The Mobile Tea Garden

The Mobile Tea Garden is a unique environment made of large-scale naturally dyed silk textile, paintings, sculptures, sound installation, responsive projection, physical performance, and the action of making and drinking tea to engage all five senses. This program is a part of the "Locating the Sacred Festival."

Take a moment on the afternoon of Friday, September 14, 2012 to visit the haven of peace that is the Mobile Tea Garden. Artist and tea expert Ines Sun will accomplish the time-honored act of serving tea, a practice of humility and “refined poverty,” as described by Sen no Rikyū (b.1522), arguably the greatest influence on the Japanese chanoyu, or “way of tea,” ritual.

The Mobile Tea Garden is a unique environment made of large-scale naturally dyed silk textile, paintings, sculptures, sound installation, responsive projection, physical performance, and the action of making and drinking tea to engage all five senses. Sun invites a small group of volunteers to participate and create their own unique tea rituals at the Mobile Tea Garden. Visit www.inessun.com to get in touch.

Presented by Tenri Cultural Institute.

Two years in the making, the Locating the Sacred Festival, a project of the Asian American Arts Alliance, has brought together hundreds of artists, arts workers and cultural activists to create twenty-five events in churches, museums, cultural centers, botanical gardens and theaters across all five boroughs of New York City, exploring the meaning of the word “sacred” and its relevance in their communities.

From an inflatable Buddha on the East River to a flash mob in Washington Square Park, the festival showcases Asian American artists as agents of change, demonstrating the power of art to unleash imagination and break down barriers. Festival Producing Partners include New York University, the Rubin Museum of Art, Queens Botanical Gardens, Poetry Society of America, Church Center for the United Nations and several others. In the wake of the shootings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and as the eleventh anniversary of 9/11 approaches, New Yorkers are reminded that opportunities for greater cultural understanding are never more important. The Asian American community is the fastest growing cultural group in New York, now 13% of the population (one million people), with heritages spanning the Middle East to the Pacific Islands. The festival aims to provide a platform for all New Yorkers to engage deeply with each other on questions of fundamental values and to be inspired to imagine moving towards together as a society.