The galleries are placed in chronological order from the lobby to the far end, but most visitors will do a loop at the back of the building to minimize distance walked. This means the Chinese art galleries go in reverse order from gallery 13’s Qing Dynasty vases to gallery 19’s Bronze Age jewellery.
The downstairs galleries are disproportionately larger than the building’s size. Take the elevator. I enjoyed the Japanese prints, I wish there was a translation to accompany them. The Tibet exhibit was missing the smells, but the audio was on point.
It’s nice they thought to make an Asian art museum. But it was confusing that they put American art in it as well. For such a large institution, I think it’d serve Smithsonian well to specialize their museums.
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