April 10 - May 15, Station North Arts District and Online
Co-presented with Central Baltimore Partnership
Celebrate art, culture, and the Korean history and heritage of Baltimore’s Charles North community. Regional AAPI artists and organizations present an exhibit and virtual festival including artist talks, performances, cooking demonstrations, and art workshops.
April 10 - May 15
Virtual: VIEW EXHIBIT HERE
Launching on April 10, the exhibit will be on view online and in socially distanced
locations throughout the Station North Arts District, including Motor House, Joe Squared,
SNF Parkway Theatre, North Avenue Market, Impact Hub, and Nancy by SNAC.
Featured artists include: Reed Bmore, Cheng Cao, Molli Chang, Anu Das, Marlo De Lara, Gloria Tseng Fischer, Farhad Heidarian, Margaret Huey, Linda Kato, Jinyoung Koh, Sunjin Lee, Jing Ma, Hadrian Mendoza, Miki + Dolor + Van Ngo + Hsiao-Chu Hsia, Sookkyung Park, Grace Ren, Slothpotato, Nahid Tootoonchi, , Anjali Wells, Andersen Woof, and Nikita Yogaraj.
Saturday, April 10, 4 p.m. ET
REGISTER/JOIN
The virtual kick-off event features a video tour of the exhibit in Station North and
performances and presentations by Greater Baltimre/DMV artists, including salmunori
and pansori by Korean Performing Arts Academy of America (KPAAA), FilAm artist Derrick
Quevedo, Sughra Hussainy (Afghani and Islamic miniature painting, calligraphy and
illumination), Henna artist Ambika Ramsundar, and Jorgelina Lopez (contemporary home
décor using Japanese textile techniques). Handiasporia blues musician and producer,
EN’B, concludes the program with their performance of a fusion of Korean and R&B music.
Saturday, April 10, 6:30 p.m. ET
REGISTER/JOIN
Charm City Night Market presents a Night Market Online cooking demonstration with
Brown Rice.
Saturday, April 17, 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. ET
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AA&CC and the Asian Pasifika Arts Collective (APAC) co-present this virtual workshop
led by artist, Lek Vercauteren Borja, on Saturday, April 17 at 1pm. Participants create
collages from their personal and cultural experiences.
Wednesday, April 21, 8 p.m. ET
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Chao Tian and Tom Teasley bring Chinese dulcimer and world percussion together in
conversations based on the Taoist philosophy of Wu Wei, meaning “action through inaction.”
Register/Join the event here
Friday, April 30, 7 p.m. ET
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During this happy-hour virtual workshop with Margaret Huey, learn about the creativity,
community, and action we can enact with zines, a cheap, accessible, and fun way to
share information and stories.
Friday, May 7, 7 p.m. ET
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During this happy-hour virtual workshop with artist Margaret Huey, build your visual
and written storytelling skills from your own memories, experiences, and knowledge.
Festival artwork by Ameena Fareeda.
Asia North 2021 partners, sponsors, and supporters include Asian Arts & Culture Center, Central Baltimore Partnership, Station North Arts District, Motor House, Joe Squared, SNF Parkway Theatre, North Avenue Market, Impact Hub, Nancy by SNAC, Charm City Night Market, Asian Pasifika Arts Collective, E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Maryland State Arts Council, Yoshinobu & Kathleen Shiota, William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, Citizens of Baltimore County, AA&CC Members, TD Bank, BB&T/Truist, PNC Bank, WYPR, Guppy Management Services, Community Housing Partners, Mike Shecter, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore Kawasaki Sister City Committee, Baltimore Changwon Sister City Committee, and Brown Rice.
Virtual: VIEW EXHIBIT HERE
Lek Vercauteren Borja’s mixed media works explore the personal and social impact of Spanish colonization and American imperialism on the Filipino experience. Vercauteren Borja weaves history with personal experience to draw out broader contemporary Filipino American stories of identity, displacement, trauma, survival, resilience, and belonging.
Thursday, February 11, 6:30 p.m.
Virtual: Register Here (Free)
Celebrate the launch of Anak (My Child) with a talk by multimedia artist, Lek Vercauteren Borja, who discusses her dynamic and ethereal mixed media works and the experiences that inspire them. Vercauteren Borja emigrated from the Philippines to the U.S. with her family at age 10 and has since moved through the world many times feeling displaced. She uses art to return to those moments in order to better understand them and their effect on shaping her as a person.
Extended thru JULY 31
Virtual: VIEW EXHIBIT HERE
Gallery Hours BY APPOINTMENT Masks and social distancing required. 6 person limit.
Exquisitely disposed rocks and trees and vegetation. The promise of an inspired space of meditation and detachment. Such has been of the Westernized image of the Chinese and Japanese garden. Yet, such enchanted “natural” spaces camouflage the histories of empire, wealth, privilege, exploitation, ecological extraction, and displacement behind their creation. Phaan Howng’s site-specific installation engages East Asian gardens as a case study of the dynamics embedded within these private spaces.
