The Museum of Anthropology at UBC (MOA), is located just 20 minutes from downtown Vancouver↑, Canada↑. MOA houses one of the world's finest displays of Northwest Coast First Nations art in a spectacular building designed by celebrated Vancouver architect, Arthur Erickson. While MOA is best known for its collections of First Nations materials from the Northwest Coast of BC, the permanent collections (over 36,000 objects) are global in scope.
- Textiles
- There are about 6,000 textiles in the collection; about half of these come from Asia. Of particular note are the Cantonese Opera costumes that are considered some of the world's finest. There are also have excellent holdings from the Northwest Coast, Oceania, Africa, and South America.
- Historic Photography
- The MOA Archive contains approximately 90,000 photographs that cover a wide range of cultures, ethnographic subjects and historical events. The collection dates from the 1890s and is an important resource for researchers, writers and communities.
- Africa
- There are approximately 2,800 objects in the African collection. The earlier collections came to MOA via missionaries, travelers, and ex-colonial officers. The collection includes masks, Yoruba thorn carvings, over 100 Makonde figures from Tanzania, approximately 100 Asante Gold weights, weaponry from South Africa and ca. 100 mortuary objects from Egypt.
- Asia (China, Japan, Korea, India)
- About 40% of MOA's collection is from Asia. The Chinese collections include between 1,000 - 1,500 pieces of Chinese ceramics, Chinese calligraphy and paintings (with four recently identified masterpieces from the collection of Ho Ping-ti). In addition, there is a large collection of Japanese prints, Buddhist art, Hindu art (including Gandhara sculpture), textiles and clothing, and Indian Calendar prints. Other collections include 2,300 Chinese coins and amulets, 200 Sichaun blue thread embroideries dating to circa 1900, rare Tibetan robes, and masks from Noe (Japan), Sunni and Kolam (Sri Lanka), and Pongsan and Yangju (Korea).
MOA is currently engaged in a $55.5 million expansion and renewal project called 'A Partnership of Peoples.'[1] By project completion in January 2010, we will have dramatically redesigned our former Visible Storage Galleries (renamed the Multiversity Galleries), and created a digital network (the Reciprocal Research Network) linking Northwest Coast collections in institutions worldwide. Also envisioned are exciting new exhibit galleries, visitor amenities, and state-of-the-art educational and public programming spaces.
References[]
- ↑ Renewal Project, Museum of Anthropology at UBC.