Traveling Exhibitions

A/P/A Traveling Exhibitions Available for Loan 

To learn more about these traveling exhibitions and to bring them to your gallery, community center, local library, museum, or college, please contact apa.archives@nyu.edu.

MARVELS & MONSTERS: Unmasking Asian Images in U.S. Comics, 1942-1986

The William F. Wu Collection at the NYU Fales Library & Special Collections

If there was any doubt that comic books provide a revelatory window on the American psyche, this exhibition will erase it. Over four decades that included some of the most turbulent times in our nation’s history, science fiction author and cultural studies scholar William F. Wu painstakingly gathered an archive of comics distinguished not only by its size and reach, but by its scope: It is the world’s largest collection of American comic books featuring images of Asians.

This exhibition takes the most potent images from the thousands in Wu’s collection, and organizes them around the archetypes they reflect and sustain – the Alien, the Kamikaze, the Brute, the Lotus Blossom, the Guru, the Brain, the Temptress, the Manipulator – while placing them within both a historical context and a discourse with contemporary Asian American writers and creators.

The images may disturb and disquiet, coming as they do from a genre most associated with young readers. That is intentional: These images are our Rogues’ Gallery, our Legion of Doom – the supervillains we face in our individual and collective quest for truth, justice, and the Asian American way.

–Jeff Yang, Curator

Marvels & Monsters

Dimensions: The exhibition is comprised of several mountable panels, canvases, and vinyl lettering and is most suitable for museums, galleries, or open academic spaces with non-concrete wall surfaces. Venues should have at least 775 square feet of wall space to accommodate the main exhibition components.Detailed installation guides as well as lettering, image, and printing templates are available from A/P/A.

Loan fee: $5,000 + one-way shipping.

Supplementary materials: There are several optional elements that can be included with the exhibition: two free-standing life-size cut-outs for photo ops, Beyond Stereotypes free-standing yellow bookcart (additional shipping charges would apply), DVD featuring interview with William F. Wu conducted by curator Jeff Yang, and comic books from the William F. Wu Collection (comic book loans to be directly coordinated by hosting institution through The Fales Library & Special Collections)

For more information, please contact apa.archives@nyu.edu.

Marvels and Monsters travel schedule:

9/27/2012-2/24/2013 at the Museum of Chinese in America in New York, New York

October-March 2013 (exact dates TBA) at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California

A is for Arab: Stereotypes in U.S. Popular Culture

The Jack G. Shaheen Archive at Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University
Presented by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute and the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University

Powerful, accessible and compelling, A is for Arab, which features images from the Jack G. Shaheen Archive, reveals and critiques the stereotypical portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in U.S. popular culture. Providing historical context about these images which range from film stills to comic books to editorial cartoons, this traveling exhibition aims to educate and stimulate discussion about the impact of stereotypes on both individual perceptions and national policy. A PDF of the exhibition panels is available for download here.

Dimensions: The exhibition is comprised of 8, double-sided, gator board, each measuring 36″w x 87″h. The bases of the stands are each 8″ deep, 36” wide, and 3” high, and panels are simply installed into the base. With all banners positioned side by side, the exhibition measures a total of 24′ in length, and for ideal viewing, should have a clearance of 12′ on each side. To accommodate smaller spaces, several alternative arrangements are possible; and, if only one side of the exhibition is able to be displayed, the back (black) side of the exhibition can face a wall.

A is for Arab panels (front)

Loan fee: As of September 1, 2013, the loan fee will be $400 in addition to one-way shipping from the previous venue. 100% of loan fee is applied towards the cost of processing and making the Jack G. Shaheen Archive accessible to the public. Individuals who wish to pay the loan fee on behalf of an exhibitor can make the payment as a tax-deductible donation to NYU.

Supplementary materials: Along with the exhibition, A/P/A can provide list of suggested supplementary materials, some of which are available for loan from the A/P/A Institute.

For more information, please contact apa.archives@nyu.edu.

A is for Arab travel schedule:

10/1/2012-10/4/2012 at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio
10/10/2012-10/28/2012 at the Arab American National Museum Library & Resource Center in Dearborn, Michigan
11/1/2012-11/14/2012 at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana
11/17/2012-11/20/2012 at the 2012 Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado
12/1/2012-12/31/2012 at the Levantine Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California
1/7/2013-2/1/ 2013 at the Alif Institute in Atlanta, Georgia
2/6/2013-3/8/2013 at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio
3/15/2013-3/31/2013 at University of South Carolina, Beaufort in Bluffton, South Carolina
4/3/2013-4/12/2013 at Highpoint University in High Point, North Carolina
4/17/2013-5/3/2013 at University of Massachusetts-Boston in Boston, Massachusetts
5/8/2013-5/23/2013 at University of North Texas, Denton in Denton, Texas
5/28/2013-6/1/2013 at the National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education in New Orleans, Louisiana
9/8/2013-9/23/2013 at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon
10/1/2013-10/25/2013 at Pope John XXIII High School in Sparta, New Jersey
11/1/2013-11/21/2013 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia
1/10/2014-1/24/2014 at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois