By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — The Tibetan New Year is just around the corner, and the Rubin Museum of Art will offer a mix of singing, sculpting and stories.
The Rubin's Himalayan New Year Family Day will kick off Saturday at noon, for entry fees of $10 per kid (or $7 for members) and normal museum prices for parents. It's a first time event for the museum, and one piece of CelebrASIA NYC, a program intended to introduce Asian festivals to New York children.
"This is an opportunity for families to get together and think about their own traditions as well as new traditions that they don't know about,” said Aoife Pacheco, the museum's manager of early childhood and family learning.
Highlights will include the construction of traditional butter sculptures, called Tormas, which serve as ceremonial offerings.
Although the kids will be allowed to touch the butter, molded during the celebration by a master sculptor, they'll make their own sculptures out of less messy plasticine modeling clay, according to Pacheco.
Organizers are also particularly excited about the 12-by-12 foot urban mandala (a sacred Buddhist art form shaped like a square inside a circle) that families will make out of recyclable materials with the help of nonprofit Urban River Arts. The museum will also record time-lapse footage of the project's construction and deconstruction, Pacheco said.
Kids will also get a chance to learn Tibetan songs, hear New Year's stories from the region, drink Tibetan tea and make felt dumplings with notes to loved ones inside.
The Rubin Museum of Art's Himalayan New Year Celebration will run from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday at 150 W. 17th St.
