“There can be, and usually is, some degree of pain involved in giving up old ways of thinking and knowing and learning new approaches. I respect that pain. And I include recognition of it now when I teach, that is to say, I teach about shifting paradigms and talk about the discomfort it can cause. Through this process we build community.”
—bell hooks
Museum exhibitions, programs, and collections are powerful tools. They create space for empathic learning. They inspire civic activism. They expand our compassion for others — they grow our souls.
Dianne’s work immerses people in imaginative physical and digital spaces that spark curiosity, wonder, and joy.
Here’s a peek at her latest work.
-
Article: Finding Asian America in the Museum
April 15, 2021
-
Article: Building Equity through Museum Collections
February 3, 2021
-
Article: Art and the Gathering of Community
December 11, 2020
Exhibit
Kūkulu: Hoʻomana at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa Commons Gallery in the Department of Art and Art History
Currently on-view May 20 – July 31, 2024
In its eighteenth iteration, Kūkulu: Hoʻomana (2024) exhibit is a project of Mauna Kea Education and Awareness (MKEA) organization, whose purpose is to educate and raise the awareness of communities in Hawaiʻi and beyond on the spiritual, historical, cultural, environmental, and political significance of Mauna Kea. MKEA works to provide cultural learning opportunities to everyone from keiki to kupuna, residents, visitors and others concerned about Indigenous rights and responsibilities. The multi-site exhibition series strives to create a platform for protection of sacred places and for social justice and positive change.
The Commons Gallery installation reflects the importance of cultivating mana and solidarity through collective learning and creativity across Kanaka Maoli and allied communities. The featured projects —a film, a quilted hae, and a paper ahu— were made by many hands. In song, in dance, in stitch, and in stacking, they celebrate kū kiaʻi mauna. Mahalo to Nā Kiaʻi, Ka Lei Maile Aliʻi, Lynette Cruz, Meleanna Meyer, Emily Kandagawa, Patricia-Lei Murray, Pam Omidywar, Hilary Hacker, Annie Kuhn, Imani Altemus-Williams, the undergraduate students in ART 302, and all the community members who participated in the collective art projects. Mahalo nui to Meleanna Meyer for her kōkua in facilitating the deep connections between these featured community art projects.
Oral History Project
Documenting Moʻolelo in Waialeʻe, Oʻahu
This is an on-going community oral history project undertaken by graduate students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in partnership with the UH Center for Oral History that produces and documents moʻolelo of Waialeʻe through talk stories. This project works to record the stories of cultural stewardship and aloha ʻāina.
Talk
Journey to Gold Mountain: Chinese and the Gold Rush with Connie Young Yu
Award-winning author Connie Young Yu explores the Chinese experience during the Gold Rush. She discusses the life and times of early Chinese in California, and how the racial strife they faced in the gold country grew into a nation wide-anti-Chinese movement. Chinese miners were among the ‘Forty-Niners,’ sailing from Canton to “Gold Mountain,” Gum San, their name for America. Catching “gold fever”, more and more of their countrymen came to join them despite hostility faced by white miners. In their search for the precious metal, they were thwarted by the “Foreign Miner’s Tax”, discriminatory laws and racial violence. Driven from the mines, they moved on to other occupations. They would become cooks, laundrymen, levee builders and workers on the railroad that would unite the country.
Connie Young Yu, author and historian, is a 4th–generation Californian and a long-time resident of Los Altos Hills. She has written extensively on Asian American history, and is the author of Chinatown, San Jose, USA, and co-author of Voices of the Railroad: Stories by Descendants of Chinese Railroad Workers.
Dupont Street, Chinatown, San Francisco. Taber Photo. 3012, Courtest of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, Calisphere
Building Anticolonial Collections + Decolonizing Archives
Social Justice Collection + Justice Vanguard
(Left to Right: Kiyoshi Taylor, Dianne Lee Shen, and Kenan Moos conserve BLM artwork made by local artists in Los Altos and Mountain View.)
In an effort to mindfully document diverse narratives, stories and experiences within our collections, Los Altos History Museum Collections team was proud to create the Social Justice Collection. This collection explores the history of local civil rights movements, immigration, race and multicultural identities of the Southern Peninsula. Through artifact contributions, the team hoped to build a collection that represents our growing community and expands our awareness of diverse cultures and languages that make up Santa Clara County.
Courtesy of Los Altos History Museum.
Social media campaign for Los Altos History Museum Social Justice Collection.
Courtesy of Los Altos History Museum.
Press
History Museum receives county grant for redesign of exhibition — Los Altos Town Crier, January 21, 2021
Los Altos History Museum hosts inaugural online art auction — Palo Alto Weekly, Nov 18, 2020
Locals throng streets of Los Altos in protest of police violence — Mountain View Voice, June 5, 2020
Living through a major historical moment: Los Altos History Museum seeks your COVID-19 stories and experiences — Mountain View Voice, April 26, 2020
Film Screening
“The Valley” with Director Saila Kariat
Los Altos History Museum presents a screening of the film, The Valley, written and directed by Los Altos filmmaker Saila Kariat. Her feature directorial debut tells the story of a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur Neal Kumar, who seeks answers after his daughter tragically dies by suicide during her freshman year in college. In his frantic quest to find the truth – and as his seemingly idyllic life and family begins to unravel – he discovers many things about himself and his own choices.
The Valley participated in over 20 film festivals and won best feature film in five festivals. The film is an artistic exploration of suicide, innovation pressure and the high-achievement culture of Silicon Valley. Kariat’s work is an homage to the emotional depth and vastness of the Asian American immigrant experience in the Bay Area.
Talk
The History of African Americans in Santa Clara County, 1780 – Present with Jan Batiste Adkins
Author and local historian, Jan Batiste Adkins, explores the history and legacy of African Americans in Santa Clara County from 1780 to present day. Through uncovered photographs and untold stories of African American pioneers of the local region, she will present research from her latest book, “African Americans of San Jose and Santa Clara County.” In honor of Black History Month, this program commemorates the vital contributions and experiences of black pioneers who established viable African American communities in the Bay Area.
This program was in support of a new collecting initiative that actively seeks photographs, artifacts, artworks and materials to document the history of race, immigration and civil rights activism in Santa Clara County. The materials collected through this initiative will be a part of the newly-created collection focused on racial and social justice.
