Mission

Art is knowledge. Asia Art Archive is a catalyst for new ideas that enrich our understanding of the world through the collection, creation, and sharing of knowledge around recent art in Asia.

 

What We Do

With one of the most valuable growing collections of material on the recent history of art from Asia, freely available from our website and onsite library, AAA builds tools and communities to collectively expand knowledge through research, residency, educational programmes, and publications.

 

How We Do It

We drive the composition of our collection with key areas of concern known as content priorities. These include examining sites where art history has been written in Asia through the lens of art writing, exhibitions, and pedagogy; looking at ideas that connect us beyond national borders (complex geographies); considering tradition and contemporary expression in parallel; investigating ephemeral practices such as performance art; and addressing gaps in art history and in our collection such as the imbalance of the representation of women.

Our collection comprises a vast range of documentation, including the personal archives of significant artists, educators, and art professionals as well as key exhibitions and art spaces. We continually add to it through a research, acquisition, and digitisation process. 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.

Who We Are

Asia Art Archive is an independent non-profit organisation co-founded by Claire Hsu and Johnson Chang in 2000 in response to the urgent need to document and make accessible the multiple recent histories of art in the region.

A team of over thirty-five individuals are responsible for AAA’s Collection, research activities, programming, and operations. AAA’s Board of Directors, co-chaired by Benjamin Cha and Claire Hsu, comprises appointed members drawn from the art and business sectors within Hong Kong and beyond. The Board jointly supports the Executive Director and oversees the strategic direction and financial status of the organisation. AAA is financially supported through diverse channels to include individuals, corporate, foundations, and government.

AAA’s Advisory Board comprises thirty-eight noted curators and critics from around the world. Advisors provide guidance in developing the potential and possibility of our collection, and assist in promoting the growing research interest in art from Asia.

Asia Art Archive in America and Asia Art Archive in India are set up as independent entities with separate Boards of Directors.

To view our current staff, Board of Directors, and Advisory Board please click here.

 

Our Values

We are a team. Each role is important and uniquely contributes to the greater mission of Asia Art Archive. Respect, gratitude, and empathy drive all our interactions.

We work to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for employees from diverse backgrounds. We listen carefully and offer feedback in a constructive way.

We take responsibility for our actions and honour our commitments, as these will have an impact on the future of the organisation.

We understand that the world is constantly changing, and that we cannot control every outcome; we do our best, work hard, while remaining gracious and flexible with ourselves and others.

Generosity is at the core of what we do. We want our work to be shared freely, ethically, and sustainably—benefiting the most people possible.

We are dynamic and responsive to our stakeholders and community—challenging habitual ways of thinking and doing.

As one node within a larger ecology, we aspire to be a role model on the urgent issues of our time and within our field.