Connect Five at the Museum of East Asian Art
May 2006

The Museum of East Asian Art, Bath will be holding a series of events throughout May entitled Connect Five in celebration of Museums & Galleries Month (M&GM) 2006. M&GM (29th April – 4 June 2006) is the biggest celebration of its kind in the world, highlighting the wealth of opportunities for entertainment, cultural enrichment and education that UK museums and art galleries have to offer.

This year the theme is “Making Connections - Past, Present and Future”. The Museum is hosting five unusual events, which will appeal to a range of audiences all centred on the idea of connection. The first event will not be held at the Museum, but at Bath's newly refurbished Central Library. The Museum will be involved from 8th – 12th May in Cross Connections, a cross-domain tourism exhibition to get more people interested in their local museums, galleries and libraries.

The second event, Understanding Connections is a series of four interactive workshops by PhD student Vivian Ting, held every Saturday throughout May. Vivian sets out to radically explore the relationship between the Museum visitor and the art object by looking at alternative ways of interpreting Chinese art of the past. The first two workshops held on Saturday 6th and 13th May from 2pm-3.30pm, challenge the concepts of our experience of art, and art's functionality. The third and fourth workshops held on Saturday 20th and 27th May from 11am – 12.30pm will study the importance of Chinese aesthetics such as line, form, colour, pattern and the significance of cultural motifs. All four workshops are free but advance booking is required.

The third event in our Connect Five programme is a workshop for school aged children. Recycling Connections will be held on Saturday 20th May from 2-3.30pm and is supporting Museum's and Galleries Month national ‘Focus on Art days' (20th - 21st May). Encouraged by M&GM to work with artists to develop visual arts programmes, the Museum will be holding a workshop based upon its involvement with the council run 5x5x5 scheme. Inspired by the work of the Museum's 5x5x5 project which works in association with local artist Edwina Bridgeman and Batheaston Primary School, the workshop will explore how we can tell stories without using words. Exploring stories and themes associated with East Asian art, children will then be encouraged to make their own three-dimensional sculpture from found and recyclable items. This workshop is founded upon the idea of future sustainability in art and all objects created within the workshop will be shown as part of an online exhibition. For more details visit www.meaa.org.uk/5x5x5.htm

The fourth event, Art Connections is being held on the evening of Thursday 25th May from 6.30 – 8.30pm and is focused particularly for those Museum visitors who are currently single. Museums make a fascinating place to meet new people in beautiful and relaxing surroundings, and therefore the Museum would like to provide an opportunity for its single visitors to learn more about East Asian Art as well as meeting like minded individuals. The evening will include a talk on Chinese astrology and complimentary drinks.

The fifth and final event will be held on Saturday 27th May from 2 - 4.00pm and will be a children's workshop lead by local storyteller and performance artist Michael Loader. Dramatic Connections will include an interactive performance by Michael and an active workshop for children over six. Children can tell a story, play a character, bang a drum, create a picture, or just let their imagination go wild, as Michael sets out to provide younger visitors with a chance to see the Museum's collection from a very different angle.

Visit www.mgm.org.uk for further details about MGM2006 and events happening in throughout the UK