Dragons, Nagas, and Creatures of the Deep September 22, 2012

Welcoming 2012 as the East Asian calendar's Year of the Dragon, this exhibition presents a global selection of textiles depicting dragons and related fantastical creatures of legend. Dating from the 16th through the 20th centuries, these fabrics reveal how stories of serpent-like creatures with celestial powers found colorful expression in world textile arts. People throughout much of East and Southeast Asia typically viewed dragons and nagas (divine snakes) as beneficent beings associated with water, rainfall, and fertility, and images of these beasts became wide-spread in almost all artistic media. Drawn entirely from the museum's permanent collection, the textiles in this exhibition reveal legends and imaginative images of mythical creatures as diverse as the peoples who created them.