Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)
1000 Oak Street, Oakland, CA 94607
Lake Merritt
Saturday, January 17 | 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday, January 18 | 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday, January 19 | Closed
Tuesday, January 20 | Closed
Wednesday, January 21 | 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday, January 22 | 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Friday, January 23 | 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday, January 24 | 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday, January 25 | 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday, January 18 | 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM
OMCA presents Spotlight Sundays: Community Conversations in Radical Public Imagining, created in partnership with The Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) at UC Berkeley. Inspired by OMCA’s special exhibition Black Spaces: Reclaim & Remain, this year’s installment will explore the topic of radical public imagining. Through movement and conversation, exhibition collaborators Dominique Walker and Alia Phelps of Moms4Housing, Brandi T. Summers of Archive of Urban Futures, and June Grant of blink!LAB architecture will explore what it means to build our muscles for audacious dreaming during difficult times.
Thursday, January 22 | 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
ThursDates at OMCA lights up the Museum with a night of live figure drawing in the Museum’s galleries and revelry and drinks in our cafe, Town Fare by Michele McQueen.
Founded in 1969 as the “museum of the people,” the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) tells the diverse stories of California’s art, history, and natural environment. With more than 2 million objects, OMCA’s collection of art, history, and natural science is a resource for understanding California's dynamic heritage—all within its 110,000 square feet of gallery space and seven-acre campus. During SF Art Week 2026, visitors can explore OMCA’s expansive permanent Galleries of California Art, History, and Natural Science, while also visiting two special exhibitions: Good Fire: Tending Native Lands and Black Spaces: Reclaim & Remain.
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 Northern California fire practitioners, artists, ecologists, and cultural leaders, this immersive exhibition reframes fire as not solely a destructive force, but as an essential tool for supporting healthy ecosystems and vibrant communities. Explore fire-dependent plants, regalia, basketry, videos of cultural burns, and artworks that help us understand how “good fire” benefits all life—humans, animals, and plants alike.
Black Spaces: Reclaim & Remain navigates the braided histories of displacement, resistance, and resilience within Black American communities in the East Bay. Drawing inspiration from the legacies of West Oakland and Russell City, the exhibition pulls from both OMCA’s permanent collection and loans from local repositories to trace the rise of these communities and their subsequent displacement. Three site-specific installations—by artist Adrian Burrell, architect June Grant, and the Archive of Urban Futures and Moms 4 Housing—respond to these histories and reflect the ongoing struggle and success in reclaiming self-determined Black spaces.
Images:
Photo by Christine Cueto
Photo by Kiki King
Photo by Christine Cueto
Photo by Christine Cueto