Laserfiche WebLink
PERMANENT EXHIBITIONS <br />CALIFORNIA LEGACIES: MISSIONS AND RANCHOS (1768-1848) <br />ONGOING <br />GEMSTONE CARVINGS: MASTERWORKS BY HAROLD VAN PELT <br />ONGOING <br />CERAMICS OF WESTERN MEXICO <br />ONGOING <br />THE FIRST CALIFORNIANS <br />ONGOING <br />California Legacies: Missions and Ranchos (1768-1848) features objects related to the settlement of Alta <br />California through Spanish land grants, life at the California Missions and the wealth and lifestyles of the <br />first families who flourished under Mexico`s rule of California known as the Rancho period. The collection <br />originating from Orange County`s missions and ranchos includes the first brandy still to be brought to <br />California, a statue of St. Anthony that originally stood in the Serra Chapel at Mission San Juan Capistrano, <br />a dispatch pouch used by Native Americans to deliver messages between missions, and fine clothing, <br />paintings and daily use objects. <br />For over 35 years Harold Van Pelt has quietly been perfecting the art of carving quartz, rock crystal and <br />agate gemstones. Gemstone Carvings: Masterworks by Harold Van Pelt is a display of his mastery. <br />Each work in the exhibition is a reflection of hundreds of hours of craftsmanship. Van Pelt’s working of the <br />stone down to paper-thin walls brings out the gorgeous natural quality and colors of agate and gives quartz <br />the transparency of glass. Transformed by one man’s vision and skill from a solid stone to an incredibly <br />delicate work of art, the gemstone carvings of Harold Van Pelt have to be seen to be believed. The Bowers <br />Museum is proud to welcome this collection back to Santa Ana, where it was first exhibited in 2010. <br />Encounter Pre-Columbian Art from the western Mexican states of Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco. Visitors <br />learn about West Mexican shaft tombs and the cultures that used this means of burying their dead. A <br />selection of the ceramic figures placed inside shaft tombs to accompany the deceased in the afterlife are <br />on display. The exhibition includes artworks that depict imagery from daily life, that show the intensity of <br />West Mexican figurative work and that are naturalistic in form like the famously plump Colima dogs. <br />This extensive collection of Native Californian art and artifacts demonstrates the culture and history of the <br />Southern California Coastal Indians. The visitor can explore the ways that Indians of the region interacted <br />with their environment for food, clothing, adornment, and religion. The exhibition is presented in the <br />Richard P. Ettinger Gallery. <br />  <br />  <br />City Council 8 – 39 6/4/2024