USC’s Pacific Asia Museum (PAM) in Pasadena is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with an exhibition that amplifies the voices of Asian-American artists and scholars who have been invited to create artworks, essays, public lectures and performances that engage USC PAM’s collection and history.
The group exhibition, “Intervention: Fresh Perspectives After 50 Years,” is scheduled to open Nov. 12 and continue up to Feb. 6.
Bringing contemporary art into conversation with historical work and lifting up community narratives, “Intervention” aims to generate transformative dialogue about developing new methodologies to better engage the past to discover meaning in the present, USC PAM said in a statement.
“In creating this exhibition, we remind the public that museums function as a place to propel our thinking about who we are to one another and why representation matters,” the statement said. “’Intervention’ provides a unique opportunity for members of a community to voice what they see as relevant; to ask questions about what historic collections can say about the present; and to forge a new exhibition model that engages communities of color in the development process, rather than speaking at them.”
USC PAM added the exhibition will serve as an opportunity for institutional critique together with a celebration of all that the museum has achieved over the years.
USC PAM was the first in North America to mount an exhibition on contemporary Chinese art and the first to assemble an exhibition of Aboriginal art in the United States. With “Intervention,” USC PAM seeks to expand its groundbreaking legacy, the statement added.
To make the celebration more meaningful, USC PAM is creating a story collection where museum supporters and friends who have walked through the museum’s doors or visited the collections online can share their museum stories.
Stories can be anything about what the museum means to you, your first visit to the museum, an exhibit that you’ll never forget or a particular artwork in the collection that speaks to you, or what you love most about the museum. You can also share your experience if you’ve attended any of the USC PAM’s workshops, or have volunteered there in the past and wanted to share your favorite memory.
Stories can be sent through various formats — by voice mail, postcards, or Google Form — through Sept. 30 so they can be considered for inclusion in the story collection that USC PAM is preparing in collaboration with Narrated Objects. Museum staff may edit your stories to make them suitable for sharing.
For more information on how to share your stories, visit www.pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu/
USC PAM is located at 46 N. Los Robles Ave. in Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 787-2680 or email info@pam.usc.edu.