The Oakland Museum will welcome back the public on Saturday after a two-year hiatus during which the four-block site was transformed in a $62 million capital improvement campaign. Oakland Local spoke to a few people behind the scenes who are working to reintroduce the museum to Oakland and the Bay Area.

Less than two weeks before the re-launch of the Oakland Museum of California, a controlled chaos is underway.

Construction workers drill and install, updating a variety of equipment, IT workers put the final touches on interactive programs, and museum staff serve as conductors, sometimes giving instructions and sometimes offering mini-guided tours around the three-level building.

Periodically, the fire alarm system trips into testing mode. Some people cover their ears while others calmly go about the day’s business, taking the alarm in stride.

Standing calmly in the middle of the storm is Oakland Museum of California Director Lori Fogarty. Fogarty has a ready smile and relaxed manner as she discusses the museum and its role in the community.

“I think it’s been a long time coming,” she said of the overhaul. “And it’s a dream come true for a lot of the staff, particularly those that have been here for a long time.”

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Fogarty said the transformation, the first major overhaul of the museum since it opened in 1969, has given a positive charge to museum staff who’ve re-evaluated and changed how they see their role in the community.

“As we’ve gone through this project, although it started as a building project, a master plan, and a renovation project, over the last few years it’s really evolved to a top to bottom, inside, outside culture change and organizational transformation,” said Fogarty, who has been with the Oakland Museum since 2006.

Museum staff members said a strong sense of pride and ownership is in the air.

“We’ve really been living the whole reinstallation,” said René de Guzman, senior curator of art. “”Everyone feels a part of it. It’s very exciting.”

The project also has a lot of unsung heroes, Fogarty said.

“The curators and I are the lucky ones to be the 'public face' of this project, but it has literally taken hundreds of people working for many years to bring this transformation to fruition,” Fogarty said. “Some of these heroes are the educators who did so much behind-the-scenes work in developing the visitor prototypes, convening community meetings and doing extensive research, all of which is resulting in our innovative approaches to interpretation in the galleries.”

Kathleen McLean, consultant for gallery reinstallation and creative director of the History Gallery, said she jumped at the chance to work on the reinvention project.

“I love this place," said McLean, who got started in the museum world by taking a job with the Oakland Museum in the 1970s. In particular, McLean, an Oakland resident, said she loves working on a project that showcases Oakland as the epicenter of the state.

“At this time and in this place in this country, the character of Oakland and the Bay Area, the commitment to the community and its diversity, the intelligence of this community, I think, can be a major model for the rest of the country,” McLean said. “Oakland’s got communication links across race, across class and cultures. It’s a dynamic place that, I think, is the 21st century.”

Fogarty echoed McLean’s words.

“Even though we are this museum of California, and for the broader Bay Area, our deepest commitment is to be a museum that the people of Oakland can come to and take pride in, participate in and feel that this is their hometown museum,” Fogarty said.

“We think at every stage what does this mean for Oakland? And my hope is that it’s a great new story for the city,” she said. “We want to be something that the city can take pride in and feel is part of the fabric of the city.”

Check back with Oakland Local for daily stories and photographs about various aspects of the museum relaunch.

And if you're planning to attend the party, tweet about it with #OMCA or see what other people are saying about it. Follow the Oakland Museum on twitter here.