The Nance Museum: A Journey into Traditional Saudi Arabia - Hardcover

Nance, Paul J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0967145457 ISBN 13: 9780967145457

Publisher: Nance Museum, 1999

Synopsis

The story is told of Paul and Colleen Nance in their three decades in Arabia and assembling the art collection on continuous display in the United States located at Lone jack, Missouri. The Nance Museum's art and artifacts are from traditional Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. They brought together the largest and most diverse collection on continuous display in the United States, located at Lone Jack, Missouri. Included are a Bedouin tent completely outfitted, the towns Arab and focus on the coffee ceremony, costumes, jewelry, wood, basketry, metal straw, natural and early objects, original paintings and lithographs of ancient monuments of the Middle East. Special exhibits are developed each year to focus on themes such as Hofuf and the Ancient Caravan Routes of Central Arabia, The Orientalists, Jerusalem, Saudi Children's Artwork, The Silk Road and its Connection with the Middle East. Over a million and a half persons have seen a portion of the collection throughout the United States.

The book describes living and working in and the importance of Saudi Arabia, the development of ethnic gardens depicting early civilizations to give a world view to the setting of the museum, 230 illustrations, the museum as a resource center, reflections over the past fifteen years of the museum's operation as well as extensive Appendices of chronologies, donors, guests, publicity, outreach locations, a Glossary of Arab terms, bibliography and index.

About this title

About the Author

The three decades in industrial engineering and industrial relations management was extremely rewarding in view of the size and complexity of the 50,000 man workforce from 30 countries, particularly since it also involved training of Saudis to operate and manage the enterprise. Nance had a broad academic background at the undergraduate and graduate level at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and the Advanced Management for Senior Executives program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before going to Arabia, he was grounded in management practices in manufacturing, management consulting and the U. S. Military. His interest in early civilizations and all world cultures and religions was enhanced by visiting over 300 world museums and archaeological sites.

From the Back Cover

"Few Americans have left their impress on such a wide public scale in their efforts to build cultural bridges-by means of art and artifacts-between the Arab and Muslim world and the United States. Arabs, Muslims and America itself are in Paul Nance's debt: no one who visits the Nance Museum will think about the Muslim and Arab people in the same way again." --ISMAIL I. NAWWAB, author, editor, and former professor and oil company executive

"After having had the privilege of seeing the Nance accomplishments in Saudi Arabia and at the Nance Museum in Missouri, It was not a surprise to me that this book is indeed a unique and truly superb work." --DAN MACMASTER, President Emeritus of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

"Paul Nance, an ex-Aramco executive who spent his career life in Saudi Arabia, has devoted his retirement to introducing the American people to the Arab and Muslim culture through the Nance Museum. In writing this book, he is continuing to work to promote a better understanding between the two cultures." --ABDELAZIZ AL HOKAIL, Executive Vice President, Saudi Aramco

"As has been often said, The only thing longer than a shadow that one can leave behind is an institution which endures and enlightens others. Paul Nance has helped build just such an institution-a lasting monument to intercultural understanding. Read it to appreciate the fascinating story behind the visionary creations of a one-of-kind museum for learning about Arabs and Muslims through art and artifacts. Reread it to know why Nance is many people's hero." --JOHN DUKE ANTHONY, President and CEO, National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations

". . . an extraordinary exhibit not to be found elsewhere. The Nances have done the U.S. a service." --BRIDGET & JIM BURKART, U. S. Foreign Service Officers

". . . A national treasure." --JUDY S. MOODY, Executive Director, International Relations Council of Kansas City

". . . May be Missouri's best kept secret." --BECKY CURRY, Elementary School Teacher, Warrensburg, MO

From the Inside Flap

Colleen and Paul Nance divide their time between residences in Missouri and Texas and have devoted three quarters of a million dollars to the museum and 25,000 volunteer hours.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Importance of Saudi Arabia. pps. 3 and 4. "When most Americans think of Saudi Arabia, they think of oil. This is not surprising because the Saudis have a quarter of the world's reserves, the largest on-shore field (Ghawar) and the largest offshore field (Safaniya). At the present rate of production (eight million barrels a day), they have enough to last over 125 years. The countdown hasn't really started because they are finding more new reserves than they are producing. If you combine the Saudi oil reserves with those of other Arab countries, together they have two-thirds of the world's reserves. Of course, many Americans hope for a breakthrough that will offer a cheap, renewable source of energy that will supplant oil as the primary source of energy, clean use of coal for electricity and technology for better use of gas for transportation. Investments in these areas aren't promising. In the meantime, U. S. Oil reserves are dwindling.

