Programs & Exhibitions

Fall 2025

Exhibition

Unwound

September 10 – December 6 (closed Nov. 26 – 29)
Monday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Asian Arts Gallery, TU Center for the Arts
1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204

How have recent upheavals—from the pandemic to global conflicts, amplified by media—reshaped our private lives? How do personal memories become collective history? In a world forever changed, how do we find our way forward? Elaine Qiu’s awe-inspiring installation of painting, video, and sound invites visitors into a multi-sensory exploration of communal consciousness, connection, and healing in a fragmented, post-pandemic world.

AA&CC is a proud partner…

Social Hour

NAAAP Baltimore 2nd Thursdays AAPI Meet-Up

Thursday November 13, 6 – 8 p.m.
Asian Arts Gallery & TU Center for the Arts Atrium
1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204
REGISTER: NAAAP Members $10, non-members $15

Visit Elaine Qiu’s captivating multi-layered art installation, Unwound, to explore how shared historical and contemporary experiences and their media depictions connect us all.  Your registration fee includes Thanksgiving-inspired food from Culinary Architecture. The menu includes: Boudin Sticky Rice Stuffing,  Red Curry Crab Rangoon, Pork Stuffed Tofu and “Peking” Turkey Rolls.

The Second Thursdays: AAPI Meet-up is a monthly opportunity to socialize, hear from local leaders, and learn about opportunities. 

Performance & Gathering

Our Thanksgiving Stories

Thursday, November 20, 6 – 8 p.m.
TU Center for the Arts Atrium
1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204

Celebrate the multitude of culinary traditions in this storytelling gathering highlighting foods shared on Thanksgiving. Presenters include TU students, faculty, staff, and other guests. Audience members are also invited to share their stories and enjoy global foods together. Co-presented by TU Asian Arts & Culture Center, TU Department of Theater Arts, TU Center for Student Diversity, and Alpha Sigma Rho Sorority. Supported in part by TU-COFAC Deans Office. 

Performance

TU Cambodian Classical and World Music Ensembles

Wednesday, December 3, 6 p.m.
TU Center for the Arts Recital Hall
1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204
FREE

Enjoy music of Cambodia and the world, while celebrating TU students who are expanding their musical horizons. The Cambodian Classical Ensemble performs on pin peat instruments, a centuries’ old tradition that accompanies Khmer classical dance and sacred, royal, and religious ceremonies. The World Music Ensemble plays arrangements from various non-Western musical traditions.

Japan Film Club Series

The Japan Film Club Series is hosted by Reed Hessler, longtime host on WBJC, and co-presented by the Asian Arts & Culture Center with the Baltimore Kawasaki Sister City Committee (BKSCC) and TU College of Fine Arts and Communication Dean’s Office.

All film screenings are held in Towson University Art Lecture Hall, Center for the Arts Room 2032. FREE Registration is required.

---

Past Events

Opening Reception & Artist Talk

Elaine Qiu: Unwound

Wednesday, September 10, 7:30 – 9 p.m.
Asian Arts Gallery & TU Center for the Arts Atrium
1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204

Join multimedia artist, Elaine Qiu, to explore the Unwound exhibition together and gain insights into how she creates art to explore the liminal spaces between reality and fiction, past and present, and physical and psychological.

Peace gathering

Gardens for Peace (G4P)

Friday, September 19, 9:30 a.m.
AA&CC Asian Garden, Osler Drive Entrance to the TU Center for the Arts
1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204

Kick-off the new school year by cultivating a culture of friendship and community. Join a ceremonial raking of the Japanese word for peace (heiwa) in AA&CC’s Asian Garden, while collectively envisioning and promoting peace with others. Recognize the International Day of Peace with 27 other Asian Gardens nationwide through G4P which brings people together to advocate for unity.

