News Release

"[Awakening from the California Dream] presents visual evidence of what we have lost in a region that, at least in my view, was once the most favored place on earth. But it is more than just the story of what we have paved over, filled in, drained, burned or crowded out. It is also an account of what people across California are doing to preserve the land, even to restore what once was."
Curator Phil Mumma, Introductory Panel Text

San Francisco - The first major photography exhibition to document and explore environmental changes in California, Awakening from the California Dream: An Environmental History, opens on Monday, June 2, at the San Francisco Main Library's Jewett Gallery, 100 Larkin Street at Grove, San Francisco.

From romantic nineteenth-century images extolling the state's pristine natural beauty, through haunting stark scenes of damage inflicted by careless overuse, to photographs pointing toward environmental renewal, the exhibition charts the ups and downs in California's environment over the past 150 years. This traveling exhibition includes 61 historical and contemporary images with commentary, and is accompanied by a 15-minute video documentary.

Combining historical images with the dramatic artful contemporary photographs of nationally recognized photographer Robert Dawson and the written insights of geographer/historian Gray Brechin, the exhibition surrounds the visitor with a powerful and moving examination of environmental change. An opening program on Wednesday, June 4, features a slide presentation by Dawson, Brechin and curator Phil Mumma.

Grouped into seven thematic sections, the images include: an aerial view of clear-cut logging on Federal lands traded to lumber companies to create Redwood National Park; a farmhouse surrounded by a freeway in San Jose; homes built on a cliff in the San Andreas Fault Zone in Daly City; and environmental heroes such as The West County Toxics Coalition in Richmond.

Awakening from the California Dream is based on five years of research by Brechin and Dawson. Supported by the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the pair crisscrossed California, visiting parts of the state most people never see. The resulting exhibition reflects upon the historical events and attitudes that have led to the degradation of the state's environment and provides a springboard for dialogue on pertinent environmental issues facing California today. At the same time, the exhibition portrays how shifting attitudes can change the course of history and positively affect events here and elsewhere in the state of California.

The traveling exhibition, Awakening from the California Dream: An Environmental History, was organized by the California Exhibition Resources Alliance (CERA) in concert with the Oakland Museum of California. CERA is supported by generous grants from The James Irvine Foundation, The William Randolph Hearst Foundation and the California Council for the Humanities. The exhibition tour was made possible in part by a generous gift from the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund and the LEF Foundation. The exhibition and opening program in San Francisco are supported by the Friends & Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library.

All programs and exhibitions at the San Francisco Public Library are free and open to the public.

The Main Library's Jewett Gallery is open during regular library hours:
Sun 12-5; Mon 10-6; Tu, Wed, Th 9-8; Fri 12-6; and Sat 10-6.

For more information, please call: (415) 557-4277.

EDITORS NOTE
To arrange an interview with photographer Robert Dawson, geographer/historian Gray Brechin, or scholar/curator Phil Mumma, please call (415) 557-4277.