pacific asia museum

Having a long-time interest in Asian affairs, but but not very knowledgeable about Asian art, I enjoyed my visit to this museum. The collection is eclectic, making no claims to be all-encompassing, but interesting nonetheless. The art objects were simply displayed, and the descriptions in most cases well-done and educational, if not entertaining. The museum is easy to navigate, and manageable in size so that it is suitable for families with children and those adults, myself included, who were not born with the "I-like-to-spend-all-day-in-a-museum" gene.All-in-all, a good value for the price of admission.

Still worth visiting. Interesting variety of Asian art but mixed quality of collection. New director making interesting additions to collection.

There were very interesting exhibits from Asia as well as Hawaii. The museum had an interesting flow as it followed around in a circle. Well organized. The shop had interesting items for sale.

I may be a little spoiled with having the Minneapolis Institute of Art(which has a huge Asian exhibit) in my back yard and having just walked through the Bishop museum a few days prior in Honolulu. Admission runs $10 and the museum is nice, but I found it a bit underwhelming. The MIA is free and has a much larger collection on display than the USC Pacific Asia Museum. Still it was fun to see some new pieces of art and their courtyard is very serene. I don't know if you could spend too much more than an hour here, and they have free parking which is nice.

I was there for a private tour and cocktail party. The staff were welcoming and the guided tour was fun and informative.

This is a relatively small museum with a wide variation of subjects covered. This means that there's not many items on any particular subject. You can get some audio information about, maybe, one item or one subject in a room by making a phone call and adding a specific number code. There is interesting stuff here, but I can't say that there's enough to warrant spending much time here.

Pacific Asia Museum is small, but it has a wonderful collection of Asian art. The building that contains the art is as beautiful and interesting as the art. This is definitely worth a visit.

I liked the building at least as much as the Asian art collections housed here. The exhibits need to be displayed better. Perhaps the new owners, USC will do an upgrade. Go and check out the building.

You can go through this place in an hour and see most everything, similar to the Norton Simon, also in Pasadena. It is just beautiful.

We visited the Asia Museum around Thanksgiving. We've been there a couple of times before, and came to see the special exhibitions and kill some time. One nice feature of the museum is that they are open kind of late on Saturday and Sunday, until 6PM. They also have a free parking lot for museum visitors. The museum is a little pricey, but it has nice exhibits, an interesting children's play area, and a beautiful central courtyard garden.

This is a wonderful little museum with beautiful relics from Asia and the Pacific, in a really lovely building with peaceful patio garden.

Small niche museum good for a half day visit. Interesting presentation and good introduction to the East Asian countries for those thinking of a visit. Good and peaceful place to spend an afternoon or evening.

The collection is extensive and covers a wide range of eras and geographical areas. I took a class there and learned a lot. Try to go when they have a guided tour.

Such a hidden Museum, for all to share. The staff, are quite and do not interrupt your visit. I think everyone should take time to visit. Your not rushed as you walk through throug exhibits, and no pressure to leave.

I first heard about the Pacific Asia Museum from an associate who lives in Ventura, California. He mentioned it when we visited the Huntington Library and Gardens in Pasadena and I immediately added it to my must photograph list. As it turned out this year I had business in Los Angeles once again so scheduled a day to visit the museum.I rented a car when I got to LAX and drove to the museum in about 45 minutes following my iPhone's turn-by-turn directions. There is a parking lot adjacent to the museum and there were still several spaces vacant. I arrived just before lunch so asked the receptionist if there was a cafe nearby where I could grab something to eat before I began exploring the galleries. She recommended a little cafe just a block away so it didn't take long to walk there, eat and return to the museum. The museum's collection encompasses 15,000 objects that span more than 4000 years and has representative items in galleries spaced around a central courtyard. All of the galleries are on the ground floor so there is no need to negotiate stairs.I had three hours to explore the museum before I had to leave for a reception in Ventura so decided to focus on the sculptures, ceramics and religious art. The museum also has one of the largest collections of Otsu-e folk paintings outside of Japan but I simply didn't have time to look through them.I began my visit in the galleries on the right side of the courtyard. These galleries contained Chinese, Korean and Japanese ceramics, jade items and decorator arts. One particularly interesting object was one of the few remaining examples of a late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE) folding horseshoe-shaped chair.In the galleries to the left of the courtyard I found a variety of objects from Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, India, southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. There was a wide assortment of very well preserved Buddhist and Hindu religious figures as well as colorfully painted carved wood Hindu deities from Bali.In addition to the historical art on display, the museum was also exhibiting some modern work by Asian artists. I wandered through a fascinating collection of hanging metalwork by Israel-based artist Penny Hes Yassour. It was like walking through a three dimensional Chinese ink painting. I was also stunned by the dramatic portraits of Asian women who found their way to the American West painted by Chinese-born American contemporary artist Hung Liu.With such a variety of artwork to enjoy, my time rapidly ran out so I made my way back to the museum's very well stocked gift shop. I asked the customer service person who I should ask to open the ironwork gate so I could leave the parking lot and she gave me a token to put in the coin slot of the automatic gate opener. This is important to remember as once you enter the museum's parking lot, a directional spike strip prevents you from leaving the way you entered.Although the museum was smaller than a number of other Asian museums I have visited, I thought it had an interesting blend of historical and contemporary Asian art and was well worth the time I spent there.