AA&CC is proud to co-sponsor…

Celebration

Taste of Japan

Saturday, September 20, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Elkton Branch Library, Elkton Room
Cecil County Public Library
301 Newark Ave., Elkton, MD 21921

Join us for a celebration of Japanese culture and traditions. This event brings the rich traditions of Japan to life through engaging activities, live performances, and food sampling the whole family can enjoy. All ages are welcome—come explore, learn, and celebrate together!

TASTE OF JAPAN

Schedule

10 a.m. Taiko Drumming
10:45 a.m. Kamishibai Storytelling
11:30 a.m. Jujutsu Demonstration
12 p.m. Kamishibai Storytelling
12:30 p.m. Kimono Fashion + Dressing Demonstration
1:30 p.m. Shakuhachi performance– Bamboo flute

Learn More

AA&CC is proud to co-sponsor…

Virtual Tour

Yu-Shan Cheng

Baltimore Clayworks Visiting Artist
Tuesday, September 23, 1:30 p.m.
Register/Join

Yu-Shan Cheng was born and grew up in New Taipei City, Taiwan. She is currently a second-year graduate student in the Ceramics program at the Graduate School of Applied Arts, Tainan National University of the Arts. In 2024, she participated in a residency at the Keep in Touch International Porcelain Symposium in the Czech Republic. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National Taiwan University of Arts in 2023. Her practice spans a variety of media, including fabric, ceramics, thread, and beads. Yu-Shan’s work explores themes of ritual, sacred space, life energy, spiritual inquiry, inner psychology, the body, and consciousness. Yu-Shan Cheng is a Baltimore Clayworks Visiting Artist.

AA&CC is a proud partner...

Parade & Festival

Asian Community Processions at the Great Baltimore Lantern Parade and Dia De Los Muertos Festival

Saturday, October 25, 4 – 9 p.m.
(Rain date: Oct. 26) Patterson Park, Baltimore, MD

Join AA&CC in hosting diverse Asian cultural processions as part of the the Great Baltimore Lantern Parade and Dia De los Muertos Festival co-produced by the Creative Alliance and Friends of Patterson Park. Visit AA&CC’s tent before the parade to make festive Asian-inspired lanterns and bookmarks between 4 – 7 p.m. Parade begins at 7 p.m.

Summer 2025

AA&CC is proud to co-present…

EXHIBITION

Interwoven Worlds: Art of APIMEDA Diasporas

June 26 – July 26
Maryland Federation of Art’s Circle Gallery
18 State Circle, Annapolis, MD 21401
Gallery Hours: Daily 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Tuesday, July 8, 5 – 7 p.m.: Reception at MFA Circle Gallery with special guest Maryland Delegate Mark Chang, District 32, Vice Chair of the Maryland House Appropriations Committee

Saturday, July 26, 4 – 6 p.m.: Closing Reception at MFA Circle Gallery 

Asian Arts & Culture Center (AA&CC) and the Maryland Federation of Art (MFA) co-present Interwoven Worlds, MFA’s first exhibition dedicated to showcasing artists from APIMEDA (Asian Pacific Islander Middle Eastern Desi American) diasporas. Juried by AA&CC Program Manager, Nerissa Paglinauan, the exhibit continues the AA&CC’s mission to center underrepresented APIMEDA stories and experiences, taking it to Annapolis. The selected works span a wide range of media, themes, and aesthetics. Some engage deeply with the artists’ cultural and historical roots—at times exploring layers of intersectionality—while others focus on subjects not explicitly tied to identity. This exhibition illuminates both the diversity of individual experiences and the common threads that bind them. It invites viewers to move beyond reductive labels, to engage with each work on its own terms, and to celebrate the richness of artistic voices that flourish at the intersections of culture, geography, and imagination.

• View the Interwoven Worlds Web Gallery

AA&CC is proud to co-sponsor…

Exhibition

Nocturnal Reflection

June 28 – July 27
Atrium Artspace
2029 Maryland Ave., Baltimore, MD 21218
Gallery Hours: Wednesday and Thursday 1 – 4 p.m.
or by appointment

Opening Reception: Saturday, 6/28, 6 – 8 p.m.
Artist Talk: Sunday, 7/13, 2 – 4 p.m.
Closing Reception: Saturday, 7/26, 6 – 8 p.m.

