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thing is the face of the city and change. It is Oakland, with the skyline sprouting new skyscrapers, old neighborhoods disappear or redeveloped. And with the physical changes come new attitudes toward the city's institutions and facilities. This is especially true and evident at the Oakland Museum. Bruce

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Blake, the executive director of the Oakland Museum Association, The Oakland museum cost the citizens of Oakland $6.6 million. What they received for that investment is a magnificent, unique non building. When these plantings mature and cover the hard services of the concrete, the building itself will disappear,

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leaving a natural environment into itself apart an oasis, a green oasis in the middle of the community, a place for people to share and to enjoy. When the visitors wander through the galleries on the three levels, they will discover new and exciting display concept exhibits of

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ideas, not just objects In a moment on assignment for, Ah, look at how the Oakland Museum reflects the changing face of our state through its collection of California art, how lifestyles of earlier times have been recreated with relics of California history and a rediscovery of the

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natural wonders that overwhelmed the first explorers and settlers here at the museum is built on three levels. How's our collections? In the areas of art history and natural sciences? The emphasis is on California are history and natural science. This four block area, that is the museum

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includes, in addition to the exhibit hall, a theater library, bookshop, a snack bar and a gallery for the sale or rental of art or craft objects. There is an open feeling to the grounds and Gardens Visitor's pass freely in and out of the buildings display areas.

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The gallery of the top most level of the museum houses a collection of California art. There will be a guided tour of the art gallery, located on the third level in five men, the scenes that struck the eye of the first visitors to the state and

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depictions of the lifestyles in every era of the state's development way. Traveled way work well. We lived what we looked like as recorded by the artist with paintings are arranged chronologically. Span is from the days of the Indians, early settlers to the present, and the art

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styles changed along with the lifestyles. Ah, modern art collection is good and it is growing. Perhaps the most modern thing about the OCA Museum is in our attitude towards art and life today and the unique ways we reflect changes in the community. One recent exhibit we

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titled changes It display through architectural models, signs and photographs. How the City of Oakland is growing, redeveloping and changing in many ways, Let's meet two of our curator's George Neubert and Ben Hazard. They can tell us about the local museums philosophy of serving the community with

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this exhibit and others like it. One of the most active vital programs of the art division is changing exhibition program. For instance, recently we had a show called The Pollution Show. This show was a show put together with by three bury artists of a artist. Concern

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for the environment. Um, I was very proudly recently. I was in New York and a M conference. There was a symposium what to do, what museums do, which relate to the concern for the environment. Well, I felt good that the Oakland Museum had already done something.

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They were the first museum to have such a show. The thing I like so much about this museum is a strong association and involved within the community Through our to the natural history and science section. You walk through, you look through the galleries, you see the

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kids, you know, like knee high to the grasshoppers running around, just enjoying it. Museum seem to be still actively alive. I haven't seen a science saying Do not touch, Don't walk on grass. This is forgiving. Don't do this. It says, Come on and enjoy. We want

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to be part of you. We want you to be part of us like we've got some fantastic things taking place in this museum and like like, why not have a portion of the community being recognized? We have a community here consisting of a large percentage of

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blacks, a lot of Orientals lives, Spanish, American and Boskin. Whatever. How would it be? You know, have a big festival like during the Mexican independence. Things like this have a big festival being in the Malachi. Dancers bring in the costumes, have a changing gallery and the

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special gallery, you know, full with art and artifacts representing that culture. So all our neighbor cities can come in and enjoy it. Incidentally, long before Ben Hazard was considered for a position in the museum, we had acquired a painting of Hiss. This particular painting is called

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Medal of Honor and you see it incorporates many of the criteria that is used in contemporary art. Is a shaped, canvas, hard edge type painting, but incorporates sort of a black revolutionary theme of a figure throwing a bomb and some of the type of activities in

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our contemporary lives, but has combined them very handsomely in this particular painting. Okay, a Z you can see we have many works by black artists in our collection. This particular painting is probably one of the most popular paintings, uh, in our collection permanent collection. This painting

