SAN DIEGO—Two programs during the month of March will provide context for SDMA's rare exhibition of ancient Roman frescoes, In Stabiano: Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite, and will include a family-friendly performance of "Androcles and the Lion." This classic tale set in ancient Rome will be performed by actors from the Old Globe on Saturdays, March 4 and 11. In addition, on Friday, March 10, SDMA's library manager, James Grebl, Ph.D., will give an historic account of the eruption of Vesuvius in his lecture "Recovering Antiquity: The Discovery and Excavation of the Vesuvian Towns and Villas."

Also this month, the exhibition American Ceramics 1884-1972 features rarely seen pieces from the Museum's collection and will be the topic of two Insight Gallery Talks on Thursday, March 9, and Sunday, March 12. The exhibition will also be discussed by Dr. Martin Eidelberg, a noted historian and authority on Art Nouveau, in his lecture "Myths of Style and Nationalism: American Art Pottery at the Turn of the Century," on Thursday, March 16.

Finally, the San Diego Ballet returns to SDMA from Friday, March 24, to Sunday, March 26, with their new performance "Pop Art." This exhilarating performance includes two world premieres created especially for the Museum's 80th anniversary.

For more information on the Museum's performances and lectures, please call (619) 696-1966. To purchase tickets, please call Ticketmaster at (619) 220-8497. Museum members receive the discounted price for each of the events listed. Programs and artists are subject to change.

Museum hours: Tuesday-Wednesday, Friday-Sunday: 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.; Thursday: 10:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.

Admission to the galleries: Adults, $10; seniors (65+) and active military, $8; students with ID, $7; youth (6-17), $4; 5 and under free.

Gallery tours: The Museum's docents offer free public tours of the galleries on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., and on Fridays and Sundays at 1:00 and 2:00 p.m.

SDMA offers free admission for school groups and youth organizations with advance reservations. Call the education department at (619) 231-1996 for more information.

Water's Café @ SDMA: Open Tuesday-Friday, 11:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Saturday-Sunday, 11:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Reservations are not required. For more information, call the café at (619) 237-0675.


EXHIBITIONS

Continuing
In Stabiano: Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite
February 18-May 14, 2006
This rare traveling exhibition of Roman frescoes features 72 objects, all from the Roman villas of ancient Stabiae, an exclusive retreat for Rome's elite classes located on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Naples (approximately 4.5 kilometers southeast of Pompeii). Included in this spectacular exhibition are 24 ancient frescoes, many of the very highest quality, 11 stuccoes, as well as other significant art objects and archeological artifacts. The exhibition will also display a complete three-wall triclinium (dining room) fresco from Carmiano.

American Ceramics 1884-1972
February 25-September 3, 2006
Organized by the San Diego Museum of Art, this exhibition showcases ceramics from the Arts and Crafts and Studio Pottery movements and features works from SDMA's collection and loans from public and private collections in Southern California. During the 1930s, the Museum's founding director, Reginald Poland, began acquiring ceramics by Glen Lukens, Beatrice Wood, and Laura Andreson. In 1940 he met Getrud and Otto Natzler and invited them to exhibit their collaborative work at the Museum, their first solo exhibition. American Ceramics also presents works from the Rookwood, Grueby, Van Briggle, Newcomb, and Pewabic potteries as well as those by George E. Ohr. Ceramics by 20th-century studio potters, Marguerite Wildenhain, Harrison McIntosh, and Rolf Key-Oberg are also included, and special attention is given to San Diego firms such as the Valentien and Markham potteries.

Contemporary Links 4-James Hyde: Luminous Platforms and Relaxed Seating
February 18-April 30, 2006
Known for his intelligent exploration of pictorial abstraction through the use of alternative materials, artist James Hyde is creating site-specific domestic interventions in the exhibition space of Tracking and Tracing: Contemporary Acquisitions 2000-2005, SDMA's current installation of its contemporary collection. The fourth installment of the Museum's acclaimed Contemporary Links series, Hyde's installation features three reading areas with furniture made of Plexiglas, lighting, galvanized steel, Styrofoam, vinyl, and other materials that are designed to reshape the visitor's previous experience of the exhibition space.

