An Introduction to Mingei

This podcast interview is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Listen to the conversation between Nat Biendara Wilson and Jessica Hanson York, and follow along with this transcript. Run time is approximately 24 minutes

Hi there! I’m Nat Biendara Wilson, Content Producer at Mingei International Museum in San Diego’s Balboa Park. As we embark on our podcast journey, we wanted to start with an introduction to Mingei—the movement, the Museum, and the mission.

Today, you’ll hear from Executive Director and CEO, Jessica Hanson York. We’ll discuss her history with the Museum and her vision for the future of Mingei.

First, a brief background.

In the early 1920s, a Japanese philosopher named Soetsu Yanagi opened a folk art museum in celebration of handmade pottery. In his seminal work, The Unknown Craftsman, he writes:

The Mingei Movement was born.

Years later, ceramicist and teacher Martha Longenecker meets Dr. Soetsu Yanagi in 1952. As she learns from him and his colleagues, she is inspired to bring the practices of mingei to San Diego.

We envision a world where people find joy, beauty, and inspiration in our shared human creativity. We’re dedicated to furthering the understanding of the heart of mingei, art of the people, from all eras and cultures of the world.

In these episodes, we hope to give you a glimpse behind the scenes of Mingei International Museum—chatting with our curators, exhibiting artists, and other members of staff. Whether you’re a supportive member of Mingei or a casual listener interested in the inner workings of the museum world, you’re welcome here.

Thank you for joining us.

Nat Biendara Wilson: As an emerging museum professional myself, I'd love to get kind of a background of your experience at Mingei and hear more about your story in particular. What was your first impression of Mingei?

Jessica Hanson York: Wow, you know, it's such a singular museum, and this is such a strange story, really, about how I came to Mingei, but my husband and I loaned an object to the Museum for a show.

NBW: That's so special!

JHY: I was kind of new to San Diego. My husband's a native San Diegan, so he knew quite a bit about Mingei, but I was new to town and hadn't fully explored all of Balboa Park yet. One day, someone from the Museum showed up at our house to pick up this sculpture we had that we were sending on loan, and then a few weeks later, we came to see the show. It was an exhibition on the work of John Dirks.

John had been a friend of ours, and he, for many years, was the head of the furniture department at SDSU, San Diego State University. He had been a contemporary of Martha Longencker’s, the founder of the Museum. It was a really special show.

I walked in and just was, I think, excited and kind of astounded that such a museum was here in San Diego—this museum of folk art, craft, and design. Then I started coming all the time to visit each new round of exhibitions, and I really fell in love with the Museum.

NBW: Was this sculpture something that you both had for a while and you didn't maybe consider it to be something that's museum-worthy, but now it was all of a sudden?

JHY: It certainly shifted my perspective, right? John was this wonderful person who we would go visit and have ice cream with, and the sculpture was something he had passed on to us, and we loved it. We had, and continue to have, a pretty modest art collection, and I don't think I had ever considered, ‘Oh, something we own might be in a museum someday.’ That was a shift.

When I started coming back to Mingei to enjoy more of the exhibitions, that just further expanded my perception of what we look at as art. I'd always been a museum person and a museum lover, but Mingei is so special and so unique. I was coming in to see single shows, shows of single artists that featured ceramics and folk art, and then there were these incredible collections of things like hat boxes I didn't necessarily expect to encounter, but it was exciting.

NBW: Yeah, absolutely. I think moses paper hats for Fold, Twist, Tie was one of the first exhibitions I experienced at Mingei, and then one of my favorites was Toying with Design. Both of these exhibitions speak to that—of these things that we either use every day, as a paper bag, or a Toying with Design where it's a chair or an ice pack, for example, was one of my favorite features there.

It reminded me that the things that we use every day really are and can be objects of art as well. I think that's a fascinating thing to think about in a society when we value convenience versus also beauty in the items that we're using.

NBW: You didn't start off as Executive Director. There was a journey there. So can you walk us through that, please?

JHY: Absolutely! I started visiting a lot, as I said, and it's funny, you know, this was like 2006. At the time, I would occasionally be a guest on a weekly KPBS radio show talking about, “Here's what you should do this weekend in San Diego,” and I would always talk about Mingei. I mean, every chance I got.

NBW: It was a little biased, but not in a bad way.

