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He also amassed artwork and rare antiques along the way, eventually constructing a mansion (now the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok) to showcase them. During World War II, Jim Thompson was recruited to serve as an operative for the Office of Strategic Services—the predecessor of the modern-day CIA. He arrived in Japanese-occupied Thailand right after Japan’s surrender and set up the OSS office in Bangkok. Built in 1959, the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok is a peaceful, half-acre respite in the busiest part of the city for tourists.
– Pasadena Museum of History

Gathering stories from all generations of the people in the West, the museum curates historical and contemporary art, jewelry, weapons and implements, among other cultural artifacts. The Jim Thompson Farm was established in 1988 as a production site for silkworms. Since 2001, it has been regularly open to visitors in order to learn more about the beautiful Thai nature.

The Jim Thompson Art Center
Take a unique guided tour, better yet, a group activity that may include an exciting scavenger hunt. The tour takes only an hour, but you will have enough time to wander into the exciting world of martial arts. Don’t forget to drop by the museum’s shop to grab some funky or exotic souvenirs. From morning until night, the Jim Thompson Heritage Quarter offers some of the most unique and immersive experiences for visitors to enjoy.
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But, again, these are products of high-quality silk, so don’t expect to find cheap prices in this shop. Every child learned how to weave but each family wove enough for its own needs. After World War II, he was sent to Bangkok as a military officer, and voila….he fell in love with Thailand and Bangkok (who can blame him…)! So when his military serving time was over, he settled down in this beautiful country permanently.
Here visitors can see Japanese artworks on paper, including Edo-era pieces by Hokusai and Utomaro and over 160 woodblock prints from the 20th century. It also holds a large collection of East Asian ceramics, including a number of ancient items from China. It houses a permanent collection of technical and artistic pieces and also shows temporary works from independent artists and creators. Here you can find historic clocks, iconic signs, eye-popping artworks and antique equipment.
Jim Thompson, A Thai Restaurant
He had a passion for old antiques and spent almost every weekend hunting for antiques in and around Bangkok. Some of the structures were elevated an entire floor above the ground, as the Thai houses were in the old days, to prevent floods from ruining the house. Thompson moved into this beautiful old house in 1959, after astrologers had said it was safe and the right time to move in. There is also a shop on the premises of Jim Thompson House selling beautiful silk clothing and products. This is the perfect place to shop for Thai souvenirs and gifts to bring back home.
JIM THOMPSON ART CENTER
Best Dishes to Try in Bangkok This Week: Jim Thompson, Chop Chop Cookshop, and More - Prestige Online Thailand
Best Dishes to Try in Bangkok This Week: Jim Thompson, Chop Chop Cookshop, and More.
Posted: Fri, 13 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Explore various aircraft, exhibits and many more displays, as well as over 300 models, including numerous wind tunnel models and hundreds of plastic scale models. This museum located at Zamperini Field, the municipal airport in Torrance, California, awaits you. It also conducts customized tours, artifact-rich exhibitions, creative educational programs and conversations with survivors. The museum teaches students and visitors to think about the lessons of the Holocaust and its social relevance today. The museum is a free cultural institution with the sole focus is to give emphasis to the horrific impact of the Holocaust. You can see a lot of photographs and documents before the war from a group of survivors.
Jim Thompson became fascinated by the traditional Thai hand-weaving of silk, a long-neglected art craft. Silk products were at this time considered old-fashion and the making of them were a dying craft. We like the beautiful Jim Thompson museum so much that we have included it in our recommended 3-day Bangkok Itinerary, which you can find here. Thanks to Jim’s entrepreneurial spirit and unbridled commitment to the silk industry, silk is still a sought-after product today.
The museum is a smoke-free area; all forms of smoking devices are not permitted. Walking inside the main house involves several stairways; there are no elevators.
The main house itself, where Thompson lived, is beautifully decorated and full of antiques. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the house, so we had to sneak a couple of photos from the outside on our way out. They were pieced together on a green and lush piece of land right by the canal and became Jim Thompson’s House. From the way our sales are going, everyone must be dressing like royalty.
Conveniently, the Jim Thompson House is very centrally located in the heart of the action just off Rama I Road. There are plenty of options for eating and exploring before and after a tour of the museum. "Many of them have spent their life's work to conduct research for the museum and to preserve the museum's collections. The museum truly is the ultimate place for kids, parents and for the young at heart — to discover a different kind of Asia. Interactive tours on the history of printing are a must, especially for groups.
It also said there were no plans to remove popular exhibits at the museum, including the Ancient Egypt gallery. But museum management insists the changes will work to promote ongoing research, and make the collection more accessible to the public and other academics. Pandemic times did not hinder the SCCM from extending its services and activities. Virtual classrooms were created so that the learning adventure of children does not come to a pause.
Concerns were also raised about the museum's ongoing projects, including a program to repatriate Indigenous ancestral remains. The announcement received backlash from within the museum and general public, with hundreds gathering earlier this month on the steps of SA Parliament House to protest the proposed changes. "There'd be a range of people we'd expect the panel to go and talk to, and to give us advice on the best way forward." "We have seen a lot of public concern … [and] we think this is a really good opportunity to get some expert advice in, to have facilitated discussions," SA Arts Minister Andrea Michaels said. But those changes would come at a cost, with 27 positions in the research and collections division abolished and replaced with 22 new jobs, which the union claims are of lower classification and pay.
Students can get out of their four-walled classrooms and step into the wild wild west (or way beyond that) through interactive and virtual tours as well as join students’ visual arts exhibits. MOCA Grand Avenue is the smaller of the museum’s exhibition spaces and hosts its main galleries and permanent collections. The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA building is located in a more expansive warehouse space and hosts a range of installation and multi-media exhibitions.
A visit to Jim Thompson House is a fantastic experience that gives you a great insight into the old Thai house architecture and culture. He gathered six old teak buildings from different places in Thailand, some from the ancient capital of Thailand – Ayutthaya. All of the houses were of the traditional Thai architecture style and at least two centuries old. Thompson, however, decided to revive this craft and started to design more modern silk clothing and products. The adjacent Jim Thompson Art Center was founded by the James H.W. Thompson Foundation.
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