For Immediate Release
October 14, 2009
Asian American Arts Centre
Announces
Farewell To 26 Bowery
After thirty-five years of operation, Asian American Arts Centre will leave its home at 26 Bowery, continuing its cultural work from a new address.
AAAC has presented hundreds of artists, and in its beginnings held numerous performances of Asian American contemporary and traditional dancers. Asian folk artists were presented annually, educational classes, panel talks and lectures were often available, with publications and other printed matter. Its online materials grew and became extensive, documenting AAAC’s work as one of the first to bring public attention to Asian American artists and their art as a special field of study.
Becoming independent of Basement Workshop in 1974, and establishing its home at this location 33 years ago, AAAC took part in the early effort by young leaders and students to organize New York’s Chinatown around community & cultural issues to benefit all Asian peoples regardless of origin, thus creating an Asian American Movement on the East Coast. One consequence of this work was to start the pattern of bringing tax dollars back to Chinatown to serve the cultural, educational and social service needs of this community and its residents.
(Another example of Basement’s legacy is Chinatown’s First Street Fair in 1972 through its partnership with the late Tom Tam at Gouveneur Hospital, who later became a leader of the Chinatown Health Clinic/CBWCHC. Together the demand for Chinese speaking workers be hired at the hospital lead to this policy enacted in all New York City’s public health institutions, and to what became the universally adopted principle of Patient Rights.)
Now, after more that two decades of presenting Asian American artists, AAAC’s artists archive is available free online, laying the basis for the history of Asian American cultural presence in the US in contemporary visual arts. This historical record stretches back sixty years to 1945 to the beginnings of the Cold War era. This historical foundation is designed to server Asian American people as their communities grow and develop within the United States.
During these difficult financial times, when community’s of color cultural institutions are in greater danger than ever before, ways need to be found to continue to grow and develop cultural vitality, renewing a vision and a conviction in the value of Asian traditions as they reinvent their relevance to contemporary life.
AAAC is pleased to announce its partnership with Asian Americans for Equality, enabling AAAC to relocate in 111 Norfolk St to continue its cultural and educational activities. In this way AAAC’s innovative multicultural education programs will be available and grow. Looking forward, as the center of Chinatown moves further East and North, AAAC will again be situated at the heart of this neighborhood, uniting an Asian cultural presence with the vitality of Lower Manhattan’s cultural scene.
Visitors are welcome to see the current exhibition at the present address, Out of the Archive: Process and Progress featuring Tomie Arai, Albert Chong, John Yoyogi Fortes, & Swati Khurana daily from 12 – 6pm, M-F, and on Sat. from 3-6pm till October 30. Look for 26 Bowery, 3rd fl, above McDonalds. This exhibition demonstrates the value of AAAC’s digital archive – www.artasiamerica.org - is also featured online at www.artspiral.org. Hear the broadcast of the recent two hour panel talk by the artists, writers, curator & director available online. A fifty-six page catalogue is also available.
Asian American Arts Centre will be located in Lower Manhattan on the ground floor at 111 Norfolk St, zip 10002, near the intersection of Delancey & Essex Sts. Subway trains F, J, M, Z stop at this intersection, as does the buses M09 & M14. The M15 stops on Allen St & Delancey (walk 3 blocks east on Delancey), and the M103 stops on the Bowery ( walk 7 blocks along Delancey to Norfolk. Phone remains 212 233 2154. aaacinfo@artspiral.org www.artspiral.org www.artasiamerica.org
NEW ADDRESS:
111 Norfolk St. (Between Rivington St. & Delancey St.)
*VIEW PICTURES OF THE RECENT HAPPENINGS AT 26 BOWERY
Link: www.flickr.com/asianamericanartscentre
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