"Welcome Weekend" Highlights Opening Of Pavilion

The Japanese American National Museum will celebrate the Public Opening of its new 85,000-square-foot expansion Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo with a festive “Welcome Weekend” on Saturday, January 23, and Sunday, January 24 including a series of community performances, workshops, demonstrations, and storytelling.

Saturday will begin the Welcome Weekend with a morning Community Dedication, a Community Celebration Luncheon in a tented structure behind the Museum’s historic building, and a free afternoon outdoor concert by the jazz-fusion band, Hiroshima. Numerous hands-on activities and performances for families created by the Museum’s many multicultural neighbors and partners will highlight both Saturday and Sunday. These activities will take place inside the Pavilion and the Museum’s historic building and outdoors in the Courtyard Plaza between the two buildings.

After the Community Dedication Ceremony kicks off the festivities on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in the Courtyard Plaza, the Welcome Weekend festivities begin indoors. Organizations such as the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC), East West Players, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Plaza de la Raza, Watts Towers Art Center, Skirball Cultural Center, and the Korean American Museum (among over 20 groups) will provide fun, educational activities and live performances in both facilities. Visitors will also be able to take special tours of both buildings as well.

The Community Celebration Luncheon is set for 11:30 a.m. and will be catered by Jozu Restaurant, one of the top new restaurants in Los Angeles. Museum leadership will be on hand and a short program will be held. The Welcome Weekend will launch a year-long series of events under the theme, “Celebrating the American Experience.” The Pavilion is expected to draw visitors from all over the world to Little Tokyo. Tickets for the luncheon are $75 per person or $750 per table.

Following that, Hiroshima will give a free concert beginning at 2 p.m. on the Courtyard Plaza. The group has pioneered music by merging influences from all over the world into a modern, contemporary sound. The core band members, Dan Kuramoto, June Okida Kuramoto, Danny Yamamoto, and Johnny Mori, have performed together for almost 30 years.

Sunday will feature many indoor activities as well as outdoor entertainment from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Museum members will get a special private viewing of the Pavilion from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. before it opens to the public on Sunday. To accommodate the many expected out-of-town visitors and other interested parties, the Museum will also be open on Monday, January 25. The Museum is normally closed on Mondays.

On Friday, January 22, the Museum will hold a special Ceremony with dignitaries, public officials, and Museum leadership in attendance. The Museum will host a dinner that evening in the tented structure behind the historic building. The dinner, which is also being catered by Jozu Restaurant, has been sold out.

The Pavilion, designed by world-famous architect Gyo Obata, principal of Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum (HOK), the largest architectural firm in the world, will combine with the historic building to give the Museum almost 120,000 square feet in space. The expansion provides the Museum with three times as much exhibition space, an enlarged collection facility and a National Resource Center. It also features a multi-function Central Hall and a garden with a 90-foot wall of water. The current site, which opened to the public in 1992, will continue to house exhibitions and host programs.

A $45 million campaign to fund the Pavilion’s construction, expanded programs and an Endowment has reached the $41 million mark. Opportunities are available to contribute to the campaign’s different components including the Children’s Courtyard, Windows to the Future, Donor Wall and Endowment.

For luncheon reservations or more information on Welcome Weekend other activities, please call the Japanese American National Museum at 213.625.0414.