The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) seeks support to complete the reinstallation of its 25,800 square-foot permanent Gallery of California History and to develop and implement accompanying educational programs. OMCA’s history collections contain the largest, finest, and most comprehensive collection of California material culture anywhere. The Gallery of California History was originally created in the 1960s and 70s, and it has been more than 20 years since it has been updated. The new installation of the gallery will include approximately 2,200 historical artifacts, works of art, ethnographic materials, and original photographs. This reinstallation is part of a major transformation of the entire museum that will realize the institution’s deep and continuing commitment to telling the full story of California and its people. The opening of the new Gallery of California History is planned for early 2010.
The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA), a nationally recognized history museum and library, in collaboration with institutional partners, is a grant for an ambitious Interpreting America’s Historic Places Planning Project focused on the compelling story of the early 19th century discovery of three-toed dinosaur tracks along a sixty-mile stretch of the Connecticut River Valley in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the deep impression these earliest American dinosaur discoveries made on ideas, art, religion, and culture in the United States. The broad public appeal of dinosaurs will engage a wide audience in the stories of the tracks’ discoverers and the first public reactions to these finds.