JHY: It all began there. Then I had gotten to know someone on staff, the woman who was the Director of Development at the time, and I think she keenly tapped into my interest in Mingei and recruited me to be on a committee, which was great. I had recently left my first museum job, which was at the New Children's Museum here in downtown San Diego, so I was happy to get involved with another museum. Then a job opened up at Mingei, and it was such a great fit. I was in grad school at the time, and I had a toddler and it just felt so right. I knew I loved this museum. It was kind of the job that I needed at the moment and I don't know, somehow I talked to them into hiring me.

So I came on managing the marketing team here at Mingei, and I think it's 14 years later, and I'm still here. Many other different job titles in the interim, but I was lucky enough to grow with the Museum alongside some wonderful people.

Every exhibition, every year, every new connection I make, it's all helped build this beautiful experience for me. I'm so fortunate to have a job that I love this much.

NBW: It shows when—I see it with all of the staff here—that they really appreciate the work that they're doing, which obviously adds to the experience for visitors, of course. So obviously you've seen a lot change and grow and the team change and grow. Are there any key moments within your time here that really sparked a commitment in you?

JHY: Yeah, wow, that's a really good question. When I came to work here, I was working for Rob Sidner, who was the second Executive Director. So really, the first person to run the Museum after the founder, Martha Longenecker. That's always a really interesting time, I think, for any organization, right—to move past the sheer grit and will and passion of someone who brought something to life and to shepherd the evolution of an organization.

JHY: I think I was aware from the beginning that that was a fortunate time to be here, to watch Rob ushering in that phase of change, and so a lot did change in that time. The staff grew. I think our ambitions as an organization grew, and that was all happening as our community evolved. We had to think about different ways to meet that need and to serve our community with new programs.

The really big transition is probably the most obvious, which is when Mingei decided to undertake a transformational renovation. Being part of that, being here for that was a great gift and not easy, I might add. You know, change is really hard for individuals and a group of people who work together. What we did was risky. It was a huge mountain to climb in terms of fundraising and project management, and again, just the scale of doing something like that, which we had never done at Mingei.

JHY: But to get to the other side of it, to have achieved it together, not just as a staff and a board, but with so many in this community, is one of the most rewarding things I've ever been a part of, and it truly was a transformation of the entire Museum in so many ways.

NBW: Yeah, with any sort of major project like that, there's no way to go through it without leaning on each other and depending on community.

JHY: Absolutely, and I think it brought out the best in all of us through some dark moments too, you know, scary moments and stressful moments and all that you would expect. Working with our architect, Jennifer Luce—that was amazing. She will be a friend to so many of us for life. She's still here in this museum all the time. There were bonds and ties and special moments, and I think we all, in some way, felt lucky to be a part of it.

NBW: In your time here, which exhibitions at Mingei are you most fond of? I know it’s a very large question, but we can take it piece by piece, and we're not picking favorites. We're not, but there may have been a few that stood out to you in particular.

JHY: Thank you for setting me up well for that, Nat, for that impossible question. It makes me think there's all these different types of exhibitions, and then I think of all these different eras in my time with Mingei.

Thinking back to those early years, I remember an Eva Zeisel exhibition. She was that great ceramic designer—iconic mid-century designs. Seeing all of her work in one place was really fun. That exhibition really made an impact on me.

A lot of single artist shows—Arline Fisch, the local jewelry designer—just a couple of small shows, but really special ones. I love her work! The Ladd brothers—these two brothers who came from the East coast and created these fantastical, tiny, little beaded worlds here in our gallery, and they were just delightful to work with and doing something completely special, unlike anything else we had ever seen.

Some of the shows that really showcased objects from our permanent collection. One show I loved was Tools and Utensils, which was co-curated by Rob Sidner and our exhibition designer, Jerry Maloney. I love that tools and utensils are part of our permanent collection here at Mingei. We have a broad range of them, and the way Rob and Jerry put that show together was fun and surprising and a great way to look at the beauty in daily objects of use.

JHY: We did a show featuring Kanban, which are Japanese shop signs, and that was a show that the design community just loved. It was a great springboard for talking about typography and graphic icons, even the manufacture process of signs. It was really exciting. We were able to have a lot of fun programming around that.

