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MELISSA
CHIU
NAMED NEXT MUSEUM DIRECTOR FOR ASIA SOCIETY
June 17, 2004 – Vishakha N. Desai, President-designate
of Asia Society, announced today that Melissa Chiu has been selected
to become the next Museum Director of the Asia Society. Since 2001,
Ms. Chiu has been the Society’s Curator for Contemporary Asian
and Asian American Art, the first ever post of its kind in the United
States. The appointment is effective July 1, 2004, when Dr. Desai
becomes the sixth president of the Society following thirteen years
as its Museum Director.
In announcing the appointment, Dr. Desai commented, “As
Curator for Contemporary Art, Melissa Chiu has already made an extraordinary
impact on the visual arts programs at the Asia Society. In this
new position she will continue to apply her creative and organizational
talents to presenting unique art exhibitions of the highest caliber
with historical and contemporary themes. Melissa’s innovative
approach to presenting art and her international reputation in the
field are ideal qualifications as we take the Asia Society Museum
into its next fifty years.”
“Asia Society holds a special position in the museum world
for its ability to bring together traditional and contemporary art
from Asia and to explore the dynamic interplay between the past
and the present,” observed Ms. Chiu. “As Museum Director,
I look forward to building on this legacy as well as to presenting
the esteemed Rockefeller Collection in a new light.”
At the Asia Society, Ms. Chiu has curated a number of exhibitions
including Paradise
Now? Contemporary Art from the Pacific; Cai
Guo-Qiang, An Explosion Event: Light Cycle Over Central Park;
TOOBA: Shirin Neshat; and China
Refigured: The Art of Ah Xian. She was a founding member
of the Asian Contemporary Art Consortium and a driving force behind
the establishment of Asian Contemporary Art Week, which will mark
its third year this November in New York. In her new role, Ms. Chiu
will continue as the Society’s Curator for Contemporary Art.
Ms. Chiu has had a long involvement with Asian contemporary art
and is recognized as a leading authority in the field. Prior to
the Asia Society, she was the founding Director of the Asia-Australia
Arts Centre in Sydney, a non-profit contemporary art center devoted
to promoting dialogue in the Asia-Pacific region among artists,
writers, curators and filmmakers. Additionally, Ms. Chiu has curated
over thirty exhibitions with artists from Malaysia, Vietnam, China,
Thailand and Japan, among others.
Melissa Chiu received her B.A. from the University of Western Sydney
and her M.A. from the College of Fine Arts, University of South
Wales. She has completed her Ph.D. from the University of Western
Sydney, for her work on contemporary Chinese artists. An author
of artist monographs and conference papers, she has published widely
in journals, magazines and for exhibition catalogues. She was recently
awarded a Getty Curatorial Research Fellowship for her work on an
upcoming exhibition on the art of the Cultural Revolution and its
contemporary legacy. Ms. Chiu was asked by Oxford University Press
to edit The Grove Dictionary of Art edition on Asian contemporary
art and has been a faculty member of the Rhode Island School of
Design where she taught Asian contemporary art and design. She has
served on a number of boards and grant panels, including the New
York State Council on the Arts, Museums Grant Committee and the
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
About Asia Society Museum
The presentation of the visual arts of Asia has always been central
to the mission of the Asia Society since its founding in 1956. In
1981, the Asia Society moved to its current headquarters at 725
Park Avenue to house galleries for temporary exhibitions and its
permanent collection, The Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection
of Asian Art. The collection is comprised of nearly three hundred
masterworks from South, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, dating from
2000 B.C. to the 19th century, in various media--bronzes, paintings,
ceramics and sculpture. Today, the Asia Society Museum exhibition
program encompasses a broad range of historical and contemporary
art from Asia along with rotating installations of the Rockefeller
Collection.
About Asia Society
Asia Society is America’s leading institution dedicated to
fostering understanding of Asia and communication between Americans
and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. A nonprofit, nonpartisan
educational institution, the Asia Society and Museum presents a
wide range of programs including major art exhibitions, performances,
media programs, international conferences and lectures, and initiatives
to improve elementary and secondary education about Asia. The Asia
Society is headquartered in New York City, with regional centers
in Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Melbourne,
Australia, San Francisco, Manila and Shanghai. For more information,
contact the Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10021. (212)
288-6400.
(www.asiasociety.org)
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