National Museum of Asian Art » Talks and Lectures

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Book Signing: Mindful Eye, Playful Eye

Join Frank Feltens, NMAA curator and coauthor of Mindful Eye, Playful Eye, for a book signing at the NMAA Shop. Experience art and design as you’ve never experienced them before, with 101 imaginative, mindfulness-based practices that will engage your senses, open your mind, and transform your next museum visit. Switch off your phone, take a deep breath, and prepare for adventure. Mindful Eye, Playful Eye invites readers on a thoughtful journey through museums with 101 practices designed to nurture the development of attention, creativity, and compassion. This book encourages a playful and reflective approach to the museum experience of viewing two-dimensional art, sculptures, fossils, jewelry, aircraft, and more. Image courtesy of the publisher. Venue: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Event Location: NMAA Shop. Cost: Free. Categories: Shopping/Book Signing. Thursday, March 28, 2024, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.

Chado: Japanese Way of Tea Ceremony Demonstration

RSVP on Eventbrite Enjoy a demonstration of a Japanese tea ceremony presented by The Chado Urasenke Tankokai Washington DC Association. The tea demonstration will be presented in the Urasenke tradition of Chado. Visitors will have an opportunity to observe and learn the intricacies of Chado (“Way of Tea”), a synthesis of arts and philosophies that combine into a systemized method of preparing, serving, and drinking tea. The demonstration will feature tea utensils from the Kinsey Chanoyu Collection. Gregory Kinsey, a longtime tea practitioner and former trustee of the National Museum of Asian Art, collected these tea utensils for his personal tea practice. Due to their artistic and historic importance, sixteen objects entered the permanent Freer Collection for future research and exhibition. Nearly 170 objects entered the museum’s Study Collection for the express purpose of using the tea utensils in public programs and events focusing on the traditional Japanese preparation of tea. A short Q&A session will fo… Venue: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Event Location: Gallery 27. Cost: Free; advance registration recommended. Get Tickets/Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/861096281157?aff=oddtdtcreator. Categories: Demonstrations. Lectures & Discussions. Related Exhibition: Knotted Clay: Raku Ceramics and Tea. Saturday, April 13, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM.

Sneak Peek | Beyond Paper: Writing on Chinese Ceramics

Register here   Calligraphy, or the art of writing, has been revered in China since antiquity. It is an aesthetically pleasing, personally expressive visual art form and also simultaneously serves as a form of written communication. Calligraphy studies usually focus on brush writing on silk or paper scrolls, which quantitatively comprise the most common medium for calligraphy and reflect the highest caliber of writing. Yet ceramics also have a long history of being inscribed with calligraphy. Used as tableware, implements on a scholar’s desk, or interior decorations, inscribed ceramics put calligraphy on display and incorporate the art form into everyday life. In this talk, curator Jan Stuart presents some of the fascinating dimensions of writing on ceramics, touching upon content, methods, tools and the agents of writing, and stylistic effects. NMAA's ceramic collections include works inscribed with religious dedications, lyrical poetry, and an emperor’s political polemic, as well as calligraphed dates or, f… Event Location: Zoom. Cost: Free. Get Tickets/Register: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TydCb4zERfCOotl3j84u1Q#/registration. Categories: Lectures & Discussions. Webcasts & Online. Tuesday, April 16, 2024, 12:00 PM – 12:40 PM.

Conservation Cart Talk | The Beginning of Calligraphy in the Islamic World

Join conservation scientist Glenn Gates to learn about the earliest materials and methods of Islamic calligraphy from a scientific perspective. Find out what he has discovered about the materials used to create the earliest Islamic calligraphy, called Kufic script, on folios from disbound eighth- to ninth-century Qur’ans. Venue: Freer Gallery of Art. Event Location: Gallery 3. Cost: Free. Categories: Gallery Talks & Tours. Demonstrations. Related Exhibition: Engaging the Senses: Arts of the Islamic World. Thursday, April 18, 2024, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM. For more info visit asia.si.edu.

