Special Events
Members' Preview
Thursday, October 22
10:00 am–5:00 pm
FREE for museum members
Members of the Asian Art museum can enjoy a special preview of Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam and Burma.
Learn more about becoming a member.
Emerald Cities Opening Ceremony
Friday, October 23
10:00 am
FREE with museum admission
Monks from the Wat Mongkolratanaram Thai Buddhist Temple in Berkeley will perform a special blessing ceremony for the opening of the exhibition Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam and Burma.
Orchids: A Tribute to Doris Duke
Tuesday, October 20 through Sunday, October 25
Main Lobby, North and South courts
FREE with museum admission
Orchids (Orchidaceae) are flowering plants commonly found in Southeast Asia and other tropical parts of the world. This is a botanic description of orchids, but for most of us orchids are the most exotic of plants with an enormous diversity of shape, size, color. Doris Duke, who collected many of the artworks presented in Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam and Burma, was an avid orchid collector, cultivator, and preservationist. As an homage to Doris Duke and her passion for collecting, for the first time and for five days only, the museum will present a striking display of orchids. The display features arrangements by members of Ikebana International and Ikebana Teachers Federation, San Francisco Orchid Society, San Francisco Garden Club, Asian Art Museum Flower Committee, de Young Flower Committee; floral designers, orchid aficionados, and others.
Trunk Show and Sale: Textiles and Treasures of Southeast Asia
Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24
10:00 am–5:00 pm
Education Studio
FREE admission
In conjunction with the opening of the special exhibition Emerald Cities, travelers and ethnic art collectors Phil and Noreen Bloch from Tygh Valley Traders return to present more fine silk scarves, traditional textiles, tribal jewelry, beads, amulets, and unusual artifacts from throughout Southeast Asia. This two-day event benefits the museum’s educational programs.
MATCHA: Thai River Festival
Thursday, October 29
5:00 pm–9:00 pm
Museum–wide
FREE for museum members; $10 general public (includes admission to Emerald Cities)
Central to the annual River Festival in Thailand, Loi Krathong is the practice of floating offerings along waterways, traditionally performed on the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month, which usually falls in November. The floating (loi) of a banana–leaf cup (krathong) is intended to carry away ill-fortune and honor Khongkha, the River Goddess. Celebrate the Thai River Festival at MATCHA, with live Thai music and dance by the Thai Cultural Center. Sample exotic Thai foods, create your own Thai-inspired river offering, and join in docent conversations about the museum’s special exhibition Emerald Cities. Learn more about MATCHA.
Literary Reading: The Life of a Burmese by Khet Mar
Sunday, December 13
2:00 pm
FREE with museum admission
Khet Mar is a journalist, novelist, poet, and essayist from Burma who started writing short stories in 1989 while Burma was going through political turmoil. Most of her short stories are related to the lives and struggles of Burmese people. In 2008, when Cyclone Nagis hit Burma, she established a group of volunteers for relief efforts and led them in supporting cyclone victims in delta region of Burma. She is a co-founder of Green Heart Environmental Network, which was founded with several writers, poets, designers, and journalists. Author of the novel Wild Snowy Night, her work has been translated into English and Japanese, featured on radio broadcasts, and made into a film.
She is currently a writer–in –residence at the City of Asylum/Pittsburgh.
