The Asian Pacific American Cultural Center celebrated its 15th year of operation on April 6 with an open house that featured art, live performances, and advocacy.

Performances by student a cappella group Hawkapellas and dance group MPR provided entertainment for the attendees, and between acts, event organizers spoke about the history of the center and its role serving the university’s Asian and Pacific American community for the past 15 years.

Anita Cory, an associate director of student organizations in the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership, said the center has its roots in student activism.

“[In the early 2000s,] we had the [Latino Native American Cultural Center] and the Afro House, but no other centers,” she said. “It was really student leaders in the Asian American Coalition who began to use their voices to passionately request a space that was for them, a space that could be their home.”

Cory said she believes the center has successfully served as “a home away from home” for Asian and Pacific American students since its initial opening in 2003, a belief echoed by Assistant Director of Multicultural Programs Tabitha Wiggins.

“If [students] want to call this place a home, then it is [their] home,” Wiggins said.

In addition to the speeches and performances, the event included the unveiling of artwork created by Lauren Faas, an undergraduate art student.

Selected by the UISG Art Project to produce a piece on behalf of the center, Fass said that the community’s inclusivity inspired her creative choices when painting the work.

“I immediately thought of [the center] because of its ability to bring together completely diverse and large groups of people, [but] I found out pretty quickly it would be hard to try to symbolize all the different students you find here in just one painting,” Fass said. “So instead, I thought, well, what is [the center] trying to do here? And that meant looking for that color choices and for forms that symbolized unity, while also showing diversity.”

House coordinator Prisma Ruacho said the celebration, which drew around 40 attendees, was a demonstration of the center’s ongoing growth and importance in the campus community.

“The [center] was created 15 years ago out of a need for Asian American and Pacific Islander students to have a space on our campus to build community and access resources,” Ruacho said in an email to The Daily Iowan. “This celebration was significant because we were able to see how this space has impacted students and will continue to over the next 15 years.”

Ruacho said she hoped the anniversary will result in lasting recognition and support for the center among the wider university community.