Museums, Archives, and Collectives
Museums
- Asia Society Museum Groundbreaking exhibitions of traditional and contemporary Asian and Asian American art.
- Chinese American Museum (CAM) Symbolically housed in the oldest and last surviving structure of Los Angeles’ original Chinatown, the 7,200 square foot Chinese American Museum (CAM) embodies a cultural and physical link to the past, as well as a promising point of entry for the city’s multicultural future. Opened on December 18, 2003 after 20 years of dedicated community and civic leadership and support, CAM’s presence at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument—a 44-acre public park honored as Los Angeles’ “birthplace” and the site of its original Chinatown—reflects the vibrant development of an immigrant history that began over 150 years ago when the first major Chinese settlement was documented in Los Angeles. CAM is dedicated to researching, preserving, and sharing the experiences and contributions of Chinese Americans in the United States through quality exhibitions, programs, events, publications, and workshops. In addition to its role in the community as an active-learning institution, CAM is also proud to serve as a visual symbol of new and emerging traditions.
- Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Since its founding in 1980, MOCA has celebrated the living history of the Chinese experience in America by preserving and presenting the 200-year history, heritage, culture, and diverse experiences of American communities of Chinese descent. Founded as a community-based organization, MOCA has over a period of four decades maintained our community centrality while gaining a national following of visitors and members. Our museum strives to be responsive to the moment; tell nuanced and unexpected stories; spotlight politically conscious issues; and provide a platform for open dialogue and dynamic programs. MOCA contributes to a fuller and more nuanced and layered American narrative in highlighting the stories of this immigrant community.
- Virtual Asian American Art Museum The Virtual Asian American Art Museum has brought together curators and art scholars with art and archives collections from individual collections and institutions around the world to invite you to experience Asian American art.
Ray Yoshida’s Museum of Extraordinary Values installation view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2013. John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection, gift of the Raymond K. Yoshida Living Trust and Kohler Foundation Inc.
Centers
- Asian Arts Initiative Connecting cultural expression and social change, Asian Arts Initiative uses art as a vehicle to explore the diverse experiences of all communities which include Asian Americans. Located in Philadelphia’s Chinatown North, Asian Arts Initiative is a multidisciplinary arts center offering exhibitions, performances, artist residencies, youth workshops, and a community gathering space. Here, all of us can view and create art that reflects our lives, and think critically, creatively about the future we want to build for our communities.
Libraries
- Art21 Art21 is a celebrated global leader in presenting thought-provoking and sophisticated content about contemporary art, and the go-to place to learn first-hand from the artists of our time. A nonprofit organization, Art21’s mission is to inspire a more creative world through the works and words of contemporary artists. Art21 provides unparalleled access to the artist’s voice to diverse audiences around the world, using the power of digital media to introduce millions of people to contemporary art and artists. For over two decades, Art21 has changed the paradigm for teaching and learning about the creative process.
- artasiaamerica artasiamerica is a professional digital archive of Asian/Asian American contemporary visual artists. It is a historical image & document archive specialized in Asian American visual culture from 1945 to the present. Currently emphasis is on artists participating in Asian American Arts Centre (AAAC) exhibition program initiated in 1983. artasiamerica is a high-quality research tool accessible globally to scholars, historians, curators, artists, as well as an educational resource for college and high school students, teachers, and community members.
- Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong) Our library houses our physical collection, which encompasses reference books, monographs, exhibition catalogues, periodicals, and rare ephemeral materials. As part of our effort to build a community that enriches conversations around art, and be a leading resource and catalyst for scholarship in the field, we organise talks, workshops, conferences, symposia, and research grants for and with art professionals, educators, academics, artists, and the interested public. We activate and circulate the collection in multiple ways: by offering residencies and grants for art professionals to conduct research at AAA, creating teaching resources for educators, presenting regular programming and partnering with arts initiatives to critically enquire into the collection, partnering with educational institutions to use the collection to look at how art is taught, and by commissioning and publishing articles around the collection. These programmes and partnerships generate new ideas and connections that fuel future collections and projects.
- Asia Art Archive in America AAA’s mission is to act as a catalyst for new ideas that enrich our understanding of the world through the collection, creation, and sharing of knowledge around recent art in and of Asia. By collecting, preserving, and making accessible information on contemporary art from and of Asia, AAA in A facilitates public understanding and specialized research, instigates dialogue and critical thinking, and seeks to raise awareness of and support for the activities of Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong.
- The C. Laan Chun Library The C. Laan Chun Library is one of the more comprehensive research libraries on Asian art and culture in the country.
Memories Fade... Photographs Shouldn't, 2016, Video Animation, Courtesy of Umber Majeed.
