DALLAS, TX.- Marking its 20th year, the Crow Museum of Asian Art unveiled a multi-million-dollar expansion, a new name, and five new exhibitions including a stellar international debut along with a reflective collection of works that celebrates community leaders who have contributed to the organization’s success. Free and open to the public, the Crow Museum of Asian Art is the only museum in Texas dedicated to the arts and cultures of Asia.

Now that construction is complete, the reimagined nonprofit launched its next chapter as the Crow Museum of Asian Art, a name that reflects not only the breadth of the collection and programming but also the museum’s wide and diverse community support. Announced earlier this year, the renovation dramatically expands the museum’s footprint along the southwest corner of Harwood and Flora Streets in the Dallas Arts District. A new downstairs gallery now connects the existing upper galleries via a beautiful wood-and-glass staircase and new elevator. Newly designed using Feng shui, the museum’s award-winning Lotus Shop – with its exquisite and exclusive Asian-inspired gifts and collectibles at various price points – features a pedestrian-friendly street entrance along Flora Street.

“Two decades ago, Margaret and Trammell Crow created a haven within the Dallas Arts District so that people of North Texas might experience and learn more about the arts and cultures of Asia,” said Amy Lewis Hofland, executive director of the Crow Museum of Asian Art. “I believe they would be very proud to see their vision – with a new art studio, expanded galleries, inviting exteriors and dynamic exhibitions – continue to thrive in such a beautiful manner.”

The newly created Pearl Art Studio is an interactive “street-side” creative workspace situated across Olive Street on the north side of the Belo Pavilion. The studio, replete with oversized windows, serves as a place for families, corporate teams, individuals, school groups and artists to experience and experiment through workshops, classes and art-making opportunities.

Oglesby Greene Architects of Dallas, which handled previous renovations of the museum, was the architect for the expansion, and The Beck Group was the general contractor.

Headlining the Museum’s rebirth is the stunningly majestic exhibition, Jacob Hashimoto: Clouds and Chaos. Throughout the history of Asian art, clouds have served many functions: as framing devices, interstitial motifs and as compositional boundaries. Hashimoto’s forthcoming central work, Nuvole — which means “clouds” — explores how clouds can function as divisions of space while remaining the apotheosis of ethereal formlessness. This new site-specific sculpture, which weaves around the gallery and over major works from the museum’s collection, shows how much can be found in both the intricate detail of minute components and the large-scale meanings that can result from their accumulation. Nuvole is joined by a selection of Hashimoto’s latest woodblock prints, exhibited for the first time in a U.S. museum.

A Colorado native, Jacob Hashimoto lives and works in New York. His work has been featured in solo museum exhibitions and gallery exhibitions throughout the U.S. and abroad, including Los Angeles, Rome, Venice, Germany and Finland, and his work is in the collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, EMMA - Saastamoinen Foundation (Helsinki), Schauwerk Sindelfingen (Germany), The California Endowment and in numerous other public collections. The exhibition runs Sept. 28, 2018-Apr. 7, 2019.

The next exhibition recognizes the contributions made by members of the community since founders Margaret and Trammell Crow opened the doors to the museum on December 5, 1998, as a gift to Dallas. Our Asian Art Museum: The Crow at Twenty pairs 20 masterworks from the museum’s permanent collection selected by numerous community leaders, including Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings; Caren Lock, board chair and a member of the executive committee at the Dallas Women’s Foundation; Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College; and Lily Weiss, executive director of the Dallas Arts District. The exhibition runs Sept. 28, 2018-Aug. 11, 2019.

Avatars and Incarnations: Buddhist and Hindu Art from the Collection explores the concept of divine avatars in Hindu and Buddhist art represented in the museum’s collection. In Hinduism and Buddhism, the concept of an avatar refers to the incarnation or physical manifestation of a deity, spirit or abstract quality in human or animal form. Each avatar is meant to counteract a particular problem, evil or suffering in the world. The artistic and visual representations of these deities change in style and appearance across time and place. Through these works of art, guests are invited to contemplate the endless variety of these divine Hindu and Buddhist figures. This exhibition runs Sept. 28, 2018, through Feb. 24, 2019.

The Art of Lacquer introduces lacquerware objects from the museum’s collections to showcase one of the most enduring and distinctive forms of craftsmanship in the world. Lacquerware objects are light, water-resistant and durable, and they can last for thousands of years. Some pieces are coated with more than 100 layers of lacquer and then carved into a detailed relief. Others demonstrate meticulous applications of mother-of-pearl to produce scenes with the scope of landscape paintings. Still others are painstakingly decorated with gold and silver powders. The rich history of this artistic tradition is revealed through a selection of compelling and distinctive pieces that feature historical figures, floral motifs and a variety of auspicious symbols. The exhibition runs Sept. 28, 2018-Jan. 6, 2019.

Immortal Landscapes: Jade from the Collection spotlights mountains, which lie at the heart of Chinese culture and art. A bridge between the human and transcendental realms, mountains have provided an enduring source of inspiration for poets, scholars and artists and continue to remain an important theme within China’s various artistic traditions. Drawn from the museum’s outstanding collection of later-period Chinese jade objects, this exhibition will focus on carved jade representations of mountain landscapes and forms from nature. For both sculptor and viewer, landscape imagery illustrates an understanding of the inseparability of oneself from the surrounding world, where the journey through the mountains symbolizes the path to an immortal realm. This exhibition runs Sept. 28, 2018-Jan. 6, 2019.