Writer and curator Simon Wu offers a presentation on the history of the Asian American Arts Center. Asian American Arts Center is a vibrant archive and former exhibition/community space founded in 1974 in New York City. In collaboration with founder Bob Lee, Simon Wu will focus on questions of artistic activism, drawing on works from the archive from artists such as Corky Lee, Tehching Hsieh, Tseng Kwong Chi, and others.

About Asian American Arts Centre:

The Asian American Arts Centre was founded in 1974 in New York City to address the distinctive concerns of Asian Americans in the United States. Its mission is to 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 and interpreting the ongoing synthesis of contemporary American and Asian art forms, utilizing performance, exhibition, and public education.

About Simon Wu:

Simon Wu is a writer and curator based across Brooklyn and Philadelphia. He serves as the Program Coordinator for the Racial Imaginary Institute and is an alum of the Whitney Independent Study Program.

About Robert "Bob" Lee

Robert “Bob” Lee, Executive Director and Curator at Asian American Arts Centre (AAAC), has been organizing contemporary art exhibitions in Chinatown since 1983. The Art Centre’s Artists Archive – a visual record of Asian American creative presence in the US – includes artists that were exhibited at AAAC early in their career such as Natvar Bhavsar, Wafaa Bilal, Mel Chin, Albert Chong, Zarina Hashmi, Lily Yeh, Chitra Ganesh, Dinh Q Le, Martin Wong, John Yoyogi Fortes, Ik Joong Kang, Ai Wei Wei, and Zhang Hongtu. The website Artasiamerica.org features many of these artists. Bob’s national arts advocacy has led him to the PeoplesCulturalPlan.org and his local cultural activism has resulted in a book and DVD, Uncle Ng Comes to America.