About the Yee Fow Museum Concept
A Cultural and Educational Center

Sacramento Deserves No Less

The Yee Fow Museum, A Cultural and Educational Center, will be a major community-based enterprise to foster the understanding and appreciation of Chinese and Chinese American art, history, and culture. The facilities of the Museum, should be no lest than 20,000 square feet, include a nondenominational Chinese temple in a garden park like setting, a 2,935 square-foot gallery, book shop, classroom, and offices. The Museum will attract a broad spectrum of audiences from Northern California, as well as visitors from all over the country and internationally.

We feel that in developing a Yee Fow Museum in Sacramento, we can capitalize on its Chinese heritage and segue into a gateway to China. It behooves all of Sacramento to seize this opportunity to become a "sister city" of culture, commerce, and trade. Sacramento deserves no lest.

The Museum will offer a variety of educational and cultural programs. These programs will range from lectures, workshops, and classes to art exhibitions, dance and musical performances, and business and cultural exchanges-all of which enable Sacramento and the general public alike to gain a deeper knowledge of historical as well as contemporary Chinese and Chinese American culture.

The activities of the Museum will focus on art exhibitions, which will be presented on a continuous, year-round basis-some organized by the Museum and others on loan from other museums or cultural institutions. Major exhibitions of historical significance will include the Sacramento Chinese of Yee Fow: 1848-1960 (a documentary exhibition on the history of Sacramento's Chinese Americans); Historical Chinese Business of Sacramento-A Pictorial History; Stories From China's Past: Han Dynasty Pictorial Tomb Reliefs and Archaeological Objects from Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China, which toured to eight U.S. cities in 1987-88; Symbol and Adornment: Traditional Costumes and Jewelry from China's Minorities, (in collaboration with the Cultural Palace Museum of Nationalities, Beijing, China); and Shiwan Ceramics: Beauty, Color, and Passion, which received funding support locally and from abroad.

The Museum will focus on programs of contemporary relevance, especially projects featuring Chinese and Asian artists, entrepreneurs and multiculturalism. Other exhibition projects feature emerging and established Asian American artists, whose works represent not only important contributions to the art field, but also commentaries and reflections of a group of people in a particular time in history.

In its community role, the Museum will donate its facilities and in-kind support for interactive school tours that are designed to complement the California History-Social Science and Visual and Performing Art Content Standards. By sponsoring certain events in conjunction with various cultural organizations and community groups in Northern California (i.e. Kearny Street Workshop, Chinese Historical Society of America, Chinese American Museum of Northern California based in Marysville, Chinese Historical and Cultural Project based in Santa Clara County, Locke Foundation based in LOcke, Chinese Cultural Productions, Chinese Folk Dance Association, Gu Zheng Society of San Francisco), it will stimulate cooperation and expand resources and offerings among the many local groups interested in Chinese and Chinese American history and culture.

Genealogical studies will engage the curiosity and interest of the young in learning about their culture and its origins. With the Yee Fow Oral History Program and the Yee Fow Heritage Walk, docents from the Museum will introduce Sacramento's Chinatown and its history to many out-of-town visitors and school-age children; tours will be especially directed during weekdays for school-age children from throughout Northern California.

Because of these national and international projects, the Museum will become a hosting organization on the West Coast for visiting specialists from China, Taiwan and throughout the U.S. Chinese and American business and cultural professionals will be able to meet and to exchange ideas and experiences at conferences, seminars, and receptions.

View the Yee Fow Museum Draft Proposal