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Logo of de Saisset Museum featuring a stylized

We Are All Sacred

image with two seated children at center of composition in blue tones with swirling background of Tibetan iconography in full color

image with two seated children at center of composition in blue tones with swirling background of Tibetan iconography in full color

We Are All Sacred: Student Acquisitions on Identity, Community, and Enduring Existence

September 30 - December 2, 2022

(closed Nov. 21-27 for the academic break)

We Are All Sacred: Student Acquisitions on Identity, Community, and Enduring Existence showcases the forty-five artworks in the de Saisset Museum's permanent collection that were selected by SCU undergraduate students for the museum to purchase through Class Acquisitions Projects between 2006-2019. These projects, an ongoing collaboration with SCU's Department of Art and Art History, provide a unique experience for students to learn about museum collection management and help shape our collection for the future.
One of the de Saisset Museum's unique offerings remains the Class Acquisitions Projects developed in collaboration with Santa Clara University’s Department of Art and Art History. In these projects, SCU undergraduate students learn how museums develop and maintain a permanent collection, research artists and artworks aligned with their course and the museum's collecting goals, and ultimately select works for the museum to purchase for its permanent collection. To date, students have selected a combined forty-five artworks for the de Saisset's permanent collection, all of which are on display in this exhibition.
 
The artworks on view in We Are All Sacred: Student Acquisitions on Identity, Community, and Enduring Existence engage with a wide range of themes including statements of community or self, manipulating the Western art canon, natural topographies and the built world, and confronting policies that disadvantage people. The artists represented offer interpretations of the worlds they inhabit, revealing the many ways that the past can be reclaimed, life goes on, and the future can be rewritten. In these ways the works represent glimpses into the myriad paths on which individuals and their communities struggle, survive, thrive, or simply exist.
 
Artists: Dugan Aguilar, Mari Andrews, Rick Bartow, Sheila Pree Bright, Val Britton, Squeak Carnwath, Sue Coe, Janet Delaney, Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Katie Dorame, Mercedes Dorame, Katy Grannan, Kunlin He, Anthony Hernandez, Chester Higgins Jr., Jean LaMarr, Frank LaPena, Hung Liu, Roger Minick, George Miyasaki, Irene Poon, Sarah Sense, Tsherin Sherpa, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Carrie Mae Weems, and Linda Yao.
 
 
This exhibition was curated by Persia Liu (Class of 2022) in collaboration with Kelsey Elinski (Class of 2022) and Annika Singh (Class of 2023).
 
The companion virtual exhibition will soon be released.
 

 

Image above: Tsherin Sherpa, Children of Heaven #1, 2018, gouache, acrylic and ink on cotton, de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, work selected by students in SCU Professor Heather Clydesdale's winter 2019 class, ARTH 66: Fabricating Nature in East Asia. Funds for this purchase were made possible by the Hearst Foundation's Community Initiatives for the Arts grant (CIVA), 2019.6

 
Arts
Past

Related Programs

Community Day at Grand Reunion Weekend
Saturday, October 8, 2022 | 12-3 p.m.
Free

Join us for an afternoon of hands-on art making, scavenger hunt, photo station, and more related to our fall exhibitions. All are welcome to participate even if you're not registered for Grand Reunion Weekend. 

 

Other programs to be announced.