Asia Society has long had overseas centers and offices — Hong Kong’s
Asia Society has long had overseas centers and offices — Hong Kong’s was the first to open in 1990 — but it has never before built a foreign facility of this size or significance. The building in Hong Kong, and another new facility in Houston, which is scheduled to open this spring, each cost about $50 million.
“It allows for a kind of pan-Asian discussion,” said Melissa Chiu, Asia Society’s museum director, who had flown in from New York. “We’re looking for a sort of parity, with New York and Hong Kong as our two major hubs. It signals a new chapter in building new partnerships between the U.S. and Asia.”
Last weekend the center staged the premiere of a commissioned work by the Hong Kong composer Aenon Loo, accompanied by a video by Silas Fong, a local artist.
The opening exhibition is “Transforming Minds: Buddhism in Art,” a modest but well-curated show tracing the religion’s past and present. It matches 13 artifacts from the Rockefeller Collection of Asian Art with six contemporary works.
Check out the new Hong Kong facility.