Local Events

Become An Oakland Museum Docent

If you are a California history or art lover, then here’s a really neat opportunity:  volunteer to become an Oakland Museum docent.  You need to apply, get trained for a year, and then be available to teach kids and other museum visitors.  With this level of commitment, it’s not for everyone – but maybe for you?

The Oakland Museum has terrific permanent galleries covering history, art and the natural world.  These exhibits are closed while the museum undergoes modernization, and are slated to re-open in 2010.  Yet museum staff is already preparing to train docents, and get ready for next year.

Oakland Museum Of California

Interested?  Decide whether history or art turns you on. The history gallery contains over a million holdings “from the pre-Spanish Indian era to the late 20th century,”  while the art gallery includes “more than 70,100 works by California artists from the late 18th century to the present.”  Not an easy choice.

Then commit to docent training and more training. The application deadlines are February 1st for history or April 15 for art. There’s a $150 fee for training, and scholarships are available.  If accepted, you need to commit to these training schedules:

  • History Docents – Attend classes starting February 17th and each Tuesday afternoon through January 2010 (with summer break), and also take an external college course on local history.
  • Art Docents – Attend two orientation meetings this May, followed by weekly classes from mid-September through March 2010.

Since the docent programs have so many prerequisites, museum staff will hold an open house for interested volunteers Sunday at 1pm.  Otherwise, please contact docentcenter@museumca.org or call 510-238-3514 for more guidance.

Check Out Monroy’s Photoshop Realism

For a little diversion, drive through the Caldecott and check out what artist Bert Monroy has been doing lately.  An exhibit of his digital paintings opens tomorrow at the Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary’s College (map) – and the artist presents a photoshop demo on Sunday, at 2pm.

Monroy’s artwork looks amazingly realistic and, at first glance, seems to be based on snapped photos which have been digitally enhanced.  When you look more closely, you realize Monroy creates place-portraits.  “I consider myself a hyper-realist because my paintings are in focus everywhere you look,” he explains.

As a preview of the Hearst exhibit, take a quick peek at the Fox Theater in Oakland painting below.  Monroy pays homage to this newly-refurbished entertainment palace, and makes the place come alive.

Fox Theater - Bert Monroy

Another Monroy painting caught my attention as well, which captures a lunch scene in Tiburon.  I’m guessing this is an outdoor table at Sam’s Cafe, located near the Angel Island Ferry.  Even the typical condiments and drinks look fascinating here.

Lunch In Tiburon - Bert Monroy

Although this kind of digital art is only possible in the modern era, it makes me think about American photo-realism over the years.  There’s a fine tradition here in the Bay Area, especially with Robert Bechtle.  A few years ago, the SFMOMA exhibited a retrospective filled with rooms of his California dreamin’ paintings.  Here is a perfect example of a classic mid-1970s car, parked in Alameda.


Rather than snapping photos, these artists are attracted to depicting common life with their own brushes – and we all like to look at their artistic efforts too.  With this new twist from photoshop, I wonder what kinds of things artists will create and how their work will be exhibited in the real world.

Bert Monroy’s one of the earliest artists on this digital bandwagon.  “This [exhibit] is a retrospective, so it traces my work back to the MacPaint days of 1984,”  says Monroy.  “It moves forward to early Illustrator, PixelPaint and so on.”  To see how the evolving tools impact his work, put the Hearst Gallery on your “must-do” list.  The exhibit opens tomorrow and runs through April 5th.

Pied-Clair Should Coordinate Plans

Piedmont and Montclair residents share plenty of things in common, including this 94611 zip code for starters.  We live in nice, quiet hillside locations and are proud of our local schools.

We are in a kerfuffle right now about potential traffic problems on Moraga Ave.  Piedmont is trying to address some school overcrowding and wants to accommodate students at a local park.  This is an opportunity to play nice and coordinate plans.

Piedmont City Council Meeting

What’s happened?  Piedmonters have started planning improvements, including classrooms and fields, at Blair Park.  That should be well and good, as the park is within Piedmont’s jurisdiction.  However Montclarions living near Moraga Ave know and feel otherwise.