How do our mental and emotional experiences shape our identities? In this immersive installation of the mind, artist Rieko Chacey produces the visual narratives of intangible, spiritual and emotional personal growth as nocturnal processing in dark, quiet, solitude. Co-sponsored by AA&CC and Matcha Time Gift Shop.

AA&CC is proud to co-sponsor…

Exhibition

What They Left Us 

July 3 – August 2
The Alchemy of Art
1637 Eastern Ave., Baltimore, MD
Gallery Hours: Saturdays 12 – 5 p.m. or by appointment
Email alchemyofevents@gmail.com or call/text 805-705-2305 

What They Left Us brings together eight Filipino-American artists whose practices center memory as the material and method. Curated by Baltimore-based artists Anna Divinagracia and Ciarra K. Walters, What They Left Us features new and recent work by Thea Canlas, Miguel Caba, Ashley Dequilla, Ryan Frigillana, Dhaynne Torres, Kat Navarro, along with the curators themselves.

Through painting, photography, sculpture, video, and performance, this exhibition explores how cultural inheritance and the unspoken labor of belonging are shaped by migration. The art that emerges is not simply homage to the past but is something that is in a living conversation with it. Engaging with inherited rituals, family archives, and everyday gestures of care, the featured artists consider how art becomes a means of holding onto and reshaping what is passed down. In doing so, they examine the complex nature of identity, community, and presence as Filipino-Americans today.

This exhibition is made possible with support from Maryland State Arts Council, Towson University’s Asian Arts & Culture Center and Off the Rox.

What They Left Us - Free public programs at the Alchemy of art

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 3, 2025 | 6 – 9 p.m.
Featuring music by DJ Tahrook, light food from Mama Rosa Grill, and refreshments from Off The Rox.
RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/what-they-left-us-opening-reception-tickets-1376537313159

Tinikling + Movement Workshop. Saturday, July 19 | 2 p.m.
A healing-centered workshop combining traditional Filipino dance with embodied movement practices.

Exhibition Walkthrough with the Curators. Saturday, July 26 | 2 p.m.
An in-gallery walkthrough and discussion of the curatorial vision and artist contributions.

Closing Reception + Artist Talk. Saturday, August 2 | 5 – 7 p.m.
A panel conversation with the exhibiting artists with light food from Mama Rosa Grill, and refreshments from Off The Rox.

Spring 2025

Connection + Communication + Unity Series

AA&CC is proud to co-present…

DOCUMENTARY SCREENING

Nurse Unseen

Tuesday, January 21
Reception: 5:30 p.m., Film + Q&A: 6 – 8 p.m.
Enoch Pratt Free Library - Central Branch, Wheeler Auditorium
400 Cathedral St, Baltimore, MD 21201
Registration Encouraged

Join Towson University’s Asian Arts & Culture Center, in partnership with the Enoch Pratt Free Library, for a screening of the documentary, Nurse Unseen, which examines the largely untold story of the Filipino nurses at the backbone of the American healthcare system. Nurse Unseen explores the little-known history and humanity of the unsung Filipino nurses risking their lives on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic while facing a resurgence of anti-Asian hate in the streets. Nurse Unseen seeks to explain why so many Filipino nurses left the Philippines to work in the U.S. healthcare system and why they have been so disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Enjoy a light reception catered by Frisco Filipino Baltimore prior to the film, and speak with Nurse Unseen Director and Emmy-award winning filmmaker, Michele Josue, through a live virtual Q&A after the film.

Exhibition

HAUNTED KOREAS
Dreaming Unification Protest Peace
Mina Cheon with Kim Il Soon

February 12 – May 17 (closed March 17 – 22)
Monday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Asian Arts Gallery, TU Center for the Arts
1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 22, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.

