Mingei International Museum — Attraction in San Diego

I have been a member of this museum for over 10 years and enjoy visiting weekly and it pains me to write this review about my favorite museum in San Diego. However, the Mingei has recently cancelled an exhibit of Palestinian art and textiles , effectively censoring their voices during a pivotal moment in time. These voices deserve to be uplifted, not silenced. I was looking forward to such an important cultural event.

As an international museum you have no right to censor international art at the bequest of your well endowed monied donors. Your community demands better of you and in fact DESERVES better.

Censorship has absolutely no place in art, the same as it has no place in books or education.

I no longer feel safe in a museum who censors art and caters to powerful donors.

Art is for the people of our community to enjoy and learn from. Shame on you for making sure we can't do that

I will be cancelling my membership with Mingei and immediately ceasing all support of Balboa Park and its operations and I will be alerting my San Diego community to the great disservice you have done as you embarrassingly stand on the wrong...

Founded in 1978 by San Diego State University Professor of Art Martha Longenecker, Mingei International Museum collects, conserves, and exhibits arts of daily use by anonymous craftsmen of ancient times, from traditional cultures of past and present, and by historical and contemporary designers. Longenecker studied the art of pottery-making in Japan, becoming acquainted with and learning from the founders of the Mingei Association of Japan, which inspired her to bring the vision of mingei to America. Mingei means “art of the people,” and was coined by Japanese philosopher Soetsu Yanagi when he discovered the beauty of the Korean Yi dynasty pottery, which was largely taken for granted due to its abundance. Yanagi started collecting lots of Korean and Japanese pots and crafts, writing about them and displaying them in the first mingei museums, so that people could see truth and beauty in these anonymous objects. The Mingei International Museum has shared over 183 exhibitions in its years, covering a diverse range of cultures,...

I've been visiting San Diego museums all week and I have to say that this one was one of my favorites. They have a beautiful collection of hand crafted pieces that are full of fine details. What I appreciated most is how I enjoyed pretty much everything they had on display. A lot of museums I've been to were dull or only had a few cool things to look at. The curators here have great taste and I was fascinated by the variety of art this museum had offer. Downstairs had Japanese signs that are supposed to be a visual representation of the service offered (a tobacco shop sign was a giant pipe). The room next to that had some Indonesian shadow puppets on display and the amount of detail on each piece was mind-blowing. Upstairs had some nice saddles and jewelry pieces. The most stunning piece was this giant wall covered in super detailed tiles made of metal. This museum is enjoyably quiet and full of beautiful art. Definitely...