If kids are going to be dropped off and picked up at Blair Park, there would be clogged streets nearby.  If you live on Harbord, then it’s possible to experience morning rushes as Piedmonters turn around and head back home.

According to Montclarion Sandra Pohutsky, “Piedmont officials have been bombarded by email from Piedmont residents insisting that the temporary school not be placed in their neighborhoods, or objecting to having their child go to Emeryville to attend a temporary Piedmont school there.”

Last Friday, several Montclarions met with Piedmont councilwoman Margaret Fujioka and asked for guidance about communicating concerns.  She advised attending the upcoming meetings of the City Council (Jan 5th) and School Board (Jan 14th) – and time will be allotted for Montclarions then.

Reasonable discourse is possible!  Our first opportunity is tonight, when Piedmont is holding its City Council meeting (map).  These modular classrooms are on the agenda, and it would be lovely if concerned Montclarions appeared and addressed the Council.  Otherwise, expect this expansion to become a done-deal for the 2010 school year.

More info:   Read tonight’s City Council Agenda as well as the City Administrator Report about the entire Blair Park project.  Reach Geoffrey Grote, Piedmont City Administrator at ggrote@ci.piedmont.ca.us with your views, as well as City Councilmembers and Board of Education members.

Balloon Drops For The Family

Are you and your kids getting cabin fever?  Consider celebrating the New Year’s holiday with a balloon drop on Wednesday afternoon.  There are two places that ring in 2009 as it arrives around the globe, and you’ll have to decide which place fits the bill.

Where Balloons Drop

Your balloon drop choices are Oakland’s Chabot Space & Science Center and Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science – so ask your kids whether they prefer an all-space visit or more earthly discoveries.  With tikes under seven years old, head straight to Berkeley since the Chabot drops (for them) are sold out.

What’s at Chabot Space & Science Center:

Chabot has scheduled balloons at 1 pm and 4 pm, so plan on arriving at least 15 minutes before the festivities begin.  There’s  room for kids 7-12, when the balloons fall in the Rotunda.  While there, you can tour all the space age exhibits and visit the planetarium too.  Or screen a movie later at the dome theater.

More info: Chabot is open from 10 am – 5 pm, and located at 10000 Skyline Dr, Oakland (map).  Tickets cost $3/kid for the balloon event.  Admissions run another $13/adult, $10/student or senior, $9/ages 3-12 and include the planetarium.  Dome movies cost $7/adult or $6/kid.  Questions, call 510-336-7373.

What’s at the Lawrence Hall of Science:

Along with the balloons, Lawrence Hall will let kids make noise makers (and noise) and other crafty things between noon and 2 pm.  Through their Science On a Sphere, it’s easy to pinpoint who’s celebrating the new year.  There’s a planetarium here, plus more earthly exhibits like a walk-in wind tunnel.

More info:   Lawrence Hall is open from 10 am – 5 pm, and located on Centennial Dr, Berkeley (map, directions).  Admissions include the balloon event, and run $11/adult, $9/student or senior, $6/ages 3-6.  Planetarium shows cost another $3/adult or $2.50/others.  Questions, call 510-642-5132.

Join Linda Tillery & Holly Near At Today’s Sing

Join Linda Tillery, Holly Near and others at today’s Community Sing.  For those in the know, this is a terrific way to spend Sunday afternoon with true musical talents.

Two hootenannies are scheduled to begin at 1 pm and 4 pm, at the Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club (map).  Admission is $20-23/adult and $5/kids, 12 and under.

Community Sing Montclair

So who are these singers?  Let’s start with Linda Tillery, a veteran R&B artist, drummer and musicologist.  Here are smooth, jazzy tunes on MySpace (listen) as well as a soulful rendition of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (listen).  Beyond her solo efforts, Linda also leads and tours with the Cultural Heritage Choir.

Holly Near seems to be walking history, starting with her gig in the original Broadway cast of Hair.  She joined an anti-war tour with Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, and has been a social activist ever since.  Here are examples of Near’s grassroots pieces, Foolish Notion (listen) and Fired Up (listen).

If you are around for the holidays, then check out this baby boomer delight.

Update:  We stopped by the earlier 1 pm event, which was fun but not crowded enough.