The Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park is celebrating its 30th birthday with a unique exhibit titled, ‘The Beauty of Use.” The exhibit features significant objects from many cultures shown in relationships that highlight similarities and differences among them. The unselfconscious beauty of many handmade objects of use — tools and utensils, clothing and adornment, furniture and vessels, ritual and ceremonial objects — is direct and accessible, pleasing the eye and satisfying the spirit. They have been chosen by Bonnie Roche – the Museum’s Director of Exhibitions and, with Museum Director Rob Sidner, the show’s Co-Curator. Each of them, some with Sidner’s accompanying brief comments, reveals something of the essence of mingei. (Japanese philosopher Soetsu Yanagi, early in the 20th Century, coined the word mingei (literally "everyone’s art"), encouraging people to look with fresh eyes at common objects in their surroundings, to discover beauty where it is unexpected and to be inspired to uncover and express their own, innate creativity).

Also on display includes a  collection of 19th Century, African tribal currency, each piece surprisingly large and ornately shaped; a group of masks including an opulent example of Amazonian feather work; ritual objects, including India’s much-beloved, elephant-headed god Ganesha, intricately carved; and a selection of monumental containers including an ornate Plains Indian burden basket are on view. Not to be missed among the many objects on display is a Sicilian donkey cart, covered with brightly painted and sculptural historical and mythological scenes and motifs.

During three decades of collecting – mainly donations from hundreds of generous friends and some purchases in recent years, Mingei International Museum has formed a collection of mingei that now comprises 17,000 objects from 141 countries.