San Diego Museum of Art

Exhibitions: the Museum presented a broad range of exhibitions during the year. These were created from the Museum's own collection, as well as borrowed from other museums and lenders. Monet to matisse: impressionist masterpieces from the bemberg foundation, terra: fernando casasempere, justin sterling: chapel of the rocks, sergio hernandez: embers of oaxaca, young Art 2023: comfort and calm and o'keeffe and moore were some of the exhibitions presented during fiscal year 2023.monet to matisse: impressionist masterpieces from the bemberg foundation allowed the Museum to present additional, extraordinary works from the collection of georges bemberg. As a collector, bemberg gravitated toward the avant-garde artistic movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: impressionism and its subsequent post-impressionist variations. Artists represented in this exhibition included claude monet, paul cezanne, henri matisse, raoul dufy and pierre bonnard.terra: fernando casasempere is the chilean artist's first exhibition in the united states. He uses the earth as his medium as well as his subject. He explores ideas of landscape, architecture and history with a foreboding sense of environmental collapse. His work is culturally rooted in pre-columbian Art and the architecture of latin america. Casasempere's continual exploration and understanding of his media has achieved unprecedented results, combining clays that historically have not been able to be fired together, creating stable structures that appear to be teetering on the edge of destruction.justin sterling: chapel of the rocks immersed visitors in a beautiful space constructed of unconventional materials and provoking contemplation of the role of bad faith in society. The artist created a structure, suffused with light refracted through numerous stained-glass windows, which he had shattered with rocks and then rebuilt in new ways. The windows and other items were salvaged from the streets of new york city and evoke various policies that he describes as exemplifying the concept of bad faith. Another inspiration for the work was an interfaith spiritual space filled with large paintings by mark rothko. In keeping with the inclusive spirit, the gallery space will be shared with works from different spiritual traditions from the Museum's permanent collection.sergio hernandez: embers of oaxaca is one of the most recognized artists of his generation in mexico. His works often reflect his indigenous heritage, including the zapotec and mixtec cultures of mesoamerica. He also focuses on the wonders of the natural world, including native species of the region, the pacific ocean and the constellations of the night sky. His use of local materials such as sand and cochineal (the beetle-based red pigment developed before the spanish conquest by indigenous zapotec artists and subsequently exported around the world as the "perfect" red) tie his art-making practice to important local and indigenous traditions.young Art 2023: comfort and calm is the biennial exhibition featuring artwork by kindergarten through 12th-grade students in San Diego county and tijuana. Now in its 47th year, this is the longest running program at the Museum. The theme of comfort and calm invited youth to share their own lived experiences in finding, receiving or offering comfort and calm and to express those ideas and interpretations through personal visual storytelling in the media of their choice. O'keeffe and moore is a one-of-a-kind exhibition comparing the work of two iconic modernists: american painter Georgia o'keeffe and british sculptor henry moore. Although the artists worked on different continents, their careers and contributions to the artistic development of the 20th century reveal many parallels. The exhibition unites the work of these artists for the first time and re-creates their studios in the Museum with their original contents of found objects, tools and furnishings. Visitors were able to explore their working practices and see how the humble objects inspired some of their most important artistic creations. The common ground between these two artists can be found in the inspiration each took from nature and their enduring association with the landscapes that were an essential part of their life's work. The exhibition will also travel to the albuquerque Museum and the montreal Museum of fine arts.the Museum presented smaller exhibitions in its permanent collection galleries, such as wang qingsong: social mobility, picasso: drawings and prints, lisa ross: elegy to a uyghur homeland, carlo miranda: in search of sonder, and bruce davidson, along with rotations in the Museum's permanent collection galleries. In the ongoing effort to advance the Museum's goal of making Art more accessible, the Museum continued to offer free admission to ages 17 and under. The Museum continued to offer its smartphone app to provide additional interactive experiences, including the augmented reality feature, which brings Art to life. The app is free to download and can be used at home as well as on the premises. Since its launch, the app has over 70,000 downloads and includes 16 augmented reality experiences, 725 audio stops and 119 videos. In fy23, the app was used offsite in 35 states and 36 countries. These diverse exhibitions and their complementary programs resulted in the Museum welcoming approximately 434,000 visitors in fiscal year 2023.

Programs: the Museum offers a broad range of programming throughout the year. These programs include musical performances, films, educational seminars, classes, lectures and symposia. In fy23, the Museum continued collaborations with local arts institutions, such as the San Diego shakespeare society and the San Diego opera. These programs were offered in-person and through the Museum's social media and youtube channels. The Museum continued its partnership with Art of elan. This concert series aims to bring the excitement of classical music to diverse audiences through innovative programming. The Museum's education department is embarking on providing programming under the vision of Art and empathy. This is designed to promote equity and inclusion to ensure the Museum's continued mission of connecting the community to Art. In fy23, there were 16,750 participants in the Art and empathy programming.

Collections: the Museum's mission is, in part to care for its collections, which includes more than 20,000 works of Art. The collection is the Museum's greatest asset. Its works of Art are displayed on a rotating basis within the Museum and are frequently lent to other institutions for exhibition elsewhere. The Museum also seeks to acquire Art which will enhance its collection. During fiscal year 2023, the Museum acquired a painting by ignacio zuloaga, portrait of esther de garay y garay. The painting fills a crucial gap in the Museum's collection of spanish modernism. The Museum also acquired the sculpture, foundation, by fernando casasempere. This sculpture was exhibited at the Museum in the chilean artist's first united states exhibition and will now be installed in the Museum's sculpture garden. The Museum's annual mehregan fall fete, presented in collaboration with the persian cultural center, resulted in the acquisition of an ink and acrylic painting by pouran jinchi and several prints by hamid rahmanian. Another significant acquisition was a painting by cuban surrealist, wifredo lam. He played a significant role in the development of modern Art in the 20th century. The untitled painting features three horned, mask-like faces of african sculpture. These faces allude to a deity form the afro-cuban religion santeria. With this central motif, lam not only pays homage to afro-cuban culture, he also invokes the transatlantic paths he forged through his line and Art across latin america, europe and north america. In addition, the Museum worked on the conservation of several sculptures that are installed in the sculpture garden and in the front of the Museum. Conservation also began on works of Art to be featured in future exhibitions, both at the Museum and at other institutions.

Other program services: during the fiscal year ended june 30, 2023, the Museum served an audience of approximately 434,000 visitors from local, regional, national and international audiences. The Museum produced two issues of its member's magazine. In addition, the Museum produced a catalog to accompany the o'keeffe and moore exhibition. The Museum was supported by approximately 7,000 members during the year.