Stories of place through the voices of its people.
The Guest Curator program at Five Oaks Museum was created to decentralize the museum’s singular authority and voice in storytelling. Instead, the curation and storytelling of all major exhibitions is in the hands of our community members, who can speak about their own history and experiences the most authentically. The museum provides the platform from which truthful, multi-sided stories can be told with support from our staff and cultural resources.
Each year, we present two exhibitions: an art exhibition and a history & culture exhibition. Guest curators are selected by committee, and exhibitions are offered online so their content and insights can live beyond the time and space constraints of the physical museum space.
Browse our guest curated exhibitions below.
#StandUpFG: Latinx Youth Activism in the Willamette Valley
Our 2021 history & culture exhibition examines the circuitous roots and routes of Latinx youth activism in the Willamette Valley.
On May 19, 2016, over 1,000 students staged a walkout in response to racially-charged incidents at Forest Grove High School. By lunch time, thousands of students at schools across Oregon had walked out in support of #StandUpFG, the hashtag used by Latinx youth activists to represent their movement which ultimately led Oregon to become the first state to adopt Ethnic Studies as a requirement.
Untouchable Artifacts
Our 2021 art exhibition is a love letter to the art, practice, and importance of indigenous storytelling on Turtle Island.
In the exhibition, eleven indigenous artists who hold intersectional identities and carry ancestral knowledge continue the tradition of storytelling. Each artist has recorded themselves reading their story.
Additional Exhibitions
This IS Kalapuyan Land
A bold and critical exhibition that questions how Native history is told, shares Tualatin Kalapuyan history from a contemporary Kalapuyan perspective, and features artworks by indigenous descendants who are contributing to cultural survivance today.
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Gender Euphoria: Contemporary Art Beyond the Binary
Pacific Northwest trans and gender non-conforming artists explore feelings of delight in genderqueerness and envision new worlds through artwork.
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