June through November, 2008
1st Thursday of the month:

June 5, July 3, August 7, September 4, October 2, and November 6
5:00–9:00 pm
FREE with museum admission ($5 after 5pm)

MATCHA is back for its third season starting on June 5, 2008. Themes this year include Healing Arts (June 5) Sound of the Sages (July 3), Drunken Fist (August 7), Tea & Spice (September 4), The Japanese Tattoo (October 2), and Afghanistan! (November 6).

MATCHA is the museum's monthly Thursday evening mixer series. Experience live performances, browse through the museum's galleries, mingle with friends over cocktails, create art, embark on special tours, or simply chill to the hip beats of DJs and musicians. Enter our MATCHA drawings for a chance to win fabulous prizes each month.

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Click here to see photos of past MATCHA events.

PAST MATCHA PROGRAMS

June 7, 2007
Japanese Hip-Hop (and it don't stop)

The season kicked off with DJ Tonk – one of Japan's most reputable hip-hop producers/DJs – in a rare stateside appearance. The evening included manga (Japanese comics) and anime (animation) in the museum's Manga Lounge, guided tours of the exhibitions Tezuka: The Marvel of Manga and Yoshitoshi’s Strange Tales, and a hands-on manga workshop led by Andrew Farago and Shaenon Garrity.

Click here to see photos from this event.

July 5, 2007
Live Action Remix

Armed with drawing, music, and video mixing, the Live Action Cartoonists performed highlights from SCIENCE (FICTION), an experimental production that re-interpreted Tezuka Osamu’s Astro Boy. Tours of Tezuka: The Marvel of Manga and Yoshitoshi’s Strange Tales, printmaking, and DJ Nako

were also featured.

August 2, 2007
Strange & Supernatural

Plaza—a multidisciplinary performance ensemble (led by Choreographer/performer Sherwood Chen and media artist Eric Koziol)—presented site-specific performances inspired by the vibrant, spine-tingling imagery from Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales. DJ Tau spun an aural arrangement of contemporary beats and traditional music from all over Asia. Tours of Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales, Tezuka: The Marvel of Manga, and the Japan galleries were featured. A lantern activity in honor of the Chinese Ghost Festival and obon, the Japanese Buddhist "festival of the dead" that welcomes the return of ancestral spirits was also offered.

September 6, 2007
Tea

Attendees experienced matcha (Japanese whisked green tea), observed elegant demonstrations by tea masters, sampled teas and snacks, explored Chinese yixing pottery with Terese Tse Bartholomew, curator of Chinese decorative arts, and the museum's Japanese tea room with educator Deborah Clearwaters.

Tea demonstrations and tastings at MATCHA! courtesy of Tea Arts Institute and the Urasenke Foundation.

October 4, 2007
Heaven & Earth

Adorno Ensemble played chamber music and the Sidewalk Astronomers provided views of Jupiter and its moons. Attendees made their own mooncake art, and discovered Chinese astronomy in the galleries with astronomer Kenneth Frank and Asian Art Museum docents.

November 1, 2007

Photography, Fashion, + Film

The evening included special filmmaker guests, a YouTube challenge featuring interactive screenings, media installation, and live production of short films. Attendees viewed the creations of Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and other renowned Japanese fashion designers in Stylized Sculpture: Contemporary Japanese Fashion from the Kyoto Costume Institute, and explored time, life, and spirituality in Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History. DJ Nako spun new wave tunes.

**Local filmmakers Emiko Omori and Michael Kinomoto were on site at our last MATCHA and created two distinct and beautiful films exploring memory, roots, and collections. Their films have been completed and are now up on the Center for Asian American Media's website.

ROOTS
About her piece, Emiko Omori states, "Getting into the mind of Hiroshi Sugimoto - just a little - was an amazing experience, its breadth breathtaking, its depth profound. His interest in beginnings: of photography, of the earth itself and his collection of antiquities brought to mind my own modest collection of antiquities and the beginnings of Japanese American history."

FRAME OF MIND
FRAME OF MIND is a creative response by filmmaker, Michael Kinomoto, in collaboration with composer Matthew Schumaker, to the current exhibition, Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History, evoking the themes of history, memory, and the act of collecting. Michael Kinomoto is a San Francisco based filmmaker, whose previous works include FLORA’S FILM, AERIAL ELEGY, BROWN, and TURK STREET.

Presented with the Center for Asian American Media.

MATCHA is made possible by support from American Express.

MATCHA Media Sponsors:

MATCHA Raffle sponsor:

MATCHA Community Partners:

Lead funding for the Asian Art Museum's education programs and activities is provided by the Bank of America Foundation.

Major support for education programs and activities is provided by the Freeman Foundation and the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation.

Additional support provided by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the Louise Rosenberg & Claude Rosenberg Jr. Family Foundation, HSBC Foundation, Goldman Sachs Foundation, the Mary Tanenbaum Fund, the United States-Japan Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Cisco Systems Foundation, Citigroup Foundation, the Joseph R. McMicking Foundation, the Robert and Helen Odell Fund, Dodge & Cox, the Stanley S. Langendorf Foundation, and the Joel E. Ferris Foundation.

Support for AsiaAlive is provided by the Wallace Foundation, Wells Fargo, and the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.