Thursday, June 13, 2013

Pacific Asia Museum relaunches audio tour

-Pacific Asia Museum announced today the relaunch of its award-winning Audio Tour. Featuring several stops in each of the museum's permanent galleries as well as in its historic courtyard, the new Audio Tour allows visitors to engage more deeply with the objects within the Pacific Asia Museum galleries and the cultures they represent.

In 2010, Pacific Asia Museum launched a Poetry Tour accessible through visitors' cell phones with the support of the Katharine Audrey Webb Foundation. This Tour was a recipient of a MUSE award given by the American Association of Museums (now the American Alliance of Museums) for excellence and innovation in museum media, and included original poetry and music inspired by the Pacific Asia Museum collection.

Today, the Pacific Asia Museum Poetry Series is joined by a Curatorial and Family Series in English, Chinese and Korean to form an expanded Audio Tour, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Curatorial Series provides a deeper look at objects and their cultural connections, while the all-ages Family Series focuses on legends, animals and mysteries related to objects on display. Together, these three series give Pacific Asia Museum visitors a broader understanding of Asian art, culture and history.

Throughout the museum, object labels with a cell phone symbol alert visitors to items with audio content and give the numbers for that stop. Visitors can call (626) 628-9690and enter the stop number to listen. Because the tour is cell phone-based, visitors can listen any time at their convenience, even if they aren't within the museum. A comprehensive list of stops is available in brochures in English, Korean and Chinese at the Pacific Asia Museum front desk and at pacificasiamuseum.org/audiotour. In the coming weeks, individuals worldwide will be able to stream or download recordings of each stop or read transcripts of each stop in all three languages on the Pacific Asia Museum website.

The Curatorial and Family Series in English, Korean and Chinese are generously sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Poetry Series is made possible by Poets on Site and funded in part by the Jeanne Ward Foundation and the Katharine Audrey Webb Foundation.

About Pacific Asia Museum
Pacific Asia Museum is among the few institutions in the United States dedicated exclusively to the arts and culture of Asia and the Pacific Islands. The museum's mission is to further intercultural understanding through the arts of Asia and the Pacific Islands. Since 1971, Pacific Asia Museum has served a broad audience of students, families, adults, and scholars through its exhibitions and programs.

Pacific Asia Museum is located at 46 North Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, California 91101. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.Admission is $10 general, $7 students/seniors, and free for museum members and children under 12. Admission is free every 4th Friday of the month. For more information visit www.pacificasiamuseum.org or call (626) 449-2742.
 

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