Saint Mary's College Museum of Art

On February 12, 2025, Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art (SMCMoA) is opening Past Lives, a solo exhibition featuring 32 paintings and repurposed mixed-media work by artist Seonna Hong. Showcasing work created over 15 years, Past Lives explores landscapes, the figure, and repurposed materials as a vessel for magical thinking. 

The museum will host an artist talk with Seonna Hong and Dasha Matsuura on Wednesday, February 12, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. This event will occur at the Soda Activity Center on the Saint Mary’s College campus. The next day, Thursday, February 13, there will be an opening celebration from 5 to 7 p.m. Opening remarks will be delivered in the museum courtyard. Both events are free and open to the public. Past Lives will be on view through June 22, 2025. 

Saint Mary’s College of California recently secured a competitive $50,035 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Climate Smart Humanities Organizations program. The funds will help the College protect the collections at the SMC Museum of Art (SMCMoA), enhance its physical surroundings, and become the first carbon-neutral building on the Saint Mary’s campus. 

Reaccredited in 2021 by the American Alliance of Museums—the highest national recognition afforded to museums in the United States—SMC’s Museum of Art is at a pivotal stage of its development, said Lauren MacDonald, Executive Director of the museum and Dean of the Library and Academic Resources. SMC’s museum leadership worked carefully and intentionally to align SMCMoA’s planning efforts with both the College’s Transformation 2028 strategic plan and its Climate Action Plan. The museum has also partnered with SMC’s Office of Sustainability to develop a “climate smart” operations model that can be used for other buildings on the Saint Mary’s campus.