Museum Outreach Averts Protest by Vietnamese Community

Challenge
In 1999, a video store owner in Little Saigon, Orange County, the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam, hung a portrait of communist icon Ho Chi Minh in his store. This action sparked the largest and most violent protests ever seen in Orange County. Before this incident, the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art had already committed to display 75 modern Vietnamese paintings. This exhibit represented one of the first cultural exchanges between the U.S. and Vietnam since diplomatic relations were established in 1975. This same exhibit triggered community uproar when it was shown in Plano,Texas.

Solution
We developed a public relations plan to avoid an outbreak of violence when the exhibit came to the Bowers Museum. Recognizing the importance of working with an expert in Vietnamese culture and language, We retained a local professor, Jeffrey Brody, one of the country’s leading authorities on Vietnamese-American culture, to assist with the development of a community outreach program. Our objective was to work proactively with the Vietnamese community to mitigate questions and concerns in advance of the exhibit’s opening.