Oakland Library Is Once Again Asking You to Make Weird History Dioramas

We’ve all been there. One minute you’re casually browsing newspaper archives in the library, the next you’re stumbling across a story from yore that’s so bizarre, you just have to render it in miniature form.

Yeah, okay, so, no. We clearly haven’t 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.

All the News That’s Fit to Build: Local News Dioramas will take over the Oakland History Center on the second floor of the Oakland library’s 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.

Best of all? The Oakland Library specifically encourages participants to get as weird as possible. Last year’s winners included: a detailed rendition of drunken seagulls; a pickler in a pickle; the tenacious women who founded Save the Bay; noisy peacocks; and Harry Houdini hanging upside down outside the Oakland Tribune. So basically, anything goes.

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:

1. The haunted Toys R Us in Sunnyvale that made headlines in the 1970s and ’80s
2. The oddly costumed dancing girls of Lake Merritt’s Wild Duck Festival in the 1920s
3. The entire streetcar of witnesses in Fruitvale who saw a Victorian UFO one night in 1896
4. The extorter, attempted murderer and bomb plotter Isabella J. Martin, who forced her own son to burn down Oakland homes in 1901
5. The “City of Oakland” hot air balloon pilots who went on a mayhem-drenched near-death ride in 1909

Feeling inspired yet?

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, the Black Liberation Walking Tour, Mrs. Dalloway’s, Golden State Model Railroad Museum and the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse. Special prizes will be awarded to dioramas that honor the Black Panthers, Oakland’s Latinx communities and unusual East Bay happenings from 1951. KQED Forum’s own Alexis Madrigal will be on the judging panel, but the public can have their say by voting for a special People’s Choice award.

The Oakland Library is requesting that all dioramas — which must not exceed 6 inches in height — be delivered sometime before July 5, 2026, along with a copy of the newspaper story it’s based on. (This should include important details like name of newspaper and publication date.) Competitors must also fill out an online entry form. Creators are welcome to access the library’s archives and newspapers.com account for inspiration.

Finding misbehaving animals and/or inverted illusionists, however, is entirely up to you.

‘All the News That’s Fit to Build: Local News Dioramas’ will be on display at The Oakland Library’s History Center (125 14th Street, 2nd Floor) July 17–Oct. 3, 2026. Potential participants can find full instructions at the library’s website.