Pacific Bonsai Museum

Collections: in 2022, Pacific Bonsai Museum served over 55,000 visitors to the Museum, ranking us in the top 17 museums visited in king county, as recognized by the puget sound business journal. The Museum is committed to inclusivity and equitable access with our visitors, volunteers, members, and supporters. We welcome everyone to discover the art and beauty of Bonsai. We remain an "admission by donation" Museum ensuring equitable access for everyone in our community. Pacific Bonsai Museum stewards a Collection of 150 Bonsai that are among the finest examples of Bonsai anywhere in the world. One of only two museums in the united states solely dedicated to Bonsai, and one of only a handful of Bonsai museums worldwide, Pacific Bonsai Museum maintains a Collection of 150 Bonsai which rotate regularly when new exhibitions are mounted. The Collection is also the most geographically diverse Bonsai Collection in the united states, with trees from canada, china, japan, korea, taiwan, and the united states featuring sixty trees on exhibit at a given time, open to the public six days a week. This cultural gem offers contemporary and traditional Bonsai exhibitions, group tours, education programs, field trips, and public events.

Public programs: partnerships - we partnered with the puget sound Bonsai association to bring bonsaifest! To the Museum, a free community event focused on learning about the art of Bonsai and furthering our mission of connecting people to nature through the living art of Bonsai. We added a new summer Bonsai solstice in june, an open-house style, free community event featuring en plein air painters, live music, and an opportunity to view the Collection. Bonsai winter solstice event, a free community event featuring a quiet stroll in the woods to explore Bonsai illuminated by soft lights. Visitors are encouraged to byof (bring-your-own-flashlight) to explore the Bonsai by night. Open to the whole community. Kid- and family-friendly. We held virtual and in-person docent-led tours and welcomed several student field trips to the Museum after a covid hiatus. We continued with our newly created virtual tours and virtual field trips, provided free of charge to our community. During the covid-19 pandemic we added virtual tours and field trips, offerings which continue to be popular and engage an audience who may not be able to otherwise visit the Museum. This effort is part of our dedication to promoting equitable access for everyone in our community.

Exhibitions & innovation: a gallery of trees exhibition: see the Bonsai that started our Collection and follow their journey through today. Thirty-nine trees on display, some in their 1989 positions nestled among the (now taller) trees surrounding our exhibition area. This Collection represents some of the finest Bonsai in the world. Degroot retrospective: for the length of his 25-year tenure as the original curator of the Collection, de groot actively sought to elevate the public's appreciation of Bonsai. He continues to expand Bonsai art through his work with students and his own Bonsai. This exhibition from his personal Collection represented the breadth of his technical ability, artistry, and talent for turning something with humble origins into a beautiful work of art. More than 30 exquisite "viewing stones" were displayed in stone images xi, a free, public exhibition at Pacific Bonsai Museum in federal way, Washington for 10 weeks starting november 4, 2022. Stones in the exhibition were collected in Washington, California, north and south dakota, Oregon, and new mexico. The practice of viewing and appreciating stones dates back more than 1,500 years. The art originated in china, japan, and korea, but has spread during the past century and is now practiced worldwide.