The Practice Institute seeks to increase the relevance and impact of museums by undertaking experimental and collaborative projects with creative talents from across the cultural world and making our learnings discoverable for all.
The Practice Institute seeks to increase the relevance and impact of museums by undertaking experimental and collaborative projects with creative talents from across the cultural world and making our learnings discoverable for all.
We prioritize action, experimentation, and collaboration, infusing these values into every museum activity — current and potential — and then sharing what we learn.
Taking the culturally specific offerings of the Asian Art Museum as a starting point, the Institute brings together emerging practitioners from across Asia, the Asian diaspora, and the Asian American community for short-term engagements to conduct investigations into a broad range of operational topics and fields.
Our projects are speculative but also action-oriented, with fellows-in-residence collaborating closely with museum staff to understand — and then reimagine — existing processes and structures to increase their relevance and impact for ever-evolving audiences.
By imagining new methods and making this methodology discoverable and accessible — through publications, exhibitions, programs, and their digital counterparts — we offer tools, networks, and practices to catalyze change within the wider museum community.
We learn from and circulate the work and ideas of diverse individuals and organizations: diverse in their geography, the scale of their mission, and their scope. From an independent curator or a community art archive in a small town to an international cultural destination in a major metropolis, we believe all partnerships are an opportunity to learn together. Through these learnings, we aim to inspire change so museums may become more relatable and meaningful to their audiences.
Our core values span:
Dr. Jay Xu, Director of the Practice Institute, The Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum – Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art & Culture
2022 – 2023
The Practice Institute is an initiative of the Asian Art Museum supported by Xin Liu, Amanda Minami and the Chao Minami Family Fund, Jack and Susy Wadsworth, and Ruth and Ken Wilcox.
Our funding is independent from the museum’s regular operational budget and is based upon timeliness and relevance of projects and availability of fellows.
