Public History Events

Previous Events

RACE: Are We So Different?
June 3rd - September 26th

Riverside’s Metropolitan Museum hosts the traveling exhibit RACE: Are We So Different? Funded by both the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation, the goals of the initiative and exhibit are to inform the public about the science, history and everyday experience of race and racism in U.S. society. The interactive exhibit addresses race and racism from the viewpoints of science, history and lived experience. The lived experience portion illustrates how the institutionalization of racism continues to affect education, health and wealth accumulation among different ancestral groups in this country.

Raumkunst, Baukunst: Exhibiting Modern Interiors in Germany before World War II

The history of modern architecture is filled with exhibitions and, yet, they are seldom the subject of serious discussion. Architectural historian Wallis Miller, Professor at the University of Kentucky, will take a closer look at exhibitions in Germany to show how such public events contributed to the definition of modern architecture after 1900. Her discussion of displays of Baukunst (architecture) and Raumkunst (interiors) will focus on their articulation of space and architecture’s relationship to applied art and modern German culture. THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2010, 4:00 PM, ARTS 335 (Screening Room). Sponsored by the History of Art Department and the Public History Program of the History Department, UC Riverside.

ARRIVAL AND REVIVAL IN THE AMERICAN WEST:
AFRICAN AMERICANS IN LOS ANGELES, 1850-1915

Dr. Marne L. Campbell explores how the small but robust community of African Americans who pioneered life in Los Angeles in the late 19th century worked with other communities of color on issues of labor, politics, and culture. How did differences of race and class push them so effectively to the bottom of the city’s complex racial hierarchy? How can we return the history of African Americans in the city to the forefront of the multiethnic history of Los Angeles, from their arrival in the 19th century to the religious revivalism in the early 20th century? THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010, 6:30 PM/ SPANISH ART GALLERY, MISSION INN HOTEL AND SPA/ Reception to follow at the Mission Inn Museum.

The Mission Inn Foundation and UCR’s Public History Program present a public lecture by Dr. Julia Costello on the history, art, and preservation of California missions. Dr. Costello will be available to sign copies of her new, Getty Conservation Institute book after the presentation. Saturday, March 20, 2010, 1:00 p.m., The Galleria, Mission Inn Hotel, 3649 Mission Inn Avenue, downtown Riverside.

Join us for the opening of the Riverside Metropolitan Museum’s “Adornment,” an exhibition on which UCR public history graduate students in the Conservation Science and Historical Objects seminar have been working with museum curators and staff. Opening reception: Thursday, March 4, 2010, 6-9 p.m. The exhibition will remain on view through February 2011. Riverside Metropolitan Museum, 3580 Mission Inn Avenue, downtown Riverside.

MAKING HISTORY MATTER
Conservation, Interpretation, and Material Culture
A Public Lecture by Linnaea E. Saunders

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2010, 7 PM 1218 HMNSS (Humanities & Social Sciences) BUILDING. Los Angeles-based conservator Linnaea E. Saunders will discuss the job of conservation and the role of the conservator in interpretation and presentation.

UCR Sweeney Art Gallery & UCR History Department Present: Towards Global Locality: Projects in the Public Forum

Thursday, June 4, 2009 6-9 PM, During First Thursday Art Walk, Downtown Riverside. Projects for Towards Global Locality grew out of an interdisciplinary graduate course examining public
space (political, economic, religious and cultural forces) and the role of the museum through a curatorial lens. In the past year there has been a resurgent interest in relational aesthetics, action research, participatory art, and community organizing as art. This dialogue covers, but is not limited to making accessible the means of production, opening new channels for distribution, and challenging “official” venues as the privileged sites for viewing.

California Vieja: Public Memory and
Belonging in the Land of Red Tile Roofs

Public lecture by: Phoebe S. Kropp Author of California Vieja: Culture and Memory in a Modern American Place (University of California Press, 2006) and Assistant Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania. Thursday March 5, 2009, 6:30 PM.Mission Inn, Galleria (first floor, next to the St. Francis Chapel), downtown Riverside. Self-parking available behind the Mission Inn on the corner of 6th Street and Orange Street; at Mission Inn Avenue and Market Street; and on Orange Street between Mission Inn and University Avenues.

The Price of History: The Politics of Exhibiting
and Collecting at the Smithsonian in the Bush Years

Marvette Perez, Senior Curator at the Smithsonian, will discuss the recent history and politics of collecting and exhibiting national histories at the National Museum. Post-9/11 patriotism coupled with a donor-driven celebratory approach to history has created a new Smithsonian. With a multi-million dollar building renovation and the enshrinement of the original “Star Spangled Banner” at its justify, the collections of other American histories have been removed or relegated to the margins. Detailing these new Culture Wars, Perez will also discuss her involvement in curating a major exhibition on the Cuban performer Celia Cruz, the hip-hop collection, and other Latino and “ethnic” collections and exhibitions at the Smithsonian. Wednesday, November 5th, 2008, 4-6 pm at the ARTS Screening Room.

UC Riverside Graduate Presents Documentary Film “Living On the Dime” at Mellon Lecture in Public History

UC Riverside alumnus Robert Gonzales Vasquez will return to the classroom at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, November 9, 2006 for this year’s Knox and Carlotta Mellon Lecture in Public History. The free public lecture, set for room 1500 of the Humanities and Social Sciences building, will focus on the film, “Living on the Dime: Inland Southern California in Transition,” a multimedia regional heritage project that explores the social, political, economic and environmental impact of the Interstate 10 freeway. The presentation will also include a PowerPoint essay featuring samples of his extensive archive.

Documentary Director Shola Lynch Gave the Mellon Lecture in Public History

University of California, Riverside graduate Shola Lynch will give this year’s Knox and Carlotta Mellon Lecture in Public History on Friday, May 12th, 2006. She will describe her experiences making a television documentary about the groundbreaking Presidential bid of Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman to run for president. Her talk, which is free and open to the public, justifys on the documentary she directed, “CHISHOLM ’72 — Unbought & Unbossed,” which was featured at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and on “P.O.V.”, American television’s longest-running independent documentary series. The project also won the George Foster Peabody Award.

Author Larry E. Burgess to Reflect on “The Inconvenience of History”

"The Inconvenience of History: A Public Historian's Retrospective" is set for 5 p.m. Friday in Humanities and Social Sciences 1500. Sponsored by the Department of History, it is the first Knox and Carlotta Mellon Lecture in Public History. Larry E. Burgess, a UCR adjunct professor and prominent regional historian, will reflect on 35 years of interpreting the twists and turns of current events as they settle into history in the first installment of a new UC Riverside lecture series. The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking on campus costs $5.