Wing Luke Museum Announces Exhibition Inspired by Award-Winning Ten Thousand Things Podcast

Exhibit in partnership with Shin Yu Pai, creator of podcast brings objects and artifacts to life through storytelling

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON / ACCESS Newswire / February 25, 2025 / The Wing Luke Museum announces its latest exhibit, Ten Thousand Things, running from March 7, 2025 through May 31, 2027. A members-only preview will be held on March 6, from 6-8 p.m., in the Museum's Community Hall. Speakers at the member-only event will include Wing Luke Museum Board member and Hood Famous owner, Chera Amlag, keynote speaker; Shin Yu Pai, former Civic Poet of Seattle and storyteller; exhibit consultant Kamna Shastri; and music by exhibit contributor, Tomo Nakayama.

Inspired by the award-winning public radio podcast series by Shin Yu Pai, the Ten Thousand Things exhibition ponders objects and artifacts, while offering a fascinating exploration of the insightful stories that give these objects intimate meaning and significance around identity, history and cultural traditions.

Pai spent her early career cataloging Asian American artifacts at the Wing Luke Museum while she was a Museology graduate student at the University of Washington, which piqued her interest in objects and their function as vessels of memory. The exhibition will feature a number of artifacts curated over the course of three seasons of the podcast series, as well as objects from the community and the Wing Luke collection.

Artifacts featured in the exhibit include art and musical objects, everyday artifacts, culinary items and family heirlooms. Highlighted artifacts include The Red Chador (a colorful garment reflecting Muslim identity), by Anida Yoeu Ali; Uranium Orbs, by Etsuko Ichikawa; Mask, contributed by Shin Yu Pai; Tatung Steam Cooker, presented by Chef Tiffany Ran; Abacus, submitted by Tomo Nakayama, and other contributors.

Shin Yu Pai and the Wing Luke Museum envision the exhibition building upon the Museum's signature community co-creation model into a distinct new direction, actively inspiring community members to consider their own artifacts and contributing narratives to be potentially rotated into the exhibition or for a future Ten Thousand Things podcast.

In the weeks after the exhibition opening, the Museum will launch a social media campaign designed to engage and inspire community members to collect and submit their own stories.

"Both the Wing Luke Museum and the Ten Thousand Things podcast platform important and vital stories of the Asian American experience," says Pai. "I believe this has the potential to be a powerful and meaningful partnership because we are encouraging the community to take their inspiration and actively share images and stories of their own. I'm excited by the unique opportunity to take the storytelling directly to the community and potentially identify moving stories to share on a future Ten Thousand Things podcast."

NOTE: Media interested in attending the members-only event, March 6, should contact Stephen McLean at smclean@wingluke.org.

Ten Thousand Things was originally commissioned by KUOW-FM Public Radio. As of 2025, the podcast is independently produced and distributed by Wonder Media Network.

About The Wing Luke Museum

The Wing Luke Museum's mission is to connect everyone to the rich history, dynamic cultures, and art of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders through vivid storytelling and inspiring experiences to advance racial and social equity. As a Smithsonian Affiliate, National Park Service Affiliated Area, and the only pan-Asian American museum in the nation, The Wing Luke Museum is a national treasure, preserving and sharing the personal stories of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. In 2025, the Museum will celebrate the 100^th birthday of Wing Chong Luke, our namesake and Washington state's first Asian American to hold elected office. To learn more about the Museum, visit www.wingluke.org

SOURCE: Wing Luke Museum