2015 Arts & Museum Summit

Past and Present Preserved: Assuring Our Cultural Legacy in the 21st Century

Asia Society President Josette Sheeran gives opening remarks at the 2015 Asia Society Arts & Museum Summit at Asia Society Hong Kong Center. (Elvis Ho)

Performers from the Dimen Dong Folk Chorus lead summit participants in a traditional circle dance. (Elvis Ho)

Hammad Nasar, Head of Research and Programmes, Asia Art Archive; Phloeun Prim, Executive Director, Cambodian Living Arts; and Timothy P. Whalen, Director, The Getty Conservation Institute, discuss stewardship and continuity in a panel moderated by Vishakha N. Desai, Special Advisor for Global Affairs to the President and Professor of Practice, School of International Affairs, Columbia University. (Elvis Ho)

Bárbara Navarro, Director, Public Policy, Strategy and Operations for Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Russia (Google, Hong Kong); Restu Kusumaningrum, Founder and Director, Bumi Purnati Indonesia; and Helen Philon, Cofounder, Deccan Heritage Foundation, discuss authenticity and context in a panel moderated by Winnie Yeung, Head of Heritage, Central Police Station Revitalisation Project, The Jockey Club CPS Limited. (Elvis Ho)

Zeyba Rahman, Senior Program Officer, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts; Ahmad Sarmast, Music Advisor & Project Director, Afghanistan National Institute of Music; and Dina Bangdel, Director, Art History Program, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, Doha, discuss threats and risks in a panel moderated by Bonnie Burnham, Former President, World Monuments Fund.

Summit speakers and participants mingle at the cocktail reception on the roof of the Asia Society Hong Kong Center. (Elvis Ho)

Sarah Kenderdine, Director, Laboratory for Innovation in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums, University of New South Wales; Ong Keng Sen, Director, Singapore International Arts Festival; and Arahmaiani, artist, discuss sustaining ephemerality in a panel moderated by Nicholas Chambers, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary International Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. (Elvis Ho)

Tan Boon Hui, Assistant Chief Executive (Museums & Programs) of the National Heritage Board in Singapore and
incoming Asia Society Vice President for Global Arts and Cultural Programs and Museum Director, shares a series of observations in his concluding remarks at the close of the 2015 Asia Society Arts & Museum Summit. (Elvis Ho)

The Dimen Dong Folk Chorus performs songs of the Dong people at the Arts & Museum Summit. (Elvis Ho)

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The 2015 Arts & Museum Summit, which took place on November 19 and 20 at Asia Society Hong Kong Center, featured a diverse group of leaders engaged in discussions surrounding this theme: “The Past and Present Preserved: Assuring Our Cultural Legacy in the 21st Century.” Delegates included representatives from Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey. Following opening remarks from Josette Sheeran and a video keynote from Irina Bokova (UNESCO), the program featured four keynote panels: Authenticity and Context, Threats and Risks, Sustaining Ephemerality, Alternate Philosophies. The summit also included case studies from both the museum and performing arts fields.

In addition to Bokova, summit speakers included Arahmaiani (artist), Bonnie Burnham (World Monuments Fund), Nicholas Chambers (Art Gallery of New South Wales), Leslie Lin-sheng Chang (Aurora Museum), Chen Kelun (Shanghai Museum), Anita Chung (Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundatiion), Cosmin Costinas (Para Site), Vishakha N. Desai (Asia Society; Columbia University), Sarah Kenderdine (Laboratory for Innovation in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), Hongnam Kim (Ewha Woman's University), Vasif Kortun (SALT), Restu Kusumaningrum (Bumi Purnati Indonesia), Wai Kit Lee (Western China Cultural Ecology Research Workshop), Hammad Nasar (Asia Art Archive), Bárbara Navarro (Google), Fairouz Nishanova (Aga Khan Music Initiative), Keng Sen Ong (Singapore International Arts Festival), Helen Philon (Deccan Heritage Foundation), Phloeun Prim (Cambodian Living Arts), Zeyba Rahman (Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts), Ahmad Sarmast (Afghanistan National Institute of Music), Rajeev Sethi (The Asian Heritage Foundation), Suresh Suras Shrestha (Department of Archaeology), Timothy P. Whalen (The Getty Conservation Institute), Winnie Yeung (Central Police Station Revitalisation Project), and Louis Yu (Performing Arts, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority).

The 2015 Summit agenda is available here.

This Summit also was the occasion for the launch of The Asia Arts and Museum Network, Asia Society’s signature initiative to foster collaboration between and among cultural institutions in the United States and Asia.

The 2015 Arts & Museum Summit was made possible through support from The Getty Foundation. Google is an Official Summit Partner. Additional support is provided by The Julis-Rabinowitz Family Art Initiative; H2 Foundation for Arts and Education Limited, Hallam Chow; and Fanzhi Foundation for Arts and Education Limited.

Agenda

2015 Arts & Museum Summit Agenda

2015 Arts & Museum Summit was organized by Asia Society and held at Asia Society Hong Kong Center, November 19-20, 2015 in Hong Kong.