Cotsen Affiliated Organizations
Cotsen Foundation for Academic Research
The Cotsen Foundation for Academic Research (CFAR) is a private Los Angeles based nonprofit organization that makes the renowned Cotsen Collection accessible to museums, scholars, and researchers. Through philanthropic grants, the Foundation encourages the research of objects in, or related to, the Cotsen Collection regardless of their current location – particularly in the areas of textiles, ethnographic objects, and ancient art. LINK
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA
The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA is a premier educational research organization dedicated to the creation, dissemination, and conservation of archaeological knowledge and heritage. The Cotsen Institute is at the forefront of archaeological research, education, conservation, and publication, and is an active contributor to interdisciplinary research at UCLA. In 1999, the Institute of Archaeology honored the longtime support of Lloyd Cotsen by changing its name to the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. LINK
Cotsen Occasional Press
The Cotsen Occasional Press (COP) is an independent book publishing imprint started by Lloyd Cotsen in the late ’90s. The COP specializes in volumes focusing upon Mr. Cotsen’s art collections (e.g., Japanese bamboo baskets, ancient Chinese bronze mirrors, early Chinese textiles) and includes highlights from his historical children’s literature holdings at the Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University. LINK
Organizations With Cotsen Collections
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
Between the late 1960s and mid-1990s, Lloyd Cotsen assembled the largest and most internationally recognized collection of Japanese bamboo baskets. The bulk of the Lloyd Cotsen Collection of Japanese Bamboo Baskets, approximately 900 pieces, was gifted to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in 2006, which houses some of the most comprehensive Asian art collections in the world. LINK
Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University
The Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University is located within the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections in Firestone Library. Donated by Lloyd Cotsen in 1994, this major historical collection contains approximately 120,000 illustrated children’s books, manuscripts, original artwork, prints, and educational toys from the 15th century to the present day, in over thirty languages. The Cotsen Children’s Library welcomes visits from scholars, researchers, and, of course, children. LINK
Museum of International Folk Art
The Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA), located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, serves to foster understanding of the traditional folk arts to illuminate human creativity and shape a humane world. Lloyd Cotsen’s first collection of international folk art was assembled while he was the CEO of Neutrogena Corporation, and in 1995, he donated this collection of approximately 3,000 textiles, ceramics, carvings, and other treasures to MOIFA. In 1998, the Neutrogena Wing officially opened, including the Cotsen Gallery and Lloyd’s Treasure Chest, which offers a participatory gallery experience. LINK
Racine Art Museum
The Racine Art Museum (RAM), located in Racine, Wisconsin, holds one of the largest and most significant contemporary craft collections in North America, and serves to exhibit, collect, preserve, and educate in the contemporary visual arts. In 2007, Lloyd Cotsen donated most of his Contemporary American Basket Collection to RAM. This collection includes work by nearly every important American fiber artist whose innovations have advanced the medium. Following Mr. Cotsen’s passing in 2017, Mrs. Margit Sperling Cotsen donated the remainder of his Contemporary American Basket Collection, as well as his Turned Wood Collection, to RAM. LINK
Shanghai Museum
The Shanghai Museum, located in the Huangpu District of Shanghai China, boasts a vast collection of precious Chinese relics, featuring bronzes, ceramics, paintings, and calligraphy. In 2012, Lloyd Cotsen donated his collection of 100 ancient Chinese bronze mirrors to the Shanghai Museum, marking an important shift in the approach to cultural patrimony by returning objects to the country of origin. This unusual repatriation demonstrated Mr. Cotsen’s dedication to protecting the world’s cultural heritage. LINK
Skirball Cultural Center
The Skirball Cultural Center (SCC), located in Los Angeles, is a meeting place that welcomes people of all communities and generations to participate in cultural experiences that celebrate discovery and hope, and foster human connections. In the early 2000’s, Lloyd Cotsen gifted his folk art collection of approximately 120 Noah’s Arks from around the world to the SCC. In addition, in 2007 Mr. Cotsen helped to inspire and support the creation of an interactive Noah’s Ark permanent exhibition at the SCC. LINK
The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum
The Textile Museum is now a unit of George Washington University and is located on their Foggy Bottom Campus in Washington, DC. It serves to expand public knowledge and appreciation—locally, nationally, and internationally—of the artistic merits and cultural importance of the world’s textiles. In October 2018, Mrs. Margit Cotsen, acting in her capacity as Trustee of Lloyd Cotsen’s estate, donated the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection, a group of over 4,500 textile fragments ranging over almost the entire known history of textiles, and the Cotsen Textile Collection, comprised of 152 larger textiles, to the Textile Museum. As part of the gift, The Textile Museum will establish a dedicated research center, to be called the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center, which will enable scholars and students to examine and study these rare and extraordinary textiles. LINK
UCLA Research Library
The Charles E. Young Research Library provides research-level collections and services in the humanities, social sciences, education, public affairs, government information, and maps, primarily designed to support UCLA graduate students and faculty. In 2011, Lloyd Cotsen donated his collection of 215 cuneiform tablets, the majority of which were written by students in ancient Mesopotamian schools, to the UCLA Research Library where they remain accessible to scholars and students. LINK