Sometimes community engagement means that you do what you always do, but for someone new. But sometimes it also means you put your trinkets away, stay quiet, listen, and let someone else drive.

For the last 10 years the Tibetan community in Queens has been growing exponentially. As the now older Indian Diaspora moves out of their old enclave in Jackson Heights and out into the New Jersey suburbs and other parts of the nation, their shops and the feel of the neighborhood has been revitalized by other South Asian groups: Bengalis, Nepalese and Tibetans. The influx of these last group increased as the conflict in Nepal intensified. Due to the increase or the conflict or both, visa restrictions for the country may have also changed. There are similar enclaves in Colorado, DC Metro area, Texas, California, and Minnesota[1]. Whatever the case, this community has asserted itself as a very organized and hard-working one. Naturally we want them to use the museum. So the question is how to do outreach?

Our first instinct was roll out our most successful activity at New New Yorkers: the artist-led 8-week workshop by a local artist who speaks their mother tongue. We found a world-class artist living right here in Queens. We sought out the Queens Library located the closest to their economic hub in Jackson Heights. We spent a lot of time personally meeting business owners as we posted the fliers for the class, and we tapped mailing lists at the Rubin Museum and other places. Well, it was a complete disaster. We had good attendance at the library, but when it was time to come to QMA to finish the class, only one person showed up. When I asked the artist why he thought nobody came he said “Maybe it’s because of Losar…” “Losar?” I responded. “Yes. Losar it’s our New Year. The biggest holiday for us.”

So here I was, a cultural worker, and a fairly informed Buddhist (although Theravada) and I failed to do my basic research. I had to cancel the class, and take some time to rethink what we were doing. I decided to put aside all my tools and programmatic assumptions find someone who already was doing outreach successfully and see how I could support their efforts.

Enter Adhikaar. Adhikaar is a social justice organization run by and for Nepalis. I had met their director previously when we were both cohorts at Queens College’s Asian American Center Campus-Community Partnership. I asked to visit their center to learn what they do and ask how could we be of assistance. The only preconception I had was that at some point there would be art making. I learned about their annual picnic at Queensbridge Park. We ourselves are located inside a NYC Park and work with the Parks Department so often that we even had a position at one point solely dedicated to parks issues. The connection was easy to make and we provided assistance with permits, tents, and made a contribution to the event. Then I brought out our usual trinkets and so on. I hired one educator referred by them and showed him how to teach our Tiffany Glass workshop which he ran very well out of a tent with a nice and big QMA sign. Adhikaar had arranged various activities for their members, including the performance of dohori, an animated improvisational repartee session between male and female members of the party.  About 150 people must have gone through the tent and a lesser number of projects were completed. We expected to close shop halfway through, when their music act started, but people kept coming and asking to make projects. All ages of participants did projects, but of course we were the most popular with kids. We distributed about 200 flyers and free passes to the museum. I hope to get some of them back!