By TAYLOR MACEWEN
LONG ISLAND CITY — Toddlers wielding drills outfitted with paintbrushes were set loose on a set of cardboard horses this past Sunday as part of the festivities at the inaugural Lunar New Year celebration at LIC’s Xanh Space art studio.
Felt dragons and strings of stars hung from the ceiling, as art educators introduced dozens of children and their families to sensory and motion-based art. For owner Thu Hoang, the event opened the doors to local families interested in learning together and creating their own culture.
The event ran well past the intended 75 minutes, and centered around creative free time with a polaroid photo opportunity, face painting, and confetti celebration. Children made paper lanterns, played with year of the horse themed stamp stations and Play-Doh molds, and sorted sensory bins of bright red kinetic sand and rice through colorful funnels. In one corner of the room, mung beans and cakes of durian (a notoriously pungent fruit) were offered, next to baggies of goldfish.
“Do you know how bold it is to have durian at an event like this?” Hoang’s husband, Alex Nguyen, asked as he opened one of the cakes for their 6 year old daughter. At the next table over, a mother and grandmother sat on either side of a little boy, no more than 3 years old, speaking English and Chinese into either one of his ears.
“I don’t think a lot of people realize how hard it is to be this far from home,” Nguyen said “Suddenly you’re on the other side of the world, no support around you except your immediate family and whatever community you can replicate.That’s why I respect what Thu’s doing so much.”
Young children painted horses with paintbrush-outfitted power drills at Xanh Space last Sunday. Photos by Taylor MacEwen
The event at the studio was starkly different to the New Year traditions of Vietnam where he and Hoang first met. There, the New Year begins with a multi-week party which he calls a “rigorous assault on sobriety.”
“I like that something that is pure Vietnamese culture can be interpreted. We’re not there so we can’t celebrate in the same way,” he says. “There’s very few places for this next generation of children to explore what their roots are.”
Xanh Space opened this past August, initially focusing on outdoor arts and crafts pop-ups and family nature outings. Its weekly classes for children 1 year and older are designed around monthly themes such as still life, light and reflection, and surrealism. With a stated mission of focusing “on the artistic journey rather than the final product,” workers at Xanh Space are dedicated to facilitating children’s instincts without getting in their way.
Like any new business owner, Hoang was absorbed in day-to-day operations and was surprised when the community approached her to host Sunday’s event. While this marks Xanh Space’s second holiday celebration (after a Mid-Autumn Festival event this past September), Hoang says she is only thinking about tomorrow and her place amongst the other local businesses.
She speaks of the surrounding businesses like she has their backs, flipping through flyers she keeps in the studio promoting Ellee’s Salon on Vernon Boulevard. To her right, a local woman named Daphne Calderon hands out wheat crepes with sugar-free jam from her upcoming cookbook. “To me, honestly, I think we’re better together,” Hoang says.
