The State of Museums, September 2021
As the world continues to navigate life under a Pandemic, the museum world has awakened to a new era. Hit hard by losses of revenue and attendance during the shutdowns last year, museums appear poised to make a comeback. In our late summer newsletter we take a look at the state of museums, check out some current exhibitions across the state, and chat with Lori Fogarty, Director of the Oakland Museum of California about the challenges and opportunities that emerged in the past year.
An Interview with Lori Fogarty, Director and CEO of the Oakland Museum of California
What were the greatest challenges for the museum during the Pandemic?

There were many challenges that the Museum faced during the pandemic. When we first closed our doors on March 13, 2020, we quickly had to pivot all of our efforts and funnel our work into a digital format, creating new programming and offerings for our community online.

Alun Be, Potentiality, Edification Series, 2017. Reproduction. Courtesy of the artist. Copyright Alun Be
Over the entire 15 months of closure, we really missed the connection with our community onsite and had to find new, creative ways to meet the needs of our community digitally. 
Like many cultural institutions, the financial impact on the closure was also great. To date, OMCA has lost around $2.8 million in earned revenue during which time it remained closed to the public. The Museum anticipates an additional approximately $2.3 million in total revenue losses in the upcoming fiscal year. That said, we have undertaken a full organizational redesign so that we’re able to continue to offer programming and exhibitions and to engage with our community, even with a smaller and leaner budget.

The OMCA has always fostered a sense of community in Oakland, what are some of the measures to build a sense of community that you’d like to highlight?

We are excited to have recently completed a major renovation that was developed with the community in mind. The exterior of the Museum facing 12th Street and Lake Merritt was a barrier to our neighboring community.
Wayne Hodge, Android/Negroid #13, 2012. Collage on paper, 14x11". Courtesy of the artist. Copyright Wayne Hodge
We’ve literally broken down the wall to create three new openings connecting OMCA and the lake, which will soon be open for visitors to enter into our newly renovated garden.
 Our programming and exhibitions are always created with community impact in mind. In recent years, we’ve begun measuring our social impact, gathering data as a community engagement strategy to create greater social cohesion -- or building greater trust, understanding, and connection between people and between communities. We developed specific criteria for our exhibitions and programs to measure whether or not we were fostering a sense of belonging, lifting up untold or under-recognized stories, and creating connections between people.
What are some of the upcoming exhibits/events that you are most excited about?

On August 7, we opened our exhibition Mothership: Voyage Into Afrofuturism, which celebrates the Black community and reimagines a future through a Black cultural lens. This exhibition was originally scheduled to open in October of 2020, so it’s been a long time coming and we can’t wait for our visitors to see it!
Olalekan Jeyifous, Shanty Mega-Structures: Makoko Canal, 2015. Reproduction, 34x54". Courtesy of the artist. Copyright Olalekan Jeyifous
Later this fall, we’ll explore the legacy of Edith Heath of Heath Ceramics with Edith Heath: A Life in Clay, opening November 13, 2021. Heath transformed the ceramics industry, creating dinnerware from California clay for “Sunday best” and everyday use. It’s going to be a beautiful and enlightening show.

What do you see as the biggest challenges for museums going forward?

I believe the greatest challenges for museums going forward is truly to ensure their relevance to and responsiveness within their communities. Museums can be trusted places to foster dialogue, to build understanding and to explore critical topics -- including some topics that are very difficult and require true-telling.
Chelle Barbour, The Bluest Eye, 2018, Work on paper, 35x25". Courtesy of the artist. Copyright Chelle Barbour
Museums need to rise to this occasion and then measure, document, and make the case for their value. Museums have the incredible opportunity to transform as a result of the conditions and circumstances of these last few months, and they need to embrace this moment and not default to “business as usual.”
Lori Fogarty is the Director and CEO of the Oakland Museum of California, a multidisciplinary museum that brings together collections of art, history and natural sciences to tell the extraordinary stories of California and its people. Lori led the Museum’s $63 million “Museum of California” campaign and building renovation project, which has included the reinstallation of 90,000 square feet of gallery space as well as the first major enhancement to the Museum’s landmark building.  She is currently leading the “All In: Campaign for OMCA,” an $85 million comprehensive campaign to support programs and operations, endowment and investment fund growth, and capital improvements to the Museum’s seven-acre campus.  Lori has spearheaded OMCA’s efforts to place the visitor at the center of the Museum experience and to focus the institution’s efforts around community engagement and social impact.  Prior to her current position, Lori was executive director of the Bay Area Discovery Museum and was senior deputy director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  
Read More About the State of Museums
Visitors line up as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York reopens to the public on August 29, 2020. Photo: Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty Images.
The Effects of the Pandemic May Not Be Quite as Devastating for American Museums as Once Feared, a New Survey Finds 
How ‘Deaccession’ Became the Museum Buzzword of 2020 
Thomas Moran's Sunset Santa Maria and the Ducal Palace, Venice (1902) via Sotheby's from the Newark Art Museum collection
Via the Getty Center
Inside Out Outside In: A Resilience Model for Museums Offers Strategies to Address Challenging Realities. 
MoMA Survived Ten Weeks of Protest. But Inside the Museum, Some Employees Are Feeling the Strain
Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Exhibitions to Attend this Fall
SFMoMA highlights the work of abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell in this highly anticipated retrospective spanning over 80 works from the late 1940s up to her death in 1992. September 4, 2021 - January 17, 2022
Joan Mitchell, Bracket, 1989, Oil on canvas, The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at SMOMA
Oakland Museum of California is the place to be on Friday night, when food trucks and art workshops join forces with extended museum hours to create fun for the whole family. Every Friday from 5-9 pm



Via Oakland Museum of California
The Broad, Los Angeles’ newest museum, is taking aim at issues and crises including capitalism, colonialism, the AIDS crises and more with the works of Modern and Ultra-Contemporary artists in the Broad collection with Invisible Sun. May 26-October 3, 2021 
© Julie Mehretu, Invisible Sun, via the Broad
The Legion of Honor: "Wangechi Mutu: I am Speaking, Are You Listening?" A site-specific exhibit of Mutu's figures taking the viewer on journeys of material, psychological and sociopolitical transformation. Through November 7th
Wangechi Mutu, I am Speaking, Can You Hear Me?, 2020, Courtesy of the Artist and Gladstone Gallery, NY and Brussels, Image courtesy Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
de Young Museum honors Hung Liu in a timely site-specific installation, "Hung Liu: Golden Gate," highlighting her international and domestic narratives of migration. Liu passed away on August 7th. The current show is on view through March 13, 2022
Installation view of Hung Liu: Golden Gate, de Young, Wilsey Court, San Francisco, 2021
The Crocker Art Museum’s For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design features a stunning array of art from 1809 through the present represents artists from Winslow Homer and Wayne Thiebaud. The breadth and depth of the exhibition’s 100 paintings documents the history of not just the artist in America but of American history itself. July 3-October 3, 2021 
Peter Saul, Self Portrait, via the Crocker Art Museum
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