Asia Society facts for kids
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Asia Society's Manhattan headquarters and museum designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes and John MY Lee Architects
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| Established | 1956 |
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| Type | 501(c)(3) organization |
| Headquarters | 725 Park Avenue New York City 10021 U.S. |
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President
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Kang Kyung-wha |
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Revenue
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$31 million USD (2019) |
The Asia Society is a 501(c) organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) and around the world (Hong Kong, Manila, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Melbourne, and Zurich). These centers are overseen by the Society's headquarters in New York City, which includes a museum that exhibits the Rockefeller collection of Asian art and rotating exhibits with pieces from many countries in Asia and Oceania.
In January 2021, the Asia Society named former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as its CEO and President. In January 2024, Kyung-wha Kang was named its new president and CEO, effective in April 2024. Asia Society has been described as a participant in the Chinese Communist Party's "backchannel" diplomatic efforts.
Contents
History
The Asia Society was founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller III. The Asia Society's original focus was explaining aspects about Asia to Americans, and Robin Pogrebin of The New York Times said that it was "[l]ong regarded as a New York institution with regional branches". Around 2011, the society was refocusing efforts on augmenting partnerships amongst Asians and between Asians and Americans in business, culture, education, and public policy. In 2011, Pogrebin said "over the last few years [it] has aimed to recast itself as an international organization, partly through the construction of the two major centers in cities where it previously had only offices". The organization's records are held at the Rockefeller Archive Center in North Tarrytown, NY.
Buildings
Headquarters
The Society's Manhattan headquarters, at Park Avenue and East 70th Street on the Upper East Side, is a nine-story building faced in smooth red Oklahoma granite designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes / John M.Y. Lee Architects in 1980. Since it replaced some old brownstones on one of the city's most prestigious streets, Barnes gave the building a strong facade to continue the line along Park, and set it back from East 70th with a terraced garden buffering it between the street and the older houses on that block. The semicircular window on the upper story and variations in the color and finish of the granite are intended to evoke Asian cultures. Paul Goldberger, architecture critic at The New York Times, called it "an ambitious building, full of civilized intentions, some of which succeed and others that do not". In the former category he put the interiors and the overall shape; in the latter he included the facade.
In 1999, it was closed for 18 months so that new interiors, designed by Bartholomew Voorsanger, could be built. During that time the society used the former Christie's Manhattan offices on 59th Street as a temporary home. The completed renovation included a 24-foot-high (7.3 m) atrium and cafe. The expansion doubled the museum's exhibition space, allowing the society to put the entire Rockefeller Asian art collection on display.
Robin Pogrebin of The New York Times said in 2011 that the Asia Society is "perhaps best known for the elegance of its headquarters and galleries on Park Avenue at 70th Street".
Global centers
Along with its New York headquarters, the Asia Society has centers throughout the United States and Asia. 2012 marked a major expansion, with the opening of multimillion-dollar buildings in Hong Kong and Houston, Texas. The Hong Kong complex, dedicated on February 9, 2012, is situated on the site of a former British military explosives magazine overlooking Victoria Harbour and includes numerous restored military buildings. The project was designed by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. The Houston building, located in the city's museum district, opened on May 6, 2012, and was designed by architect Yoshio Taniguchi. The other American centers are located in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Other Asian centers are in Seoul, Manila, Shanghai and Mumbai. There is also a center located in Melbourne, Australia.
Houston
The Texas Center first opened in 1979. The current 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) building, with a cost of $50 million, has a modernist style and was built with German-origin Jura limestone personally inspected by Taniguchi and his employees. The building includes glass walls, steam generated from the roofline, and a garden as significant elements.
Museum
At its 70th Street headquarters, The Asia Society Museum is host to both traditional and contemporary exhibitions, film screenings, literature, performing, and visual arts. The holdings include works from more than thirty Asian-Pacific countries including Hindu and Buddhist statuary, temple carvings, Chinese ceramics and paintings, Japanese art, and contemporary art. The museum's collection of traditional objects stems from a donation from Asia Society founder John D. Rockefeller III and Blanchette Ferry Hooker Rockefeller, who contributed a number of items in 1978. The society began actively collecting contemporary Asian art with a 2007 initiative. A major renovation was completed in 2001, doubling the size of the four public galleries and expanding space for educational programming.
The headquarters also houses a museum shop and café. Forbes has listed the Garden Court Cafe on its All-Star Eateries in New York list several times.
Leadership
On May 21, 2013, Asia Society announced that World Economic Forum Vice Chair Josette Sheeran, a former executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), would on June 10, 2013, become the seventh president and CEO of the institution. Dan Washburn is the Chief Content Officer. In January 2021, Kevin Rudd, a former Prime Minister of Australia, became president and CEO of the institution, succeeding Sheeran. In January 2024, Kyung-wha Kang was named the new president and CEO, effective in April 2024.
Board Co-Chairs
- Ronnie Chan
- Henrietta H. Fore
Presidents
- Phillips Talbot 1970–1982
- Robert Oxnam 1982–1992
- Vishakha N. Desai 2004–2012
- Josette Sheeran, 2013–2021
- Kevin Rudd, 2021–2023
- Kyung-wha Kang
Functions
Business
The Asia Society annually presents a Corporate Conference in Asia, which functions as a fundraiser, to examine the implications of macroeconomic trends and geopolitical developments for the region and the world. Heads of Asian governments are often featured, as well as roundtable discussions with business and policy leaders from around the world.
Education
The Asia Society's Education department has two primary objectives: one focusing on teaching and learning about Asia in the United States and the other on the expansion of US investments in international studies at the elementary and secondary school levels.
International education generally encompasses the knowledge of other world regions, cultures and global issues; skills in communicating in languages other than English, working in global or cross-cultural environments and using information from different sources around the world; and values of respect and concern for other cultures and peoples.
International Studies Schools Network
The Asia Society International Studies Schools Network (ISSN) comprises a select group of public elementary and secondary schools across the country with programs in "developing globally competent, college-ready high school students". There are currently 35 schools in the network, covering both rural and urban communities and in cities throughout the U.S., from the Henry Street School for International Studies (New York, NY) and the Academy of International Studies (Charlotte, NC) to the Denver Center for International Studies (Denver, CO) to Vaughn International Studies Academy (San Fernando, CA) and the International Studies Learning Center (Los Angeles, CA).
Policy
The Asia Society houses two policy institutions. The Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), founded in 1956, is a think tank that works with policy-makers and top experts in Asia.
The Center on U.S.-China Relations was established in 2006 with a gift from Arthur Ross with the goal of helping to forge a more constructive bilateral relationship. The Center undertakes projects and events which explore areas of common interest and divergent views between the two countries, focusing on policy, culture, business, media, economics, energy and the environment. Orville Schell is the current Director of the center.
Partnerships
In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Asia Society partnered with the nonprofit organization East Coast Coalition for Tolerance and Non-Discrimination and the Rockefeller Foundation to host a virtual forum entitled Standing Against Racism in the Time of COVID. Speakers at the forum included Representative Ted Lieu, then-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, community organizer Bincheng Mao, and actor Tzi Ma. The Asia Society maintains a strategic partnership with the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.
See also
In Spanish: Asia Society para niños
- Japan Society (Manhattan)
- The Korea Society
