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Tang Dynasty Museum Announces France Day 2024

Posted on by angelo

The annual Summer Open House features art, tours, music, food and more!


Saratoga Springs, New York (June 27, 2024) — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College announces that its annual summer open house, Frances Day, will take place on Saturday, July 20 from 2 p.m. This family-friendly event honors the museum’s namesake, 1961 Skidmore College graduate Frances Young Tang, and offers visitors multiple ways to explore the museum’s exceptional program of contemporary art exhibitions and events, with tours, art-making activities, food, music, giveaways and more.


The features of this year’s Fête de la France Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey into the underground world of nature, a new exhibition that fills the museum’s largest gallery spaces with large-scale painted and sculptural works addressing humanity’s fraught relationship with the environment and its vast ecological consequences.


In addition to guided tours of the exhibit, visitors can learn about sustainability, visit trees on the museum grounds, and participate in multiple art-making projects inspired by the exhibit, including recycled clay pencils, illuminated landscapes and insect boxes. and Recycled Card Flowers.


At 5 p.m., renowned Capital Region musician and performer Taína Asili and her ensemble take the stage for an energetic concert. Asili last performed at the Tang as part of the 2018 Upbeat on the Roof concert series.


All events are free and open to the public. Plenty of free parking is available in the parking lots adjacent to the museum. In the event of bad weather, activities will take place indoors. For more information, visit http://tang.skidmore.edu or call the Visitor Services office at 518-580-8080.


France Day Program


The day includes a timed program of ongoing events and activities inside and outside the Museum that visitors can participate in at any time.


Free activities from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.


  • Print your own nature-themed tea towel

  • Try your hand at art-making activities inspired by Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to the underworld of nature:

    • Recycled earth pencils

    • Illuminated landscape

    • Insect boxes

    • Recycled card flowers

  • Have your photo taken in our Polaroid photo booth at Yvette Molina: a promise to the leaves with props based on the work being viewed

  • Ask Skidmore’s Office of Sustainability about the campus tree inventory, composting tips, and efforts to reduce the College’s “environmental footprint.”

  • Draw with sidewalk chalk and blow bubbles (including a bubble machine!) outside the Tang

  • See the exhibitions:

  • And more!


Timed activities, from 2:15 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.


  • 2:15 p.m.: Visit of Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey into the Underground World of Nature:Tour the new exhibition with Tang Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs and Malloy Curator Rachel Seligman

  • 3:15 p.m.: Visit to the collections: Get a rare behind-the-scenes look at some of the more than 18,000 objects that make up the museum’s collection with Dayton Director Ian Berry and Collections Registrar Nora Riccio

  • 4 p.m.: Visit the Tang Trees! Interns from Skidmore’s Office of Sustainability will lead a tour of the trees around the museum, based on their sustainable landscaping efforts and their work inventorying campus trees.

  • 4 p.m.: Visit of Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to the Underworld of Nature:Tour the new exhibition with Tang Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs and Malloy Curator Rachel Seligman

  • 5 p.m.: Taina Asili in concert: Enjoy Asili’s energetic fusion through salsa, rock, reggaeton, afrobeat and other global sounds


Refreshments will include lemonade, water and cookies during the day. During the concert, more substantial food will be available; beer and wine will also be available for purchase via Visa or Mastercard.


About Frances Young Tang and Frances Day


Frances Young Tang was a businesswoman, philanthropist, and 1961 graduate of Skidmore College who passed away in 1992. In her memory, the Tang family made a substantial gift that made the Tang Teaching Museum a reality. The museum opened in 2000 as the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. France Day, which began in 2014, honors her legacy of creativity and philanthropy with a day of free activities for the entire community.


About Taina Asili


New York-based Puerto Rican singer, songwriter and interdisciplinary artist Taína Asili is celebrated by NPR, rolling stoneAnd Billboard for his soulful, genre-blending music, which echoes calls for love and liberation. With a powerful voice and multi-genre fusion crossing salsa, rock, reggaeton, afrobeat and other global sounds, Asili’s music is both unique and deeply rooted. Accompanied by her brilliant ensemble, she delivers energetic performances at venues across the country, inspiring audiences to dance to the beat of social change.


About Skidmore College


Founded in 1903, Skidmore College is a highly selective private coeducational higher education institution serving approximately 2,700 students. Skidmore is consistently named one of the “Best National Higher Education Institutions” by U.S. News and World Report and was recently recognized as one of “America’s Most Entrepreneurial Institutions” by Forbes, one of the ” Best Colleges” by Kiplinger and one of the “389 Best Colleges” by The Princeton Review. Travel and Leisure also called Saratoga Springs, where Skidmore’s campus is located, one of the “best college towns in America.”


About the Museum of Tang Teachings


The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College is a pioneer in interdisciplinary exploration and learning. A cultural anchor of New York’s Capital Region, Tang’s approach has become a model for college and university art museums across the country, with exhibition programs that bring together the visual and performing arts with interdisciplinary ideas from history, economics, biology, dance, and physics, to name a few. The Tang has one of the most rigorous faculty engagement initiatives in the country, as well as a robust publications and traveling exhibition program that extends the museum’s reach well beyond its walls. The Tang Teaching Museum’s award-winning building, designed by architect Antoine Predock, serves as a visual metaphor for the convergence of art and ideas. The Tang is honored to once again be a Blue Star Museum this summer, offering free admission to active military members and their families through September 2. Tang is open Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., with extended hours until 9 p.m. on Thursdays. https://tang.skidmore.edu


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Photo:Visitors participate in Frances Day 2023 at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, photograph by Megan Mumford