In conjunction with the textile exhibition "Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities," the Chazen Museum of Art will present an afternoon of music, hands-on activities, performances, and guided tours that celebrate Wisconsin's Hmong culture. Tradition and Technique: A Celebration of Hmong Culture will be held on Saturday, March 28, from 12–4 p.m. Admission is free. Children under 12 should be accompanied by an adult. Performers include:

--Music by Dang Yang (Milwaukee) on qeej, bamboo flutes, jaw harps, and the two-string violin

--Demonstration by Vanchai Xiong (Sheboygan), jeweler and blacksmith

--Hands-on embroidery demonstration by women from Kajsiab House (Madison)

--Storytelling by Mai Zong Vue (Madison), folksinger, storyteller

--Songs by Amy Vue (Milwaukee)

--Guided tours by Chazen docents

The exhibition "Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities" offers a visual feast of exquisite and rare costumes and jewelry from fifteen ethnic groups and nearly one hundred subgroups living in southwest China. These five hundred splendidly woven and embroidered textiles and costume pieces represent work of the finest quality and historic significance. Three galleries display entire ensembles of adults' and children's regalia, baby carriers, quilt covers, and silver ornaments, as well as a loom, weaving tools, and embroidery cases. The exhibition is on view January 31 to April 12, 2009.

Southwest China is a region of rich river systems and complex topography, inhabited by thirty-one of the country's fifty-six ethnic groups. "Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities" showcases the superb, detailed craftsmanship from ethnic groups including the Jingpo, Maonan, Miao (Hmong), Yi, Dong, Tujia, Shui, Zhuang, Dai, Buyi, Yao, Hani, Gelao, Li, and Zang. The exhibition explores the cultural messages associated with the production and use of indigenous clothing. In societies without written languages, traditions and customs are passed orally from generation to generation. The textile arts, largely practiced by women, also provide tangible evidence of a group's history, myths, and legends. The signs and patterns woven or embroidered in their clothing are often replicated in the accompanying silver ornaments made by men. The textiles and silver ornaments complement a group's oral traditions, recording and transmitting ideas and concepts that preserve the identities of their makers and users, and even reconstruct them for those who have lost touch. The needlework and silverwork of each ethnic group reveal variations in origin myths, heroic combats, communal memories, and wish fulfillment.

"Writing with Thread" was organized by the University of Hawai‘i Art Gallery and the Evergrand Art Museum, Taoyuan, Taiwan, and is supported by the University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, John Young Foundation, Blakemore Foundation, Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts through appropriations from the Legislature of the State of Hawai‘i and the National Endowment for the Arts, Joseph and Vera Zilber Family Foundation, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa Center for Chinese Studies/Confucius Institute, Carolyn and Warren Luke, Blodwyn Goo Endowment, University of Hawai‘i Women's Campus Club, Gulab and Indru Watumull Grant for Museum Studies in the Arts, Commercial Data Systems, Wing Tek Lum and Chee Ping Lee Lum, and private contributions.

Generous local support for this exhibition has been provided by the Chazen Museum of Art Council, The Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co., Group Health Cooperative, J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., UW Health, Executive Management, Inc., Hilldale Fund, and Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.