If you want to know what the new Women’s Museum of California Education Center has in store, just look up.
There, hanging above the entrance to the museum’s new educational space at the Joe and Vi Jacobs Center in southeastern San Diego, is a mission statement made from 2,000-plus pink pom-poms.
Arranged in a design that includes the female symbol, the pom-poms were handmade by volunteers of all ages as part of a community art project spearheaded by the center’s artistic director, Katie Ruiz. And like the center itself, and the exhibition making its debut inside, these cheerful fluff balls pack a big message into one small, potent package.
“This was a project where you didn’t just make a pom-pom. You got to see it on the façade of a building, and you got to feel like you were part of this huge art installation,” said Ruiz, an artist who also unleashed big-time public energy with the yarn-bomb Pride Flag that was part of the Oceanside Museum of Art’s 2020 “Sidewalk Activism” exhibition.
“Our mission is also to plant a seed about addressing issues that people can take home with them. They can start thinking, ‘I can embroider as activism. I can make a pom-pom for activism.’ This was a way to add tools to the toolkit of activism so that people can walk away inspired.”
The education center celebrates its grand opening Saturday by inviting the public to check out the new site and its debut exhibit, “Crafting Feminism: Textiles of the Women’s Movement.”
From the consciousness-raising works by such local artists as Michelle Montjoy and Sew Loka fashion designer Claudia Biezunski-Rodriguez, to Ruiz’s selfie-friendly portraits of unsung feminist heroes, “Crafting Feminism” is an engaging, thought-provoking look at the history of feminism and the power of protest art.
The grand opening is also a getting-to-know-us soiree for the center’s southeastern San Diego neighbors.
In addition to offering tours and interactive workshops to students, community organizations and corporate groups, the Women’s Museum plans to make the sunny space available for meetings, cultural events, afterschool programs and other activities.
The organization is also offering free 2022 museum hips to anyone living in the 92102, 92113, 92114, 91950 and 92105 ZIP codes. It is all part of the museum’s transformation from drop-in cultural spot to lived-in community hub.
“It would be lovely for this to be recognized as a place to gather. Not just for meetings, but as a kind of clubhouse,” said Tisha Tumangan, the center’s programs coordinator.
“We want the community to feel a sense of ownership around the center. Having this physical space enables us to provide a place to gather in person, which is exciting since we have all been apart for so long.”
Founded in 1983 by San Diego archivist, historian and activist Mary Maschal, the museum cycled through several names and locations before moving into the Arts District in Liberty Station in 2011 and changing its name to the Women’s Museum of California.
It might still be there, offering exhibits on everything from the history of women’s handbags to the impact of women’s marches on U.S. history, if not for the COVID-19 pandemic. But when the museum shut down in March of 2020, the leadership started considering a new vision of the future. And in the spring of 2021, the Women’s Museum of California announced that it was leaving Liberty Station to become a “museum without walls.”
Its collections and istrative offices were moved to the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park, and its exhibits went digital. Its annual events — including the Women’s Film Festival San Diego and the Women’s Equality Day celebration — would continue.
Then the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation invited the museum to consider moving into a community-room space in its three-story Joe and Vi Jacobs Center building, and the new vision snapped into focus.
“Southeastern San Diego has a long history of being a marginalized community where arts and culture are not as accessible to the people who live there. We thought we could make a real impact if we moved into that neighborhood,” said Felicia Shaw, the museum’s executive director.
“I tell people that this is not your typical ‘stand in front of an object and read things off the wall’ kind of place. It really is a community engagement space where we are inviting the community to come in and learn, be inspired by what they see, and then go out and share what they have learned with others.”
The new center will be open by appointment only, except on the first Saturday of every month, when the public can drop in for all-ages activities, story-time in the Free Feminist Library and special monthly events.
And for the next year-and-a-half, visits to the Women’s Museum of California Education Center can include a spin through “Crafting Feminism: Textiles of the Women’s Movement,” where the suffrage sashes and protest T-shirts of the past meet the local artists of our present to craft a future with room for everyone.
“I work with a lot of kids in afterschool programs, and my experience is that those programs can change lives,” said Ruiz, who plans to have some of the bilingual artists teach workshops in English and Spanish.
“Kids need a place where they feel like they belong, where they can hang out and feel safe and do a project. We have the opportunity to to be that space for that community.”
The grand opening of the Women’s Museum of California Education Center is Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. at the Joe and Vi Jacobs Center, 404 Euclid Ave., in southeastern San Diego. The event is free. Go to womensmuseumca.org/educationcenter for information.
