![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dog-v-shark-diorama.png\")
<\/p>\nLast year’s entries included models of drunk seagulls, a pickler in a pickle and an inverted Houdini. OK!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2018Dog Rescues Youth from Shark\u2019 by Jonathan and Santiago Lemon won ‘Honorable Mention: Best Depiction of Animal Bravery’ at Oakland Library’s 2025 diorama contest.\u00a0(Courtesy of the Oakland Public Library)<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all been there. One minute you\u2019re casually browsing newspaper archives in the library, the next you\u2019re stumbling across a story from yore that\u2019s so bizarre, you just have to render it in miniature form.<\/p>\n
Yeah, okay, so, no. We clearly haven\u2019t all been there. But apparently, there are enough people who get overcome with a history-fueled desire to create dioramas that the Oakland Library is building an exhibition around the concept for the second time in two years.<\/p>\n
All the News That\u2019s Fit to Build: Local News Dioramas will take over the Oakland History Center on the second floor of the Oakland library\u2019s main branch between July 17 and Oct. 3. The plan is for the show to be a creative and engaging way to bring stories from Bay Area history into the present day.<\/p>\n
Best of all? The Oakland Library specifically encourages participants to get as weird as possible. Last year\u2019s winners included: a detailed rendition of drunken seagulls<\/a>; a pickler in a pickle<\/a>; the tenacious women<\/a> who founded Save the Bay<\/a>; noisy peacocks<\/a>; and Harry Houdini hanging upside down<\/a> outside the Oakland Tribune. So basically, anything goes.<\/p>\n We at KQED Arts & Culture would like to add some historically accurate diorama suggestions to the pile, if we may be so bold. Such as:<\/p>\n The haunted Toys R Us in Sunnyvale<\/a> that made headlines in the 1970s and \u201980s The oddly costumed dancing girls of Lake Merritt\u2019s Wild Duck Festival<\/a> in the 1920sThe entire streetcar of witnesses in Fruitvale who saw a Victorian UFO<\/a> one night in 1896The extorter, attempted murderer and bomb plotter Isabella J. Martin<\/a>, who forced her own son to burn down Oakland homes in 1901The \u201cCity of Oakland\u201d hot air balloon pilots who went on a mayhem-drenched near-death ride<\/a> in 1909<\/p>\n Feeling inspired yet?<\/p>\n If you need some extra incentive, outstanding creations will be honored at a special reception on Oct. 3, with prizes provided by Kala Art Institute, the Oakland Museum of California<\/a>, the Black Liberation Walking Tour<\/a>, Mrs. Dalloway\u2019s, Golden State Model Railroad Museum<\/a> and the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse. Special prizes will be awarded to dioramas that honor the Black Panthers, Oakland\u2019s Latinx communities and unusual East Bay happenings from 1951. KQED Forum\u2019s own Alexis Madrigal<\/a> will be on the judging panel, but the public can have their say by voting for a special People\u2019s Choice award.<\/p>\n The Oakland Library is requesting that all dioramas \u2014 which must not exceed 6 inches in height \u2014 be delivered sometime before July 5, 2026, along with a copy of the newspaper story it\u2019s based on. (This should include important details like name of newspaper and publication date.) Competitors must also fill out an online entry form<\/a>. Creators are welcome to access the library\u2019s archives and newspapers.com account for inspiration.<\/p>\n Finding misbehaving animals and\/or inverted illusionists, however, is entirely up to you.<\/p>\n \u2018All the News That\u2019s Fit to Build: Local News Dioramas\u2019 will be on display at The Oakland Library\u2019s History Center (125 14th Street, 2nd Floor) July 17\u2013Oct. 3, 2026. Potential participants can find full instructions at the library\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year’s entries included models of drunk seagulls, a pickler in a pickle and an inverted Houdini. OK!…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-373122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}