San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum Has Raised a Remarkable $100 Million to Fund Its Expansion

San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum has raised
$100 million in private donations—exceeding its initial goal of $90
million—to support its forthcoming expansion. The project, led by
architect Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY Architecture, was announced in 2016 and
is set to be completed in April 2020.

The first exhibition to open after the museum debuts its new
13,000-square-foot Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Pavilion will be
from the ultra-popular digital art collective teamLab. The museum
will also inaugurate the 7,500-square-foot East West Bank Art
Terrace, which will house contemporary installations, starting with
Fountain of Light by Ai Weiwei, Luminous
Ground by Ala Ebtekar, Don’t Mess With Me by Jas
Charanjiva, and Breast Stupa Topiary by Pinaree
Sanpitak, according to the San Francisco
Chronicle.

“From reimagining the presentation of our masterpieces with
engaging, dynamic digital tools, to offering dedicated galleries
for exciting contemporary art, to expanding our building so there
are always special exhibitions on view—the For All campaign leaves
an outstanding legacy for an ever-growing community of art-lovers
in San Francisco, the Bay Area and globally,” said Jay Xu, the
museum’s director and CEO, in a statement.

“Giving on this scale is a confirmation that the Asian Art
Museum is a valued asset, worthy of continued investments,” added
museum board chair Akiko Yamazaki, who is leading the fundraising
effort.

Through the end of October, Yamazaki and her husband, Yahoo
cofounder Jerry Yang, will match all museum donations two-to-one,
with additional one-to-one matching gifts through the end of the
year. The challenge grant has already raised close to $400,000
since being announced last month.

And despite ongoing construction, the museum has remained open,
with a temporary exhibition, “Changing and Unchanging
Things: Noguchi and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan,” on view through
December 8.

The Asian Art Museum’s beginnings can be traced to a 1969 gift
of Asian art to the city by Chicago’s Avery Brundage. It opened in
1966 as a wing of the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park,
eventually becoming an independent entity. In 2003, following a
$160.5 million project led by Italian architect Gae Aulenti, the museum
opened the doors to its current space, in the city’s former Main
Library, a 1917 Beaux Arts building originally designed
by George Kelham.

The post San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum Has Raised a
Remarkable $100 Million to Fund Its Expansion appeared first on
artnet News.