Museum of Riverside

Day 1: Hidden Histories: Looking Beyond the Obvious

Erin Gettis, Associate AIA, Principal Planner and City Historic Preservation Officer, Community Development Department, Planning Division, Zoning Information and Preservation Team, City of Riverside
Erin Gettis has been the Historic Preservation Officer for the City of Riverside for over six years and the lead Historic Preservation staff in three jurisdictions in California. Recently she was promoted to Principal Planner in charge of Zoning, Public Information and Preservation. Erin has a Bachelors and Masters of Architecture in Historic Preservation from the University of Washington. She has worked at architectural firms in Seattle, Madison & San Diego, including restoration of two State capitols for a total of nearly 20 years in the field. In 2011 Riverside’s Historic Preservation program won a Best Practices Award from the American Planning Association, Inland Empire Section under Erin’s oversight. Erin currently serves on the Education Committee for the California Preservation Foundation, formerly served on the National Alliance for Preservation Commission’s Board of Directors and has co-taught the Historic Preservation Practicum at UCR. Erin lives in the Clinton Marr Residence, a National Register eligible West Coast Modern post and beam style house Marr designed for his family, with her husband and two children.

Cathy Gudis, Ph.D, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Public History Program,  University of California, Riverside
Dr. Gudis is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Public History Program at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Buyways: Billboards, Automobiles, and the American Cultural Landscape and an editor of Cultures of Commerce: Business Culture in America as well as groundbreaking exhibition catalogues on contemporary art, including A Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation and Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s. As a 2011-12 Getty Scholar, Dr. Gudis began work on her next book, Curating the City: The Framing of Los Angeles, which interweaves histories of public art, preservation, and urbanism in the Southland. She has worked for many years as a curator and preservationist, spearheading major educational initiatives at the Los Angeles Conservancy, contributing to such projects as SurveyLA and the City of Riverside’s historic contexts on Eastside and University Avenue, and working, in particular, on California-focused exhibitions, including one in progress for the Huntington Library. She received her Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University and B.A. in Philosophy from Smith College.

Mark Rawitsch, Dean of Instruction, Mendocino College
Author of The House on Lemon Street: Japanese Pioneers and the American Dream, is Dean of Instruction at Mendocino College and a founding member of the Harada House National Historic Landmark Ad-Hoc Advisory Council of the City of Riverside. Inspired by his time visiting with Sumi Harada and looking at family photograph albums with her at the Harada House, Mark will use images from the Harada Family Archival Collection and other sources to outline the Harada family story, describe some of the materials he used to research and write The House on Lemon Street, and offer selected readings from the book, with the assistance of Harada family members.

Donna Graves, Historian and Director of Preserving California Japantowns
Donna Graves, Historian and Director, Preserving California’s Japantowns, received a B.A. in American Studies at UCSC, an M.A. in American Civilization from Brown University, and an M.A. in Urban Planning with a concentration on history and theory of the built environment from UCLA. She is widely known for her work documenting sites associated with under-represented histories. She has developed historic context statements for San Francisco’s Japantown and the City of Richmond, California, where she helped initiate and develop Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park. In addition, she was the Project Consultant for the City of Riverside Certified Local Government Grant 2010/2011, “Japanese American Heritage and the Quest for Civil Rights in Riverside, California 1890s-1970s, Reading the Sites.” She has served as program co-chair for the 2010 and 2012 National Asian/Pacific Islander American Historic Preservation Forums and recently completed a study for the California Cultural & Historical Endowment on the gaps between California's formal landmarks and our state's remarkably diverse histories.

