Verso

Robert Hori, the gardens cultural curator and program director at The Huntington, was invited to serve as guest curator for an exhibition at the Portland Japanese Garden. The collaborative result is “Gifts from Japan: A Horticultural Tale Told through Botanical Art,” an exhibition that focuses on the intersection of garden arts, horticulture, and botany through a selection of botanical illustrations from The Huntington, the Botanical Artists Guild of Southern California, and invited botanical artists from Japan. 

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of time that people spent focused on screens was an issue of concern. Sarah Wilson of the Autry Museum had an idea: bring together museum education staff to find an innovative way to serve the needs of children and families beyond online learning.

Miki Hayakawa’s From My Window—on loan from the collection of Sandra and Bram Dijkstra in The Huntington’s Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art—captures a specific place and time.

Why do museums matter? It’s a question on the minds of many museum leaders today, including Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, who spoke at The Huntington last month with Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence and Huntington Governor Robert C. Davidson Jr. The event, held in a packed Rothenberg Hall, was part of the institution’s “Why It Matters” series.

Henry E. Huntington famously built a landmark collection of rare early editions of William Shakespeare’s plays and poems, which remain hugely important to scholars. But what about everyone else?

Reconstructing the social and economic lives of Japanese Americans in Los Angeles in the early to mid-20th century requires a great deal of sleuthing in the archives. One such useful resource is the humble and often-overlooked city directory, which can reveal a great deal about the history of the region and its residents.

Five remarkable collections that tell vivid stories from the perspectives of a broad range of historical figures landed at The Huntington recently, courtesy of the Library Collectors’ Council, a group of Huntington supporters who help fund the purchase of new materials to add to the institution’s holdings.

“Method and Material: Tempera Painting in Focus,” on view through Aug. 8 in the Huntington Art Gallery, brings together tempera works by William Blake, Joseph Edward Southall, George Tooker, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Mark Gertler, and Dunbar Byson Beck.