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was done by Philip Mason Ah, local black artist who lives in Berkeley. And, as you can see here, it's the title. The painting is called Family Escape. Uh, it's a little more commerce subject matter than the one that Ben Hazard is done. California history. Ah, step

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at a time, start in one corner and discover the Indian lifestyle, a culture that lived off the land. Then the Spaniard made his mark with steel with his religion on his European way on dso the story of California unfolds as you move through this second level

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at the Oakland Museum. Thea Artifacts and objects displayed by the history division are a conscious effort to catch the spirit of the time, not just a collection of things hung on walls with name tags but meaningful groupings of what supported and surrounded the people at the

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time. The home clothing of the Spanish Land grant on her tools of 49 early day Craftsman vehicles and all kinds of personal effects way furnished a cabin to reflect life in rural California Less than 100 years ago. Many visitors remember these days of wood stoves and

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the old hand pump for water. Youngsters discovered there was a time when his kitchen had no sink and people actually survive without stereo sets and refrigerators. The first step in preparing exhibit often takes a museum curator like Tom fry out in search of traces of our

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history. Here he is in the gold mining country in the Sierra Nevada city, California, Looking out across this vast canyon, one has the distinct impression that this is some part of Arizona in that California, but this is California and this is man's impact on the land.

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These vast canyons here are entirely man made the result of hydraulic mining. Okay. Uh huh. Oh, Uh huh, Yeah, This is one of the giant nozzles or monitors thats one made by the Hindi ironworks in San Francisco. A bit over 12 ft

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long. Yeah, probably one of the few to remain in the mother lode region that sentence original location in the actual hydraulic pit all around here, the cliffs, the exposed cliffs that this giant machine has created during the heyday of hydraulic mining before 18 84 when laws

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enjoying them from silting up the rivers with the debris from hydraulic mining. They didn't call it ecology in those days, but nonetheless, there was a concern for the silting up of the farmlands in Sacramento Valley. A prime requirement in hydraulic mining was the availability of vast

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quantities of water that could fairly cheaply be brought through a Siris of bitches or flumes or canals to the mine site and from the top of the cliff, brought down through a series of iron types of decreasing diameter, Um, to build up the pressure within the

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system and of course, discharging through a syriza valves down through the naz of itself way of the open museum are seeking an example of such a monitor. Is this to acquire and return to Oakland to display at the Oakland Museum outdoors, complete with the control valves

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and the control pipe leading into it that reflect the history of this particular region? As a regional museum, we we have a responsibility to represent the specific histories of different parts of California. I recall a quotation of the woman who lived in an area that was

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mine hydraulically and she said, I used to live up yonder on the mountain, but it's all been piped away. We wanted to show you that part of the museum's operation. But acquisition of a relic from our past is just the beginning. Restoration is a major task

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rehabilitating an object and getting it ready for exhibit restoration projects. Keep the museum staff busy now and then. We're lucky enough to have volunteers like Fred Loeser donating time and skills. I'm working on the street lamp that at one time stood in San Francisco on the

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corner of California Street and DuPont Guy DuPont Guy is now Grant Avenue the main street of Chinatown. My guess is they are about 75 years old. We know they stood there prior to the earthquake. E believe these lamps were originally built for either coal, oil or

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perhaps gas natural gas. However, I also believe that they were later converted to a new electric light. This is a new original piece of the lamp. They were made of tin plated steel. I believe they called it roofing tin. In those days we do now they

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This material is not available today. So for purposes of duplicating this, I'm using galvanized iron of approximately the same thickness. These lamps were given to the museum in a very decrepit state. Needless to say, I volunteered to do it after checking with my union. Of course,

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because I don't wanna be stepping on any toes of any legitimate contractors in this field. However, there just aren't any around anymore. There are a lot of projects here at the museum that would not be done, I suppose if it weren't for the volunteers, some of

