I liked the building at least as much as the Asian art collections housed here. The exhibits need to be displayed better. Perhaps the new owners, USC will do an upgrade. Go and check out the building.
There were very interesting exhibits from Asia as well as Hawaii. The museum had an interesting flow as it followed around in a circle. Well organized. The shop had interesting items for sale.
You can go through this place in an hour and see most everything, similar to the Norton Simon, also in Pasadena. It is just beautiful.
This is a wonderful little museum with beautiful relics from Asia and the Pacific, in a really lovely building with peaceful patio garden.
The collection is extensive and covers a wide range of eras and geographical areas. I took a class there and learned a lot. Try to go when they have a guided tour.
Still worth visiting. Interesting variety of Asian art but mixed quality of collection. New director making interesting additions to collection.
Having a long-time interest in Asian affairs, but but not very knowledgeable about Asian art, I enjoyed my visit to this museum. The collection is eclectic, making no claims to be all-encompassing, but interesting nonetheless. The art objects were simply displayed, and the descriptions in most cases well-done and educational, if not entertaining. The museum is easy to navigate, and manageable in size so that it is suitable for families with children and those adults, myself included, who were not born with the "I-like-to-spend-all-day-in-a-museum" gene.All-in-all, a good value for the price of admission.
I may be a little spoiled with having the Minneapolis Institute of Art(which has a huge Asian exhibit) in my back yard and having just walked through the Bishop museum a few days prior in Honolulu. Admission runs $10 and the museum is nice, but I found it a bit underwhelming. The MIA is free and has a much larger collection on display than the USC Pacific Asia Museum. Still it was fun to see some new pieces of art and their courtyard is very serene. I don't know if you could spend too much more than an hour here, and they have free parking which is nice.
Pacific Asia Museum is small, but it has a wonderful collection of Asian art. The building that contains the art is as beautiful and interesting as the art. This is definitely worth a visit.
I was there for a private tour and cocktail party. The staff were welcoming and the guided tour was fun and informative.