Stockton's hidden gem

From time to time I go to the websites of the various art galleries that I know in the area to see what exhibits are currently showing or to see what is coming up. This is how I was disappointed with missing the exhibit of Sanjay Patel's work at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum which I mentioned in my post An Artist's Morning Disappointment back in April. It always bugs me that so many wonderful exhibits and collections that may be on display for a small period of time never gets advertised in the main stream media. Well it seems that I have come across yet another interesting exhibit, but this time from a little known art museum.

There is a lot of people in Northern California that are proud of the rather popular art museums and galleries such as Crocker Art Museum and Blue Line Art Gallery which is all well and good. I'm not about to say anything bad because big locations like them let the public know that art is still around but with such a focus on popular spots in the area, it takes away the chance for other smaller locations to be spotlighted such as the gallery I'm with (Blue Moon Gallery) which I usually hear "Oh I heard about this place from a friend but never been here before". You're probably wondering where I'm going with this since it sounds as if I'm griping about the large institutions taking away visitors from other smaller locations. Not at all since in most cases its the promotion of  larger locations that smaller galleries and art museums get sought out by people wondering what else is out there also. Well here is where it gets interesting since not that many people are aware that Stockton has an art museum which is is known as The Haggin Museum. Very rarely have I ever seen an advertisement on TV for an exhibit there unless there was something major that they wanted to let people know they had there. I myself had never heard of its existence until about 4 years ago when a friend had suggested that she should take me there.

During a random search to see which museums are having what showing right now, decided to check out what the Haggin Museum had going on to discover that until June 24th, they have an exhibit titled Memories of  World War 2: Photographs from the Archives of the Associated Press.

"A spectrum of more then 100 Associated Press photos from all theaters of the war and the home front, ranging from AP photographer Joe Rosenthal's classic Iwo Jima flag raising in 1945 to scores of pictures not seen in decades."

I'm completely surprised that something like this with such historical value hadn't been mentioned. Of course it could be my own fault for watching close to no TV the last few months but even with the other sources I have that let me know what things are coming up, I haven't heard about this. It's too bad that I found out too late or I would toss the plans I already have for the weekend out of the window just to be able to head down to Stockton in order to see this. So what does this mean? Just another bought of artist disappointment of missing a potentially worth while exhibit that I am genuinely interested in seeing.

There is however something else coming up in July which looks to be interesting just to see not only what all is in this particular collection but to see if I know any of the artists who were accepted. What am I talking about you ask? An upcoming exhibit that The Haggin Museum is the 57th Stockton Art League Juried Exhibition at The Haggin Museum which will be there from July 5th to September 2nd.

"The Stockton Art League's juried art competition returns to The Haggin Museum this summer with more than 100 new works by long-standing local artists and newcomers from around the country."