Celebrating Asia Pacific Art in San Francisco

By Sara Stokoe

March 20th, 2003 was a day of celebration in San Francisco as the newly transformed Asian Art Museum held its grand opening event. The ceremony was appropriately titled “Treasures Unveiled” and there was free admission for all, as well as live entertainment throughout the day from local Asian performing arts groups.

The festivities officially began around 10 a.m. with San Francisco mayor Willie Brown Jr. performing the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony. After the ribbon was cut, the colorful fabric draped over the building that portrayed selected pieces from the museum’s collection was lifted, and simultaneously 300,000 firecrackers exploded in a grand celebratory fashion.

Gae Aulenti is the architect responsible for this “magisterial” transformation of the former library, a 1917 Beaux-Art style building, and one of San Francisco’s most important historical structures. Aulenti was perfect for the job as her specialty is in the adaptive re-use of historical structures to museums. She is the architect responsible for the fabulous designs of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the Palazzo Grassi in Venice.

Her imaginative design revitalizes the former library while still maintaining its historic elements. The new museum is a whopping 185,000 gross square feet, representing an overall increase of approximately 75% in comparison to the previous facility which was located in Golden Gate Park. The new facility is located at the Civic Center Plaza across from the city hall.

Currently, there are three exhibitions at the museum. “In a New Light: The Asian Art Museum Collection” is a permanent show containing more than 2,500 pieces from the museums world renowned collection, many of which came from Avery Brundage, a Chicago Industrialist in the 1960’s. The pieces contributed by him served as the basis for the museum’s founding and include objects such as the oldest known Chinese Buddha in the world.

“From Monastery to Marketplace: Books and Manuscripts of Asia” will be running from now until Nov. 2, 2003. This exhibit serves as an honor to the buildings previous role as a library. Presented in the exhibit are both secular and religious texts, albums, calligraphy and manuscripts highlighting the significance of not only written but also illustrated materials across Asian cultures over the last 800 years.

The third exhibit, “An Introduction to the Asian Art Museum,” familiarizes patron to the museum’s new physical home. Insight is provided as to the principles underlying the metamorphosis of the historical library into the modern museum.

Overall, the pieces on display in the museum span a period of 6,000 years and the variety of objects enables the museum to fulfill its goal of providing the public with an introduction to the major traditions of Asian art and culture. Included in this world renowned collection are upwards of 14,000 objects ranging from the tiniest jades to the most majestic monumental sculptures.

As one of the most comprehensive collections of Asian art in the global community, the museum is a must-see for anyone living in or visiting the San Francisco area.

For more information on current and future exhibits and programs check out the museums official website at http://www.asianart.org.

The information for this article was provided by http://www.asianart.org.