"Grandma’s" by Sabella Flagg; Album cover scanned by Thanh Tan. Join us on First Thursday, June 5, to celebrate the opening of two new exhibitions at ARTS at King Street Station. Eight Years of Inscape AiR: Resistance and Belonging out of the Historic Immigration Building and Kho Tàng Nhạc Vàng / South Vietnam’s Golden Music Archive both explore the power of art as resilience and a bridge between past and present. Learn more about the shows below.
ARTS at King Street Station is open Wed. – Sat. 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. and until 8 p.m. on First Thursdays. Admission is free. The gallery is located at 303 S. Jackson St., Top Floor, Seattle, WA 98104.
Eight Years of Inscape AiR: Resistance and Belonging out of the Historic Immigration Building
On view June 5 – Aug. 9, 2025
Eight Years of Inscape AiR: Resistance and Belonging out of the Historic Immigration Building brings together alumni of the Inscape Artist-in-Residence program that took place from 2016 to 2024 at Inscape Arts, the art studio building that was Seattle’s immigration and detention building for 80 years. The residency, organized by volunteer building artists, focused on providing studios to immigrant and diasporic community artists, and artists interested in engaging with the building’s history and the Chinatown-International District neighborhood.
Eight Years honors this legacy of resilience that has instilled cultural pride and innovation through artmaking, dreaming, and spellcasting. Together these works intend to continue this thread from our ancestors, to build a shared space of protection, safety, and solidarity for all to explore and inhabit.
Participating Artists:
- Tara Tamaribuchi, Curator
- Carina A. del Rosario
- Ching-In Chen + Cassie Mira
- Jo Cosme
- Sophia Fang
- Sabella Flagg
- Pete Fleming
- Alice Gosti / MALACARNE
- Barry Johnson
- Haein Kang
- Emily Tanner-Mclean
- Lila Thomas
Kho Tàng Nhạc Vàng / South Vietnam’s Golden Music Archive
On view June 5 – Aug. 9, 2025
Between 1954 and 1975, South Vietnam stood at the crossroads of war and cultural renaissance, a nation shaped by conflict at the height of the Cold War. Amidst the turmoil, its songwriters emerged as the country’s most powerful storytellers—composing music that captured the hopes, heartbreaks, and resilience of a people navigating an uncertain future. Nhạc Vàng—or “Golden Music”—became the emotional heartbeat of a generation, reflecting themes of love, loss, and longing for peace.
Though South Vietnam lost the war, its music endures. Many of these songs were banned in Vietnam after 1975, but they survived through the diaspora, carried by refugees who refused to let their stories fade. This exhibition reclaims and recontextualizes this lost archive through an immersive exploration of rare song sheets, vinyl records, and digitized recordings from the artist’s personal collection. By introducing audiences to the songwriters who shaped South Vietnam’s cultural identity, Kho Tàng Nhạc Vàng bridges generations, inviting listeners to experience the lasting power of this music—songs that transcend borders, politics, and time. The exhibit is an immersive exploration of cultural memory, migration, and resistance—bridging the past and present through the enduring power of music.
About the Artist
Thanh Tân is a multimedia storyteller, independent filmmaker, and curator dedicated to preserving and sharing diasporic narratives through music, film, and journalism. Based in Seattle, she is a co-founder of SEA Vinyl Society, a community-led initiative that unites generations through the preservation and performance of music and stories from Asia and the Asian diaspora. For more than two decades, Thanh has worked across journalism, documentary filmmaking, and audio storytelling, with her reporting and productions featured in The New York Times, This American Life, The Seattle Times, KUOW, and PBS/KCTS 9.
Her deep connection to music, particularly pre-1975 South Vietnamese records and song sheets, fuels her current curatorial work. Thanh’s collection—rare vinyl, vintage photographs, and handwritten compositions from Saigon’s golden era—offers a sonic and visual archive of a lost homeland. Though many of these songs were banned after the war, they have been kept alive by refugees and immigrants who carried their music with them across borders, ensuring its survival for future generations. Through exhibitions, pop-up shows, and listening sessions, Thanh invites audiences to experience the artistry and resilience embedded in these artifacts, reviving voices once silenced by war and censorship.
What to Expect
Eight Years of Inscape AiR: Resistance and Belonging out of the Historic Immigration Building features 2D work, digital projections, digital video, and installations featuring themes of identity, imperialism, environmental justice, and joy.
Imagery features food, fireworks, headlines, depictions of genital surgery, the human form in motion, and the American flag.
The exhibition contains flashing imagery.
Kho Tàng Nhạc Vàng / South Vietnam’s Golden Music Archive features digitized music recordings from 1954-1975, prints of rare album covers, sheet music, and digital film. Themes include hope, heartbreak, love, loss, and longing for peace.
