American Museum of Natural History to Celebrate BIG CATS with Special Event, Today

WHEN

Saturday, May 23
Noon-5 pm

WHAT

The Museum's celebration Spotlight Asia: Big Cats will be a family-friendly day of live theater, musical performances, and hands-on activities featuring big cats and their role in cultures throughout Asia.

Across Asia, big cats hold tremendous cultural significance. They represent a unique intersection between nature and culture, and between tradition and contemporary practice. The five members of the genus Panthera are the: tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard.

The day includes opportunities to:

• Explore a beautiful, handcrafted Vietnamese tiger lantern display and try your hand at woodcut painting, tiger-style, with a master artist.
• Ask experts questions about big cats. Or take a tour, with selected artists and scientists, of the Halls of Biodiversity and Asian Mammals.
• Design a tiger shadow puppet with Chinese Theatre Works.

Cultural Storytelling:

• Master storyteller Maria Yoon weaves legends of her youth in Korea, where the once-numerous Siberian tiger reigned as king. Composer-pianist Paul Yeon Lee, joined by daegeum bamboo transverse fluteplayer Tae-seog Yun, complements the story with an original musical score.
• Museum Curator of Asian Ethnology and Anthropology Division Chair Laurel Kendall retells the story of Roy Chapman Andrews's tiger hunt in the far north of Korea in 1912, where tigers are regarded as fearsome, protective, and sometimes a little bit foolish.

Science and Conservation:

• Director of Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics George Amato describes how he and his colleagues "hunt" tiger scat and what they learn from it.
• Executive Director of the Bhutan Foundation Tshewang Wangchuk describes how in Bhutan today, where conservation ethics are national policy, tigers and snow leopards are tracked using remote cameras and DNA.

Dance and Theater:

• Chinese Theatre Works artfully fuses traditional Chinese and contemporary Western shadow puppet theater techniques.
• Saung Budaya Dance Group will perform the exciting Indonesian Tari Topeng Blantek (mask) dance from Jakarta, followed by a dance based on the traditional style of martial arts, inspired by the strength of the tiger, from West Sumatra called theSilek Harimau Tuo.
• Host Sonny Singh, with DJ Ushka, concludes the festivities with a big cat-style dance party!

Spotlight Asia is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Special thanks to the Ford Foundation.

Support for Celebrate Culture programs is provided, in part, by the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc., the Sidney, Milton and Leoma Simon Foundation, the family of Frederick H. Leonhardt, and The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation.

ADMISSION

Free for Members or with Museum admission

WHERE

American Museum of Natural History
Milstein Hall of Ocean Life