The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco houses over 18000 works of art in its permanent collection; some of the art in the museum dates back to 6000 years. Founded in the 1960s by Olympian Avery Brundage, the Asian Art Museum specializes in Asian art and preserves ancient culture and heritage from Asia.
The establishment of the Society of Asian Art in 1958 aimed at gaining Asian art from Avery Brundage, a collector of significant Asian art leading to the opening of a museum in 1966 as a wing of the M.H. de young memorial Museum at the Golden State Park. Brundage continued to donate to this museum until his death. With more than 7700 donations to the San Francisco Museum, his contributions did not go unnoticed; the olympian got a statue in the museum. Brundage aimed to create a bridge of understanding between Asia and the United States. However, his statue at the museum was removed in 2020 after further insights into his actions revealed he was racist, sexist, and anti-semitic, contradicting the beliefs and values of the museum.
As the collection of museums grew, the facilities at Golden State Park grew insufficient to house the collection. In May 1987, Mayor Dianne Feinstein proposed to renovate the civic center and reallocate the museum to the main library. A Silicon Valley entrepreneur named Chong-Moon Lee made a 15 million dollar donation launching the funding campaign for a new museum building. It was closed for moving purposes during its final year in the park and re-opened in March 2003 in the former library San Francisco city Library.
The renovation process headed by Gae Aulenti cost over 160 million and introduced a sky-lit core providing a central core to the museum. To facilitate movement and display of artwork, Gae removed some interior walls, which made the museum more open. In 2011, the museum unveiled an identity, creating an upside-down A as the logo, showing the idea of approaching Asian art from different perspectives.
Today the Asian Art Museum preserves and promotes Asian and Asian-American arts and culture while also providing a dynamic platform for exchanging ideas, allowing collaborations and imagination to create a better understanding among people of different backgrounds. In 2020, the museum received a commendation from Japan's foreign minister for the contributions made in promoting cultural exchange between Japan and the United States through arts.
The museum boasts 8500 square feet of gallery space, the most in San Francisco, with 2,000 artworks up for display, with varying artworks from ancient jades and ceramics to contemporary video installations. The museum focuses on special and traveling exhibitions; as a result, most artworks are from all over Asia. One of such is housing the first major Chinese exhibition after World War II; the archaeologist exhibition averaged 100,000 visitors every week for eight weeks.
The "In the Mist" exhibit was built in Kyoto before its separation, shipment to San Francisco, and reconstruction by Japanese carpenters in the museum; this exhibit is on the museum's second floor.
The Asian Art Museum represents an avenue for Asian and Asian-American arts and culture to inspire and connect everyone. It aids the promotion, understanding, and appreciation by telling the diverse stories of the major exhibits.
