Neighborhood News: Celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month at Bridgeport’s HERITAGE Museum of Asian Art
As Choose Chicago notes, the city is filled with opportunities to engage with cuisine, culture, and art from across the Asian and Pacific Islander diasporas, whether you’re wandering the streets of Chinatown or enjoying dim sum in Uptown’s Asia on Argyle.
One colorful way to learn about Asian and Pacific Islander history is to visit Bridgeport’s HERITAGE Museum of Asian Art, 3500 S. Morgan Street. They’re dedicated to preserving and promoting the diverse traditions of Asian art—not only through visual works and artifacts, but also through music, dance, performance, and lived cultural experience.
The museum’s collection includes archaic and modern jades, Neolithic pottery, imperial porcelains, Chinese snuff bottles, scholar’s objects, textiles, bronzes and more. Classical Chinese furniture also adorns the galleries. The museum provides an interconnection between the arts and cultures of Asia for the residents of Chicago and for visitors from all around the world.
Museum History
Opened in 2014, HERITAGE Museum of Asian Art is the only museum in the Midwest exclusively dedicated to exhibiting Asian art, and one of only a few such institutions in the United States.
As the website notes, the museum’s founder, Jeffrey Moy, a successful bookseller and publisher, as well as the grandson of one of the earliest community leaders (Source: Antill, Alexa and Jamie Nickel. “Heritage Museum of Asian Art.” Clio: Your Guide to History. January 6, 2020. Accessed May 20, 2026)
Moy grew up in a working-class immigrant family in Chicago’s Chinatown in the 1940s and 1950s. His parents held labor-intensive jobs, and he began working at age 13 to help support the family. Although he had a deep love for Asian art, access was limited. That early gap inspired a lifelong commitment: to create a space where Asian art could be preserved, studied, and shared with people of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
As the Clio article noted, Moy opened the museum to provide locals and visitors a chance to delve deeper into the ancient history of Chinatown’s residents: “People come to eat and do a little shopping, but there’s nothing for them to see relating to Asian culture,” he said.
Exhibit: ‘More Things Japanese’
In the wake of World War II and Japanese internment, many families resettled in the Midwest, including here in Chicago. Over time, their presence has become less visible. Through this exhibition and its related programs, the museum seeks to re-center those stories and celebrate the enduring cultural legacy of the Japanese American community.
Through May 31, More Things Japanese showcases the richness and diversity of traditional Japanese art, spanning from the 6th–7th centuries through the 20th centuries. Featuring a wide array of historical objects—including ceramics, textiles, paintings, woodblock prints, and religious artifacts—this exhibition invites audiences to engage more deeply with Japan’s visual, material, and spiritual culture.
Upcoming Events: Pride Month 2026
At the intersection of AANHPI Heritage Month and Pride Month, the Chinese American Museum of Chicago and the Heritage Museum of Asian Art presents a special event series celebrating queer Asian and Asian American histories, communities, artistic expressions, and cultural activism.
Beginning with a vibrant Pride Kick-off Drag Show Party in Chinatown, the series continues with a conversation on queer APIDA activism and visibility with members of i2i, a deep dive into queer love and gender in the 17th-century Chinese opera ‘The Fragrant Companion.’
憐香伴
The museum is open Thursday-Sunday from 11am-5pm. Admission is $8 for adults, while students, teens and seniors are $5. Children under 7 and Active Military are free.
They also host Free Third Friday Nights throughout the year.
For more information, click here.
Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago
