People's Choice
26th April - 7th August 2005

People's Choice, an exhibition of people's favourite objects from the Museum's collection, opens at the Museum on 26th April 2005. This exhibition will be held in conjunction with Museum's and Galleries Month in May 2005 - Objects of Desire: The art of collecting.

With contributions from visitors, Museum Friends, staff, and trustees as well as local and national personalities, the exhibition aims to promote an understanding and enjoyment of East Asian Art at all levels. Using people's explanations as labels, the exhibition will explore the reasons why people have chosen certain objects. This interesting interpretation of the Museum's collection will provide a lively insight into how people view, understand and enjoy East Asian Art and culture.

This display includes items chosen by a range of famous faces as well as leading professionals in the field of East Asian Art. High profiled names such as Loyd Grossman (Presenter and Chairman for The Campaign for Museums), David Battie (BBC broadcaster/writer), The Mayor of Bath, Don Foster MP (Bath MP) and Colin Sheaf (International Head of Asian Art, Bonham's), have all chosen their favourite objects.

For Loyd Grossman it was just his love of bears which led him to choose a black jade recumbent bear from the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD). While Don Foster MP was ‘staggered by the standard of engineering skills' of a bronze cross-bow mechanism which was ‘achieved with none of today's modern equipment'.

David Battie loved the Chinese porcelain and was ‘besotted by the interaction between east and west' shown magnificently in a small Kangxi bowl. He even joked that if we didn't mind, ‘could we pack it up after the exhibition and send it to him'. In addition Colin Sheaf also chose porcelain but it was the Nabeshima dish ‘a fine and rare example of the best Japanese porcelain' , which caught his eye. 10 year old Daniel Adams like the gilt bronze Garuda because ‘it's the kind of thing I'd buy on holiday', while Kate Davies age 40+ liked the Khmer rabbit lime pot because ‘its both decorative and useful - an everyday object of beauty'.

With a wide range of inspiring comments, this show will offer visitors a wonderful insight into the art and cultures of China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia and highlight the incredible beauty of East Asian Art. The exhibition is on show until 14th August 2005. The Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and Sundays from 12noon to 5pm.

Throughout May, the Museum will be holding a series of events in celebration of Museums & Galleries Month (M&GM) 2005. This year the theme is “Objects of Desire: The art of collecting”. Visitors to the Museum can expect to find a range of activities all centred on the idea of the art of collecting. Discover all about Chinese ceramics on our weekend course of lectures by Founder and Honorary Keeper, Brian S. McElney, or discover more about your own hidden gems with our Curious Objects session. Throughout the month there will be lots of opportunities to discover more about the Museum's collection with our weekly Guide Friday tours as well as a handling session and lecture.