On the outskirts of historic downtown Santa Ana, California, get a glimpse of art from all around the world in an internationally recognized non-profit art gallery, the Bowers Museum. The museum features 8 permanent collection exhibitions and ever-changing featured exhibitions. The museum is one of the largest and oldest museums in Orange County.
Bowers has been continuously voted Best Museum in Orange County for 31 consecutive years and stands dedicated to showcasing international cultural art. The current traveling exhibitions are Terracotta Warriors, Art of The Pacific Islands, Sacred Realms: Buddhist Paintings, California Bounty: Image and Identity, Ancient Arts of China, Ceramics of Western Mexico, and California Legacies: Missions and Ranchos.
In 1936, the Charles W. Bowers Memorial Museum opened primarily to house historical art and items from Orange County. In 1987 the museum was closed and reopened in 1992, six-times larger than the original building, completely new and improved. Since its reopening, the museum has housed over 150 special exhibitions and opened six permanent galleries featuring items from around the world. In 2007, another gallery space was crafted, adding 30,000 more square feet of exhibition space. Just next year the museum will be celebrating its 90th anniversary.
On display now is the exhibition: World of the Terracotta Warriors: New Archaeological Discoveries in Shaanxi in the 21st Century. Admission to this special display is $29.00 for adults, $26.00 for seniors, and free for children under the age of 12. I visited Xian, China to see the excavation of the warriors in 2008 but many additional discoveries have taken place since that time. The exhibit at Bowers is the result of newfound archaeological items from Shaanxi Province, an ancient Chinese civilization. The items date back to around 2300 BCE and were found in one of the earliest walled cities in China during the Qin dynasty.
Other items in the exhibit are sourced from Shang and Zhou eras. The final grand display is the Terracotta Warriors, commissioned by the Qin emperor and completed in 210 BCE. The whole exhibit features over 110 newly uncovered treasures that shed light on ancient Chinese civilization. These ancient finds include chariot regalia, jade and gold embellishments, bronze receptacles, and more. The exhibit will be on display until October 19.
The Art of The Pacific Islands exhibit is an ongoing section of the museum dedicated to the Pacific regions of Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and New Guinea. Life in these regions of the world is dictated by deep cultural and ritualistic practices. Guest curator and photographer Chris Rainier includes many of his own photos. Objects available for viewing are traditional masks, hand-crafted bowls, shells and feathers used as currency, and other small figurines. The Sepik River Men, nicknamed “Crocodile Men” due to their scale-like scarification practice, have items on display from their secretive ritual house. Other notable items are handmade weapons and real human trophies.
The Bowers Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission for adults is $18.00, $15.00 for seniors, and free for children under the age of 12. If you meet at the main admissions desk, you can join a volunteer-led tour of various exhibits for free!