Although Ottawa’s Chinatown and the Museum of Nature are separated by only a few blocks, they’ll be getting a lot closer on Jan. 23.
Nature Nocturne, the museum’s monthly dance party geared toward adults, is partnering with local art promoter Chinatown Remixed for a second year to host an artistic ode to Chinese New Year.
“We’re bringing in both the traditional and the contemporary to celebrate Lunar New Year,” says Cynthia Iburg, the museum’s co-ordinator of Nature Nocturne. “The whole building is going to be animated.”
Local artists including Chinese traditional dancers, video projectionists and solar-powered DJs will be populating the space.
China Doll, one of the city’s most well-known drag queens based at Shanghai Restaurant, will be hosting karaoke in an arctic-themed lounge to match the museum’s current feature exhibit.
This year marks a change for the collaboration, with the museum deciding to give Chinatown Remixed more artistic freedom. The organization will be hiring all the artists and performers, with the exception of one DJ for the main dance floor chosen by the museum.
Iburg says the event will be bigger this year and giving Chinatown Remixed almost the entire building in which to program makes the process simpler.
“Once you have a partnership established like we do with Chinatown Remixed, it all becomes really easy. It becomes a really nice meeting of worlds,” Iburg says.
Adrienne Vicente, one of the Chinatown Remixed organizers, says she’s looking forward to planning a bigger event this year.
“The Chinatown Remixed committee is really excited because we didn’t expect to be invited again this year. But I guess it was really successful last year.”
Vicente says because of their ability to place so many artists and performers throughout the entire museum, they get to include a wide variety of entertainment. While it’s a dance party, there will also be more low-key programming such as Jenga, ping pong and a drum circle.
“There’s mellow events mixed in with all the dancing that will be happening,” she says.
Even though this year’s Lunar New Year is in February, Chinatown Remixed and the museum agreed to host the event in January, when they’d draw the biggest crowds. There is no Nature Nocturne event in December, which means there will be less attendee fatigue, Iburg says.
Kristina Corre, one of the artists participating, notes the bigger crowds also mean a different crowd, thanks to the emphasis on local art.
“We’re excited to draw a different crowd than the usual one. More of the art community in Ottawa will be drawn in,” she said.
Corre is designing an art installation of life-sized origami sheep and goats, the symbol of this year’s Chinese New Year. She plans to make them into lanterns to emit light and provide a backdrop for the night’s festivities.
This type of partnership between communities, artists and the museum may be expanded in the future, Iburg says.
“What I’d love to do is have a community partner for every month, so we can really showcase the different communities, areas of the city and the artists who are part of those groups,” she says. “It takes a lot of work, it doesn’t always happen. But that’s the ambition.”