Pacific Asia Museum

NEWS ARCHIVE

Spring 2005

New Acquisition

Ritual Dagger, phurbu
Nepal, c. 1700
Bronze and mineral pigment
Pacific Asia Museum Collection
Gift of Sneh Singh in loving memory of her husband
Krishnan Singh, 2005.5.4
Photo: Julian Bermudez

Collections on the Web
The Collections Digitization department has just launched its latest addition to the electronic catalogue Explore the Collections. Visitors can now access over 5,000 objects and images along with additional label text and sound attached to selected items. Over 30% of the museum’s holdings can now be viewed by browsing the Featured Collections list. Thanks to a generous grant from the Getty Foundation’s Los Angeles Electronic Cataloguing Initiative, the museum has been able to continue its efforts to digitize its holdings in order to make it available to the World Wide Web. “This is a tremendous accomplishment for the museum. Visitors will not only be able to see more of the collection, but can learn about the objects through a variety of media. We’re extremely grateful to the Getty and to everyone who worked on this project,” states Julian Bermudez, the project’s manager.Visit:
www.pacificasiamuseum.org/mweb/

Monkey Performing
the Sanbaso Dance
Mori Sosen (1747-1821)
Japan, 1800, on the first day of the year of the Monkey
Ink on paper, Pacific Asia Museum Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Ross, 1985.55.4

Nature of the Beast Online Exhibition
Starting June 1st, Pacific Asia Museum’s website will launch Nature of the Beast: Animals in Japanese Paintings and Prints. From the team that created the museum’s award-winning Visions of Enlightenment: Understanding the Art of Buddhism, this online exhibit allows web visitors to explore the importance of animals and birds in the arts and culture of Japan and demonstrates the different ways artists of the Edo period (1603-1868) rendered these creatures in paintings and prints. The artworks are drawn mainly from Pacific Asia Museum’s impressive collection and include extensive materials for students and teachers. Publication of this module was supported by a generous grant from the Freeman Foundation. Digital images of the museum’s permanent collection were made possible by a grant funded by the Getty Foundation’s Los Angeles Electronic
Cataloguing Initiative.

Major Grant Award Received
The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation has made a $100,000 gift to the museum for the renovation of the museum’s collection storage facilities. Creating adequate storage conditions for the museum’s significant collection of 14,000 works of art is one of the museum’s highest priorities.

The renovation of the museum’s on-site storage facility will provide for the long-term care of the collection in a safe and climate controlled environment that meets or exceeds professional museum standards. The project will also provide for the future growth of the collection, increasing the museum’s storage capacity by 50%. In addition, objects that have been stored in the museum’s Education Gallery since 1999 will be relocated, freeing this gallery once again for classes, lectures, family workshops and other educational activities.

The Parsons Foundation award is an important endorsement of this project and a significant investment in the future of the museum.