One of Jon and my new year's resolutions this year was to get out and visit more of the many sites we have around us here in California. So far this year, we've been doing pretty well, and yesterday we headed up to "the city" to visit the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Of course, Jon's been wanting to see this since we moved here, and there is a big exhibit on Afghanistan that is ending this month -- so we decided to get up there before it ended.
The museum is pretty amazing, with exhibits ranging from South Asia to East Asia as well as some of Persia and West Asia. Given the huge area and history which that encompasses, and in comparison to many other Asian museums, it's not a huge collection of Asian art. It is a very well-designed collection, though. Going through the museum feels like an introduction to and review of Asian culture and history through art. The size helps keep it from being overwhelming, and it is designed in a way that allows you to really take in the big picture of all that is Asia. For me, it was great to go through and learn more details about so many of the things that I have been introduced to by Jon and from our visit to China this summer.
We've started compiling a list of "things to do" around here for those who come to visit, and this will certainly be added to the list for those more culturally-minded visitors.
p.s. There's a great story (click on the picture for the link) about the piece pictured above (from the Afghan exhibit), for anyone interested.
