The Oakland Museum! What a joy! What a prime example of a museum in service of the community. From the multiple entrances to campus and easy access to outdoor areas, to the phone charging station and free visitor lockers, this was a space that welcomed people in. Little things across the campus add up to form the institutional body language of welcoming. These, in turn, were aligned with systems built to do equitable work in the community (i.e. exhibit/program design).

I skipped the history section, only walking through the art gallery, natural science exhibition, and special exhibit. I have a lot of opinions about the natural science exhibition (largely positive), but too many and too detailed to expound upon here. I did want to quickly highlight some of the interactive activities, like the map making station that I got some good photos of below.

The design of the exhibition had a focus on wildlife in human-centric spaces, and our effect on nature. The interactives, in turn, highlighted agency and community. Visitors were prompted to think about how they interacted with the natural world, and the human community around them. I played one of the interactive games with Johanna and Veronica (a card game of symbol and concept association), and had a fun time investigating our different assumptions and perspectives on natural and human spaces.

Everything in the museum encouraged connection. In the art gallery, I took some time to draw in a community sketchbook, where many other visitors had left their mark. Some people sketched, others had left messages or jokes, but it brought people together.

In a nutshell, the Oakland Museum felt incredible to exist in. The community was present and invested during the Friday Night event, with an overwhelming sense of belonging in the air. It was exciting and inspiring to think that this is not only doable, but has already been done. We can do it again, and we can do it in more places.

I haven’t even begun talking about the insight we gained from Peggy and Carin! I will discuss more in my first week wrap-up 🙂