The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art is turning 100 this year, and to celebrate, the museum will host a two-week festival this spring headlined by Korean pop artist Eric Nam and soulful singer Raveena.
The Asian Pacific American Heritage Festival will go from May 1-13, coinciding with Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It’s the NMAA’s first major festival of this kind and is meant to punctuate the museum’s yearlong celebration of its centennial. The theme of the celebration is “Journeys,” signaling the museum’s larger transition into an “institution engaging new audiences globally and locally,” according to a press release.
Performances will take place on a stage in the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building with a live broadcast on the National Mall and Freer Plaza. The shows will be free, but tickets will be required to get into the Arts and Industries Building.
The headliners are rising stars with international recognition. Raveena, an Indian American R&B singer-songwriter from Queens, New York, released Asha’s Awakening last year to widespread critical acclaim, making Rolling Stone‘s 100 Best Albums of 2022 list. Her latest record pays homage to her heritage as a first-generation descendant of genocide survivors and Reiki healers, incorporating influences of both Indian and Western music, according to a release.
K-pop sensation Eric Nam was named a 2016 GQ Korea Man of the Year and has only gotten bigger since then — racking up more than 600 million global streams for his music, including last year’s There and Back Again. Nam grew up in Atlanta, graduated from Boston College, and was working in finance before appearing on Korea’s Star Audition: Birth of a Greater Star — the Korean version of American Idol — which launched his entertainment career.
“Eric Nam and Raveena are two of the biggest names in music today. Raised in the U.S. and inspired by their respective backgrounds, these artists embrace Korean and Indian influences as means of experimentation and self expression and truly embody the Asian American experience,” NMAA Director Chase Robinson said in a statement. “We are delighted to welcome them to the mainstage during our centennial celebrations.”
The museum, which began with a major donation of 9,500 works by Charles Lang Freer, is now made of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. It currently has a slew of featured exhibits, performances, and discussions scheduled in honor of its centennial, including “A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur,” in conjunction with the The City Palace Museum Udaipur featuring major paintings from that city, and “Ay-Ō’s Happy Rainbow Hell,” which NMAA says is the first museum exhibition in the United States dedicated to the Japanese artist’s work.
Elliot C. Williams