View the most extensive collection of global activist artist Mina Cheon’s series of “Dreaming Unification” paintings, a new perspective on the flags of a unified Korea. Each of these paintings, born from the artist’s stream of unconsciousness, is a powerful peace protest, shedding light on the intricacies of communication, love, and a shared vision of a harmonious future for North and South Korea. The call for unification within the Koreas is a concerted effort to desire peace on earth, because to dream for global peace is about healing and reconciliation of tempered worlds divided. 

In her dream state, Cheon, along with her North Korean counterpart and art persona, Kim Il Soon, transcends physical borders and cultural boundaries. They enter a realm of imagination where dreaming is a powerful catalyst for envisioning a peaceful world. Her aspiration for peace in the Korean peninsula amidst escalated global warfare is to examine the complexities of ideological, political, economic, and religious divisions witnessed in everyday lives and to offer this call for global harmony that inspires us all as a form of cultural protest. 

Artists Mina Cheon and/with Kim Il Soon are the creators of the provocative political pop art known as POLIPOP. This art form is not just visually accessible, but also inclusive by its invitation of the subject matter leaning towards peace for all. With its eye-catching, colorful “pop art” work, the art is layered by cultural comparative studies and inquiries into current global geopolitics. Wars are lucrative, and peace is an expensive endeavor. Using the rhetoric of pop art, the political statement is about unity and peace on earth, inviting everyone to be part of the conversation.

This exhibition is in part an extended version of Mina Cheon’s “Haunted Koreas,” which was her 2022 solo show at the American University Museum in Washington DC, with select pieces coming from the Inaugural 2020-2021 Asia Society Triennale, Cheon’s 2021 solo exhibition at the Korea Society, and her 2020-2021 solo exhibition at the Ethan Cohen Gallery, all in New York.

OPENING Reception + Artist talk

Mina Cheon "HAUNTED KOREAS"

Saturday, February 22, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Asian Arts Gallery & Atrium, TU Center for the Arts
1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204

Join Mina Cheon to explore the HAUNTED KOREAS: Dreaming Unification Protest Peace exhibition together and gain insights into how she creates art to advocate for positive change. Mina Cheon (PhD, MFA) is a global Korean new media artist, scholar, and educator who divides her time between Baltimore, New York, and Seoul, Korea. Born in Seoul to parents who were originally from the North, Cheon has never known a unified Korea. She has worked on North Korean awareness and global peace projects since 2004 and her specific focus on East Asia reflects the transgenerational trauma of Korea’s history, particularly division, war, and Japanese colonization. Co-sponsored by the Korean American Foundation – Greater Washington and the Baltimore Changwon Sister City Committee.

Performance

Intersegmental 38 with the Baltimore Composers Forum

Saturday, February 22, 6:30 p.m.
Recital Hall, TU Center for the Arts
1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204

How do we cross over the border with music? How do we prompt unity? How do we compose global peace? This concert of works by diverse members of the Baltimore Composers Forum draws inspiration from Mina Cheon’s series of “Unification Dream” paintings. Pieces explore the idea of crossing over the 38th parallel which runs through and connects both Maryland and Korea (DMZ). Featured composers include Jin-Hwa Choi, Se-Yeon Oh, Anna Rubin, Ha-Eun Lee, Young-Wook Lee, Keith Kramer, Garth Baxter, Janice Macaulay, Gavin Brown, Ljiljana Becker, Ian Rashkin, and Ariyo Shahry. Featured performers include Ji Eun Kim (soprano), Soyeun Jung (gayageum), Youngik Jang (guitar), and Bonghee Lee (piano). 

film screening, discussion + Reception

CROSSINGS

Wednesday, April 9, 5:30 p.m.
Art Lecture Hall (CA 2032), TU Center for the Arts
1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204

CROSSINGS, a film by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem, captures the groundbreaking mission of Women Cross DMZ (WCDMZ), a group of international women peacemakers who sets out on a historic journey across the Demilitarized Zone from North to South Korea, calling for an end to the 74-year war that has divided the Korean Peninsula. Witness how thirty women activists dare to tread forbidden territory to draw global attention to the unresolved war and demand a seat at the table in bringing about peace.

