Gold Rush . . . Then, World War II

This photograph is from the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation photo collection. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.

Memorial Day is an occasion to remember the men and women who went off to war and never returned. But it is also fitting on this day to recall the soldiers, sailors and Marines who served in World War II and came back.

Those men and women and their families set off a huge postwar boom that completely changed the Bay Area - and produced the region that today's residents have inherited.

World War II had a huge impact on the Bay Area. It resulted in major changes in the area's racial makeup, its economy, even its physical appearance.

The conversion of the orchard-rich Santa Clara County from "The Valley of Heart's Delight" into Silicon Valley can be directly traced to wartime electronic research.

Author Marilynn Johnson studied the impact of the war on the East Bay, where Oakland and Richmond were turned into boom towns. She called it "The Second Gold Rush." The war, she said, "marked the coming of age of West Coast cities."

"The city still looks the same. It is still beautiful, but it's a totally different place than the one where we grew up," said Wallace Levin, who was born and raised in San Francisco and lived in the city during World War II. Levin is coordinator of Monday's Memorial Day ceremonies at the Presidio.

Shipbuilding boom

After Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Bay Area became a centerpiece of what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called "the arsenal of democracy."

Shipyards went up with lightning speed to construct the ships that would take the war to the Japanese in the Pacific. In San Francisco, the executives of the Bechtel Corp. got a telegram from the government on March 2, 1942, asking if the company would be interested in building and operating a shipyard on San Francisco Bay.

The answer was "yes," and within 10 days, Bechtel began clearing marshland in Sausalito for a shipyard called Marinship. Just over three months from the call from Washington, the keel of a freighter was laid, and in September, the ship, named for William Richardson, the founder of Sausalito, was launched.

In the East Bay, Henry J. Kaiser built three shipyards, which during the war built 747 large ships - one in only four days, a world record.

During the height of the wartime shipbuilding boom, 244,000 people worked in Bay Area shipyards - a workforce equal to more than 13 Army divisions.

Fort Mason, on San Francisco's northern waterfront, became the main port of embarkation for the Pacific war.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/27/MNMV1ONR0I.DTL#ixzz1wBmVyAT8

Education's Going On At The Museum

Currenty, the Whitney Museum in New York is carrying on educational activities such as these.  But, they are preparing to move to a new museum site in New York's meat-packing district which will provide ample space to continue this teaching:

“So often education is a behind-the-scene activity either
relegated to a wing by itself or in the basement,” Mr. Weinberg said. “But for us education is part and parcel of what we do.”

The space is just the kind of thing the public wants these days. “Audiences today are more interested in participatory events, not just being talked to,” Ms. Potts said.

On a recent rainy Friday evening, a few blocks north at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a group was gathered for “Drop-in Drawing.” The program meets every two weeks in a different part of the museum, and this session convened in the new painting galleries of the American Wing.

Perched on folding seats, armed with clipboards, paper and colored pencils (all provided free by the Met), a group ranging in age from roughly 6 to upward of 65 listened with rapt attention as Pamela Lawton, a New York artist, explained how artists traditionally compose a canvas: with a foreground, a middle ground and a background.

The group then started sketching, inspired by examples of the Hudson River School painters surrounding them, including works by Jasper Francis Cropsey, Frederic Edwin Church and George Inness. After 20 minutes or so, the group moved to the nearby American Impressionist galleries, where Deborah Lutz, another artist, continued teaching.

“Programs like this are amazing,” said Kristine Mustillo, the principal of Public School 97 in Brooklyn, as she watched her daughters, Jillian, 8, and Emily, 9, create landscapes inspired by the 19th-century artist William Pickwell’s painting “Banks of the Loing.”

“Schools have cut back a lot, so you don’t get much arts education these days,” she said. “We’ve been to nearly every museum in the city.” (Jillian said her favorite so far was the New Museum because she loved the slide, by the artist Carsten Höller. Emily is a fan of the Museum of Modern Art, which has the best selection of works by Warhol, her favorite artist.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/arts/artsspecial/museums-expand-their-educational-offerings.html?ref=artsspecial

New York's Metropolitan Museum Has a New Web Site Design

By RANDY KENNEDY  (New York Times)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has been trying to rebrand itself over the last year as a visitor-friendly art behemoth, unveiled a redesigned Web site on Monday, the first time the site has been thoroughly updated in more than a decade.

It includes several new features that are beginning to become standard for large museums, like a zoomable, clickable floor plan similar to one the Art Institute of Chicago created two years ago. The Met’s version allows prospective visitors to look closely at almost 400 galleries to see what to expect, and visitors already at the museum to use smartphones on parts of the site to find their way to favorite artworks.

The site also shows off the results of a huge undertaking ordered by Thomas P. Campbell, the museum’s director: that the curatorial departments make images and information available online for all of the almost two million items in the collection. About 340,000 comprehensive entries for objects are included on the revamped site, 200,000 of which have been created over the last nine months. The site also has a new multimedia section, making videos, recorded lectures, interactive educational programs and other digital projects more easily accessible.

