In the Banlieues/Centering the Margin: Oakland/Saint-Denis

For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Christi Shortridge, Communications Director, cshortridge@calhum.org

1 August 2022—(OAKLAND, CA)—After a successful launch of the exhibition in Paris at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal mid-June, Villa Albertine San Francisco and California Humanities are proud to announce the arrival of the exhibition, In the Banlieues/Centering the Margin: Oakland/Saint-Denis, in the US. The exhibit will open at SPUR, San Francisco on August 23 and will be followed by the opening at Oakstop, Oakland on August 25.

The two Bay Area venues, one a nonprofit focused on urbanism and public policy, the other a social enterprise dedicated to empowering Oakland’s communities of color, are deeply committed to gathering people together through this exhibition to explore how the arts and humanities can help inform urban development and build more equitable cities.

Whatever you call them - banlieues, peripheries, suburbs - this exhibition, which is guided by an international advisory committee, highlights the symbolic pivot from the center to the periphery. Embodying similar artistic movements, social struggles, and urban innovations, Oakland, California and Saint-Denis, France are today exerting their influence and inventing solutions to the challenges posed by inequity and the rapid urban development of metropolitan areas.

This initiative aiming at centering the margin will be presented in four venues in France and the US. In California, the exhibition will be hosted at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) from August 23 to November 30, 2022 and at Oakstop from August 25 to October 30, 2022.

“Bringing together a hybrid corpus of images, archives, models, paintings, artistic installations, objects, and videos, this exhibition explores cultural and inhabitant practices in urban planning. They are composed of places, people, and stories, drawings – far from clichés - portraits of composite urban areas on the peripheries. There is an urgency, today, to recognize and understand the day-to-day experiences of those who live, work and create in our cities.” June Grant, and Laure Gayet, co-curators of the exhibition.

The exhibition is co-produced by Villa Albertine in San Francisco and California Humanities; in partnership with SPUR (San Francisco), Oakstop (Oakland), Pavillon de l’Arsenal (Paris), Maison des Sciences de l'Homme Paris Nord (Saint-Denis); with the support of the foundation 836M, Art Explora Foundation, the Institut Français, Bank of the West; in collaboration with the cities of Oakland and Saint-Denis, Périféeries and with the participation of ARTE.

Learn more about the project at oaklandsaintdenis.org.

SPUR — the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association — is a nonprofit public policy organization, bringing people together from across the political spectrum to develop solutions to the big problems cities face. Based in San Francisco, San José and Oakland, they are recognized as a leading civic planning organization and respected for their independent and holistic approach to urban issues.

Oakstop is a social enterprise that uses commercial real estate in Oakland as a platform for economic development and community empowerment by providing workspace, meeting/event space, and creative space to entrepreneurs and communities of color.

Villa Albertine is a new kind of cultural institution whose mission is to create a community that links France and the United States in a shared exploration of arts and ideas. With a team of 80 people deployed in 10 major cities—Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.—Villa Albertine presents its innovative programming nationwide. This includes 60 customized residencies for artists, thinkers, and cultural professionals; a series of cultural and humanities initiatives and events; a magazine; and resources and convenings for professionals in the cultural sphere. Villa Albertine is an institution of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, with support from the French Ministry of Culture. Villa Albertine San Francisco is a branch of the Villa Albertine network working in conjunction with the French American Cultural Society. For more information, please visit villa-albertine.org or follow Villa Albertine on Facebook at @villaalbertineusa.

California Humanities, a statewide nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, promotes the humanities—focused on ideas, conversation, and learning—as relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect people to each other in order to help strengthen California. California Humanities has provided grants and programs across the state since 1975. To learn more, visit calhum.org, or like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

Julie Fry, President and CEO, California Humanities,
Sabine de Maussion, Cultural Attaché, Cultural Services of the French Embassy in San Francisco - Villa Albertine San Francisco
Juliette Donadieu, Head of Public and Community Engagement, Art Explora
Laure Gayet, Founder, Légendes Urbaines and co-curator
June Grant, Founder, blink!LAB and co-curator
Hannah Angely, Production Manager, Echos Libres
Agnès Faure, Co-Founder and Curator, 836M
Alexandre Labasse, Director of Pavillon de l’Arsenal
Ashara Ekundayo, Artist and Founder of Artists as First Responders
Brandi Summers, Scholar at University of California, Berkeley
Cece Carpio, Oakland Artist
Christine Lelevrier, Scholar at Université Paris-Créteil, Lab'urba
Emilie Moreau, Head of Studies at l’Atelier Parisien d’Urbanisme (APUR) Jackson Nutt-Beers, Public Programming Associate, SPUR
Joshua Simon, Senior Advisor, CAST
Julien Beller, Founder and Director, 6b
Juliette Bompoint, Director, Périféeries 2028, European Capital of Culture 2028
Justinien Tribillon, Scholar at University College of London
Lamyne M, Saint-Denis Artist
Matthew Passmore, Oakland Artist and MoreLab Founder
Monica Lebrao Sendra, Head of Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape, Institut Français
Nicolas Douay, Education and High Education Attaché at Cultural Services of French Embassy in Chicago
Robert Ogilvie, Consultant, OgilvieLabs
Roberto Bedoya, Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Oakland
Shannon Jackson, Consultant
Simón Adinia Hanukai, Saint-Denis Artist and Kaimera Productions Co-Founder
Steven Raspa, Associate Director of Community Events, Burning Man Project

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