About Us

Nestled amidst towering conifers, Pacific Bonsai Museum connects people to nature through the living art of bonsai.

One of only two museums in the United States solely dedicated to bonsai, and one of only a handful of bonsai museums worldwide, Pacific Bonsai Museum maintains a collection of 150 bonsai that are among the finest examples of bonsai anywhere in the world. The collection is also the most geographically diverse bonsai collection in the United States, with trees from Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the United States.

A grand outdoor setting with the elegance of a fine art museum, Pacific Bonsai Museum features sixty trees on exhibit at a given time, open to the public six days a week. This cultural gem offers contemporary and traditional bonsai exhibitions, group tours, education program, field trips, and public events.

Pacific Bonsai Museum is a World Bonsai Friendship Federation Cooperation Center. The WBFF seeks to raise awareness of the existence of public bonsai institutions and to strengthen the relationships among them by providing a network for support of bonsai through an active exchange of information and activities.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the Museum can be found on our Plan Your Visit page.

Museum Mission

The Pacific Bonsai Museum connects people to nature through the living art of bonsai.

HISTORY

Weyerhaeuser Company opened the Collection in 1989, in conjunction with the Washington State Centennial celebration. The Collection was established to symbolize Weyerhaeuser’s long-term commitments to its customers, its community, and its forest resources. The Museum was designed by Hoshide Wanzer Architects and The Berger Partnership.

At the end of 2013 the corporation gifted the entire collection to a new non-profit, The George Weyerhaeuser Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection, known as the Pacific Bonsai Museum.

Photo: George Weyerhaeuser and former first lady of Washington Jean Gardner at the opening of the Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection in 1989.

We are an anti-racist organization

We believe racial equity is a human right. We support the work of Black Lives Matter and the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) movement.

As we sit here on the land of the Coast Salish people, we thank the original caretakers of this land who are still here. We acknowledge that this declaration against racism is long overdue (which we realize means way before these past few weeks). We regret not showing up to this conversation earlier and promise to do better in the future.

We have committed to actively evaluating museum systems, structures, and practices so that we don’t reinforce discriminatory outcomes in the future. We seek to include more BIPOC voices and participation in our work. We are also organizing anti-biases training for staff.

We have educated ourselves about the trauma experienced particularly by Japanese Americans when they were subject to racist U.S. government policies that robbed them of their liberty and livelihoods–including the bonsai masters who laid the seeds of the art as it is practiced in this country. We are grateful that despite their understandable resentment and reluctance, appreciation for the art of bonsai spread all over the world because these people found the strength to share their art with others which ended up forming new friendships and promoting healing.

Pacific Bonsai Museum is committed to inclusivity with our visitors, volunteers, members, and supporters. We know that awe, peace, love, and admiration of bonsai and nature are not finite. Rather, these feelings only grow stronger the more people are included. We welcome everyone to discover the art and beauty of bonsai.

We remain dedicated to our mission–to connect people to nature through the living art of bonsai–knowing that as an anti-racist organization, we have work to do, and we are committed to doing it.