Historical Tibetan Shrine Room at Mia
Saturday, October 26, 2024 at 9:34AMArticle by Becky Fillinger, photos provided
Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room
A Discussion with Matthew Welch, Mary Ingebrand Pohlad Deputy Director and Chief Curator at Mia
Matthew WelchMia unveiled a new fully installed historical Tibetan Shrine Room in September. The Shrine Room is a multi-sensory experience featuring more than 200 new pieces of Tibetan Buddhist art, generously donated by Alice Kandell, a New York collector. We talked to Chief Curator, Matthew Welch, about the significance of the donation, Mia’s extensive Asian collections, and partnership with Twin Cities Tibetan organizations. I recommend visiting the Shrine Room on every visit to Mia; it will center you and prepare you to leave your cares behind and enjoy the many wonders of Mia.
Q: Can you provide us with timeline on Mia’s Asian collections?
A: Mia has long been celebrated for its exceptional collections of Asian art. We were the recipient of Asian objects even before our opening in 1915. John Bradstreet (1914), Alfred Pillsbury (150 bronzes; 194 jades) in 1950, Richard P. Gale (over 300 prints in 1974), Louis W. Hill, Jr. some 1500 works of Japanese art in the 1970s, Mary Griggs Burke, over 670 works of art in 2012, Willard Clark some 1700 works of art in 2013, and over 2000 objects from Bruce B. Dayton over the course of his 70-year involvement with the museum.
Q: Please give us a historical perspective on the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room - why is the donation by Alice Kandell significant?
A: Of course, with this gift, Mia becomes one of the country's great repositories of Tibetan art. Besides the importance, beauty, and workmanship of each object, the extraordinary thing that Alice has done is to bring it all together to evoke a traditional Tibetan sacred space in all of its richness and complexity as it would have existed in a historic Tibetan home.
Kandell says that the objects were not considered ‘art’ by the original owners, who would have included them in the family’s shrine room. The objects were necessary for daily rituals and offerings.
The Twin Cities is home to approximately 5,000 people of Tibetan descent, the second largest population in the United States - following Queens, NY - so it is especially meaningful to have them here at Mia.
