Artifacts may be salvageble after fire at the Museum of Chinese in American

COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF CHINESE IN AMERICA

Some of items in storage that might have been damaged in the recent fire.

ASAM NEWS

Fear has turned to optimism at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in New York City.

One week after a fire gutted a five story building in New York’s Chinatown MOCA has recovered 150 boxes, reported Atlas Obscura.

The museum’s president, Nancy Yao Maasbach says parts of the collection “are very much salvageable.”

“We are so excited to share that it looks like everything we took out of the building this morning is very much salvageable. Very much salvageable,” said Maasbach at a press conference attended by AsAmNews on Wednesday. “So we had about 25 boxes get immediately sent to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where they will be immediately (put in freezers), stabilized and then freeze-dried.” The fire did not reach the archival rooms, but Maasbach had said she was most worried about water damage and mold.

Some of the boxes were found in good condition and only need to be reboxed.

The building also housed the Chen Dance Center, a senior center and other community groups. The building which was owned by the city will be rebuilt, according to Mayor Bill DeBlasio. Others, however, are less optimistic.

“There is some severe and significant fire damage to the building,” Department of Building Assistant Commissioner Yegal Shamash said at the press conference, according to Gothamist. “The structural stability of the building right now is not in jeopardy. But overall we do have concerns with the stability of the building long term.”

TGIF Feature: Photo exhibit portrays the evolution of New York City's Chinatown

I LOVE PHOTO EXHIBITS. Landscapes, city scapes, children, elderly, intimate moments, grand events, great feats or history being made - it doesn't matter.

Photographs capture a moment in a person's life -- whether it is the subject or the person taking the picture. I like filling in the blanks. What happens after the photo is taken, or what happened before the photo was taken that led to that moment?

An exhibit at The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in New York is a must-see for anyone who cares about all that.

BUD GLICK / MOCA

"Interior Lives: Photographs of Chinese Americans in the 1980" by Bud Glick, has been on view since October 18, 2018 and will be on disiplay to March 24, 2019. It is the largest exhibition of acclaimed photographer Bud Glick’s work documenting everyday life in New York City’s Chinatown in the 1980s. It is organized in conjunction with the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) exhibition Interior Lives: Contemporary Photographs of Chinese New Yorkers.

The New York Chinatown History Project began to document the experiences of Chinatown residents whose way of life was changing or disappearing altogether amid socioeconomic shifts in New York City. 

BUD GLICK / MOCA

For three years beginning in 1981, Bud Glick was commissioned by MOCA to photograph the street life, people, and domestic scenes of Chinatown. He moved from his native Wisconsin to NYC where he earned the trust of Chinatown residents and gained access to interior lives during a pivotal time when new waves of immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China began to converge into Chinatown, altering the demographic landscape of what was then home to earlier migrations largely shaped by racist immigration laws.

Interior Lives: Photographs of Chinese Americans in the 1980s by Bud Glick is the most comprehensive exhibition to date of Glick’s photos - some of which have never been seen before by the public - taken during those pivotal three years.

“I am grateful to MOCA for giving me the opportunity 38 years ago to embark on this journey and connect intimately with so many people in Chinatown. This project allows me to live out my responsibility to the people who welcomed me into their lives,” said Glick. “I see this exhibition as a continuation of that journey where I hope more and more people will connect to the stories told in these photos. I am especially glad that the photos are being exhibited at MOCA, where they belong and belong to all.”

Herb Tam, MOCA’s Curator and Director of Exhibitions, says: “Bud Glick’s photographs of the Chinese community in the 1980s poignantly capture what is usually taken for granted: the everyday moments at work, home, and on the streets that make up a community’s culture. He documented a changing Chinatown as much with his heart and soul as with his eye.”

BUD GLICK / MOCA

Glick's exhibit is coupled with “Interior Lives: Contemporary Photographs of Chinese New Yorkers,” to further elaborate the life of the largest Chinese community outside of China. Taken as whole, the exhibits give context to today's debate over immigration on who gets to enter the U.S. and who should be excluded and the community which under the pressure of gentrification.

Glick perceives echoes of the Chinese Exclusion Act in America's present-day politics, . Glick believes the project is evermore urgent, he said in an email. "In this regard, “Interior Lives” remains consequential and relevant during a time when immigrants are being demonized by the president and his supporters. Its testament to the strength and resourcefulness of an immigrant community belies the stereotypes, assumptions and anxieties that fuel this regressive thinking," writes the New York Times.

“I hope that my Chinatown work can stand as a refutation of that bigotry,” writes Glick. “The photographs tell a quintessential American immigrant story of persistence to gain a foothold in a society that excludes them racially, socially, economically, and culturally. We know that the past is present. The same, racist, anti-immigrant politics that led to Exclusion are alive and well in our current, toxic times. It was wrong then. It is wrong now.”

The Museum of Chinese in America is located at 215 Centre Street New York City. 
Click here for hours and programs.

_________________________________________________________________________________