Based on the directive by the University System of Maryland, there will be no on-campus, face-to-face classes or events for the remainder of this term.
Read more about TU’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Virtual Event | Asia North 2020: A Celebration of Art, Culture & Community
Asia North is a collaborative community celebration that recognizes, showcases, and honors the art, culture and the Asian heritage of Greater Baltimore, especially the Korean history of Baltimore’s Charles North community. Asia North 2020 features an online art exhibition, Tradition - Memory - Transformation, which showcases the works of 25 regional Asian and Asian American artists, and a brief history of Koreatown. Co-presented with Central Baltimore Partnership.
Exhibition | The Women of Shahnahmeh: The Women of Afarin RahmanifarSavor Afarin Rahmanifar’s arresting, large-scale mixed media paintings which showcase the compassionate, brave, loyal, and sensuous female characters of the Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings. Fusing her skills as a miniature painter with bold colors, spontaneous strokes, and natural poses, the artist captures the dreamscape and surreal world of the Shahnameh, evoking a fantasy of literature for a new and contemporary audience.
Celebrate the opening of The Women of Shahnameh, The Women of Afarin Rahmanifar with an opening reception and listen to a talk by the artist. Born in Tehran, Afarin Rahmanifar’s artworks have been featured in galleries and University Museums across the US including at Yale University, in New York City (Columbia University), Berkeley, San Francisco (University of California), Carbondale (University of Illinois), and at Boston University.
Exhibition | SAYAKA GANZ: RECLAIMED CREATIONSEnter a wonderland of airy horses, birds, and sea creatures appearing to fly, swim, run and swirl. Sayaka Kajita Ganz creates sculptures from reclaimed plastic objects, arranging the fragments of waste into fluid images of birds and animals that appear to be created from brush strokes. The artist states, “My work is about perceiving harmony, even in situations that appear chaotic from the inside,” and notes that her work is inspired by “Shinto animist belief that all things in the world have spirits.”
Produced by David J. Wagner, L.L.C., David J. Wagner, Ph.D., Curator/Tour Director
Visit the touring exhibition website.
Admission is free.
Gallery Hours during exhibition: Monday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Gallery Talk & Opening Reception | Meet the Artist: Sayaka Kajita GanzCelebrate the opening of Reclaimed Creations with a gallery talk by and opening reception with artist, Sayaka Kajita Ganz. Ganz is a world citizen who was born in Yokohama; grew up in Japan, Brazil, and Hong Kong; and studied, taught, and works in the United States. She discusses her process and philosophy of creating welded sculptures of animal forms.
Performance | Nakatani Gong OrchestraAvant-garde sound artist, master percussionist and composer, Tatsuya Nakatani, performs genre-defying solo works and leads local players in playing complex, harmonic compositions on Chinese wind gongs using his original bowing technique. The Japanese concept of ma (emptiness) and the physicality of vibration are central to Nakatani’s compositions and philosophy of sound.
Performance | TU Ensembles: World Music and Cambodian Classical
Students in the TU World Music Ensemble, directed by Andrea Vercoe, and TU Cambodian Classical Music Ensemble, directed by Chum Ngek, will each perform in this joint concert. Co-presented by the Asian Arts & Culture Center and TU Department of Music.
Admission is free.
The AA&CC collaborates every semester with TU’s Community Art Center to engage families in experiencing and making art through drop-in art activities, performances, interactive gallery experiences, and story time.
This ongoing project highlights exhibitions, performances, workshops, artist residencies, and online resources featuring local Asian arts and culture in Maryland communities . It also incorporates The Asia in Maryland (AIM) Cultural History Project, an interdisciplinary studies course combining ethnography and oral history to explore, understand and document Asian arts and culture in Maryland. Student research informs Center programming. In fall 2015, we initiated the “Connection” with an exhibition, performances, workshops and family days introducing local audiences to the living Khmer art and culture in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The Asia in Maryland (AIM) Cultural History Project (IDFA 480/580 Interdisciplinary Fine Arts Special Topics Seminar) is an interdisciplinary studies course in Towson University’s College of Fine Arts & Communication. This course combines ethnography and oral history to explore, understand and document Asian arts and culture in Maryland. Students identify their own research topic and conduct independent research with guidance from the instructors throughout the semester. Topics can include art, music, dance, theater, foodways, costumes, healing arts, martial arts and more. Students create a portfolio of their research as a culminating project at the end of the semester. Student projects will be used in programs at the Asian Arts & Culture Center.
Student Researcher: Elayna Daminabo
Student Researcher: Jessica Donnelly
Student Researcher: Kiara (Olive) Oliver
Student Researcher: Alexandra Palmer
Student Researcher: Theresa Schempp