National Museum of Asian Art » Gallery Talks & Tours

Enjoy a guided tour of our East Building and its range of exhibitions. These tours can feature art from any of the exhibitions currently on view, with works from cultures as diverse as ancient Iran to contemporary Japan.

Please meet at the East Building, B1 Lobby for the tour.

Bank of America is the Founding Sponsor of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art “IlluminAsia” Arts and Culture Festival.

Enjoy a guided tour of our East Building and its range of exhibitions. These tours can feature art from any of the exhibitions currently on view, with works from cultures as diverse as ancient Iran to contemporary Japan.

Please meet at the East Building info desk for the tour.

In this online talk, Dayun Oh, curator at the National Museum of Korea, explores the dynamic interaction between Chinese and Korean painting traditions. She focuses on a pair of landscape paintings and a pair of phoenix paintings that have been variously attributed to China and Korea over the last hundred years. Oh carefully analyzes the stylistic ambiguities to offer her account of the origins of the two paintings. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, these painters reinterpreted and reinvented the painting styles of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) to create a unique Korean visual language based on the aesthetics of the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910). A Q&A will follow, facilitated by Sunwoo Hwang, Korea Foundation Assistant Curator of Korean Art and Culture at the National Museum of Asian Art.

This program is part of the monthly lunchtime series Sneak Peek, where staff members and outside scholars share personal perspectives and new research related to the collections of the National Museum of Asian Art.

About the Speaker
Dayun Oh is a specialist in Korean painting and currently serves as a visiting curator at NMAA as part of a staff exchange program between the National Museum of Korea (NMK) and NMAA. She has served as a curator in the Fine Arts Division of NMK since 2016, where she was responsible for organizing major special exhibitions, including Through the Eyes of Joseon Painters: Real Scenery Landscapes of Korea (2019) and Evergreen in Winter Days (2021), the latter of which commemorated the donation of Kim Jeong-hui’s masterpiece. Prior to her tenure at NMK, she conducted extensive research on Korean art collections while working at the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation (OKCHF).

Follow curator Emma Stein in this tour of Prehistoric Spirals: Earthenware from Thailand. Immerse yourself in the red spirals of these ancient Thai ceramics, and learn what recent research has unveiled about their materials, techniques, and designs.

Please meet at the front desk of the East Building (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery). We recommend you register in advance.

Bank of America is the Founding Sponsor of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art “IlluminAsia” Arts and Culture Festival.

Enjoy a guided tour of our East Building and its range of exhibitions. These tours can feature art from any of the exhibitions currently on view, with works from cultures as diverse as ancient Iran to contemporary Japan.

Please meet at the East Building, B1 Lobby for the tour.

Bank of America is the Founding Sponsor of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art “IlluminAsia” Arts and Culture Festival.

Enjoy a guided tour of our East Building and its range of exhibitions. These tours can feature art from any of the exhibitions currently on view, with works from cultures as diverse as ancient Iran to contemporary Japan.

Please meet at the East Building, B1 Lobby for the tour.

Bank of America is the Founding Sponsor of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art “IlluminAsia” Arts and Culture Festival.

Tune in for this after-hours salon of performance storytelling, such as dance, theater, and public art. Through discussions and live performances, local and national talents will share how they tell their stories and express their full, authentic selves on stage.

Register in advance to get the best experience. Some activities have a limited capacity, with entry on a first-come, first-served basis. All activities will take place in the West Building (Freer Gallery of Art).

Schedule:

• 5:00 p.m. – House Opens
• 5:30–6:15 p.m. – Conversation on theater with Greg Strasser and Julia Izumi
• 6:25–6:40 p.m. – Dance performance
• 6:50–7:25 p.m. – Conversation on dance with Edwaard Liang
• 7:35–8:00 p.m. – Dance performance
• 8:10–8:55 p.m. – Conversation on performance art with Anthony Le and Jess Trúc My
• 9:05–9:30 p.m. – Dance performance

• Gregory Keng Strasser is a director and writer. His work spans theater, opera, video games, and film and has been performed in New York City; Washington, DC; Baltimore; Bethesda, Maryland; Arlington and Winchester, Virginia; and abroad in Bangkok, Thailand; Holstebro, Denmark; and Ubud, Indonesia. 
  
  Strasser is an artist-in-residence at Roundabout Theatre Company in New York (Roundabout Directors Group #6) and was the recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship from 2020–2024. He was the 19–20 Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow at Arena Stage. You can find out more on www.gregorykengstrasser.com or stalk him on IG: @lil.scallion.pancake. 
   
• Julia Izumi (she/her/hers) is a writer, performer, and educator who makes plays, musicals, theatrical nonsense, and everything in between.
  
  Her work has been developed and presented at Manhattan Theatre Club as part of the Ted Snowdon Reading Series, Clubbed Thumb, Bushwick Starr, WP Theater, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, WP Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Trinity Repertory Company, the CAATA National Asian-American ConFest, FringeNYC, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Rorschach Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, the NNPN/Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights’ Workshop, the Maria Irene Fornés Playwriting Workshop, and Corkscrew Theatre Festival. 
  
