Happy New Year and thank you for your support of the San José Museum of Art! We are proud to announce we have been awarded Re-Accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the gold standard of museums nationwide. Peer review ensures SJMA’s educational role and promise to the community as an inclusive and accessible place to gather and learn. AAM Accreditation requires good governance and the highest ethical standards. This badge of honor is awarded to only 1103 museums of the nation’s 33,000, and we are so grateful to our talented staff, devoted volunteers, and Board of Trustees who participated in this process, along with our community partners with whom we share this distinction.   
 
In the report of the AAM Accreditation Commission, the Visiting Committee wrote of SJMA’s strong partners who expressed the critical importance of the Museum as a planning and presentation stakeholder and said, “The Museum is clearly part of a larger community team.”  
 
Our values and our community engagement remain more important than ever, as we endeavor to ensure a collaborative and equitable internal culture. Recent conversations in the Equity Task Force affirm the Museum as a place for open dialog and support for divergent opinions. At SJMA, we have pledged to be a place of deliberate listening, learning, and sharing, while fostering empathetic human connections. At the center of our values is a commitment to nurturing a sense of belonging and welcome for all members of our diverse community and making community relevance a core component of exhibition and programming decisions. As we continue leading with and centering artists’ unique perspectives and practices, we provide crucial programs that inspire creativity, visionary inquiry, and critical thinking. In our exhibitions and arts education programs inside the Museum and out in the schools—these values are united by the most central pledge to our community—to contribute to the vibrancy of San José. 
 
We have an exciting season ahead bringing artists who pioneer innovation for positive change, so don’t miss Creative Minds with Analia Saban and Chelsea Thompto, If toxic air is a monument to slavery, how do we take it down?’s opening, and the first long-term installation of SJMA’s impressive collection of intimate works by Alexander Calder. We look forward to seeing you at SJMA! 

S. Sayre Batton | Oshman Executive Director