The Lee Collection

The Hanford Bonsai Society, one of the country's oldest bonsai organizations founded in 1955, and The Ruth & Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese Art at the Clark Center have collaborated to establish California's newest bonsai collection. The collection is housed on the Institute grounds and selected trees from the collection are regularly exhibited on dates coinciding with scheduled docent tours of the museum gallery. Members of the Hanford Bonsai Society care for and docent the collection.

The Ruth & Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese Art, a non-profit organization, was opened to the public in 1996 in order to exhibit one of the most extensive and important collection of Japanese art in the western world. The museum boasts major holdings of hanging scrolls, folding screens, woodblock prints, ceramics, and sculptures, with some of the earliest pieces dating from the 900's. Recently, 95 rare and valuable pieces returned from a five-city tour in Japan. The Institute offers four major exhibitions a year, as well as lectures and special educational programs. The Institute also sponsors a resident scholar program wherein selected interns may work toward graduate degrees by studying the art while in residence at the Institute.

For information regarding the bonsai collection and bonsai related programs at the Institute, please contact Bob Hilvers at (559) 909-1051 or e-mail him at bonsaigui@comcast.net

For information regarding the Ruth & Lee Sherman Institute for Japanese Art at the Clark Center, call (559) 582-4915 or visit their web site at www.shermanleeinstitute.org.

The mission of the Ruth & Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese Art, which is to collect, preserve, study, exhibit, and educate the public about works of fine art, with the focus being on the arts of Japan, will be furthered by offering patrons and visitors the opportunity to view the art of bonsai. Among several unique aspects of the bonsai collection at the Institute will be a section of the collection dedicated as Legacy Bonsai. These will be bonsai that are specimen examples of the art as practiced by noted bonsai artists. The purpose for establishing the Legacy portion of the collection is to provide a venue to preserve these priceless examples of the art lest we lose them forever when artists pass away and family or friends do not have the ability or the desire to care for the trees. The Institute will provide a place where these trees will be maintained and exhibited in the original aesthetic state created by the original artist. In this way, a living history of the art may be preserved and studied for many years to come.

Nestled unobtrusively in a sprawling walnut orchard six miles south of the historic and picturesque agri-community of Hanford in the heart of California's San Joaquin valley, the Ruth & Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese Art hosts thousands of visitors annually from all over the world. From serious scholars to sophisticated art connoisseurs to the simply interested visitor, all find delight and fascination with the visual power and aesthetics of the works of art on display.