Santa Rosa Junior College - Santa Rosa Junior College Museum

Santa Rosa Junior College Museum

The Santa Rosa Junior College Museum, formerly known as the Jesse Peter Museum, focuses on the ethnographic art of the Americas and parts of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Permanent exhibits include Native American baskets, jewelry and pottery that come from the Elsie Allen Collection, acquired in the 1970s. The permanent and changing art exhibits focus on Native American art and anthropology of other cultures, and are used as a resource for multi-cultural studies by Santa Rosa Junior College students and area students.

The SRJC Museum has a collection of more than 3500 cataloged items, including art objects and archival materials such as photographs. Traditional Native American art makes up the greatest portion of the collection, with all of the North American Indian culture areas represented. Art forms include ceramics, basketry, beadwork, sculpture, textiles, and jewelry. Most of the pieces in the collection were made specifically by artists to be sold in the collector's and art market, which has flourished in the United States for more than a hundred years. Some of the most famous American Indian artists of this century are represented by their works in the collection.

In addition to Native American art of North America, the museum also has small collections of ethnographic art from Mesoamerica, Central America, South America, Africa, and Asia.

The SRJC Museum does not collect and does not exhibit sacred or religious articles of North American Indian peoples. It encourages the return of all such items to the appropriate cultural group.

The museum is located at Bussman Hall, 1501 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa, California.