Celebrate reopening of Seattle Asian Art Museum

A lion dance, taiko drummers, mural painting and sumo-wrestling suits await you at the grand reopening celebration at Seattle Asian Art Museum this Saturday.

After being closed last year for reroofing, SAAM reopened last weekend and moves to center stage for a year while the downtown Seattle Art Museum is closed for extensive remodeling. Festivities begin at 10 a.m. with all-ages mural painting until 5 p.m., fueled by free Starbucks coffee until 1 p.m. The traditional Chinese lion dance is at 10:30 a.m., followed by a Korean dance performance at 11 a.m. and taiko drum performance at 1 p.m. Try on sumo wrestling suits from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., visit the SAAM library's open house 1-5 p.m. and hear a lecture on Chinese calligraphy at 4 p.m. with Dr. Qianshen Bai, professor of art history at Boston University. DJ Anup Shastri spins Asian-inspired tunes at 5 and 7:30 p.m., with a comedy performance by the Pork-Filled Players at 6 p.m.

Art installations currently at SAAM include "The Orchid Pavilion Gathering: Chinese Painting from the University of Michigan Museum of Art," "Fragrance of the Past: Chinese Calligraphy and Painting by Ch'ung-ho Chang Frankel and Friends;" "Discovering Buddhist Art — Seeking the Sublime" and a video installation called "Tooba."

Seattle Asian Art Museum is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays (until 9 p.m. Thursdays). The Taste Cafe in the museum's Fuller Garden Court serves bento boxes and Asian-inspired salads and wraps 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursdays. Museum admission is $5 for adults, $3 for students with ID and ages 62 and older, free for ages 12 and younger and free for everyone the first Thursday and first Saturday of each month. The museum is in Seattle's historic Volunteer Park. For more information, call SAAM at 206-654-3100 or check the Web site, www.seattleartmuseum.org/visit/visitSAAm.asp, where you can print out a two-for-one admission coupon for up to four people, good through April 1.

— Madeline McKenzie, Seattle Times staff