Tracking and Tracing: Contemporary Acquisitions 2000-2005
December 17, 2005-July 9, 2006
This exhibition consists of approximately 90 works, plus a video program, that have come into the San Diego Museum of Art's collection through purchase or donation from 2000 to 2005. The exhibition tracks recent institutional history as represented in the acquisition strategies implemented in the last five years-during which time SDMA's contemporary collection has grown greatly-and traces links between and across these new additions to the collection. The exhibition demonstrates the Museum's collection priorities and also displays works that document exhibitions organized by SDMA.

The Eye of the Collector, the Wishes of the Donor, the Spirit of the Philanthropist: Modern European Paintings at SDMA
December 17, 2005-April 15, 2007
In honor of the Museum's 80th anniversary, this unique exhibition pays tribute to the generous individuals who shaped SDMA's collection of modern European painting. Works are grouped according to their donor, focusing attention on their interests, tastes, and connoisseurship. Pieces on display include visitor favorites such as William Bouguereau's Young Shepherdess, given by Mr. and Mrs. Edwin S. Larsen in 1968, and Joaquín Sorolla's María at La Granja, from Mr. and Mrs. Archer M. Huntington, the very first object to enter the collection in 1925.

Devotional Arts of Nepal
September 17, 2005-April 2, 2006
In Nepal's Kathmandu valley, Buddhism and Hinduism enjoyed a peaceful coexistence for over 1,500 years. A new display of nearly 40 artworks, drawn in large part from the Museum's Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, explores the fruits of this commingling of art associated with Buddhist and Hindu devotional practices. The exhibition consists of paintings, sculptures, and objects from Nepal, Tibet, and India. The Museum's upper rotunda features a related display of works highlighting the devotional arts of Tibet.

Tastes in Asian Art
November 6, 2004-June 25, 2006
View the latest rotation of some of the most significant works in SDMA's extensive Asian collection in this fresh thematic display in the Asian Court. Bringing back well-known works, while introducing new and rarely exhibited objects, the exhibition highlights the diverse tastes of different social groups-the imperial ruling class, scholars, warriors, and common people-and features a separate section dedicated to religious art. New to the current installation of Tastes in Asian Art is a recently restored Persian tile painting. In addition, the rotation features prints by Hiroshige, a fine 17th-century hanging scroll painting, and a dozen new Islamic paintings-further examining the tastes of various social classes across the Asian continent.


MARCH EVENTS CALENDAR

March 1, Wednesday
5:30 p.m. CONCERT Jazz in the Park: Jazz and the American Song: Marvin Stamm and Bill Mays
Jazz standards from the Great American Songbook are played by stellar New York musicians, pianist Bill Mays and trumpeter Marvin Stamm. Joining them on bass and drums are Tom Warrington and Jazz in the Park favorite, Joe La Barbera.
$14 museum and KSDS members and students/$17 nonmembers, James S. Copley Auditorium

March 3, Friday
10:00 a.m. LECTURE "Picture Perfect: Costume in Art and Cinema"
In keeping with the Academy Awards season, Holly Poe Durbin, assistant professor of costume design at SDSU, compares costumes in film and SDMA's paintings. Part of the Docent Guest Lecture Series.
$10, James S. Copley Auditorium

March 4, Saturday
7:00 p.m. CONCERT Nishat Khan (at the Neurosciences Institute)
Heir to the 400-year-old musical tradition of India's celebrated Khan family, Nishat Khan is considered today's foremost sitar virtuoso. Khan remains true to his roots in the North Indian classical idiom, while he weaves in styles as diverse as Gregorian chant, Western classical music, abstract jazz, and flamenco. Currently at the height of his career, Nishat Khan is especially known for his deeply soulful renditions of ragas. This concert is presented by SDMA's Committee for the Arts of the Indian Subcontinent.
$20 members/$25 nonmembers/$15 students, Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla

March 4 and 11, Saturday
10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. THEATER "Androcles and the Lion"
Set in ancient Rome, this classic tale tells of a slave boy who removes a splinter from a lion's paw. Written in the style of Commedia dell?arte, this slapstick comedy features six members of the Old Globe's acting company and is presented in conjunction with In Stabiano: Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite. Performances last approximately one hour and will be most enjoyed by children 7 years and up.
$5 adults/$3 youth under 18, James S. Copley Auditorium