  She is currently a resident at New Dramatists. Currently under commission from MTC/Sloan, True Love Productions, Playwrights Horizons, and Seattle Rep 20x30. She received her MFA in writing for performance from Brown University. She is the 2011 recipient of the Goddard Rhetorical Prize for excellence in performance at Tufts University, where she earned her BA in drama.
  
  She has completed one half-marathon and has kept a fish alive for one month.
   
• Edwaard Liang is the artistic director of The Washington Ballet. Edwaard is one of only four people to have led the organization, and the first person of color. He is also the first Asian American to lead a major American ballet company.
  
  Born in Taipei, Taiwan, and raised in Marin County, California, Liang began his dance training at age five with Marin Ballet. After studying at the School of American Ballet, he joined New York City Ballet in 1993. That same year, he was a medal winner at the Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition and won the Mae L. Wien Award. By 1998, he was promoted to soloist. In 2001, Liang joined the Tony Award®-winning Broadway cast of Fosse. By 2002, Liang was invited by Jiri Kylian to become a member of the acclaimed Nederlands Dans Theater 1.
  
  While dancing with NDT 1, Liang discovered his passion and love for choreography. Since establishing himself as a choreographer, his works have been performed by dance companies around the world, including the Mariinsky Ballet, New York City Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Shanghai Ballet, Washington Ballet, Hubbard Street 2, Singapore Ballet, Dortmund Ballet, National Theatre in Beijing, and many others. In 2012, Edwaard Liang was named the 5th Artistic Director of BalletMet and was named director of The Washington Ballet in 2023.
   
• Anthony Trung Quang Le is a Washington, DC-based multidisciplinary artist and identifies as Vietnamese, American, and Queer. They explore the joy of nonconformity across painting, video, sculpture, printmaking, performance, and curation.
  
  Le cofounded Vagabond, a platform dedicated to amplifying Vietnamese American artists through projects such as a self-published 2024 art zine and the DMV’s first Vietnamese American exhibition, 50 Years of Hope and Ha-Has, at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH). Le is a three-time CAH Fellow (2023, 2024, 2025), and their work is part of the DC Art Bank Collection. In 2023, Le presented their solo exhibition, Golden Looking Hour, at Transformer in Washington, DC. Their work has also been included in exhibitions at American University, Towson University’s Asian Arts & Culture Center, Hamiltonian Artists, Touchstone Gallery, Culture House, Washington Studio School, Latela Curatorial, Rhizome DC, and Homme Gallery. They have shown work in group exhibitions curated by Washington Project For The Arts, Art Roving, Monochrome Collective, and Petworth Arts Collaborative. Le has received additional support from 51 for 51 and Mozaik Philanthropy.
  
  Le cofounded the Model Mutiny art collective with their artist spouse Ashley Jaye Williams in 2021. Le earned a degree in landscape architecture at Pennsylvania State University in 2009.
   
• The DMV’s very own Jess Trúc My is a musician, performance artist, political educator, and grassroots community organizer who became a founding member of Viet Place Collective (VPC) with a vision—to tend to the intergenerational wounds of a post-war community with creativity at the forefront. Musically known as "Fictionals," their debut EP, Ancestor, uplifts the stories and dreams of a double-displaced diaspora. Deeply rooted in local cultural and DIY music scenes, she shows up with an anti-imperial and non-carceral ethic—onstage, in the streets, and within community. Their organizing and cultural work within the Vietnamese community has been featured in places like The Washington Post, NPR, and various local platforms. She looks up to artists like Gil Scott-Heron, Marvin Gaye, and Nina Simone, figures who have transformed their music into vehicles for liberation, a sentiment that profoundly resonates through Fictionals' music.

Bank of America is the Founding Sponsor of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art “IlluminAsia” Arts and Culture Festival.

Enjoy a guided tour of our East Building and its range of exhibitions. These tours can feature art from any of the exhibitions currently on view, with works from cultures as diverse as ancient Iran to contemporary Japan.

Please meet at the East Building, B1 Lobby for the tour.

Bank of America is the Founding Sponsor of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art “IlluminAsia” Arts and Culture Festival.

In celebration of AANHPI Heritage Month and WorldPride DC 2025, we present a special panel discussion with the acclaimed director of Saving Face, Alice Wu, in conversation with special guests Andrew Ahn and James Tom on queer and Asian American representation in film and media.

Join us after the discussion on our museum's plaza for an outdoor market with SAMASAMA from 4–8 p.m.! Then, on June 1, join us for a screening of Saving Face.

This discussion is copresented with the Queer and Transgender Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition (QTAPI), in partnership with Asian and Pacific Islander Queers United for Action (AQUA DC), Capital Pride Alliance, the Mayor's Office of LGBTQ Affairs (MOLGBTQA), and the Mayor's Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs (MOAPIA) as part of WorldPride 2025.

