Asian Bazaar

On Monday night, the Asia Society threw its first family benefit, opening its New York headquarters to a sold-out crowd of 500 patrons—most of whom are members of the under-10 set. To grab the attention of such a restless audience, the museum brought out craft stations, interactive displays, puppet shows, demonstrations of traditional music and dance, and a whole lot of food.

“The family programming at the Asia Society has been limited to Saturday afternoons,” said Peige Katz, the event's coordinator and an adviser with the Asia Society. “We miss out on a lot of our demographics by only having these opportunities on the weekend, so this was our first event that could capture the elegance of an evening setting.”To carry out its vision for the event—the bustle of spring festivals blended with the aesthetics of Asian bazaars—the society approached designer Josh Hickey, who recently partnered with artist and longtime friend Allison Shields to form Hickey Shields. Hickey, having lived in Japan and traveled throughout the continent, was able to focus on less kitschy design elements that would make the event more appealing to museum patrons.

“They wanted the event to resemble an Asian market,” Hickey said. “Kids respond to visual disorder, and that’s so quintessentially Asian in a way. Asian markets are wild collages of random colors. It’s visually arresting.”

Hickey and Shields re-created these scenes by building colorful backdrops and cityscapes for the many stations on the four floors of the building that were open during the event. Guests found other nods to Asian culture in the materials used for the design pieces, including the chopstick wrappers that formed the rooftops of Chinese pagodas and the rice that dusted the cap of a flattened Mount Fuji.

Most of the rice was for eating, though. The food was a selection of Asian-inspired, bite-size kid-pleasers. Guests nibbled on spring rolls and fried rice in the ground-floor garden court, and, in a scene that can’t be common outside of Manhattan, toddlers were heard asking where the sushi was and what kind of fish was being served. They were in luck, because the sushi bar on the eighth floor was fitted with an overhead camera so everyone could watch on a large television beside the chef as the rolls were assembled.

Food and small children aren't always the best recipe for a formal benefit, but the Asia Society was able to maintain order during the three-hour affair. While kimono-clad children abandoned dirty plates and ran between exhibits, the event staff and volunteers remained vigilant in their cleanup efforts.