de Saisset Museum

Support the de Saisset’s Museum in Progress

Arts and culture play a vital role in the intellectual and creative lives of Santa Clara University students and our diverse publics. Under the leadership of Dr. Ciara Ennis, the de Saisset envisions itself as a Museum in Progress responding to changing ideas, contexts, and challenges that shape our world. This notion is reflected in the visual program comprising a cycle of contemporary exhibitions focused on artists with research-based and interdisciplinary practices; a Project Room supporting South Bay artists, specifically women and non-binary identifying artists, BIPOC artists, and those discriminated against due to their age; a faculty-driven exhibition series; and series of exhibitions exploring the de Saisset’s own exhibition histories to launch in fall 2026. While each has a unique identity and function, the multiple strands that make up the visual program—encyclopedic collection, permanent exhibition, and contemporary projects—are interconnected and considered holistically through an interdisciplinary and transtemporal lens.

Your financial support of the de Saisset Museum on this Day of Giving ensures we can continue presenting dynamic, thought-provoking exhibitions and educational programs, as well as deepening connections with our collection of nearly 12,000 objects of art & history. Contributions to our Discretionary Fund will support our exciting launch of the Exhibition Histories series, in which the de Saisset excavates and re-stages significant projects that took place at the museum during the early 1970s, under the visionary leadership of de Saisset Director Lydia Modi-Vitale. In fall 2026, we present The Four (Revisited) which examines an exhibition of the same title (The Four) that took place in 1973 and featured formative projects by Judy Chicago, Lynda Benglis, Miriam Shapiro, and Bonnie Sherk. Then, in winter 2027, offered as part of the Further Triennial, we present, Radical Video Histories at the de Saisset Museum: Re-visiting the 12 th St Jude Invitational, restaging an exhibition from 1972 that included video works by John Baldessari, Lynda Benglis, George Bolling, Douglas Davis, Howard Fried, Taka Iimura, Paul Kos, Shiegeko Kubota, Bill Viola, and William Wegman. Contributions to the California History Fund enable us to continue expanding the California Stories exhibition and its related resources for SCU students and the greater community, including our Docent Program. Your contributions to the Inouye Fund help support future temporary exhibitions and your gifts to the de Saisset Museum Endowment will help us build capacity.