Students' objects on display. Photo by Christine Lashaw.

Each year the Oakland Museum of California's education department partners with the Oakland public schools to develop an exhibition of objects that play an important role in individual students' lives, accompanied by the stories that the students tell about them. This year, the museum asked students in kindergarten through ninth grade at four Oakland public schools to think about how they make history every day, and to select and share objects that represent their uniqueness – their family heritage, values and beliefs, or participation in civic life.

The resulting exhibition, Kids Collect: California History in the Making, runs from April 3 through June 1, 2003, in the museum's Learning Center and the Betty and Knud Danild Student Art Gallery.

Students' objects on display. Photo by Christine Lashaw.

The students approached the decision of what to bring to the exhibition in a variety of ways. Many contributed objects that represented their connection to their ethnic origins or to deceased relatives. A sixth grader brought in a tie woven by his grandmother:

Don’t you wish you had a tie like this? My grandmother gave me this tie before she died and I wore it to her funeral. She made the tie, which is a part of our Mien weaving tradition. It took her four months to make.
(Albert Saetern, Tie)

A ninth grader contributed a box of fishing lures that had traveled with the family for five generations:

The artifact that I brought from my family is a box of lures that represents when my great-great-grandfather was a fisherman in Spain. He went to Cuba where my great-grandpa was born and then they moved to California where they continued to be fishermen.
(Melissa Toimil, Great-great-grandfather’s Fishing Lures)

Another student contributed a more symbolic expression of family tradition:

My grandfather came to the United States in the 1940s and he was a bracero. The braceros were men who came from Mexico to farm and grow food for people here in the U.S., because many men were away fighting in World War II. This dirt represents the soil of the braceros that was farmed in the 1940s. In the soil here there are some peach seeds.
(Cesar Ordaz, Braceros Soil)

Some students expressed great pride in family members’ accomplishments:

My great-uncle, Thomas L. Berkley, owned the Oakland Post. It is the first black newspaper on the West Coast, and was founded in 1972. The Oakland Post gives black people in the community something to call their own.
(Jimmy Melton, Great-uncle’s Newspaper)

This is a collection of short stories based on the life of a boy growing up in Los Angeles. This collection of work is by my great-uncle, F. R. Chorneau. It is his only book and represents a lifetime of creativity far beyond the book’s modest stature.
(Clarence Wells, Book “Weed River”)

Students’ observations of the world around them were sometimes humorous:

This mask represents where I come from, New Orleans. It is worn to cover the face and to hide your identity, because during Mardi gras time people do things that they wouldn’t really do without the mask.
(Jonathan Colbert, Mask)

and sometimes poignant:

This is a crown that Latina girls wear when they have their traditional Quinceañera (15th birthday) party. This crown represents the day that everything was made for me, and the power I had to get to my 15th birthday with my soul clean. I went to church with the blessing of God, and I was there to thank him for my 15 years of life. Some Latina girls my age already have babies and things like that.
(Paula Pereira, Quinceañera Crown)

Students from Met West High School choose the color of the exhibition walls with Museum Preparator, Christine Lashaw. Photo by Beth Maloney

This project has the dual purpose of recognizing and celebrating these Oakland students’ lives and bringing students closer to the work of museums. In their classrooms, students and museum educators discussed how each of us makes a unique contribution to the state’s history, and talked about the purposes of museums — to interpret, protect, preserve and document personal stories and collective experiences. After a visit to the Oakland Museum of California, students chose objects that represented their unique experience as Californians. Then they created descriptions and wrote the labels that accompany their objects.

Met West students use professional tools to install the exhibition. Photo by Beth Maloney.

Ninth graders from Dave Bromley’s and Matt Spengler’s classes at Met West High School took the lead in installing and designing the exhibition. They worked with professional museum staff to learn about the exhibit development process. Students organized objects in sections and created section titles, chose colors and prepared the exhibit space, mounted labels and hung objects.

Other participants in this year's partnership include Mel Stenger's kindergartners from Kaiser Elementary and their families; Elizabeth Chiment and the students in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program at Bret Harte Middle School; and Davina Katz and her sixth grade students from Ascend Academy.

The exhibition was curated by Julia Brashares, museum teacher, and Beth Maloney, history programs coordinator, both from the museum's Education Department.

Kids Collect is made possible by generous support of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the members and friends of the Oakland Museum of California Foundation.

The Betty and Knud Danild Student Art Gallery is supported by a generous endowment from Knud Danild, given in honor of his deceased wife Betty to support children’s exploration of their own creativity.

© 2003 Oakland Museum of California | Credits |Phone: 510-238-2200