Friday, June 19, 2026

Norton Simon Museum to Host Free Tour of South and Southeast Asian Art Galleries Saturday

[photo credit: Norton Simon Museum]

A docent-led walk through one of the museum’s signature collections returns to the Pasadena institution’s regular weekend programming

The Norton Simon Museum will offer a free docent-led tour of its South and Southeast Asian art galleries on Saturday, June 27, at 1 p.m., according to the museum’s online calendar.

The hour-long tour, titled “Art of South and Southeast Asia,” is a recurring program in the museum’s Tours and Talks series. According to the museum’s descriptor for prior identical sessions, the tour examines “intricate works from India, Cambodia, Vietnam and more” and explores “the history, imagery and symbolism” found in the museum’s South and Southeast Asian collection.

The museum, at 411 W. Colorado Blvd., houses one of the country’s most extensive permanent displays of art from the region. Sculptures from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Cambodia and Thailand are on permanent view, along with selected works from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), China, Vietnam and Indonesia. The collection spans more than 2,000 years and includes monumental stone sculpture from the Kushan and Gupta periods and a group of Chola bronzes from southern India.

In prior instances of this recurring tour, the museum has illustrated its listing with an image of a Vietnamese bronze Drum, dated 300 BCE to 50 CE, from the Norton Simon Art Foundation, a gift from the estate of Jennifer Jones Simon.

Specifics for the June 27 session — including the docent’s name, the tour’s meeting point, and the participant cap — were not separately published on the museum’s homepage listing and could not be independently confirmed. Past identical sessions have met in the museum’s Entrance Gallery, have been led by a “Museum Educator” without further public attribution, and have capped attendance at 15 or 20 participants depending on the date. Sign-up at recent prior sessions has been handled at the museum’s Information Desk on a first-come, first-served basis when the museum opens.

The tour is free with regular museum admission, based on standing practice for the program. General admission is $20 for adults and $15 for seniors ages 62 and above. Admission is free for museum members, students with valid identification, and everyone age 18 and under.

The museum is open Saturdays from noon to 7 p.m. Its parking lot is free. Pasadena Transit lines 10 and 33 and Metro bus line 180 stop in front of the museum, and the nearest Metro Rail station is Memorial Park on the A Line, at 125 E. Holly St. and Arroyo Parkway.

The Norton Simon Museum can be reached at 626-449-6840. Additional event details for the June 27 tour are available on the museum’s calendar at nortonsimon.org.

For Pasadenans and Altadenans, the tour offers a low-commitment way to spend an hour with one of the city’s signature cultural institutions and a collection that draws visitors to Pasadena from across the region.

Docent Tour: Art of South and Southeast Asia | Saturday, June 27, 2026, 1:00 p.m. | Norton Simon Museum | 🔗 https://www.nortonsimon.org/calendar/2026/spring-2026/Art-of-South-and-Southeast-Asia-6-27-2026-100PM