director’s message

We hope you and your family celebrated a joyous holiday season and New Year! We are grateful for your continued support and interest in our ongoing programs. Our world continues to be filled with unrest and tension. May we continue to teach tolerance in hopes the world will become a more peaceful place.

Our fall quarter was successful with the presentation of Experience Teaches: Santa Clara University Art Faculty Exhibition. This exhibition celebrated the artistic achievements of faculty in Santa Clara University’s Art and Art History Department, featuring the work of both tenured and tenure-track faculty and long-term lecturers in the studio area. As a companion exhibit, the de Saisset Museum featured a permanent collection exhibition curated by Art History faculty. The exhibition showcased the aesthetic diversity of the art department.

We offered three openings for the exhibit—one for the SCU community, one public reception, and one reception staged in Second Life, a virtual 3-D world which is completely built and owned by its “residents.” On Santa Clara Island in this virtual world, visitors were able to find a simulation of SCU’s new Learning Commons, the Mission Church, and the de Saisset Museum. Second Life offers a medium of communication and creative expression for today’s students who embrace tools such as instant messaging, social networking spaces, and multiplayer online games. We look forward to continuing to explore the medium for teaching, learning, and social networking.

With generous support from Mission City Community Fund we were able to offer interpretive materials for our temporary exhibits to cover the entire academic year in the form of Family Activity Guides and Guide-by-Cell audio tours. Our first offering of Guide-by-Cell was with the Experience Teaches exhibition. Our faculty members were able to record in-depth information about their individual artworks and visitors were able to call a number on their cell phone to access the audio content while looking at the artwork in the gallery. Many of our visitors took advantage of this program and could be found often in the galleries with their cell phones in hand.


Susan Prather, Great Egret, Elkhorn Slough, California, 2002, digital photograph, 9.3 x 14 in.

Last July the Museum lost a dear friend and dedicated volunteer, Susan Prather. She gave her valuable time to our organization for eight years and was getting prepared to be our next Docent Council Chair. She had an insatiable interest and curiosity for lifelong learning and demonstrated her commitment by getting involved in practically every aspect our organization. She worked as a collection volunteer on a weekly basis, served on the Museum Advisory Board in past years, and more recently became a California History docent who led fourth-grade schoolchildren through our permanent California History galleries. She was an avid photographer and loved to travel to places in California to document the various landscapes and wildlife. She also created a photo series documenting each of the California Missions, and Father Locatelli selected her photograph of the Santa Clara Mission as the image for his Christmas card several years ago. Susan spent much time with us, and we will miss her dedication, curiosity, humor, and wit. A white orchid has been on display in the Museum foyer to honor her memory.

See you in the galleries soon!

Rebecca M. Schapp
Director