JANM’S ANNUAL NATSUMATSURI FAMILY FESTIVAL IS A FREE DAY OF FUN FOR ALL

Los Angeles, CA

The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) will present its annual Natsumatsuri Family Festival on Saturday, August 19, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission to the summer celebration featuring Japanese and Japanese American performances, crafts, and activities is free.

Highlights of the day will include a performance and taiko drumming workshop by Yuujou Daiko, performances by Koshin Taiko and Minyo Station, a martial arts demonstration by Aikido Cultural Institute, a happi coat photo booth, and a scavenger hunt. In addition, select cast members from Letters to Eve, an epic World War II musical about the power of music and literature, will perform songs from the production. Craft activities will include origami, pinwheel making, and JANM’s ever-popular paper hat making. Visitors will also be able to sample saataa andaagii (deep-fried Okinawan pastries), participate in a bon odori community dance, and fold paper cranes for Harvest for Hope, a project that aims to collect 1.5 million cranes in memory of children who died during the Holocaust.

Exhibitions on view for Natsumatsuri include JANM’s ongoing core exhibition, Common Ground: The Heart of Community, and New Frontiers: The Many Worlds of George Takei. New Frontiers closes the following day (August 20).

For more information, visit janm.org/natsumatsuri2017.

NOW ON VIEW AT JANM:

Instructions to All Persons: Reflections on Executive Order 9066
Through August 13, 2017
Instructions to All Persons: Reflections on Executive Order 9066, commemorates the 75th anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066, which led to the tragic and unlawful incarceration of 120,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry during World War II. Instructions to All Persons is intended to engage visitors in critical discussions of the Japanese American incarceration experience and its continuing relevance today. It aims to examine the social impact of language and encourage viewers to contemplate the lessons of the past, as well as to compare World War II experiences with current events.

New Frontiers: The Many Worlds of George Takei
Through August 20, 2017
New Frontiers: The Many Worlds of George Takei explores the life and career of pioneering actor, activist, and social media icon George Takei. By examining Takei’s diverse experiences and achievements, this entertaining exhibition creates a portrait of a unique individual while offering an innovative means of engaging with the social history of America.

Common Ground: The Heart of Community
Ongoing
Incorporating hundreds of objects, documents, and photographs collected by JANM, this exhibition chronicles 130 years of Japanese American history, from the early days of the Issei pioneers through the World War II incarceration to the present.

About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, the Japanese American National Museum promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories and strives to provide a voice for Japanese Americans as well as a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public, JANM has presented over 70 exhibitions onsite and traveled 17 of its exhibitions to locations around the world, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America.

JANM is located at 100 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles. Museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. General admission is $10 adults, $6 students and seniors, free for members and children under age five. Admission is free to everyone on Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and every third Thursday of the month from noon to 8 p.m. General admission prices and free admission times may not apply to specially ticketed exhibitions. Closed Monday, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. For more information visit janm.org or call 213.625.0414.