San Diego Museum lands vast collection of ethnic art

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Six months into a year-long exhibition of Oceanic art, the San Diego Museum of Art has announced a major acquisition of artworks from one of the lenders, the Sana Art Foundation. Under terms of a new alliance between the two organizations, about 900 works from Oceania, Africa and the Americas will be transferred from the foundation to the museum, vastly expanding the Balboa Park institution’s holdings of non-Western art.

“It is with great pride and gratitude that we at the San Diego Museum of Art have taken possession of the Sana Foundation’s significant collection,” Julia Marciari-Alexander, deputy director for curatorial affairs, stated in an e-mail exchange. “Over the course of the next two years, we will be working with an international team of experts to research and catalog further the works in this collection.

“This process will allow us both to raise the profile of the institution as a repository and center for the study of African, Oceanic and Native American art and to aid us in determining which of the nearly 900 objects will ultimately be accessioned into the institution’s permanent collection. At this time, we plan to keep the entire group of objects within the museum and expect them to be designated over time either as objects in our permanent collection or in our teaching collection.”

The Sana Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization in Escondido created by San Diego collectors Edward and Mini Smith. Established “to increase public appreciation and awareness of the importance of cultural diversity,” it presents exhibitions and educational programs related to the collection.

Among foundation loans currently on view in “Oceanic Art: A Celebration of Form,” at the San Diego museum, are an ornament made of shells and plant fibers from the Solomon Islands and a necklace from Hawaii fashioned of whale bone and human hair. The new arrangement will put the museum in charge of housing, researching and displaying hundreds of other works from Oceania -- the collective term for about 25,000 Pacific islands that are home to 1,800 cultures and hundreds of artistic traditions -- as well as a rich assortment of pieces from Africa and the Americas.

-- Suzanne Muchnic