March 9, Thursday
7:00 p.m. CONCERT Pacific Camerata
Dan Ratelle and the 16-member a capella vocal ensemble returns to the Museum for an evening of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music. Pacific Camerata began in 1994 and has performed with the Irish group The Chieftans and the San Diego Symphony.
$12 members/$15 nonmembers (includes same-day museum admission), Hibben Gallery

March 9, Thursday 6:00 p.m.
March 12, Sunday 3:00 p.m.
GALLERY TALK "American Ceramics"
John Digesare, SDMA registrar, tours this new exhibition of rarely seen ceramics from the Museum's collection that he organized. Part of the Insight Gallery Talk Series.
Free with museum admission, Meet in rotunda

March 10, Friday
10:00 a.m. LECTURE "Recovering Antiquity: The Discovery and Excavation of the Vesuvian Towns and Villas"
James Grebl, Ph.D., SDMA's library manager, offers an historic account of the exploration, exploitation, and conservation of the ancient Roman sites buried by the eruption of Vesuvius, in conjunction with the exhibition In Stabiano. Part of the Docent Guest Lecture Series.
$10, James S. Copley Auditorium

March 16, Thursday
11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
LECTURE "Myths of Style and Nationalism: American Art Pottery
at the Turn of the Century"
Dr. Martin Eidelberg, a noted historian, author, and authority on Tiffany glass and Art Nouveau, makes his SDMA debut in conjunction with American Ceramics 1884-1972. Dr. Eidelberg is professor emeritus of art history at Rutgers University and holds a Ph.D. in art history from Princeton University. Part of the Meet the Masters Lecture Series.
$10 members/$12 nonmembers/$8 students with ID, James S. Copley Auditorium

March 17, Friday
10:00 a.m. LECTURE "Comparing Collections: SDMA and the Kimbell Art Museum"
Malcolm Warner, Ph.D., senior curator, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, and former curator of European art at SDMA, explores how the similarities and differences between the two collections illustrate the variety of factors that shape collections. Part of the Docent Guest Lecture Series.
$10, James S. Copley Auditorium

March 19, Sunday
2:00 p.m. CONCERT Old Masters of Music and Art: Courtly Noyse
Laury Flora and Penelope Hawkins lead this versatile, six-member ensemble that evokes the true period spirit by using various instruments and vocal renditions of Renaissance music.
Free with admission, Hibben Gallery

March 24 and 25, Friday and Saturday, 8:00 p.m.
March 26, Sunday, 7:00 p.m.
DANCE San Diego Ballet: "Pop Art"
Following in the steps of last year's provocative "Eternally Bad," this year's offerings are sure to exhilarate and enthrall. "Pop Art" celebrates the brash, irreverent movement which changed the world's view of what constitutes "Art with a capital A." Witness the rousing clash of tongue-in-cheek humor and breathtaking beauty. The evening also includes two world premieres created especially for the Museum's 80th anniversary.
$20 members/$25 nonmembers/$10 students, James S. Copley Auditorium

March 31, Friday
10:00 a.m. LECTURE "Nepalese Devotional Art"
Sonya Quintanilla, Ph.D., SDMA curator of Asian art, talks about the Indian and Tibetan influences in Nepalese art as demonstrated in the exhibition Devotional Arts of Nepal. Part of the Docent Guest Lecture Series.
$10, James S. Copley Auditorium

Museum Information
San Diego Museum of Art
1450 El Prado, Balboa Park
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 122107
San Diego, CA 92112-2107
General Information: (619) 232-7931/ Facsimile: (619) 232-9367
Web site: www.sdmart.org

The historic San Diego Museum of Art provides a rich and diverse cultural experience for more than 400,000 annual visitors. Located in the heart of beautiful Balboa Park, the Museum's nationally renowned collections include Spanish and Italian old masters, South Asian paintings, and 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and sculptures. In addition, the Museum regularly features major exhibitions of art from around the world, as well as an extensive year-round schedule of supporting cultural and educational programs.

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