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About the Yee Fow Museum Concept Sacramento Deserves No Less
The Yee Fow Museum, A Cultural and Educational Center, will be a major community-based enterprise to foster the understanding and appreciation of Chinese and Chinese American art, history, and culture. The facilities of the Museum, should be no lest than 20,000 square feet, include a nondenominational Chinese temple in a garden park like setting, a 2,935 square-foot gallery, book shop, classroom, and offices. The Museum will attract a broad spectrum of audiences from Northern California, as well as visitors from all over the country and internationally. By developing a Yee Fow Museum, Sacramento can capitalize on its Chinese heritage and segue into opportunities to partner with China. It behooves all of Sacramento to seize this opportunity to become a "sister city" of culture, commerce, and trade. Sacramento deserves no lest.
The activities of the Museum will focus on art exhibitions, which will be presented on a continuous, year-round basis-some organized by the Museum and others on loan from other museums or cultural institutions. Major exhibitions of historical significance will include the Sacramento Chinese of Yee Fow: 1848-1960 (a documentary exhibition on the history of Sacramento's Chinese Americans); Historical Chinese Business of Sacramento-A Pictorial History; Stories From China's Past: Han Dynasty Pictorial Tomb Reliefs and Archaeological Objects from Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China, which toured to eight U.S. cities in 1987-88; Symbol and Adornment: Traditional Costumes and Jewelry from China's Minorities, (in collaboration with the Cultural Palace Museum of Nationalities, Beijing, China); and Shiwan Ceramics: Beauty, Color, and Passion, which received funding support locally and from abroad. The Museum will focus on programs of contemporary relevance, especially projects featuring Chinese and Asian artists, entrepreneurs and multiculturalism. Other exhibition projects feature emerging and established Asian American artists, whose works represent not only important contributions to the art field, but also commentaries and reflections of a group of people in a particular time in history.
Genealogical studies will engage the curiosity and interest of the young in learning about their culture and its origins. With the Yee Fow Oral History Program and the Yee Fow Heritage Walk, docents from the Museum will introduce Sacramento's Chinatown and its history to many out-of-town visitors and school-age children; tours will be especially directed during weekdays for school-age children from throughout Northern California. Because of these national and international projects, the Museum will become a hosting organization on the West Coast for visiting specialists from China, Taiwan and throughout the U.S. Chinese and American business and cultural professionals will be able to meet and to exchange ideas and experiences at conferences, seminars, and receptions. View the Yee Fow Museum Draft Proposal |
The Museum
will offer a variety of educational and cultural programs. These
programs will range from lectures, workshops, and classes to art
exhibitions, dance and musical performances, and business and
cultural exchanges-all of which enable Sacramento and the general
public alike to gain a deeper knowledge of historical as well
as contemporary Chinese and Chinese American culture.
In its community role,
the Yee Fow Center will make its facilities available and provide support for
interactive school tours that are designed to complement the California History-Social
Science and Visual and Performing Art Content Standards.
By sponsoring certain events in conjunction
with various cultural organizations and community groups in Northern
California (i.e. Kearny Street Workshop, Chinese Historical Society
of America, Chinese American Museum of Northern California based
in Marysville, Chinese Historical and Cultural Project based in
Santa Clara County, Locke Foundation based in Locke, Chinese Cultural
Productions, Chinese Folk Dance Association, Gu Zheng Society
of San Francisco), it will stimulate cooperation and expand resources
and offerings among the many local groups interested in Chinese
and Chinese American history and culture.Friends of the Yee Fow Museum | 427 Chinatown Mall | Sacramento, CA 95814