Current Exhibits

Spring 2019 Exhibit

From Peralta Hacienda Historical Park in Oakland to Bay Area spiritual practitioners, this exhibit highlights the complexity of Latinx life. The museum provides refuge to folk saints unwelcome in the religious mainstream while offering a historical context to their Bay Area backdrop. From the veneration and worship of African and Native American gods to the quiet lives of colonial-era ranchers, the exhibit exposes the deep roots of contemporary Latinx culture in Northern California. Visitors are invited to commune with Latinx folk saints, experience East Bay history, and interact with technologies that transformed the area centuries ago

Opening reception Thursday, February 21 | 4:30 – 7 p.m.
Open Mon-Sat February 18 – May 17 | 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Free Admission and open to the public

Location : Hayward Campus, Meiklejohn Hall 4047

• Closed Sping Break: March 30 - April 7

A new gallery highlighting traditions and technologies of mud and mud-brick construction

Adobe: Of Dirt and Community

How long will your home last?

Your conventional home will probably not survive more than a few generations. Mud houses fashioned by our  ancestors survived thousands of years. If those walls could talk, they would tell stories of the many families that lived there and of the cultural change, conquests, and technological advancements that impacted them. The western landscape is peppered with mud-brick constructions, many of them right under our noses in the Bay Area. This exhibit places a spotlight on the beauty and complexity of adobe houses, ovens, and other mud constructions and their cultural significance.

Open Mon-Sat February 18 – May 17 | 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Free Admission and open to the public

Location : Hayward Campus, Meiklejohn Hall 4047

• Closed Sping Break: March 30 - April 7

Have you ever wondered what happened to the first people of the place now known as Hayward and beyond?
The C. E. Smith Museum invites you to join Jalquin/Saclan Ohlone/Bay Miwok elder Ruth Orta and her five-generation, 60+ member extended family as they share details of their tribal, family, and ancestral history. Despite more than two centuries of upheaval, suffering, and change since the colonization of their homelands, against all odds the region’s first people continue to bring their cultures forward into the future while living as modern Americans.

The exhibition runs through May 19, 2019 in the Concord Campus Library, Room 132. Visit University Libraries website for hours. Phone 925-602-6725 for more information.

Free Admission and open to the public.

• Closed: April 1-5, 2019