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School Group Visits to the Asia Society
and Museum

The Asia Society hosts group visits of its museum Tuesdays through Sundays 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with additional hours Friday until 9:00 PM. The museum is closed on Mondays. Group visits are by appointment and must be made in advance.

The docent-led tours range in length from 45 to 90 minutes depending on the needs and interests of your group. We request that your group stay together during the tour. For school groups, there needs to be one adult chaperone for every ten students. Coats and packages must be checked in at the coatroom. The fee is $5 per person. For reservations, please call Nancy Blume at (212) 327-9237.

For information on current and upcoming exhibitions, click here.

Asia Society and Museum On-line Programs for Teachers and Students
Visit the following links for teaching ideas and student activities based relating to the arts and cultures of Asia.

Monks and Merchants
The fourth to seventh century forms a pivotal epoch in the history of China. With the collapse of the Han dynasty (206 BCE - CE 220) and the subsequent domination of north China by non-Chinese dynasties, China became more receptive to the West than ever before. Cultural and mercantile exchange flourished along the Silk Roads linking China with the Mediterranean, as missionaries and traders poured into China, proselytizing Buddhism and purveying exotic products and new artistic traditions. The Monks and Merchants teachers guide includes background essays, an on-line exhibition, and lesson plans focused on the geography, history, arts and cultures of the Silk Roads.

Power & Desire: South Asian Paintings from the San Diego Museum of Art, Edwin Binney 3rd Collection
The on-line exhibition Power and Desire presents drawings and paintings created between CE 1600 and 1900 for the rulers of the South Asian courts in what is today India, Pakistan, Nepal and Kashmir. They document life at these courts--traditions, customs, and manners--and provide a window into the political, religious, and cultural forces that have shaped the Indian subcontinent. The themes of the paintings--matters of status and position, love, and the relationship of humans to one another and to powers greater than themselves--are universal. The lesson plans are designed to provide important contextual and background information for both teachers and students. The student activities focus on looking at the images and learning the conventions that govern Indian painting.

China: 50 Years Inside the People's Republic
Drawn to the People's Republic of China by its dramatic upheaval and its rich cultural legacy, the world's greatest photographers offer thrilling proof of the power of the camera to explore -- and convey -- the human experience. Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, China: Fifty Years Inside the People's Republic presents the work of thirty distinguished Chinese and Western photographers, conveying the depth of their involvement in the politics, culture and everyday life of the Chinese people. The educational website for this exhibition features background information on the geography and modern history of China as well as student activities focused on photography.

Mandala: Through a Child's Eye
In the fall of 1997, the Asia Society presented the first exhibition ever devoted to the multiple manifestations of the mandala throughout Asia--Mandala: The Architecture of Enlightenment. New York City teachers and students share their interpretive work in AskAsia.org's student galleries. To learn more about the exhibition, click here.

Visible Traces
On this site, you can tour the entire Visible Traces exhibition originally on display at the Queens Library Gallery in New York City from December 10, 1999 to March 15, 2000 and travelling to Los Angeles Public Library's Getty Gallery from April 15 to June 25, 2000. The featured objects, which include oracle bones dating to the second millennium BCE, a Buddhist sutra from the twelfth century, and a Naxi creation myth from 1950 written in pictographic script, illuminate the thoughts and voices of the past. In examining them, we better understand the history of human communication and interaction as well as our own place in this continuum. Educators may explore the curriculum studio for related lesson plans and materials tiered to various grade levels and linked to various curriculum standards. Students are invited to try their hand at the games and activities.

Other Programs of Interest

The Collection in Context
The Collection in Context presents the Asia Society's collection of nearly three hundred works of art in their historical and cultural context. The core of the collection was donated by Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd and includes masterworks from South, Southeast, and East Asia, dating from 2000 B.C.E. to the 19th century, reflecting the great achievements and wide diversity of Asian arts and cultures.

Dancing Demons
Dancing Demons: Ceremonial Masks of Mongolia This exhibition presents spectacular 19th century masks worn by participants in the Lamaist Buddhist dance ceremonies and shamanistic rituals of traditional Mongolia. The masks, many depicting fearsome deities or fantastic animal heads, are lavishly decorated with silk tassels, gilt bronze ornaments and semi-precious stones. Photographs of the ceremonies, abruptly wiped out during the Communist purges of the 1930s, are also included in the exhibition, along with other ritual paraphernalia

More than Meets the Eye: Japanese Art in the Asia Society Collection This exhibition, from April through August 1998, featured more than 40 artworks of the highest quality from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection.

Great Cities, Small Treasures: The Ancient World of the Indus Valley
In early 1998 the Asia Society presented this groundbreaking exhibition of more than 100 artifacts from the one of the great civilizations of the ancient world -- the Indus Valley civilization in what is now Pakistan.

Can We Feed Ourselves?
In this haunting yet breathtakingly beautiful visual dossier, eminent photographer Hiroji Kubota (Magnum Photos) has captured the crisis of food, population and environment facing Asia.

The Creative Eye
For this exhibition, artists from a wide range of disciplines have selected artworks from the Rockefeller Collection and have written the accompanying commentaries. Some of these texts are scholarly, some poetic, some personal, and some all three.