M.S.131 digital artists in Museum of Chinese in America!

The Museum of Chinese in America is featuring 30 M.S.131 digital artists’ artwork in Five Senses of Chinatown exhibition from December 6, 2023—May 26, 2024.

In M.S.131 Mr.Wang’s Digital Arts class, students used the design industry standard software, Adobe Photoshop, to create incredible digital artworks about NYC Chinatown, Asian American culture, and historical landmarks. Students devoted 4 weeks to researching, drawing, and composing art statements. By doing the MOCA Five Senses projects, students have become more aware of the neighborhoods and communities’ history and culture in Chinatown. Students learned how to experience the environment differently through contemporary art visions which challenged and refreshed the conventional representations of these cultural gems and iconic locations. By visualizing and interpreting five senses in digital art, students have found themselves in new roles as artists and local guides illustrating NYC Chinatown for all.

Five Senses of Chinatown captures the unique character of Manhattan Chinatown through artwork by students from local schools, historical artifacts from MOCA’s Collection, and interactive sense stations. MOCA staff collaborated with teachers and students from Transfiguration School, MS 131, and the High School of Dual Language and Asian Studies. Together, they created a diverse range of works—drawings, paintings, collage, poetry and digital artwork—which portray Chinatown through sensory associations of characteristic spaces: homes, public parks, street life, businesses, eateries, grocery stores, and bubble tea shops. To link the present with the past, their work will be shown alongside historical photographs and artifacts of Chinatown from MOCA’s Collection. Five Senses of Chinatown is a collective portrait of the neighborhood as expressed through sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings.