The Metropolitan Museum of Art will host its annual Lunar New Year Festival on Saturday, February 9, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Lunar New Year Festival: Year of the Pig will feature dozens of engaging programs—for visitors of all ages—that reflect and celebrate traditions from across Asia.
Opening with a colorful Lunar New Year parade in the Great Hall, led by the Chinese Center on Long Island Lion Troupe, the festival will feature dance and musical performances, artist-led workshops, and interactive gallery activities throughout The Met Fifth Avenue. All Lunar New Year Festival programming is included with Museum admission.
The event is made possible in part by the Tiger Baron Foundation.
Performances
Performances during the event include a concert by drummers from the New York Korean Performing Arts Center and Chinese yo-yo tricks by the Valley Stream South High School Cultural Society. The Sesame Street Puppeteers Featuring Alan Muraoka are always a festival favorite, as kids discover the traditions of Lunar New Year through participatory singalongs and movement activities and take pictures with their favorite characters. Master musicians Wu Na and Chang Jing will play sounds of nature using Chinese zithers, and Erhu-Cello Duo will perform contemporary works inspired by traditional Chinese classical and folk music on the Great Hall Balcony Bar as part of the ETHEL and Friends series.
Art Activities and Demonstrations
Artist- and expert-led activities throughout the Museum will invite visitors to discover their zodiac signs, design piggy banks, and fold and cut moveable paper fish with the Museum of Chinese in America to usher in a year of good fortune. The Korea Society will facilitate a paper doll–making activity in which participants can dress paper doll pigs in traditional clothing. Celebrated noodle maker Chef Zhang will lead a hand-pulled noodle demonstration, and Ten Ren Tea and Ginseng Co. will invite families to participate in a Wu-Wo tea ceremony. During Hide and Seek with The Sheep’s Meow, with EXPOSURE, by game designers GJ Lee and Brian S. Chung, participants will create their own digital camouflage to hide from predators.
Collection Chats with New New Yorkers
For adults (ages 13 and up), The Met presents Collection Chats with New New Yorkers, in partnership with the Queens Library and the New New Yorkers Program at the Queens Museum. In this series of gallery talks, we invite recent immigrants to explore great works of Asian art that speak to their interests and recall memories of their Lunar New Year experiences. Topics include Daoist immortals, Chinese jade, and zodiac figures. Each talk will be given in both English and Mandarin.
Related Installation
In celebration of the Lunar New Year, The Met is presenting Celebrating the Year of the Pig from February 4 through July 28, 2019. The exhibition will feature depictions of pigs created by Chinese artists within the last 2,000 years. Particularly notable are a sixth-century pottery figure of a stout pig in recumbent position and two sets of Chinese zodiac animals, which illustrate both the universal appeal of pigs as a symbol of wealth and the integral role they played in human life.
A full list of festival programming, along with further details and a schedule of events, is available on The Met website.
General Event Information
More about the event, including directions to programming throughout the Museum, will be available at the information desk inside the main entrance at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street and in the Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education, located near the ground-floor entrance at Fifth Avenue and 81st Street.
Lunar New Year Festival: Year of the Pig will also be featured on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using the hashtag #MetFest.
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February 1, 2019
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