Shows like Surf Craft, which celebrated the craft of surfboard fabrication. So exciting! Brought a very new audience into Mingei. We always joke, we never saw so many flip-flops in the Museum as we did during the run of Surf Craft. That was such a memorable show for so many reasons. I could go on and on.

NBW: The exhibitions that you mentioned in particular, they speak to a sense of whimsy that Mingei really holds tightly. I think there's an allegiance to showcasing the handcrafted nature of items in a more fun way as well.

We know how to get down to the details of the nature and the humble materials that these objects are made from, but we also understand that they can be remade and reimagined in new forms that we would not have ever considered before. These objects that maybe people are using every single day are something that we can cherish for years to come.

JHY: I'm thinking more recently, too. The team has done an excellent job of really evolving our exhibition program and bringing in more living artists, which allows us to support more artists, which is so important. Definitely one of my favorites in the last couple of years was the Piñatas show—featured the work of so many talented, talented artists from Southern California. Shows like African by Design and Blue Gold allowed us to really show off some of the finest things from our permanent collection alongside the inventive and creative and new work coming from artists here and all over the globe, really.

NBW: Between the exhibitions, the art library, Shop Mingei, ARTIFACT at Mingei restaurant and CRAFT CAFÉ, there's always so much to take in at the Museum. When people visit the Museum, is there anything in particular that you hope that they experience or feel?

JHY: First and foremost, to feel welcome, to feel, “This is a place for me. This is a place where I can feel at ease and enjoyment.”

I think a sense of discovery—that's something I really hope people can find here. I felt that when I first came in the door. What a special place to stumble into! I hope that people find that. Definitely inspiration, an appreciation for human creativity.

You know what? Awe—actual awe for human creativity. I hope that people can walk out with some of that. Maybe a spark to explore their own creativity?

I think a new perspective, to learn something, to feel seen. To me, the greatest moment in this museum is when someone walks into an exhibition and sees something in a case, on a pedestal, and says, “Oh, my grandmother had one of these! I never thought of that as art. I didn't realize the things we have in our home are special.”

That's amazing to see people make those connections and to see their life experience, their culture, their family somehow represented. I think that representation matters so much. I love those moments.

I think, just connection for people who are attending a workshop or a program, maybe they meet a friend. I know this happens a lot with some of our volunteers and people who spend a lot of time here. I think that's an amazing outcome. We want to bring people together here.

NBW: I'm curious, what excites you about the future of Mingei?

JHY: Oh, where to begin? Well, let's start with exhibitions. You know, we plan our schedule about three years out. Just thinking about 2026, we have this amazing, incredible lineup that I'm really excited about, Clearly Indigenous in the spring of ‘26—all contemporary, Indigenous artists who are working in glass. This is actually a traveling show that we're bringing in, really looking forward to seeing that in our own gallery.

Then our very own curator, Guusje Sanders, along with our very own director of facilities, Mayo Mendoza, are working together for the fall of ‘26, a show on skateboards. So think Surf Craft, except for skateboards, plus, plus, plus! Such a San Diego show, and they are bringing a really smart, creative lens to the way that they're thinking through the development of this exhibition; so many community partners, artists, skateboarders, the whole boarding community. It's a good one.

New programs—we're launching a teen program this fall. Can't wait to see that roll out! I know the applications are coming in, and there are a lot of high school students in the community eager to participate in that new one.

It's exciting to think about how we build out our collection in the coming years. We are purchasing more and more work from living artists, artists who are taking, perhaps, their traditional craft, a cultural tradition, and evolving it into something that has real meaning and resonance for the current moment.

Continuing to deepen our community relationships with other nonprofit organizations, I think that's more important than ever, especially right now with living artists, artists who we can hire and support through our programs, through our exhibitions.

We want this to be a place where the design community can gather, where artists can gather, where we can have meaningful dialogue and share ideas.

I think Mingei matters. I really do.

I say this as the biggest fan of Mingei International Museum, but I think our collection, our exhibitions, and our programs have a lot to contribute. As we think about everything from sustainability to the need for human creativity and imagining our future to the ideas that underpin democracy and how we work together as a community, I think museums are essential, and I think Mingei holds a special place there.

NBW: Thank you so much, Jess, for sharing your thoughts and your time with us today.

JHY: Thanks, Nat. It's been a pleasure.