About Alice Wu
Alice’s debut feature, Saving Face, made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released by Sony Pictures Classics in 2005. Her second film, The Half of It, won the Founders Award at the Tribeca Film Festival before its release on Netflix in 2020. The script was a 2018 selection for the prestigious Black List and garnered a nomination for Best Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards. In addition to her feature projects, Alice has been directing episodic television (Fleishman Is in Trouble and Interior Chinatown for Hulu) as well as commercials. Her spot for Oreo was recognized as one of the top 10 commercials of 2022 by Adweek. Alice has degrees from Stanford in computer science and, prior to filmmaking, worked as a software designer at Microsoft.

About Andrew Ahn
Andrew Ahn is a queer Korean American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Ahn's latest film, The Wedding Banquet, starring Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang, and Kelly Marie Tran, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. His previous film, Fire Island, was nominated for two Emmy Awards and won the Ensemble Tribute at the 2023 Gotham Awards and a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Film – Streaming or TV. Ahn's sophomore feature, Driveways, premiered at the 2019 Berlinale and was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards. Ahn's first film, Spa Night, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and won a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance. The film went on to win the 2017 Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award. Ahn has directed both fiction and documentary television, including the shows Bridgerton and Generation. He has promoted diversity in the arts by mentoring youth filmmakers through programs like Pacific Arts Movement’s Reel Voices, Outfest’s OutSet, and the Sundance Institute's Native Filmmaker Lab.

About James Tom
James Tom (he/they) is a stand-up comic, an actor, and a writer, gleefully providing the trans, queer, Asian American, millennial twink perspective that everyone never knew they wanted. He is a story editor on HBO Max's Our Flag Means Death. James can be seen and heard in the Hulu feature Crush, HBO Max’s Love Life, Adult Swim's Tuca & Bertie, and on Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda on Netflix. His writing has been published by Reductress, Shondaland, and Condé Nast’s Them, and he wrote for the Audible/Broadway video series Hot White Heist, produced by Alan Cumming. James has been featured in The New York Times, Vice, Ozy, Forbes, NowThis, Vulture’s Comedians You Should and Will Know in 2021, and was selected as a New Face at the 2021 Just For Laughs festival.

About Jess X. Snow
Jess X. Snow is a nonbinary Chinese Canadian filmmaker, multidisciplinary artist, and poet based in Philadelphia who brings their background in community murals into their film work. Recently named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, over the last six years, they have made a body of films that blend surrealism, memory, and spirituality to monumentalize the healing journeys of flawed Asian migrant queers. Their short films have screened at university classrooms, community gardens, and film festivals such as BFI London, SFFilm, BlackStar, New Orleans, and Ann Arbor, and can be streamed on the National Film Board of Canada. Recently, they produced and shot We Were the Scenery, which won the Sundance Short Film Jury Award for Nonfiction and made its international premiere at Visions Du Réel. They received their MFA in screenwriting and directing from NYU. Along with their artistic practice, they have lectured and taught workshops on the intersection of their filmmaking, community arts practice, and the Asian immigrant experience with students of all ages and backgrounds.

Bank of America is the Founding Sponsor of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art “IlluminAsia” Arts and Culture Festival. 

Register in advance to get the best experience. Food and art will be available for purchase on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last.

Shop, eat, and celebrate at our outdoor SAMASAMA market featuring AANHPI artists and friends! Meet and shop with the creators and learn about the beautiful multicultural landscape of our diaspora community. Artworks and food will be available for purchase.

Enjoy crafts at the SAMASAMA table with Julie Wu and a DJ set by Les The DJ! Plus, get a chance to redo picture day at our reimagined school photo booth! Celebrate your authentic self and get your portrait taken by photographer Airin Yung.

About SAMASAMA
SAMASAMA (Tagalog for "all together") began with the humble mission of celebrating diversity through art and gathering. Founded in Washington, DC, in 2016 as a collective art show and benefit celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, SAMASAMA has evolved to curate year-round programs, events, and partnerships to highlight diasporic narratives and to facilitate nuanced dialogue. The mission of SAMASAMA remains honoring ancestral and indigenous roots while pushing creative boundaries to grow our understanding of current and future generations' multicultural identities.

Come and support these talented artists, and help us celebrate Asian American joy!

Market Vendors

• Bad Student (riso prints)
• Bua Zine (zines)
• Chaotic Neutral NY (jewelry & accessories)
• Chris Cardi (clothing & accessories)
• Hometown (books & zines)
• Kim Sandara (paintings & prints)
• Lydia Jung (paintings & prints)
• NoMuNoMu (books & prints)
• The MAP'D Project (prints, stationery, shirts, totes)
• Tia Wilson Art (prints, zines and stickers)

• Auntea Boba
• Lei Musubi
• Magandia
• Shababi Palestinian Chicken
• Yume Asian Fusion

Join us for the entire weekend to continue celebrating AANHPI Heritage Month and World Pride! Enjoy a panel discussion with Alice Wu, director of Saving Face, before the market begins.

Bank of America is the Founding Sponsor of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art “IlluminAsia” Arts and Culture Festival.