2B-San Francisco Asian Art Museum

1. Contains a title using the format listed above .25 points

2. Contains the sources you used with links to these sources .25 points

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Art_Museum_of_San_Francisco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_francisco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California#Racial_and_ancestral_makeup http://www.asianart.org/

3. Contains a brief paragraph how it connects to your study of humanities. 1 point

My choice of museum relates to humanities because this place is full of culture and history. Asia is one of many cultures that make California so diversified. As of 2006, wikipedia stats show that about 1/3 of the U.S.' Asian American population live in California. Paying a visit to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco gives us chance to learn about other cultures, the Asian culture through the works of art and artifacts. It's important to learn about other cultures, the cultures that shape who we are, where we live, the people we come in contact with everyday.

4. Contains the following "analytical elements":
   

1. Observation: What did you choose? What do you see or hear or feel or think of in the choice you made? What is the subject of the work? If you chose a 'thing' what is the work made of and what techniques (colors, lines, shapes, textures)does the creator use? Be specific in your description. If you chose a place, be specific in your description of what you see or hear. Talk to your reader as though they cannot see the item but somehow must draw a painting of what you see or hear. 1 point

I chose the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Just looking at the Asian Art Museum on the outside, it is a magnificent piece of architecture. The museum was moved from its original location in Golden Gate Park to its current location, the old city library in March 2003. The building is so amazing, it's almost intimidating. Not only is the building beautiful but the surroundings are just as breathtaking, the little park in the middle of the square, city hall is right across the street and the War Memorial Opera House. There are children playing on the swings and climbing the playhouse, people laying asleep on the green grass. Once we absorb the beauty on the oustide, inside we can see a collection of about 17,000 art pieces & artifacts that span over the last 6,000 years from China, South-East Asia, Korea, Japan, India, and Western Asia. (to the right is an actual artifact from a collection brought from China showing the colors they used to use for art, greens, blues, yellows, reds(hardest color to create) and i believe its made of porcelain) When I visited the Museum there was so much to see, it took me several hours to see everything because I wanted to take in all the history of the countries and the people that lived in that time.

2. Interpretation: What is your choice about? Give specific examples to support this statement in 2 sentences; do so in a way that teaches us something about your choice. Make Paulo Freire proud! .75 point

My choice of museum has to do with digging a little bit deeper on specific cultures. I've always wanted to see the Asian Art Museum and I wanted to choose a place I've been to recently so I could share a real experience. I felt that it wouldn't be the same if I had not personally gone to the Museum. Not only can I see a bit of history through the art and artifacts but the Asian Art Museum has an enormous library with books on archaeology, architecture, philosophy, history, religion, arts, music, and even science and medicine. The best part of the Museum besides seeing the art with our eyes, is the many hands on exhibits and classes they offer. "AsiaAlive" is an interactive program made of live artist demonstrations, hands-on activities and videos. The Museum offers a chance to experience the authentic Japanese Tea Ceremony, through the tastes, smells and sounds. Every first Thursday of the month in the summer they offer an event called Matcha, people can experience art, music and performances, meet up with friends and/or meet new people and share ideas and opinions. When I visited the Museum last month, I watched a Calligraphy class in session and it was really cool to see the creativity and even the diversity of people in the class. Other classes include dance, music, and storytelling.

3. Judgment: What led you to your choice? What do you think or feel about this choice? Why do you feel this way? Support your thoughts with specific observations. .5 point

My choice of Museums was a little bit based on my need and want to learn about my own culture, or more so the culture and history of my ancestors. Although I was born in the U.S. and spent my entire life here, I still want to learn about my heritage because it is also part of who I am today. I enjoyed learning about the history of China and the other countries such as India and Japan. I visited China when I was five yrs old so I don't really remember anything but it's great to be able to see this history from halfway around the world without actually travelling there. The museum had this jade exhibit that was trully breathtaking, there was tiny sculptures and big sculptures in the shapes of animals like the lion and shapes like bowls, and tiny boxes. I also loved seeing the little clay soldiers and workers and they had this exhibit of little wooden furniture(table, chairs, storage) that were maybe 3 inches tall. The wooden furniture was made to be buried with the families so they could have furniture when they went to the other world so they wouldn't compromise the quality of life.

4. Questioning:

   What else would you like to know about this choice? When completing the question section, lead your audience into the question by stating a fact you do know, yet you still have the related question. This way, both your audience and you will have an educational experience. Example: I learned that John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath was based on his personal experience working with farm workers. I would like to know if the characters he used in that book are fictitious or are they people he met? .5point

I'd like to know how Avery Brundage, a major collector of Asian art and the guy who had the idea to put his collection in a museum, got his collection of Asian Art. I'd also like to know how can one tell if a piece of art or a specific object like a vase is a valuable artifact. I see these people on Antique shows and I wonder how they obtain such wonderful pieces of history. What is also intriguing is how the researchers and anthropologists can figure out the era the artifacts are from.

5. Using your classmates work from last week, tell us one thing you learned from 1 student. Is this one thing some common experience you share or some experience that is completely different than what you experienced? Is this one thing related to our class theoretical foundation and if so, how? Is that one thing related to historical or cultural context of this country or a different one? Link that persons blog to this entry (eg cut paste that blog entry here) . .5 point

I checked out Scott Sandine's Blog on Yosemite National Park. I've never been to the park but I've heard lots about it on the news!??!! I didn't know that Yosemite is reknowned for its granite cliffs and that Native Americans lived in the region for 8,000 years. I didn't know there are so many hiking trails, streams, waterfalls, and lakes; I pictured the park having many cliffs and maybe one or two major waterfalls. The way that Scott described Yosemite makes the park sound much more intriguing and now I really want to go visit this landmark! Sounds like not only will I learn the history of the park, but the people that resided in that area and I can meet new people that visit it every year.
http://scottsandine.blogspot.com/2008/09/week-2-component.html