CROSSINGS PANEL DISCUSSION

Meet and Chat with Aiyoung Choi

After the Crossings film screening, chat about the film and the ongoing quest to end the Korean War as the first step toward reaching peace on the Korean Peninsula, with Aiyoung Choi, Chair of the Board of Women Cross DMZ, as well as TU Assistant Professors of Political Science, Jeong Joo Ahn and Juman Kim. Continue the conversation informally during a reception at Mina Cheon’s Dreaming Unification Protest Peace exhibition in the Asian Arts Gallery. Co-sponsored by the TU Program in Women’s & Gender Studies.

AA&CC is proud to co-present…

Exhibition & Festival

Asia North 2025

Exhibit Opening Reception and Celebration: Friday, May 2
Exhibition and Festival: May 2 – May 31

The 7th annual Asia North community exhibition and festival celebrates Baltimore’s Charles North (a.k.a. Station North) neighborhood’s constantly evolving identities as a Koreatown, arts district, and creative center. Co-presented with the Central Baltimore Partnership. Details TBD.

• Visit the Asia North webpage for details

---

Japan Film Club Series

The Japan Film Club Series is hosted by Reed Hessler, longtime host on WBJC, and co-presented by the Asian Arts & Culture Center with the Baltimore Kawasaki Sister City Committee (BKSCC) and TU College of Fine Arts and Communication Dean’s Office.

All film screenings are held in Towson University Art Lecture Hall, Center for the Arts Room 2032. FREE Registration is required.

 

---

Continuing Programs

Asian Garden

The Asian Arts & Culture Center’s (AA&CC) Asian Garden at the entrance to Towson University’s (TU) Center for the Arts building was redesigned and renovated in 2023 in recognition of our fiftieth anniversary. For decades, the garden has honored the memory of Dr. Alexander Sidorowicz (AA&CC friend and Dean of TU’s College of Fine Arts from 1991 to 1996). The renewed garden is created in the karesansui style by John Powell, a Japanese garden designer from Zoen LLC, who installed the garden with community volunteers. The garden is a striking composition of Baltimore gneiss and Cockeysville marble boulders rising above a light gray bed of raked gravel. Key elements of this sustainable garden are the reuse of boulders obtained from TU campus excavations, bamboo from a previous AA&CC exhibition, and a reconfigured walkway. The garden is now a permanent, living exhibit of AA&CC. Campus and local communities interact with the garden in academic and public programs throughout the year. The garden was reinstalled through efforts by Yoshinobu and Kathleen Shiota, members of AA&CC, who are active rakers in the garden on early weekend mornings along with other volunteers.

• Watch "Asian Arts & Culture Center - Asian Garden Renovation" on YouTube

 

TU Pin Peat Ensemble (Cambodian Classical Music)

The AA&CC and TU Department of Music teamed up to offer the TU Pin Peat (Khmer classical music) Ensemble led by master Cambodian musician, Chum Ngek. Through this course, which was established in spring 2017, TU students expand their artistic and cultural horizons while contributing to the preservation and longevity of a tradition that was nearly decimated during the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia.

Special thanks to the Maryland State Arts Council, Citizens of Baltimore County, and AA&CC members for making this initiative possible.

Asia in Maryland (AIM)

Asia in Maryland (AIM) engages community and showcases Asian and Asian American creativity in Maryland. The series, which was launched in 2015, increases awareness and understanding of Maryland’s diverse communities through exhibitions, workshops, family programs, performances, courses, and more. Through the unique power of the arts to connect people on personal and emotional levels, participants gain intimate understandings of the integral roles that over 500,000 Asian and AAPI residents play in the fabric of Maryland life.