Asian American Arts Centre
Encyclopedia
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
located in Chinatown
Chinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown , home to one of the highest concentrations of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere, is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Founded in 1974, it was one of the earliest Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
community organizations in the United States. The Arts Centre presents the ongoing synthesis of contemporary American and Asian art forms, through the presentation of performance, exhibitions, and public education. The permanent collection contains over 400 contemporary Asian American art works and about 200 Chinese folk art pieces. The Arts Centre has also accumulated work by Asian American artists through its archive since 1982. The archive documents, preserves, and promotes the presence of Asian American culture in the United States since 1945. This includes the East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
, especially the greater New York area
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...
, some of the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
and some artists in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, and overseas. The artists include Asian Americans producing art, Asian artists who are active in the United States, and other Americans who are significantly influenced by Asia.
Mission
The mission of the Asian American Arts Centre is to affirm and promote the preservation and creative vitality of Asian American cultural growth through the arts, and its historical and aesthetic linkage to other communities. The Arts Centre accomplishes this by presenting contemporary and traditional art exhibitions, performances, public educational programs, publications, and the artists archive. The archive documents, preserves, and promotes the presence of Asian AmericanAsian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
culture in the United States.
History
Asian American Arts Centre was founded in 1974 in New York as the Asian American Dance TheatreAsian American Dance Theatre
Asian American Dance Theatre was a not-for-profit community arts organization based in the New York Chinatown from 1974 to 1993. As one of the oldest Asian American community organizations, AADT was notable for its early development and pioneer promotion of contemporary Asian American dance...
(AADT), a not-for-profit community arts organization. It was one of the older community arts organizations in the New York Chinatown
Chinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown , home to one of the highest concentrations of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere, is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
.
A visual arts program was initiated in 1984 called Asian Arts Institute. The current name, the Asian American Arts Centre (AAAC), was adopted in 1987 to encompass both the dance company (AADT) and visual arts programs. Based in New York's Chinatown
Chinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown , home to one of the highest concentrations of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere, is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
, the Arts Centre has held many of its programs in other sites and locations in the country.
The Arts Centre began the Community Art School and the Arts-in-Education program in 1978, and the Asian American Artists' Slide Archive in 1982. The exhibition catalogue production begun in 1983, and the Traditional Arts Presentation and Documentation program began in 1985. The Artists-in-Residence program that supported nineteen young artists concluded in 1993.
The Arts Centre has also produced exhibition catalogs, videos, and sound recordings that documented visual arts, oral traditions, music, and performances. ARTSPIRAL, formerly an annual publication issued by the Arts Centre, focused on cultural issues.
Programs
After 1993 the Arts Centre's programs consisted of four areas: art exhibitions and its archival documentation, folk arts presentation and research, education, and the development of a permanent collection. These programs encompassed preservation of the living Asian traditions as well as creation of contemporary forms.The annual visual arts exhibition program started in 1983, which consists of three to five contemporary visual art exhibitions and one folk art exhibition each year. The annual exhibition presents young Asian American artists or artists significantly influenced by Asia. The Mid-Career Artist Series focuses on the achievements of one or two mid-career artists. The Folk Art program takes a form of performance, lectures, and exhibitions, and presents traditional artists during the Lunar New Year
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...
every year.
Contemporary artists who have exhibited at AAAC include Mel Chin
Mel Chin
Mel Chin is a conceptual visual artist. Motivated largely by political, cultural, and social circumstances, Chin works in a variety of art media to calculate meaning in modern life. Chin places art in landscapes, in public spaces, and in gallery and museum exhibitions, but his work is not limited...
, Martin Wong
Martin Wong
Martin Wong was a U.S. painter of the late twentieth century.-Early years:Wong was born in Portland, Oregon and raised in the Chinatown district of San Francisco, California. He studied ceramics at Humboldt State University, graduating in 1968...
, Alfonso A. Ossorio
Alfonso A. Ossorio
Alfonso A. Ossorio was an abstract expressionist artist who was born in Manila in 1916 to wealthy Filipino parents from the province of Negros Occidental. His heritage was Hispanic, Filipino, and Chinese. Between the ages of eight and thirteen, he attended school in England. At age fourteen, he...
, Vito Acconci
Vito Acconci
Vito Hannibal Acconci is a Bronx, New York-born, Brooklyn-based designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist.-Education:...
, Luis Camnitzer
Luis Camnitzer
Luis Camnitzer is a German-born Uruguayan artist and academic who resides in the United States. He is a conceptual artist who creates work in a variety of media—including installation, printmaking, drawing, and photography—that breaks down limitations and questions that define the center versus...
, Faith Ringgold
Faith Ringgold
Faith Ringgold is an African American artist, best known for her painted story quilts. She is professor emeritus in the University of California, San Diego visual art department.-Life and artwork:...
, Wafaa Bilal
Wafaa Bilal
Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi American artist, a former professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently an assistant professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University...
, Tseng Kwong Chi
Tseng Kwong Chi
Tseng Kwong Chi Tseng Kwong Chi Tseng Kwong Chi ((chin. 曾廣智, * 1950 in Hong Kong; † 10 March 1990 in New York) was a photographer who was active in the East Village art scene in the 1980's...
, Dinh Q. Lê
Dinh Q. Lê
Dinh Q. Lê is a Vietnamese American fine arts photographer, best known for his woven-photographs.Dinh Q. Lê was born in 1968 in Hà Tiên, a Vietnamese town near the Cambodia border. The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia took place in 1978, when Lê was ten, his family emigrated to Los Angeles thereafter...
, Kip Fulbeck
Kip Fulbeck
Kip Fulbeck is an American artist, spoken word performer, filmmaker and author. Fulbeck's work explores identity politics.His mixed race ethnic background is Cantonese, English, Irish, and Welsh...
, Gu Wenda
Gu Wenda
Gu Wenda is a contemporary artist from China who lives and works in New York City. Much of his works play off of traditional Chinese calligraphy and poetry, and he is also known for his tendency to use human hair in his pieces....
, and Zhang Hongtu
Zhang Hongtu
Zhang Hongtu is a Chinese artist based in New York....
.
Currently, the public education program offers gallery talks, performances, t'ai chi workshops, and a Saturday Community Art School for children on site. The off-site programs take places in public and private schools, and other community sites in the five boroughs in New York.
See also
- Asian American Dance TheatreAsian American Dance TheatreAsian American Dance Theatre was a not-for-profit community arts organization based in the New York Chinatown from 1974 to 1993. As one of the oldest Asian American community organizations, AADT was notable for its early development and pioneer promotion of contemporary Asian American dance...
- List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City
- Asian Americans in arts and entertainmentAsian Americans in arts and entertainmentAsian Americans have been involved in the entertainment industry since the first half of the 19th century, when Chang and Eng Bunker became naturalized citizens. Acting roles in television, film, and theater were relatively few, and many available roles were for narrow, stereotypical characters...
External links
- Asian American Arts Centre official site
- Asian American Arts Centre's Digital Archive - A Digital Archive for Asian / Asian American Contemporary Art History
Further reading
Books- Asian American Arts Centre ([1988]). Public art in Chinatown : sculpture, drawings, models, plans. New York : Asian American Arts Centre.
- Park, Young M, et al. (1999). Cross-cultural voices II : between memories. New York : Asian American Arts Centre : Korea Society : Stephen Gang Galler.