The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room at the National Museum of Asian Art; The Alice S. Kandell Collection. Image © John Bigelow Taylor; Courtesy National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution
Zoom Webinar
Guardians of Tradition: How Tibetan Art Lives on Through Museum Collections
Tuesday, June 2, 2026 at 5pm EDT
Register for free HERE
Guardians of Tradition: How Tibetan Art Lives on Through Museum Collections invites audiences to an illuminating conversation with collector Alice Kandell and leading curators exploring the preservation, interpretation, and continued resonance of Tibetan Buddhist art within museum collections today. Centered around Kandell’s extraordinary legacy, the discussion will examine how sacred Tibetan objects transition from private devotional spaces into public institutions while retaining their spiritual and cultural significance.
Alice Kandell is one of the most significant collectors of Tibetan religious art. Her extraordinary gifts of two complete Tibetan Buddhist shrine rooms—each containing more than 200 sacred objects—were donated to the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. Installed in their entirety, just as they appeared in her home, these immersive environments offer visitors a rare opportunity to encounter Tibetan Buddhist art as lived experience rather than isolated museum objects.
Together, the panelists will explore Kandell’s journey as a collector of Tibetan art and the inspiration behind the creation of her Shrine Room. The conversation will also address the collection’s rich iconography and spiritual significance, as well as the donation and installation of the Shrine Rooms at their respective institutions. Speakers will further reflect on public engagement, related programming, and the evolving role museums play in preserving and sharing Tibetan artistic and spiritual traditions today.
To join us for this free event, sign up HERE.
PANELISTS:
Rebecca Bloom, Curator and scholar specializing in Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhist material culture, and the intersection of religion and museums.
Debra Diamond, Elizabeth Moynihan Curator of South Asian and Southeast Asian Art, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution
Alice Kandell, Noted collector of Tibetan Art
MODERATOR:
Matthew Welch, Senior Deputy Director, The Minneapolis Institute of Art
INTRODUCTION BY:
Dessa Goddard, U.S. Head of the Asian Art Group, Senior Vice President and Head, Business Strategy for Chinese Paintings, and Senior Specialist for Chinese Art at Bonhams
About the Distinguished Panel:
Rebecca Bloom is a scholar and curator specializing in Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhist material culture, and the intersection of religion and museums. Following four years of curatorial and educational work at the Rubin Museum of Art, she pursued interdisciplinary graduate research spanning diverse media, methods, and cultures. While Rebecca’s work has taken her to the far corners of Asia—from the Himalayan monasteries of Ladakh to the seaside temples of Tamil Nadu to Japanese urban shrines—her achievements State-side have also been true adventures. In addition to coauthoring numerous publications, she co-curated a multi-year exhibition of Buddhist art at the National Museum of Asian Art and collaborated on three digital humanities projects with the University of Michigan. In addition to a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies, Rebecca received her PhD in Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of Michigan in 2022. She is currently the Interim Director and the Diane P. Stewart Director of Curatorial Affairs at Southern Utah Museum of Art.
Debra Diamond, the Elizabeth Moyhnihan Curator of South Asian and Southeast Asian Art at the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, is the curator of numerous exhibitions, including Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia, the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine of Alice S. Kandell, Yoga: The Art of Transformation and this summer’s Of the Hills: Pahari Painting from India’s Himalyan Courts. Her publications have received awards for scholarship from the College Art Association, the Smithsonian and the Association of Art Museum Curators. She is currently co-curating, with Emma N. Stein, new permanent galleries for South Asian, Southeast Asian and Himalayan Art at the National Museum.
Alice Kandell is an author, photographer, child psychologist, human rights advocate, and noted collector of Tibetan art. After receiving her doctorate in child psychology from Harvard University, she pursued a career dedicated to both children’s welfare and international human rights advocacy. As Vice President of the International League for Human Rights, she served as a delegate to the United Nations in Geneva, advocating for children’s rights worldwide, and traveled to Thailand to support efforts combating the trafficking of young women. Dr. Kandell’s lifelong commitment to the arts led to her appointment to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. Her travels to the former Buddhist Kingdom of Sikkim, bordering Tibet, sparked a deep engagement with Tibetan culture and religious art. Over time, her passion for collecting Tibetan devotional objects resulted in the creation of a Tibetan shrine room now permanently installed at the Smithsonian Institution. She recently donated a second Tibetan shrine to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. A professional photographer and author of five books, Dr. Kandell has also been the subject of two publications focused on her life and collections. In recognition of her humanitarian and cultural contributions, she was knighted into the Royal Order of Queen Isabella, becoming Dame Alice Kandell. Her Tibetan shrine rooms, which embody peace, spirituality, and tranquility, recently inspired her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Matthew Welch is Senior Deputy Director at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, where he serves on the museum’s leadership team and helps shape its strategic vision, donor stewardship, collections development, and major renovation and expansion initiatives. From 2008 to 2025, he oversaw five curatorial departments, registration, and the museum’s research library. Since joining the museum in 1990 as Curator of Japanese and Korean Art, he has organized eleven exhibitions, four of which toured nationally, and authored six books alongside numerous scholarly essays. He greatly expanded the museum’s display of Japanese art, established its first gallery dedicated to Korean art, and most recently led the expansion of the Himalayan art galleries, including the installation of the Kandell Tibetan Shrine Room. Welch earned his B.A. from Trinity University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. He also studied at Kyoto University as a Fulbright research fellow.
Dessa Goddard is U.S. Head of the Asian Art Group, Senior Vice President and Head, Business Strategy for Chinese Paintings, and Senior Specialist for Chinese Art at Bonhams. She oversees all the specialists and consultants in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Himalayan, Indian and Southeast Asian Art in North America. Dessa spearheads consignment acquisitions for Bonhams’ auctions in New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong. Considered one of North America’s leading experts in Chinese art, Ms. Goddard was the Chairman of Asia Week New York from 2021-23. She travels and lectures throughout the United States and appears regularly on PBS’s Antiques Roadshow. Her recent research focuses on the growth of philanthropy and urban culture, with a specific eye to the history of Asian Art collecting in America.
