A Friday Nights at OMCA event at the Oakland Museum of California in 2025 Photo by David Mulgado. Courtesy Oakland Museum of California.
As a museum director, I am in constant conversation with staff, peers and stakeholders about our shared concerns: the relevance of cultural institutions and the response to the conditions of this moment. These conversations often return to the same question: what can we do?
At the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) we often say, “Keep doing the good work.” But, in this moment, that is not enough. We need to be clearer about what that work is and how we commit to it. What follows is an attempt to name those commitments.
I will start with what we can do within our organisations. I am a firm believer that building trust, connection and belonging with our communities begins inside our museums. Here are just a few things that we are doing and have seen from others:
Installation view of Good Fire: Tending Native Lands at Oakland Museum of California, 2026 Photo by Christine Cueto. Courtesy Oakland Museum of California
Grounded in these practices as civil institutions, we must also be civic institutions: places not only of learning and gathering, but that contribute to greater community well-being. To do that, we need to serve the public and earn its trust. Here are some things we can do as civic institutions:
This is the moment to stand up and stand together. We stand by values of equity and inclusion and actively work to build networks with other organisations locally, regionally and nationally that are similarly steadfast in our shared values. I see this in our local organisation, SOMArts, which recently held the event “Artists Live Here” in recognition of the loss of artists’ spaces in San Francisco. I also honour the bold leadership of the Japanese American National Museum in its actions in support of democracy, and the museums in Minneapolis that joined in solidarity against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
We must do what we can in this moment, and do it with courage and conviction. To do this, we hold fast to our mission and vision: to inspire understanding and empathy through history, culture and creative expression to imagine a more just and vibrant future. This future is one where everyone has access to the essential stories and expressions of human history and experience.
Museums in the US and beyond are neglecting members of a rapidly expanding demographic who also historically have been the sector’s biggest donors
The museum built deep community engagement in real time following the killing of Breonna Taylor in 2020
Stephanie Sparling Williams, curator of American art at the Brooklyn Museum, on how Black feminist practices informed the rehang of the museum’s American art collection
