OCEANSIDE — The National Endowment for the Arts has granted the Oceanside Museum of Art $30,000 for an upcoming exhibit that will showcase the wonders of the Pacific Ocean, its connections to global cultures and the ocean’s environmental struggles.
According to the museum, “Transformative Currents: Art and Action in the Pacific Ocean” will examine the historical causes and ongoing effects of the cultural and environmental devastation of the Pacific Ocean and harness art’s potential to enact positive ecological change locally and worldwide.
According to the museum’s exhibit description, the Pacific covers nearly one-third of the earth’s surface and is home to thousands of people, species and ecosystems. However, climate change, industrial pollution and overfishing threaten these ecosystems.
The exhibit intends to raise awareness of the issues and improve coastal conditions globally.
“We cannot separate the issues facing the Pacific – they are interrelated and affect us all,” said Cassandra Coblentz, lead curator of the exhibition. “This exhibition is a call to recognize our shared responsibility and the dynamic interconnectedness of our actions.”
Twenty-one contemporary artists and teams from nine different countries – Australia, Philippines, New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, Chile, Ecuador, Canada and the United States, including Southern California – will display works in a diverse range of media, including video, sculptures, drawings and photography centered around a specific issue affecting the Pacific in the exhibit.
Each piece of work addresses a specific issue affecting the oceanic environment. Together, they highlight the interdependency of resources and the impact of local actions on global problems.
“‘Transformative Currents’ is a metaphor of how we’re all connected via these currents that travel across the Pacific,” said OMA Executive Director Maria Mingalone.
This is the second time the museum has received funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the first time for an art exhibit – which is a big deal for OMA.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent federal agency that funds local nonprofits nationwide to support community art projects.
“This NEA grant is significant for us because it’s for an exhibition, which is really our core mission – to celebrate art and stories from Southern California,” Mingalone said. “It’s really a landmark accomplishment as a smaller or mid-sized organization from a prestigious organization that provides funding on a national level, so it’s really nice to get that recognition.”
The museum first received NEA grant funding in 2011 for ArtQuest, its arts education program for fifth-grade students in the Oceanside Unified School District. The program aims to improve students’ science comprehension through art as part of the district’s STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) curriculum.
“That NEA grant was the seed money for a now award-winning program that we’ve run ever since,” Mingalone said. “Grants like this can be transformative.”
Mingalone noted it was a happy coincidence that both of its NEA-funded projects have an art and science connection.
In addition to the Oceanside exhibition, which partially opens on Aug. 17, there will be two satellite presentations at the Orange County Museum of Art in Costa Mesa and the Crystal Cove Conservancy in Newport Beach.
“Transformative Currents” is part of a more significant regional, annual arts event, “PST ART: Art & Science Collide,” presented by the Getty Conservation Institute. This event includes more than 50 art exhibitions incorporating themes based on science throughout Southern California.
Mingalone said OMA is excited to participate in the regional arts event. Once “Transformative Currents” is fully open on Sept. 7, it will take over more than half of the museum’s gallery space until Jan. 19, 2025.
“This is one of those moments where museums can really be connected to relevant issues and raise awareness through art in a way that educates people about something affecting our environment, so it touches on science and connects to all of us in a meaningful way and tells a story through a medium other than a documentary, a scientific journal or a newspaper article,” Mingalone said. “It’s another way of storytelling that I think can be very powerful.”
