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 Making Exact Change |
Making Exact Change
Part Two: Case Studies Wing Luke Asian Museum
Basic Facts
Snapshot One Song Many Voices: Our centerpiece exhibition depicts the 200-year story of the immigration and settlement of Asians and Pacific Islanders in Washington State, from the first Hawaiian settlers to more recent refugees from Southeast Asia. The exhibition includes ten Asian-Pacific-American groups – Cambodians, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Laotians, Pacific Islanders, South Asians, Southeast Asian hill tribes and Vietnamese. The exhibition is the only one of its kind in the nation to integrate their many different experiences into a cohesive story of courage, determination and success. It features artifacts and photographs from early Asian-American businesses and community groups, including restaurants, social clubs, a barber shop, an herbal shop and a hand laundry Camp Harmony: Visitors must walk behind barbed wire to experience Camp Harmony D-4-44. This exhibition features a replica of a portion of the assembly center in Puyallup, Washington, where thousands of Seattle’s American-born Japanese were incarcerated without justification during World War II. The installation incorporates sound dramatizations of the desperate hours before families were forced to abandon their homes. Asian & Pacific Islander Adoptees: A Journey Through Identity: While many adoption trends are tied to specific historic events, such as war and poverty, Americans adopting children from Asia has grown in demand. As thousands of children and babies enter into the United States each year from Asia, many prospective parents face challenges in raising a child of another ethnicity from their own, as well as the general questions of identity adoptees acquire through adolescence. The adoption experience is complex and very personal. This exhibition captures the brave journey adoptees make in pursuit of self-identity. This intimate exhibition is a unique melding of history, personal testimony, culture and art from adoptees, adoptive parents, family members and those involved in the adoption process. —Excerpts from Wing Luke exhibition catalogues
Description History The Wing Luke Asian Museum was named in honor of Wing Luke, a Chinese-American immigrant elected to the Seattle City Council in 1962. Luke, a charismatic and visionary political leader who fought for open housing, historic preservation and cultural pluralism, was the first Asian-American elected official in the Pacific Northwest. In 1987, the Museum completed its first capital campaign, raising nearly $350,000 to renovate the upper floor of an old auto garage into a museum with climate control, storage facilities for collections, and five times as much exhibit space as the previous site. Meanwhile, the Northwest Asian American Theatre, an Asian-American community theater company established by student activists in 1974, converted the basement into a modest performing/theater space. Shortly after Ron Chew was brought on as executive director in 1991, the museum initiated an experimental exhibit project that would become the model, in spirit, for the dozens of exhibits that followed it. It became the signature project for a museum looking for new methods of community engagement. This display, “Executive Order 9066: 50 Years Before and 50 Years After,” opened on February 19, 1992, the 50-year anniversary of the infamous federal order that forced 110,000 Japanese Americans to forsake their homes for desolate concentration camps. In the 13 years since Chew assumed leadership, the museum has matured and grown in size, as the institution has shifted its resources and focus to community-based projects. The museum has expanded from three staff members, 20 regular volunteers and a budget of $130,000 in 1991 to 17 full-time staff, four part-time staff, 75 regular volunteers and a budget of $850,000 in 2005. Over time, the museum has been transformed from a tiny organization, similar in scale to many volunteer historical societies, into a cutting-edge cultural institution that leads the nation in effectively linking cultural expression to community responsibility. This has set the stage for a capital campaign to develop a much larger museum facility in the Chinatown-International District in the next several years. In 2005, within its 7,200 square feet, the museum houses a collections area, a small library/resource center, a classroom, several permanent and changing exhibits, and staff offices. In the past several years, as the institution has grown, the museum has acquired additional off-site office and storage space. The museum is now engaged in site selection, fundraising feasibility and long-range program planning. “We have been described as a family with five children living in a one-bed room apartment,” said Beth Takekawa, a museum associate director who helped engineer a successful organizational development plan in 1998 that included realignment of board and staff roles. “We are readying the organization to upgrade our substandard quarters to provide community gathering, performance and exhibition spaces adequate to house our expanding audiences and programs.” Mission/Values Mission: To educate the public about the contributions, history and issues facing Asian-Pacific-American (APA) communities. A number of assumptions also guide the museum’s work. Executive Director Ron Chew explains how they affect the way the museum works.