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these things they're just too expensive to complete today's markets. I certainly I don't think a shop would be capable of turning something like this out on a competitive basis today that there will be a guided tour of the Natural Science Gallery, located on the first level

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in five minutes. There are no books on how to prepare a museum display in the natural sciences division of the Oakland Museum. It was decided the exhibit should try to tell a story. So they are ecological arrangements showing the how and the why of what is

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to be seen in untouched nature, how land and animals, plants and birds exist in a living relationship. I walk through this first and lowest level of the museum reveals a cross section of California, from coastline across mountains and central valleys to the desert in the High

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Sierra. Here's an example of the commitment to authenticity. That's part of our philosophy. The project is a display miniature of a glaciation canyon in the High Sierra, about 11 or 12,000 ft up It exists. Two technicians working on the model have actually been there. This experience,

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plus photographs help them to create this natural corner of California pulverized rock, some of it from the actual site, his painstakingly glued shaped colored in car to approximate the side. Some miniature vegetation will be added. I call it a project. Been a full time job for

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these two technicians for three months, and it may take another month before it is ready for display. You'll find few levels here. The philosophy is to allow discovery of the many items and activities in each many environment. Display those who take advantage of the tours conducted

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by the train volunteer. Dozens will be guided in this discovery. All right, now we're going to leave the coastal redwood and going to the Chap REL area of the inter Coast Mountain you will notice as we come in here. There are three cases, one showing the

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chap rel in its natural state second case showing it over here, how it looks after the burden on the third case, five years after the burn, when it's coming back to its original state again. Over here we have manzanita who has the Manzanita branch. There it

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is, if you'll notice it's very woody, and the word chakras means woody plants that you can't ride a horse into. It's a Spanish word. The community of plants in the chaperone Alice. What constitutes chap Rel. It's not one specific plant. At a meeting of museum directors

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recently in New York, I heard spokesman for famous galleries bragging about their dozen programs. They were puffed with pride to report the 25 maybe 30 volunteers had bothered to study and give their time to communicating the message of the museum to tour groups. I felt pleased

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in knowing the Oakland Museum dozens number almost 300 men and women who studied at the college level for credit and trained with museum staff. And our plans call for training another possibly 500 dozens. Now, if you want to step over to this case, this is going

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to explain to you about taking away. We're trying to show here the precision of nature's balance in our ecological approach. We're making visitors aware of the magnitude of the problem when man makes decisions that affect change nature irrevocably Oh, this'll is the same set of plants

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five years after the fire. So you see what's happened in here? They could the things that are missing that were there right after the fire, the flowers were gone. They've been shaded out, and most of the shaft. Morales plants are growing back so that you can

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imagine in another five years this would have completely rejuvenated itself. There's no point in trying to show you all the amazing things way have displayed at the open museum. We'd rather you come and see it discovered all for yourself. It is a museum for people. I

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called the building a non building well. It has won awards for architectural accidents, but the important thing is that the design works and visitors air comfortable here. The City of Oakland operates the building. It costs about one and a third million dollars a year to pay

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for maintenance, utilities and 87 employees. That includes 24 security guard. But the real manpower that makes the Museum of Living Institution is voluntary. Donated funds pay for new works of art and special project. Some volunteers worked behind the scene. Others, like the Dawsons, are very involved

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in helping visitors discover and appreciate this remarkable resource. 500 to 1000 students today may visit the museum. The volunteers try to make it a meaningful experience. We're trying to make the museum a focal point for all segments of the Oakland community with special showings and events

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that reflect what's going on in the city way. This'll is a prime example what I've been saying about what the museum is. Four. It's more than just having a gallery showing up exhibit, but it's inviting. People make people feel that is their museum. Here's a prime

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example of Mexican community feeling part of the museum to have their independent celebrated in this museum. People from age 1 to 101 coming out to the museum to enjoy a part of their life. I feel like this is what we should work towards. I'm hoping in

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the future tohave shows coming the black community, the vast community, the Jewish community, the Oriental community, the Italian community or whatever way E.