“This relaunch represents a complete overhaul in how we support the museum’s online presence,” said Erin Coburn, the chief officer of digital media, adding that it “positions the Met to be more responsive to the ever-changing needs of the digital environment.”

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/metropolitan-museum-unveils-revamped-web-site/

Useful Vocabulary for Architecture Lovers

THE Streetscapes column is not big on terminology, but some is necessary; instead of embarrassing yourself by saying “those grooves on the side of a column,” impress your dinner partner and use the real term, fluting.  (Cut and paste the link below if it does not connect you to the full article.)

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Lenox Hill Hospital

Sloping mansard roofs crowned the German Hospital , later Lenox Hill Hospital, in 1868.

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John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times

Oriel windows on East 95th Street. Bay windows would not be suspended in air.

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Avery Library

Rusticated blocks at the William A. Clark house, Fifth Avenue and 77th Street.

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Librado Romero/The New York Times

A Vitruvian wave, suitable décor for the Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia Airport in Queens.

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Avery Library

The vermiculated facade at 556 Fifth Avenue, built for Knoedler & Company, shown in 1924.

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Yana Paskova for The New York Times

Fluted columns from the Colonnade Row facades now lie in New Jersey.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/realestate/streetscapes-useful-vocabulary-for-building-watchers.html

"The Scream" by Edvard Munch

"The Scream" ,which was created by Edvard Munch sometime between 1830 and 1910, will be sold at auction by Sotheby's on May 2nd.  Bidders are advised that the painting will possibly sell for a world record amount somewhere around 80 million dollars.  If you are interested in bidding, register as a bidder at Sotheby's online.

Effort Afoot to Bring Arts Back to Public Schools

As it turns out, business leaders hiring the workforce of tomorrow don't want applicants who are really good at filling in bubbles on standardized tests.

Creativity is key, more than 1,500 executives said in a 2010 survey.

Yet California, like many states, long ago deemed creative arts a luxury, one that few schools could afford. And so, with the backing of business, state officials have formed Create CA, a statewide initiative they hope will restore art in schools, so that paintbrushes and even pirouettes are once again as important as No. 2 pencils.

The idea is to bring together those who have labored independently for arts education. Participants want to pass legislation, increase funding and raise public awareness.
Those behind the effort - including artists, educators and executives - believe California now has enough supportive policymakers and the right mix of corporate backing and political will for the idea to succeed where similar efforts have floundered.
Gov. Jerry Brown wants it. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson wants it. Business leaders and politicians want it. Nonprofit groups focused on the arts want it and are lined up to help.
Parents have always wanted it, but have had to depend on parent groups like the PTA to pay for most of the arts programs still in schools.
"Right now - and this is an ugly truth - art is kind of going to those who can afford it," said Kris Murray, executive director of Northern California's Young Audiences, which funds artists in schools. "The current system is not good enough."


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/23/MN5Q1O6PMP.DTL

History: Elizabeth Humbarger--Haggin History Lesson

. . .-----On Saturday April 14th, 2012 saw the dedication of the Elizabeth Humbarger Tolerance Garden and Counseling Center which is located behind the new De Ricco Student Services Building at San Joaquin Delta College Campus. The garden commemorates the live and achievements of Elizabeth Humbarger who was a teacher.

. To understand her life it should be remembered that she was teaching school in Stockton where her classes included many Japanese-American students. After the Pearl Harbor Attack, the United States Government ordered all persons of Japanes descent to be interned at the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds where temporary barracks had been set up. Mrs. Humbarger was only partially finished teaching her students in subjects such as English language. After her students were taken from her and sent to the fairgrounds, she gathered a large amount of teaching materials, books, etc. and placed them into a trailer. She and a helper took the trailer to the fairgrounds and succeeded in gaining teaching access to her students. From then on, she continued them in their lessons and helped them complete their studies for that year.
.  To some, Elizabeth Humbarger was considered traitorous for the work she peformed. Regardless, she remained steadfast in her dedication to Japanese American students.  Her efforts continued during the post war years, assisting students during their relocation back to California and eventual return to school.  Ms. Humbarger went on to work at San Joaquin Delta College as a guidance counselor, inspiring students with her commitment to their academic success.
.   The speakers at the Delta College event included persons with strong Haggin Museum attachments, including Mel Corren and Sandi Cruz.  Mel and Sandi were on the naming committee at the time when the De Ricco building was looking for a name.   Both Mr. Corren and Mrs. Cruz lobbied hard for having the building named for Elizabeth Humbarger but in the end, the committee chose the De Ricco name.  Mel and Sandi then pushed for a compromise that would give the garden space the Humbarger name.  They succeeded and then further pushed for naming the adjacent counceling center after Elizabeth as well.  The college accepted this and the garden now features a bronze plaque with her likeness and biographical facts.
 . She individually imposed her will on scores of students and advised them to improve their English and to plan for college.  She personally encouraged Stockton's first Asian-American elementary school teacher and is called a hero by everyone in the Japanese-American community in Stockton.