Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon Ends National Tour

Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon: Vietnamese American Since 1975, finally comes back to Washington, DC, concluding a successful three-year national tour.

Photos by Ken Rahaim

After the exhibition was first shown at the Smithsonian Ripley Center in 2007, Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon went on a national tour with the Viet Art Center in Garden Grove, California as its first stop.  Nine more hosting venues all over the country later, Exit Saigon had its final show hosted by the Downtown Ithaca Alliance and the Community Center Programs of Cornell in Ithaca, NY. It officially closed on January 3, 2011.

Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon was the first Smithsonian exhibition to document the Vietnamese American experience. While it unfolds an epic story from the perspectives of people who were forced to flee their homes and leave their possessions behind, the exhibition was not about tragedy. Instead, it revealed the strength and stamina of Vietnamese Americans who have found new homes in a new land. It is a story about people who have adapted to life in the United States while maintaining their traditional folkways.

The Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon exhibition is the result of a collaboration with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, individuals and groups from the Vietnamese American Community and the Smithsonian Vietnamese American Working Group.  It was curated by Vu Pham, Ph.D. and organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. The national tour was made possible by Farmers Insurance.