The Cornell and Ithaca communities will celebrate the Vietnamese-American experience with the arrival later this month of the traveling Smithsonian Institution exhibition "Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon -- Vietnamese America Since 1975," co-curated by Vu Pham, M.A. '99, Ph.D. '02.

On display Sept. 18 to Dec. 4 at the Rothschild's Building on the Ithaca Commons, 215 E. State St., "Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon" is the Smithsonian's first historical exhibition telling the story of Vietnamese-Americans. The exhibition shows the vibrant diversity and cultural contributions of this ethnic community, and the challenges its members faced in adapting to American life. The traveling show began touring the country in 2007.

The exhibition and related events are co-hosted by Community Center Programs at Cornell and the Downtown Ithaca Alliance.

The opening celebration will be a Mid-Autumn Festival, Sept. 25, 6-10 p.m. on the Ithaca Commons, with traditional Vietnamese and Asian music, dance, food, skits, a lantern parade and children's activities.

Pham and co-curator Franklin Odo, former director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, will visit Sept. 23-26 for opening events. Pham, an Asian-American studies professor at the University of California-Los Angeles and founder of Spectrum Knowledge Inc., will lead professional development and student leadership workshops on campus, dine with students at Alice Cook House and give a public lecture Sept. 24 at 7:30 p.m. in Robert Purcell Community Center Auditorium.

Student, campus and community organizations programming events to accompany the exhibition include Cornell Library, the Cornell Vietnamese Association, Asian Pacific Americans for Action, Cornell-Asian Pacific Islander Student Union, Ithaca Asian American Association and the Multicultural Resource Center.

Cornell Cinema will screen four documentaries on Vietnam, starting Sept. 21 in the Schwartz Center Film Forum; and Cornell Library will offer guided tours of its Asia Collections, which house one of the largest Vietnamese collections outside of Vietnam.

October events will include a traditional Vietnamese dress fashion show; two family book readings, "Vietnamese Stories, Folktales, and Arts and Crafts," at Tompkins County Public Library; visiting lecturer Edmund Malesky, Oct. 29 at the Kahin Center; and Vietnamese Cuisine Week, Oct. 25-29 at Flora Rose House.

Cornell professor of Asian studies Keith Taylor will lecture Sept. 23 at the Kahin Center on "The 50-Year War in Vietnamese History, 1623-1673," and Nov. 10 in Rockefeller Hall on "Vietnamese Things From the Past: What Is Worth Remembering From Earlier Times?"

The History Center in Tompkins County hosts a panel discussion on "Vietnamese Immigration, Settlement and Raising a Family in Ithaca," Nov. 18 at 5:30 p.m.

A closing reception and Community Pho Noodle Soup Cook-Off will be held Dec. 4, 2-5 p.m. at the Women's Community Building, 100 W. Seneca St., Ithaca.

The exhibition will be open Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. For information, e-mail ptv2@cornell.edu, call 607-255-1898 or visit http://vietam.si.edu/exhibition.asp or http://www.ithacalittlesaigon.com.