Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander on Asian American Art, Past and Futures
“In part because of this lack of museum support, Asian Americans have served as their own arts advocates, forming collectives and structures to support their work when mainstream institutions would not. In the Bay Area, the Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) was established in 1972 and is the oldest Asian American and Pacific Islander arts organization in the United States. Founded in the First International Hotel (I-Hotel) by early organizers of the Asian American movement, the KSW opened the Jackson Street Gallery in 1974, an adjacent art space that hosted exhibitions, readings, and events. In 1989, after the national meeting for the Women’s Caucus for Art, the Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWAA) was established by Betty Kano, Flo Oy Wong, and Moira Roth in San Francisco (fig. 5). Bing joined the group soon after. AAWAA is unique as one of the only arts organizations in the United States explicitly created to support Asian American women artists. Beyond organizing exhibitions and public programs, AAWAA also runs the Emerging Curators Program, which offers opportunities for Asian American women to gain experience in the curatorial realm. For AAWAA and many other Asian American art collectives, it is not just the representation of Asian Americans on museum walls that matters; they recognize the need for Asian Americans to occupy important roles as public and creative leaders within institutions and beyond.”
Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, AAWAA Affiliate Member, co-edited and published a series of essays for PANORAMA, the official Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art, with Marci Kwon. Read the rest of her essay, Asian American Art and the Obligation of Museums.
Fig. 3. Bernice Bing, Blue Mountain No. 4, c. 1965. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 75 x 68 1/8 in. Cantor Arts Center, Gift of Alexa Young, 2020.14