Current Exhibits

Fall 2021 - Winter 2022

Modern archaeology is a billion-dollar business centered on
Cultural Resource Management (CRM), the discipline’s for-profit branch.
Indiana Jones went corporate half a century ago and this exhibit chronicles
that shift, offering an insider’s perspective on this little known but highly
influential industry employing around 80% of all archaeologists.

Our exhibit draws on CRM-sourced collections and engages with industry
professionals and alumni to offer visitors a sense for the everyday work
and often grueling reality of CRM archaeology and for the variety of
community partnerships, indigenous consultancies, and archaeological
collections the work produces alongside some of the controversies it has
generated over the decades.

Open Mon - Fri 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Oct 25 - Dec 10, 2021 and Jan 24 - Mar 4, 2022

Free Admission and open to the public

Location : Hayward Campus, Meiklejohn Hall 4047

• Closed: November 11, 22-26, 2021

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

Currently reopened  Oct 25 - Dec 10, 2021 and Jan 24 - Mar 4, 2022

Mon - Fri 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Free Admission and open to the public

Location : Hayward Campus, Meiklejohn Hall 4047

Original Dates:

Opening reception Thursday, February 21, 2019 | 4:30 – 7 p.m.
Open Mon-Sat February 18 – May 17, 2019 | 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

• Closed Spring Break: March 30 - April 7

'Botanica' installments comes to CSUEB - article about creating the 2019 exhibition.

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.

Currently reopened  Oct 25 - Dec 10, 2021 and Jan 24 - Mar 4, 2022

Mon - Fri 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Free Admission and open to the public

Location : Hayward Campus, Meiklejohn Hall 4047

Original Dates:

Open Mon-Sat February 18 – May 17, 2019 | 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

• Closed Spring Break: March 30 - April 7

"Of Dirt and Community," an East Bay Today article on studying the science behind adobe bricks.

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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