Only about half of the artists are Asian Pacific American, which is a shift for a center that's generally focused its digital and pop-up exhibitions squarely on that community. But as the national discourse has broadened and begun to acknowledge how systems of oppression are linked, "we’ve been hearing people who are interested in talking about issues that aren’t specific to Asia Pacific Americans as just a racial issue," says Adriel Luis, a curator at the center. "We're interested in exploring how our experiences relate to Black Lives Matter or LGBTQ rights, for example."
To that end, the center has invited painters, crafters, storytellers, spoken word performers, cartoonists, muralists, dancers, scholars, and DJs to "do their thing." The idea is for an exchange of ideas—across mediums, between artist and audience, through performance. "We're not expecting it to be a quiet place, with people walking around with their hands behind their backs," Luis says.
It is a fitting event for the reopening of the building, which was originally called the National Museum Building. Designed by Adolf Cluss (of Eastern Market and Franklin School fame) and completed in 1881, it was built to house the U.S. National Museum after it outgrew the Castle next door. Visitors thronged to the new museum, where exhibits on geology, zoology, medicine, anthropology, art, history, ceramics, printing, transportation, and textile sat in grand mahogany display cases.
"It really was a display of a grand vision of America at the time," according to Luis. With CrossLines, "we’re kind of remixing that and thinking about what it means to be American now and how that ...More...
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