Antonio Gonzalez Vasquez
Antonio Gonzalez Vasquez is a documentarian, founder of Inland Mexican Heritage and co-author of the recently released pictorial history "Mexican Americans in Redlands". He created the Redlands Oral History Project in 1994 to reconstruct histories of Mexican barrios in the San Bernardino Valley. The project was awarded a grant in 1999 from the California Council for the Humanities (CCH) to produce "Visions & Versions", an exhibition and program series. Mr. Gonzalez Vasquez founded Inland Mexican Heritage in 2001 to promote community-based scholarship, produce cultural events, and continue research and development of public history projects. Inland Mexican Heritage was awarded a grant from CCH in 2003 to produce "Living on the Dime: A View of the World From Along I-10", an environmental and cultural initiative about the effects of the Interstate 10 freeway on communities across Inland Southern California. He holds a BA and a MA in history. For more information, trailers, and updates visit www.inlandmexicanheritage.yolasite.com

About the Film Screening:
Inland Mexican Heritage and Panchebek Pictures present this documentary from the "Living on the Dime" series, which is based on 10 years of research by director Antonio Gonzalez Vasquez. The film visits more than a dozen communities along the Interstate 10 freeway or 'the Dime' telling stories and perspectives from residents, political leaders and activists about growth, progress, and rapid changes occurring across Inland Southern California. The documentary follows the development of the freeway system and the debate over construction of the Interstate 10 freeway through Redlands and the San Gorgonio Pass starting in the late 1950s. Using archival footage, vintage promotional films and the oral histories of people who lived along, owned businesses and helped build I-10, this documentary tells the stories of lives changed by the construction of the longest freeway in the United States.

Chris Carlson, Chief of Staff, RCCD
With more than 20 years of public administration leadership, Chris Carlson currently serves as Chief of Staff for Riverside Community College District, a multi-college district. In this position, she is responsible for external relations, fundraising, governmental relations and the Board of Trustees, as well as the Chancellor; with the notorious “other duties as assigned” . Prior to joining RCCD, Chris served the University of California, Riverside first hired as Director of Economic Development responsible for university partnerships for technology transfer, University Research Park, and the overall town-gown environment. Later, she was asked to be Executive Director of Community and Governmental Relations, and Technology Collaborations, reporting to two Vice Chancellors and guided the support for Regent approval for planning of the UCR Medical School. Prior to her venture in to higher education, Chris served as the Assistant Director of March Joint Powers Authority, the reuse authority with local land use authority for realigned March Air Force Base. There she developed the first general plan and infrastructure master plans, redevelopment agency and joint use aviation plans. Additionally, she secured millions of federal dollars for infrastructure upgrades to support reuse of former base properties and oversaw the master developer process for 2,300 acres. Chris has served other cities in redevelopment and planning capacities. Chris possesses a BS from Brigham Young University in Geography/Community and Regional Planning, and became an member of AICP in 1996. Chris also has served 9 years on the San Jacinto City Council, was a member of the Riverside County Transportation Commission and other agencies, and also served two terms as a city planning commissioner.

Drew Oberjuerge, Director, Riverside Art Museum
Drew Oberjuerge is the Director of the Riverside Art Museum and is committed to programming that engages the community as well as educational and professional institutions. She holds a Master of Public Administration from USC. A native of the Inland Empire, Drew graduated from UCSD with degrees in Political Science/Political Theory and Italian Literature. While studying abroad in Italy she fell in love with the visual arts and has since worked at a number of arts organizations throughout Southern California including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2008, she returned to the IE to create the Art Works program, a creative-arts-for-wellness program for individuals who carry a mental-health diagnosis, with Jefferson Transitional Programs.

Carolyn Schutten, MURP, PhD, Student UCR Public History Department and IES-APA Board
Carolyn Schutten has served the IE Section of the American Planning Association Board for 4 years. As the Outreach and Education Director for Art VULUPS, she designed programming to engage the general public in planning concepts, creating a collaborative model and establishing partnerships with local museums and educational institutions. Carolyn received her Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from Cal Poly Pomona, where she worked with the cities of Upland and San Gabriel as well as with Walt Disney Imagineers. She is currently a doctoral student in Public History at the University of California at Riverside, where her research interests include urban and environmental history, historic preservation and museum studies.