音樂與藝術俱樂部 Music and Art Club (MAC) 
Kenilworth Aquatic Garden |
MAC charter members |
The group was started in December 2005 by several BEINU sisters who
met often at music
and art activities. As of December 2008, MAC has 47 email enlisted members. The founding idea was to discover and experience rich cultural offerings in DC/Baltimore vicinity with like-minded BEINU sisters. Currently, quarterly activities are proposed by members and announced in a tentative program at beginning of the year.
During the year, programmed or impromptu outings are lead by
enthusiastic MAC members and open to all BEINU members via association newsletter announcements.
During year 2006, we attended three Strathmore concerts, visited
National Arboretum in the spring for azalea walk, and Hillwood Garden for fall foliage and museum exhibits. In year 2007, we attended Met Opera live HD in the theater, walked the Great Falls trails on both MD and VA side, and visited Kenilworth Aquatic Garden for lotus blossom in the summer. For year 2008, we enjoyed three cultural outings in DC and a wintry night walk in a fairytale garden setting. Throughout the years, many impromptu outings of movie and art shows were attended by small groups.
If interested, please inform coordinator Chen Kwan-Hwa 陳光華 Kaplan672@hotmail.com to add your name to the MAC emailing list. 2009 Program 
MAC 2009 Events  “Furniture for the Divine” at Towson University - December 13, 2009 On December 13, 2009, the Music and Art Club organized a trip to Towson University in Baltimore to see the “Furniture for the Divine”
Exhibition sponsored by the Asian Arts and Culture Center. 14 alumnae, spouses and relative attended the event. Most items on display
have been acquired by Dr. Foo and his wife Pei-hwa Kung over the past 25 years. Director of the Gallery, alumna Tseng Sue-Whei,
personally conducted the visit with detailed and very interesting explanations of various pieces which included altar tables, incense burner
stands, shrines, screen, and offering accessories. After viewing the exhibit, the group was led to a very nice Indian restaurant nearby for a
buffet lunch and spent a very enjoyable afternoon chatting and getting acquainted with each other.
More Photos ... View Album
Fall Movie/Café (Oct. 16) and Seneca Creek State Park Foliage Walk (Oct. 20) The original date for foliage walk was set for Oct. 16. Due to the rain, the walk was switched to lunch (eight of us) at an European bakery
café followed by movie "Coco before Chanel" at Bethesda Row movie theater. It was also a great occasion to get acquainted with MAC's
new program coordinators Marnie (Chen Kwan-hwa, '63) and her sounding board Joyce (Wu I-fong, '65). Oct. 20 turned out to be a crispy fall day. Four determined nature-loving sisters carried out the foliage walk with compass, trail map and
mileage meter . The one mile leisure walk was followed by dim sum, coffee/pastry, and a joyful birthday celebration! More Photos ... View Album
Special Tour at The Freer Gallery of Art - Thursday, April 16 We were fortunate to have our alumnae, Christine Lee, to arrange a special visit to the Freer Gallery storage. She personally selected
25 pieces of jades, dating from 3,300 BC to the 17th century, from the world-renowned Freer collection of ancient Chinese jades for our
private viewing. Each piece was explained in detail of its historical importance and time was allowed for close-up examination. Christine
has been a volunteer docent at the Freer and Sackler galleries for 22 years, and her special area of interest was in the ancient Chinese
jades.
12 alumni and three husbands joined this special tour. What a fascinating way to learn about the ancient Chinese jade-working cultures.
We concluded our tour with a walk through the beautiful Smithsonian gardens and a sumptuous Spanish tapas lunch in downtown DC. More Photos ... View Album Play slideshow
MAC 2008 Events
Garden of Lights at Brookside Gardens - Wednesday, December 3
Six MAC members and two loyal husbands attended the delightful garden walk under twinkling lights. Nancy and her husband Paul hosted the event by warming us up with treats before carpooling to the garden. After the walk, we had dinner together to conclude
another joyful outing.
Garden of Lights
Dumbarton Oaks Garden tour - Thursday, March 27 Garden docent leads 14 MAC members for 90 minutes of detail tour of the garden under gentle spring shower.
Afterwards, the group had lunch at French restaurant, Bistrot Le Pic near the garden.
Dumbarton Oaks Garden tour
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery - Wednesday, February. 20 group tour guided by docent Christine Lee (BEINU alumnae Feng Man-chun, '62)  We toured three exhibits:
1. "The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani" (gold exhibit photo)
2. Patterned Feathers, Piercing Eyes : "Edo Masters from the Price Collection”
3. "Tales of the Brush: Chinese Paintings with Literary Themes"
(group picture in the exhibit hall)
In the Chinese painting section, we viewed a beautiful calligraphy scroll by Wen Zhengming (1470-1559), in the style of Wang Tingjien. The poem on the scroll is titled 蜀道難 ("The Road to Shu is Hard") by 李白(701-762). More fascinating calligraphy scrolls on view: 琵琶行 ("Song of a Guitar") by 白居易 and poem "Ode to Mulan" 木蘭辭.
Frances Yen summarizes our art tour so well: "Through Christine's introduction and Chinese explanation, 'Tales of the Brush' became so vivid and interesting which piqued my desire to research more Chinese painting with literary themes. It's amazing that within 2 hours we also learned the treasures and cultures of Vani, and Edo's Japanese screens!"
Kirov Ballet: La Bayadère - Friday, January 25 at Kennedy Center Opera House 
Rena, In-May, Isabel and Nancy before performance |