Event details:
Two transformative projects are underway at Lake Merritt near the Lake Merritt BART station in Oakland: the Kaiser Auditorium and Oakland Museum of California (OMCA).
Orton Development is renovating the Kaiser Auditorium, a 215,000 square foot cultural and historic landmark built in 1914 that has been vacant since 2005. The former 8,000-seat Arena will be mixed use commercial space and the Calvin Simmons Theatre will return as a stunning performing arts center. OMCA, which encompasses four city blocks of galleries and gardens, is making bold moves with exterior changes to create a connection between Lake Merritt and the newly refreshed museum gardens.
Join us for a Zoom presentation on these arts and culture partnerships and renovations currently taking place along Lake Merritt. Hear about these transformative projects from three people closely involved from the very beginning: Lori Fogarty, Directory and CEO of OMCA; David Dial, Project Manager at Orton Development; and Kelley Kahn, Special Projects Director in the Economic and Workforce Development Department at the City of Oakland.
It's free to participate. Members may invite up to two guests.
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SPEAKERS
Lori Fogarty is the Director and CEO of the Oakland Museum of California, a multidisciplinary museum that brings together collections of art, history and natural sciences to tell the extraordinary stories of California and its people. Lori led the Museum’s $63 million “Museum of California” campaign and building renovation project, which has included the reinstallation of 90,000 square feet of gallery space as well as the first major enhancement to the Museum’s landmark building. She is currently leading the “All In: Campaign for OMCA,” an $85 million comprehensive campaign to support programs and operations, endowment and investment fund growth, and capital improvements to the Museum’s seven-acre campus. Lori has spearheaded OMCA’s efforts to place the visitor at the center of the Museum experience and to focus the institution’s efforts around community engagement and social impact. Prior to her current position, Lori was executive director of the Bay Area Discovery Museum and was senior deputy director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
David Dial is the President of the nonprofit Calvin Simmons Theatre and Project Manager for Orton Development on the refurbishment of the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center. David has been integrally involved in the opening and development of five major arts, entertainment and cultural projects in the San Francisco Bay Area – Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center, the Computer History Museum, Zeum (Children’s Creativity Museum), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Mexican Heritage Plaza & Gardens in San José. His involvement included project management and owner’s representation during design and construction, pre-opening planning, and day-to-day operations. David has supported a variety of institutions with operational planning, program development, technology integration, and project management. Past consulting projects include a Public Spaces Program Plan and policy development related to public use of the City of San José’s New Civic Center, and evaluation of the potential for community use of a new performing arts complex for City College of San Francisco. He has also provided operations input for the Weeksville Cultural Center in Brooklyn, NY and the Louis Armstrong House Visitors Center in Queens, NY. David has served as the Executive Director for the Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Zeum and Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet. He has directed operations for Cal Performances at the University of California at Berkeley, the Computer History Museum, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Kelley Kahn is the Special Projects Director in the Economic and Workforce Development Department at the City of Oakland, where she manages a broad portfolio of real estate, economic development and arts and culture projects. Previously she served as policy director to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, focusing on economic development and the arts. Prior to her position in Oakland, she served as a Project Director in the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, overseeing major public/private partnerships including the redevelopment of San Francisco’s 65-acre Pier 70 into a new mixed-use, urban waterfront. Ms. Kahn also served as a Senior Project Manager at the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency/OCII, where she led the Mission Bay redevelopment project, a 300-acre public/private partnership that changed Mission Bay from a vacant rail yard into a mix of affordable and market rate housing, new public open spaces, public art, and a thriving biotechnology cluster. She also worked as planning consultant in private practice.
Ms. Kahn served on the Advisory Council for the Crucible, a non-profit arts and education organization in West Oakland, and on the Advisory Board of the Sustainable Business Alliance. She also served as a mayoral appointee to the City of Oakland Landmarks Preservation Advisory Committee.
Ms. Kahn holds a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA.