If merely looking at Asian art and design isn’t enough, and you want to try your hand at some of the techniques seen in galleries and other institutions around New York, finding classes and workshops for learning traditional Asian art forms isn’t difficult in this area, where many Asian communities believe that instructing younger generations will help keep traditions alive. Korean calligraphy, for example, is taught at the Korean Calligraphy Center as well as at the Korean Culture Society of Eastern USA, both located in Flushing, Queens. Korean flower arranging is also offered at the Korean Culture Society.

Courses in Chinese painting, ceramics, and calligraphy are taught at the China Institute on the Upper East Side as well as at the New York Chinese Cultural Center on lower Broadway.

Sumi-e and Japanese calligraphy classes are offered at the Koho School of Sumi-e. Both sumi-e and ikebana are occasionally taught at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which, along with the Queens Botanical Garden, offers classes in bonsai pruning. Ikebana demonstrations are available seasonally at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and through Ikebana International. Private lessons in the fine art of the classic Japanese tea ceremony can be booked at the Urasenke Chanoyu Center Tea Ceremony Society. It is also possible to observe the Chinese tea ceremony at the Queens Botanical Garden at different times throughout the year.

Classes in Tibetan painting and other art forms are occasionally offered at the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, where you can participate in centuries-old traditions from this far-flung Himalayan region.

For the tourist and native alike, New York can serve as a fascinating place in which a cross-section of pan-Asian art and design can be experienced and enjoyed on many different levels. Those interested in the astonishingly long history of Asian art, not to mention the wide varieties of traditions from a staggering number of Asian nations, will be more than satisfied by the offerings at the city’s major cultural institutions. Anyone with a yen to start a collection of Asian antiques or a desire to snap up works by Asian’s hottest contemporary artists can do either -- or both -- with ease in Manhattan. Or if you’re inspired to partake in creating artwork in a traditional Asian style or technique, opportunities abound to learn centuries-old craftmaking skills. Even if one is on a budget and wants only to enter a traditional Asian landscape garden, the experience can be had. In other words, New York City offers the rare chance to experience the glorious, varied, centuries-old and cutting-edge art and design that all of Asia has to offer, from Cambodia to China to India to Japan to the Philippines to Vietnam, in a single, concentrated area of the East Coast of the United States that has made a rich contribution of its own to the history of Asian art.