Premieres Friday, February 12
Virtual: View Here (Free)
Celebrate the Lunar New Year with artist Cheng Cao who will introduce you to Chinese paper-cutting, or jianzhi (剪紙), a folk art that originated in China around the 6th century CE. Learn how to craft a paper-cut ox. Materials needed: Red paper, pencil, eraser, and scissors. Presented by the Asian Arts & Culture Center for the Walters Art Museum's Virtual Lunar New Year Celebration.
Friday, February 26, 7 p.m.
Virtual: Tickets: $0 - $45
“Salu-salo” is a Filipino word for gathering and eating together. Prepare yourself a Filipino meal and join the AA&CC for a virtual salu-salo featuring a cook-off with Sony Florendo, Chef Mike Ledesma (Perch RVA and InstaBowl RVA), Chef Rey Eugenio (Heritage Kitchen), and their takes on favorite Filipino recipes; music by Kulintronica and Diwa de Leon who have creatively electrified traditional Filipino instruments; a virtual tour with ANTHILL Fabric Gallery in the Philippines; and an Asian Arts & Culture Center 50th Anniversary cocktail.
Tuesday, March 9, 7 p.m.
Virtual: Register Here (Free)
How do poetry, art, oral histories and research convey the complicated histories of Filipino Americans, the fourth largest migrant group in the United States? With over 400 years of colonization and invisibilization, Philippine migrants continue to create a sense of the homeland in their new countries. Gain invaluable insights into Filipino American experiences with poet, Luisa A. Igloria; artist, Lek Vercauteren Borja, and authors E.J.R. David and Dwight Ong. Scholar and artist, Marlo DeLara moderates the discussion.
Exhibition: April 10 - May 15, Station North Arts District and online
Virtual festival kick-off: April 10
Co-presented with Central Baltimore Partnership
Celebrate art, culture, and the Korean history and heritage of Baltimore’s Charles North community. Regional AAPI artists and organizations present an exhibit and virtual festival including artist talks, performances, cooking demonstrations, and art workshops.
Kits starting at $20 donation
ORDER ONLINE
Are you a parent or caregiver looking for a creative and challenging STEAM* activity
to engage kids at home? Are you a teacher in search of a project to teach remotely
that integrates art, social studies, and engineering? Order our Wishes in the Wind
Korean Kite Kits. Each kit contains kite paper, bamboo kite spars, kite string and
spool, illustrated instructions, STEAM info, and more. Contribute to building bridges
across cultures with your purchase.
*Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math
Thursday, September 17, 6:30 p.m.
VIRTUAL
Celebrate the opening of Bag of Rocks for a Bag of Rice with an opening reception and talk by artist, Phaan Howng. Virtually experience the immersive gallery space while chatting with the artist about her process and the issues that compel her work.
If you require captioning during the event, please submit your request to asianarts AT_TOWSON by Sept. 14.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 10 a.m.
VIRTUAL
Reconnect with nature and your mind, body, and spirit from your own yard, nearby park, or even your house! Naturalist and Forest Therapy Guide, Ana Ka’ahanui, guides you through the experience of shinrin-yoku (“forest bathing”), a recent Japanese practice invented in the 1980s and based on Shinto and Buddhist reverence for nature. Adapted for our new world of social-distancing, this session will help you decompress and prepare you to adapt to and even thrive in an ambiguous and ever-changing world.
Thursdays, October 1 - November 5, 7 P.M.
VIRTUAL: Click on dates below to register
Celebrate our common humanity and the unique beauty of diverse experiences during this 6 week international community festival. 27 individuals from Baltimore to Bengaluru share their personal and cultural stories about life in quarantine, racism, relationships, social justice, empowerment, persistence, mortality, immigration, identity, courage, loneliness, and sustainable living through narrative, music, art, animation/video/short film, and more.
If you require captioning during the event, please submit your request to asianarts AT_TOWSON at least 48 hours before the event.
Introductory Remarks by Special Guest, Dr. Eric Miller. Director, World Storytelling Institute and Co-facilitator, Indian Storytelling Network.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 7 p.m.
VIRTUAL
This livestream event will feature art talks and performances by multidisciplinary artist Marlo De Lara (a.k.a. marlo egglant), hip-hop duo S.N.R.G. (Some Never Really Get), and visual artists Andersen Woof and Vidya Vijayasekharan. 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.
If you require captioning during the event, please submit your request to asianarts AT_TOWSON by Oct. 13.
Tuesday, OCTOBER 20, 7 P.M.
VIRTUAL
Join artist, Phaan Howng; scholar, Natasha Myers; botanical garden planner, Nicole DeFeo; and Herring Run Nursery assistant manager, Mary Lewis; as they deconstruct how ideal aestheticized gardens reflect power relations between humans and nature. Rethink how gardening practices can be mobilized to create more environmentally sustainable futures.
If you require captioning during the event, please submit your request to asianarts AT_TOWSON.edu by Oct. 16.
Saturday, November 14, 11 a.m., VIRTUAL
1st Hour presentation: Free
2nd Hour interactive Workshop
Join Blue Water Baltimore and Phaan Howng to learn how you can help restore habitats for struggling pollinators by strategically planting native plants. Discover the how and why of pollinator gardening and its connection to watershed health. Learn how to design your own pollinator garden and digitally share your design with other workshop participants.
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.
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.
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