American politicians and military have always recognized the strategic importance of the region's oil and were understandably quick to respond to Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the possibility that his forces also would move into the oil fields of eastern Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is important to the U. S. as a trading partner and for its strategic location in the Middle East. It has imported large quantities of American products and has contracted for American services and expertise ever since oil resources made Saudi Arabia's preference for things American. As an American owned and operated concession, Aramco used American technology, products and manpower in developing the Kingdom's resources. Saudi, who had not been exposed to Western technology and products before Aramco entered the picture in the 1930's, learned the oil business from Americans and found largely American technology in use on the oil rigs, and in the refiner, shipping terminal, computer and support activities. Saudi Arabia's decision to make 110 volt power the country's standard rather than the European 220, which was prevalent in the rest of the Arab world, can be attributed to the Aramco influence.

The interaction of Americans living and working with Saudi Arabs in the Kingdom also led to mutual respect and trust that are perpetuated today in Saudi-American business relationships hat extend far beyond ventures related to oil. This is true even though the Saudi Arabs Government brought the American concession interests to an end in an orderly buy-out more than two decades ago. This explains why, even with oil purchases of two million or more barrels of oil per day, the U. S. frequently runs a trade surplus with Saudi Arabia.

To the world's one billion Muslims, Saudi Arabia's importance is rooted in its being the birthplace of Islam and the site of the holy places of Makkah and Medina. It is every Muslim's devout wish to make at least one pilgrimage to Makkah during his or her lifetime and a sacred obligation for all Muslims to do so. There is great preparation, dedication and satisfaction in Saudi Arabia from sharing the experience with other Muslims from virtually every country on earth. The Kingdom has made the experience even more meaningful by developing the Sacred Mosque in Makkah and Prophet's Mosque in Medina and modernization and expanding all facilities associated with the pilgrimage, the hajj, to accommodate up to two million of the faithful each year.

The physical location of Saudi Arabia itself has thrust its residents into prominent roles in social and cultural developments, science and trade. For millennia the Arabian Peninsula was a crossroads for migrating civilizations between Africa and Asia. Several sites in Saudi Arabia are being excavated to learn more about the Stone Age peoples who were a part of this migration pattern. Caravan routes supported thriving commerce, with major arteries along the Peninsula western slopes and across central and northern Arabia. After the advent of Islam the sixth century, these routes were there to accommodate pilgrims and the spread of Islam.

Arabs and Muslims came to be the custodians, interpreters and propagators of Greek science, preserving what might otherwise have disappeared in the darkness of the Middle Ages. And to what they found, the Muslims often added their own enhancements to mathematics, astronomy, optics and medicine. One wonders how much more slowly science might have developed in our own time had it not been for the keen interest the Arabs had in resurrecting, improving and passing along the great achievements of the Greeks.

Saudi Arabia's remarkable transformation into a modern state in less than two generations can be traced to the vision and wisdom of the legendary Abdul Aziz ibn Sa'ud.

He faced seemingly insurmountable circumstances in the early years of the twentieth century: tribes warred with each other and the villages, and colonial intrigues were at work. Ibn Sa'ud successfully challenged all of these problems, welding the disparate tribes into one country, founding a new nation in 1932 and negotiating an oil concession the following year. He was able to achieve cohesion and stability until oil revenues materialized to underwrite the betterment of his people in the critical areas of health, education and economical opportunity."

Edition details

• Publisher: Nance Museum
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0967145457
• ISBN 13: 9780967145457
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208