There’s something very Los Altos about using a tablet and augmented reality to learn about a train station represented in a diorama of the city as it was in the1930s. That sums up the constant push and pull between Los Altos’ agricultural past and its Silicon Valley surroundings.
Those intersections can be found all over “Making Connections: Stories from the Land,” the new permanent exhibition at the Los Altos History Museum two years in the making that opened last weekend. The exhibition ambitiously attempts to tell the story of Los Altos — as well as the Santa Clara Valley at large — from the Ohlone days through the orchard years and finally to the Silicon Valley of today. It does this in an engaging, hands-on way using touch screens to tell the tales of the past, complemented by audio histories and display cases of artifacts related to the many people who have lived in this place.
“The creative team wanted to leverage modern technology to tell an evolving story in a dynamic way,” said Nan Geschke, a lead donor and the exhibition team leader. “The underlying digital format makes it possible to rapidly update the content to ensure that the information remains fresh and relevant for the next 10 to 20 years.”
It’s organized geographically, with sections on the creeks, hills, valley and town — an intentional choice, Los Altos History Museum Executive Director Elisabeth Ward said, to underscore that everyone shares the same spaces and responsibility to create community.
You can see the intricately illustrated cover on the manual for an Apple I, autographed by Steve Wozniak, next to a glass arrow point created by the Ohlone. On the next shelf down, a Pentium processor is juxtaposed with an Ohlone shell necklace, which was a symbol of wealth. Los Altos history is well represented, even beyond the diorama, with displays on key figures in the city’s past and a collection of gifts from delegations from Australia, Russia, Taiwan and Great Britain.
The exhibition’s grand opening Feb. 11 was a rainy but well-attended affair, with several guests of honor including Geschke and fellow lead donor Ed Taft, Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian and members of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe who welcomed the crowd before the ribbon-cutting.
The museum at 51 S. San Antonio Road in the Civic Center is open Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. with free admission. In addition to “Making Connections,” a new exhibition on the ground floor, “The Past Shapes the Future: A Retrospective,” looks back at some of the museum’s previous shows over the past two decades. Get more details at www.losaltoshistory.org.
FOND FARWELL: Nonprofit leaders, elected officials and other members of the community got together Thursday to honor Sparky Harlan, who is retiring as executive director of the Bill Wilson Center after 40 years with the agency, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
Among those at the sendoff at the Sobrato Center for Nonprofits were Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, Healthier Kids Foundation CEO Kathleen King, HomeFirst CEO Andrea Urton, Sunnyvale Community Services Executive Director Marie Bernard and San Jose City Councilmember David Cohen.
Bill Wilson Center, which provides programs and services for homeless and at-risk youth in Santa Clara County, will enter its second half-century with someone new at the helm: Josh Selo, who has served as executive director of West Valley Community Services since 2016.
Harlan called Selo a “perfect choice” to succeed her, saying “He is a people-person and tireless advocate for those most in-need in our community.”
CLASSICAL LESSONS: Pianist Katya Grineva played a trio of very special concerts this week at San Jose schools, performing at Hammer Elementary on Tuesday, Latimer Elementary on Wednesday and Sartorette Elementary on Friday. The appearances were arranged through Starting Arts, the San Jose-based nonprofit that provides hands-on arts education in schools, including visual arts, dance, theater and music.
At Sartorette on Friday, Grineva — who made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1998 and is the only female solo pianist to play there 20 times — had students close their eyes to concentrate on how the music made them feel, answered questions from the kids and left the school with a gift for its music library: CDs of her performances.
SWEET GESTURE: June Yasuhara’s father, Jim Oka, died Feb. 13, 2022 — a day after his 89th birthday — and didn’t get a celebration of life. At least not until Feb. 12 this year when Yasuhara threw a 90th birthday party in his honor at the bar at Fourth Street Bowl in San Jose, the perfect spot for a guy who was an avid bowler.
As a tribute to her dad, Yasuhara made a goal to have friends and family send in 90 photos of themselves with Baskin Robbins’ Jamoca ice cream — a play on Jim Oka. She created a Facebook group so people could submit them and tell their stories of hunting for the coffee-flavored dessert. “There were people who said it’s their favorite and some who never tried it,” she said.
Related Articles
-
Local News |Silicon Valley Auto Show returns this weekend after two-year break
-
Local News |San Jose’s Tabard Theatre to close its doors in April after 22 years
-
Local News |San Jose Jazz goes beyond music with Ukraine-focused Winter Fest
-
Local News |San Jose developer goes from burn victim to benefactor
-
Local News |Fox Tale Fermentation Project brewing success for SF Beer Week
TUNEFUL TOWN HALL: There were a lot of sobering statistics talked about during this year’s State of the Valley conference, the annual “town hall” built around the release of the Silicon Valley Index (download a copy at www.jointventure.org). But my favorite part of the event, held in-person at the Computer History Museum and streamed online, was the entertainment, especially the performance by the Francis Experience — a jazzy, hip hop, storytelling combo led by Jonathan Borca that put the economic numbers in the context of lived experience.
This post first appeared on This Story Behind Better Solution Weight Loss Will Haunt You Forever!, please read the originial post: here