Collections
- Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU In response to student interest combined with the University’s commitment to global excellence, the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU was established in 1996 by Founding Director Jack Tchen (who led the Institute through 2018). A/P/A Institute provides a space in which research and public programs with a focus on community and intercultural studies are made accessible to faculty, students, and the New York community within a broad, rigorous international, and comparative framework.
- Asian American Art Oral History Project Founded in 2009, this ongoing student conducted project led by Laura Kina, Professor Art, Media, & Design, is dedicated to collecting oral histories of Asian/Asian American artists and key organizers and participants of Asian/Asian American arts and cultural organizations. While the scope of the project encompasses diasporic and US born Asians across the United States, the primary focus of the archive is to document the history of Midwestern Asian American artists and arts organizations.
Networks
- Asian American Architects/Engineers Association AAa/e was founded by four architects and an engineer as an organization to help Asian American businesses penetrate the architectural and engineering community in southern California. Since that time, the organization has grown both physically, with increasing membership and establishment of the AAa/e Foundation, but also influentially in the community through its programs, networking opportunities, student scholarships, and community awards.
- Diasporic Asian Art Network (DAAN) Diasporic Asian Art Network (DAAN) is a network of scholars, artists, curators, arts writers, and graduate students interested in Asian American art and art history. The purpose of this network is to share ideas and information, both about our own projects and about the work of others in the United States and abroad, toward advancing new research, critical writing, and curatorial efforts involving modern and contemporary Asian American/Asian diasporic art and visual culture.
- Asian American Documentary Network This is a database of documentaries about Asian American topics, produced by Asian Americans. This resource is geared toward educators looking to screen a film in their classroom, student or community organizations looking to host a screening. Each film listing provides contact information and details on purchasing a license. Not all filmmakers on this database are A-Doc members, but many are. We promote A-Doc member films whose diverse work is focused outside of Asian American content in an additional database. Films below have relevant content to Asian American Studies and many have study guides. Filmmakers have presented these films at academic conferences, classroom visits, guest lectures, and campus screenings.
Organizations
- Asian-American Architects and Engineers Foundation (AAa/e) The AAa/e Foundation is committed to empowering engineers/architects/construction students and professionals in personal and professional growth, excellence and leadership by providing career development, networking, and scholarship opportunities and a vehicle for community outreach to the built environment.
- Asian American Designers Union The AADU is a platform for empowering Asian American architects, designers, and engineers to grow personally and collectively. Our goal is to motivate professional development, foster leadership skills, and promote collaboration within and beyond the Washington, D.C. area.
- Greater Good Studio Greater Good Studio is a strategic design firm focused on advancing equity. We do this by creating human-centered programs, tools and experiences, and by teaching design to changemakers in organizations and communities. Greater Good Studio believes in the capacity of all people to create solutions that improve society. We envision a world where there is opportunity to do so regardless of race, gender, income, age or zip code.
- Kearny Street Workshop Founded in 1972, during the height of the Asian American cultural movement, Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) is the oldest Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization in the country. KSW offers classes and workshops, salons, and student presentations, as well as professionally curated and produced exhibitions, performances, readings, and screenings. KSW makes artists out of community members and community members out of artists. For the past 48 years, KSW has nurtured the creative spirit, offered an important platform for new voices to be heard, and connected artists with community.
Collectives
- Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) The Asian American Arts Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring greater representation, equity, and opportunities for Asian American artists and cultural organizations through resource sharing, promotion, and community building.
- Asian American Women Artists Alliance "The Asian American Women Artists Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which supports and promotes Asian American Women Artists in the visual, literary and performing arts by organizing exhibitions, performances, and readings, and by sponsoring educational workshops and seminars that help artists develop their careers. AAWAA was formed in 1998 to create an intergenerational, Pan-Asian network for emerging and established women artists. By coming together we recognize a need, not only to exhibit our work, but also to educate the community about our unique contributions to the NYC art movement. Our events also promote self-advocacy by developing contacts and relationships with art consultants and galleries for members' work. The deliberate curatorial policy of inclusion of women from all ethnic background is an empowering stance, which resists the ghettoizing of minority artists and their artwork.
- CultureHub CultureHub is a global art and technology community that was born out of decades of collaboration between La MaMa and the Seoul Institute of the Arts, Korea’s first contemporary performing arts school. Now in its 10th year, CultureHub has grown into a global network with studios in New York, Los Angeles, Korea, Indonesia, and Italy, providing connected environments for artists to critically examine our evolving relationship to technology. Through residencies, live productions, and educational programming, CultureHub advances the work of artists experimenting with emerging technologies in search of new artistic forms.
- South Asian Women's Creative Collective (SAWCC) The South Asian Women’s Creative Collective (SAWCC) has served South Asian women since 1997 and has earned a reputation for showcasing cutting-edge work that deals intelligently with issues of gender and cultural representation.