Metropolitan Museum’s Lunar New Year Festival to Celebrate Year of the Ram
Kids/Family
Feb 28, 2015
12:00pm to 5:00pm
Official Site
The Metropolitan Museum of Art will hold its annual Lunar New Year festival on Saturday, February 28, from noon to 5 p.m. Featuring more than 20 fun programs for visitors of all ages, New Beginnings: Lunar New Year Festival will reflect traditions from across Asia and will include dance and music performances, art-making activities, storytelling, special tours, inspired by works of art in the Museum’s collection, as well as special exhibitions and installations. The festivities will commence in the Museum’s main lobby (Great Hall) as the Chinese Center on Long Island Lion Troupe leads a colorful parade that will wind into adjacent galleries. All Lunar New Year events are FREE with Museum admission.
New Beginnings: Lunar New Year Festival is made possible by the Great Circle Foundation, Tiger Baron Foundation, and the Anna Pardini Memorial Fund. It is presented by the Museum’s Multicultural Audience Development Initiative and the Education Department in collaboration with Cool Culture.
Performances
Visitors can join many performances, which will take place in several areas of the Museum during the five-hour celebration, beginning at noon. It will include a puppet show performed by puppeteers from Sesame Street, traditional dance performances—one for Tibetan and the other one for Indonesian—by Lotus Music & Dance, a martial arts demonstration by New York Chinese Cultural Center, and another dance by Korean Performing Arts Center. To find out more about the performances, click here.
Art Activities and Demonstrations
Many hands-on art programs offered in the Uris Center for Education will include a demonstration of making a hanging canopy created with paper kites by artist Jacob Hashimoto, a shadow-puppet making, a hand-pulled noodle demonstration, and a shadow theater workshop with Chinese theater works (best for ages 8 and up). Also visitors can learn how to tie bracelet in the Great Hall Balcony, and can create a container for their food story with artists Theresa Loong and Laura Nova in Gallery 207, Charlotte C. Weber Galleries. Inspired by the exhibition The Art of the Chinese Album, visitors can also learn how to hold and illustrate their own book. To find out more about the programs, click here.
Gallery Stations
Visitors will be invited to touch, smell, and explore tea in The Astor Chinese Garden Court; then, they can join Chinese Tea Ceremony Station. Visitors also can create and mix sounds inspired by the arts of Korea in the Sound Station, and they can learn, at the Touch Station, how Chinese sculptures were carved. To find out more about the Gallery Stations, click here.
Storytime
In Gallery 227, The Sackler Wing Galleries, Bilingual Kamishibai Storytelling (best for ages 5 and up) will be presented in Japanese and English. Midori Oka will tell the story of “How the Years Were Named” during this traditional Japanese kamishibai session. Also, Bilingual Storytime (best for ages 3 and up) will be presented in the Uris Center for Education in Mandarin and English. To see the schedule for Storytime, click here.
Exhibitions and Installations
2015 marks the centennial of the Museum’s Department of Asian Art. In the Year of the Ram, which officially begins during Lunar New Year, the department will present 18 exhibitions and installations that have been organized for the one-year celebration of its formidable holdings of art from across Asia. The spring 2015 offerings include The Art of the Chinese Album (through March 29), Sacred Traditions of the Himalayas (through June 14), Celebration of the Year of the Ram (January 17—April 19), Korea: 100 Years of Collecting at the Met (February 14—September 27), and Discovering Japanese Art: American Collectors and the Met (February 14—September 27).
For more information about the related special exhibitions, including sponsorship credits, please visit the online exhibition previews at http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions.
General Event Information
Lunar New Year program information and directions to events throughout the Museum will be available at the Information Desk inside the main entrance at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, and in the Uris Center for Education, which is located near the ground-floor entrance at Fifth Avenue and 81st Street. All Lunar New Year programs are free with Museum admission. Recommended Museum admission is $25 for adults, $17 for seniors (65 and over), and $12 for students. Children under 12 accompanied by an adult are free.
About the Multicultural Audience Development Initiative
The Multicultural Audience Development Initiative began more than 15 years ago at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It reflects the Museum’s founding mission to educate and inspire by reaching out to all of its constituencies, including the many diverse communities of the New York Tristate area. Its objectives are to increase awareness of the Museum’s global collections and programs, to diversify its visitorship and Membership, and to increase participation in its programs.
Event Date: Saturday, February 28, 2015, noon–5:00 p.m.
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, Manhattan
Social Media: Use #metfest and tag @metmuseum on Twitter and Instagram
Author: Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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