NMAA × CFCH Artisan in Residence Talk | Kintsugi with Yuko Gunji

RSVP through Eventbrite. In partnership with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, we welcome artisan in residence Yuko Gunji, an artisan who specializes in Japanese kintsugi. During her residency, participants will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in this traditional Japanese craft through a curated series of events. Kintsugi is a craft practice that involves repairing broken or chipped pottery with lacquer made from sap and decorating it with gold, silver, colored lacquer, and other materials. Instead of being hidden, the repaired cracks are emphasized. Kintsugi, which appreciates imperfections and the beauty of deterioration, is deeply associated with the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi. It has become increasingly popular as a metaphor for the human spirit, transcending the boundaries of mere repair. The program kicks off with a captivating artisan talk during which participants will learn all about kintsugi. Yuko will unravel how kintsugi originated, how it has been inter… Venue: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Event Location: Gallery 27. Cost: Free; advance registration recommended. Get Tickets/Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/861628703647?aff=oddtdtcreator. Categories: Lectures & Discussions. Related Exhibition: Knotted Clay: Raku Ceramics and Tea. Friday, April 19, 2024, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.

Curator-Led Talk | Arts and Legacy of the Song Dynasty

Arts of the Song dynasty (960–1279) reached a high bar and had a lasting legacy, influencing ceramic and painting traditions in subsequent dynasties. Join Jan Stuart, the museum’s Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art, to explore some of the highlights of ceramic wares of the Song period—including those with subtle celadon (blue-green), lustrous black, and snowy white glazes. Look closely at paintings, including a Buddhist scroll depicting luohan (semidivine holy men) engaged in a mundane task as an act of mindfulness. Please meet at the gallery for the talk. Luohan Laundering (detail), Lin Tinggui (act. late 12th century), China, 1178, ink and color on silk, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1902.224. Venue: Freer Gallery of Art. Event Location: Gallery 15. Cost: Free. Categories: Gallery Talks & Tours. Wednesday, April 24, 2024, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.

Protecting Cultural Heritage under Siege

Register here This panel and a forthcoming report from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art are designed to help understand the pressing issues facing the cultural heritage field, especially in protecting and preserving tangible cultural heritage and those who steward it in zones of armed conflict and violence. The challenge is hardly new, but the catalyst for this discussion is the continuing and widespread destruction and looting of heritage in recent decades. The obvious need to identify and comprehend the nature of the responses and nonresponses and of successful and unsuccessful efforts was evident after a thwarted effort in August 2021 to protect works of art and museum professionals in the National Museum of Afghanistan. The pertinence of these challenges became even more obvious with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The panelists will examine the linked political, economic, humanitarian, philanthropic, military, and administrative challenges of protecting our shared cultu… Venue: Freer Gallery of Art. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; registration required. Get Tickets/Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/protecting-cultural-heritage-under-siege-tickets-848735981167. Categories: Lectures & Discussions. Wednesday, April 24, 2024, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.

Book to Screen: Viet Thanh Nguyen on Adapting The Sympathizer

Get tickets Join author Viet Thanh Nguyen for a discussion about adapting his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, The Sympathizer, for the screen. Through clips from the series and readings from the novel, Nguyen will talk about the difficulties and rewards of adapting his work for the screen, among other topics. Like the novel, the HBO series is an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his new life as a refugee in Los Angeles, where he learns that his spying days aren't over. Its showrunner is the acclaimed Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave), and the cast includes Robert Downey Jr. and Sandra Oh. Image credit: The Sympathizer courtesy of HBO. Venue: Freer Gallery of Art. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; advance registration recommended. Get Tickets/Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-to-screen-viet-thanh-nguyen-on-adapting-the-sympathizer-tickets-863217224957. Categories: Films. After Five. Lectures & Discussions. Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible. Wednesday, May 1, 2024, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM.

Sneak Peek | Whistler’s Language on Women’s Labor

Register here   This talk is part of the monthly lunchtime series Sneak Peek: New Research from the National Museum of Asian Art, where staff members present brief, personal perspectives and ongoing research, followed by discussion. This year, the online series focuses on the theme of word and image—including calligraphy, seals, inscriptions, manuals, narratives, and poetry—in the collections of the National Museum of Asian Art.    Diana Greenwold is the Lunder Curator of American Art at the National Museum of Asian Art and specializes in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American fine and decorative arts. She is particularly interested in stories of transnational exchange and the ways objects carry and transform culture. From 2014 to 2021, Diana served in various curatorial positions, ultimately as curator of American art at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine, where she spearheaded the reinterpretation of the Winslow Homer Studio. Her recent projects at NMAA include Whistler:… Event Location: Zoom. Cost: Free. Get Tickets/Register: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_x0lZxZzJSvyvpAoRU0J2Sg#/registration. Categories: Lectures & Discussions. Webcasts & Online. Tuesday, May 14, 2024, 12:00 PM – 12:40 PM.