USC and Pasadena’s Pacific Asia Museum to Form Alliance
Video by Astrid Solorzano and Tiffany Taylor
USC announced Tuesday that it will form an alliance with the Pacific Asia Museum to bring the museum under the university's control.
The museum, which will now be called USC Pacific Asia Museum, holds a collection of more than 17,000 items from across Asia and the Pacific Islands, spanning more than 5,000 years.
The university plans to preserve the museum's 1924 mansion in downtown Pasadena and use its resources to increase the academic work of USC's six arts schools, as well as the university's art history, East Asian languages and cultures, religions and archeology departments.
In what is being called a, "friendly takeover" the museum's 14 current employees have been given the option to stay on with a better benefits package, according to Robert Cooper, the university’s vice provost.
