Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Xuzhou Collection of Buddhist Art is a private collection masterpieces, shown in public for the first time at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The installation presents rare and exceptional sculptures from major Buddhist cultures across the Asian continent over a millennium. Xuzhou (pronounced “shoo-joe”) means “empty boat” in Chinese. It evokes the Buddhist metaphor that the Buddha’s teaching is like a raft that one can use to cross over the river of ignorance. Like the raft awaiting its passenger, these vessels remain “empty” until they are activated by an attentive and sympathetic viewer. In 2024, the Foundation provided support to catalogue the collection.