Bowers Seeking Ties to Major Museums

The Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana is brokering separate deals with the British Museum and the Smithsonian Institution to bring exhibits drawn from their collections to Southern California.

The first approval is expected Monday from the London-based British Museum Management Board, Bowers officials said. A final proposal must be approved by the British Museum board of trustees before the end of the month. The Smithsonian will also notify the Bowers of its official affiliate status by mid-June.

If the British Museum agrees, the proposal paves the way for a $10-million to $15-million expansion project that would include construction costs and the purchase of an approximate 2-acre site adjacent to the north side of the Bowers. Plans are to build a new wing that would draw its exhibits from the British Museum’s renowned Egyptian treasures and other collections.

Bowers President Peter C. Keller is working closely with Vivian Davies, keeper of Egyptian antiquities at the British Museum, to iron out details.

“I wanted to let you know that there is considerable enthusiasm here for your proposal that our institution should form a long-term relationship,” Davies wrote in an April 24 letter to the Bowers.

The shared artifacts will rotate on a long-term, impermanent basis as it is against the London museum’s charter to permanently loan its collection. Another stipulation is that the crown jewels are off-limits.

The expansion is sorely needed since the museum has brought in larger, more ambitious exhibitions, Keller said.

“We’re definitely running out of space,” Keller said. ‘We’ve had to reinstall a couple of our permanent exhibits to make room for [traveling shows], and we’d really like to put them back.” The association with the British institution, he says, will help the Bowers raise the necessary funds from government and private sources. The Bowers is hoping for financial support from the British Museum as well.

The Bowers also hopes to become an official affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. A proposal is being reviewed by the Smithsonian, said Alma R. Douglas, affiliations coordinator at the Washington, D.C.-based museum.

The Smithsonian has several affiliate sites in the U.S. The status allows museums to borrow from the Smithsonian’s collections at any time. The Bowers wants to display such items as Judy Garland’s red slippers between its larger exhibitions.

Presenting two large-scale exhibitions such as “Secret World of the Forbidden City: Splendors From China’s Imperial Palace” and “Egyptian Treasures From the British Museum” back to back last year put the Bowers on the map and opened the door for new options, Keller said.

“[The exhibitions] brought us credibility,” Keller said. “The niche we want to establish for ourselves is to bring the treasures from the great treasure houses of the world to Bowers.”