Mingei International Museum

This guide to the Mingei International Museum in San Diego follows architect Jennifer Luce's decision, during a fifty-five-million-dollar rebuild, to commission five working artists and craftspeople to build the museum's own furniture rather than buying it. It moves through Billie Tsien's stone-inspired benches, Petra Blaisse's jacaranda-patterned curtain, Claudy Jongstra's felted mural, and Sharon Stampfer's forged door handles, each carrying its own hidden reference. Along the way it traces the word Mingei itself back to founder Martha Longenecker's travels in Japan.