California Futures: A Discussion of Wonder and Museums at OMCA September 11, 2010

Complementing his new exhibit "The Marvelous Museum" at the Oakland Museum of California, Mark Dion, together with Lawrence Weschler, discusses wonder and its role in the future of museums with Rene de Guzman, senior curator of art. Weschler directs the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University and authored "Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder" (1995), "Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences" (2006), and "Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Over Thirty Years of Conversations with Robert Irwin" (2008), among other books. "The Marvelous Museum" is accompanied by a major book published by Chronicle Books and in partnership with The Believer Magazine. The book itself, like the exhibition, is a compendium of oddities and discoveries and includes contributions from Lawrence Weschler and Rene de Guzman, as well as D. Graham Burnett, David Maisel, Marina McDougall, Rebecca Solnit, and more. A book signing follows the discussion.

The exhibit itself is the first major West Coast exhibition of its kind and delves into the Oakland Museum of California's art, history, and natural sciences collections to bring to light wondrous orphan objects rarely, if ever, seen by the public. Dion's exhibit investigates the roots of the Museum, having been formed from the collections of the Oakland Public Museum, the Oakland Art Gallery, and the Snow Museum of Natural History. "The Marvelous Museum" will display hundreds of incredible artifacts, specimens, and artworks (a baby elephant, sled used in a nineteenth century Arctic expedition, elaborately decorated hornbill skull, snuff bottle collection, and much more) throughout the Gallery of California Art in site-specific installations to comment upon the Oakland Museum of California's history and its holdings.

Official Website: http://www.museumca.org