for visitors from the region, the state, and around the world.

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