Hello and welcome to an action-packed summer at SJMA!  

The halls have been full of energy since the start of Kids Summer Art Camp, in late June. SJMA’s educators continue their creative engagement with another exciting season with our young art students. 

Behind the scenes, the Exhibitions team is deep in creative collaboration with the curators and artists in our summer blockbuster exhibitions. Opening July 11—Pao Houa Her: The Imaginative Landscape was already noted as a must-see by the KQED roundup, and is part of a multi-sited exhibition with the John Michael Kohler Art Center (JMKAC) in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Curated by Jodi Throckmorton (JMKAC) and Lauren Schell Dickens (SJMA), the project contextualizes Her’s work within a broader tradition of photography, while embracing the artist’s exploration of displacement, identity, and belonging within the context of the Hmong diaspora in the United States.  

The exhibition opens side by side with Young Bay Mud, where each artist uses mud as a conceptual framework to consider the relationship between humans and our local environment. The artists in this exhibition—Ashwini Bhat, Mercedes Dorame, Futurefarmers, Tanja Geis, and Joanna Keane Lopez—have each lived in Northern California and are informed by local histories and ecologies. Please join us at SJMA for the opening of these summer shows July 11, 6–9 pm! 

We are working together to present CityDance and partner with the San Jose Jazz Summerfest this summer, and look forward to seeing you at SJMA. 

The Staff of SJMA