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In the spirit of global-local connections, this exhibition opening event is a celebration of the art of curation and its power to cultivate international perspectives in local spaces. In addition to highlighting the work of library staff and students, the event will feature professional curators from neighboring institutions for a conversation on the significance of curating material culture in the effort to re-imagine local histories, particularly the stories of Asian and Asian Americans in Los Angeles. A reception with light fare will follow and attendees will have the opportunity to explore the exhibition.

The spring 2024 gallery exhibition at the William H. Hannon Library, "Sounds, Words, Textures: Resonances of the Buddhist Tradition," is co-curated by special collections librarians and students enrolled in Eric Haruki Swanson’s Theological Studies course, “The Colors and Sounds of the Dharma.” The objects in the exhibition bring to light the visual and material culture of Buddhism as a dynamic, living tradition that developed across Asia and beyond.

Featured musical performance: Kenichiro Aiso (College of Communications and Arts, Music)

Featured speakers:

• Emily Anderson (Curator, Japanese American National Museum)
• Phillip Bloom (Curator of the Chinese Garden and Director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies at The Huntington Library)

Featured student curators:

• Osiris Guinea Zepeda
• Sam Yaziji

This event is co-sponsored by the William H. Hannon Library, the Bellarmine Forum (BCLA Dean’s Office), the Academy of Catholic Thought and Imagination (ACTI), and Theological Studies.

About the speakers

Phillip E. Bloom is the June and Simon K.C. Li Curator of the Chinese Garden and Director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies at The Huntington in San Marino, CA. He is a specialist in the history of gardens, designed landscapes, and Buddhist art of China's Song dynasty (960–1279). He received his Ph.D. in Chinese art history from Harvard University in 2013. Prior to joining The Huntington in 2017, he served as an assistant professor of East Asian art history at Indiana University, Bloomington, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Tokyo.

Emily Anderson is a Curator at the Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles). She has worked on a diverse range of exhibitions, the most recent of which is Don’t Fence Me In: Coming of Age in America’s Concentration Camps (March – Oct 2023). Others include Sutra and Bible: Faith and the Japanese American World War II Incarceration (February 26, 2022 – February 19, 2023) and Cannibals: Myth and Reality (San Diego Museum of Us, March 2016 - ongoing). She is also a scholar of religion and empire in Japan, and has published on Christianity in Japan, the Japanese empire, and Japanese immigrants before World War II. She holds a Ph.D. in modern Japanese history from UCLA (2010).