Lunar New Year

2022

The Lunar New Year exhibit at the Global Village Welcome Center was comprised of two parts. The first part was educational and focused on 4 countries with strong Lunar New Year traditions including China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. The exhibit showcased fashions from each country surrounding their respective Lunar New Year traditions. The educational component also included traditions such as Lunar Zodiac, Red Envelope, New Year Tree, Dragon and Lion Dance puppets/costumes, games, among other objects. The second component of this exhibit focused on visual arts depictions of the tiger which is the Lunar Zodiac animal of 2022. For this exhibit I worked with artist Dr. Gonzalo Chua and created my own tiger depiction inspired by Hong Kong's neon sign ridden urbanscapes. I planned an Immersion event to coincide with this exhibit on January 29. The event featured traditional Chinese and Japanese brush painting activities, as well as origami, and ddakji making activities. A program for this event included performances by the Indianapolis Chinese Performing Arts, Inc, Central Indiana Taiko, and a special Lion Dance performance by Global Village community members, Sones De Mexico, and the Indiana Association of Chinese Americans. Children at this event were able to earn coins for doing activities and spend the coins on various Lunar New Year related goodies to help develop skills associated with finances.