There is no single artistic vision that informs exhibitions and programs at the Wing Luke Asian Museum, nor is there a single logic that guides a visitor’s experience. As a multidisciplinary institution, the museum has cultivated collaborative relationships with diverse organizations and individuals in order to bring issues to the fore that are relevant to the constituents it serves. At the core of this ongoing effort is the museum’s methodology of engaging community members as key decision makers in the development and realization of exhibitions and programs. While conventional planning models adopt a hierarchical managerial structure, the Wing Luke Asian Museum has consciously integrated and empowered its target audiences into the development of exhibitions and programs as well as operational functions. Individuals are actively involved in planning and decision-making as Community Advisory Committee (CAC) members. Communities of color make up a majority of both leadership and participants within the organization.
Success and Change Goals
Defining Success Wing Luke’s definition of success is rooted in its unique approach to conceiving and creating its programs. The museum has pioneered the community-driven exhibition and program-development process. This process differs significantly from typical museum practice, which usually places curatorial authority solely in the hands of museum professionals. Chew feels the one of the museum’s responsibilities is “to enter into discussions with the community about what they are interested in seeing.” He points to the recent Adoptee Exhibit as an example. “We are responding to the world around us. America has seen a huge increase in foreign adoptions. This exhibit arose from the community’s specific interest in exploring this issue, not as an abstract subject but because of their personal experiences.” Chew says the process is less tidy than museum-directed exhibit development. Our process results in surprises all the time. When we engage the community in this way, we end up doing projects that are unexpected. But the content is always fresh because it so often comes from what is happening right now in the community. We are doing a project with the Sikh community that explores the parallels between that community’s 9/11 experiences and Japanese internment. Other specific indicators of success identified by the museum include:
Critical to Success
Outcomes
Nuts and Bolts Environment The museum’s community is very diverse. There are 30 different ethnic groups in Seattle’s Asian community. According to Chew, “creating programs that are meaningful across this broad constituency, requires great diplomacy and continuing dialogue. Our credibility is based on our work and the balance of our approach. We also have to do projects that cut across common ground.” Chew is not hesitant to characterize the museum’s home, Seattle’s International District, as a “ghetto.” “Wing Luke is located in a neighborhood that has insufficient resources, crime, that is also impacted by large capital projects like the recent stadium construction.” He knows that “museums need to be in places that people feel comfortable in. That has been a challenge for us, because this community is in transition.” The growth of the museum is fueled not only by continuing program successes and organizational maturation but also by the astonishing proliferation of the Asian-Pacific-American community. In Washington State, the Asian-Pacific-American population swelled from 53,400 in 1970 to 323,000 in 1995, a six-fold increase. By the year 2010, the total Asian-Pacific-American population is expected to climb to more than 544,000. The museum plays an ever more significant role in educating the public about the culture and history of Asian-Pacific Americans and building bridges of understanding between older and newer ethnic groups that have little history of cooperation. As in other Asian-American communities across the country, the sweeping immigration law of 1965 resulted in new waves of immigrants and refugees from many new parts of China, the Philippines, Korea and other parts of Asia. The end of the Vietnam War in 1975 brought in new communities from Southeast Asia. An increasingly prosperous community — new immigrants from a more mobile social class and highly educated American-born Asians — is now scattered across urban and suburban neighborhoods throughout the state. The strongest base of support for the museum remains within the older Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino American communities, those with the longest history in this region. But the museum has taken bold steps to build stronger relationships with the Korean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, South Asian and more recent Chinese communities.[1] Leadership Wing Luke’s current director has been with the organization for the past 13 years. During that time, the museum has pioneered new ways for museums to engage community and grown steadily in capacity and stature. Many would point to Executive Director Ron Chew as a major reason for this success. He, in turn, would point to his staff and the museum’s focus on community engagement. Chew is not shy about making decisions in a crunch but, as a rule, the organization does not operate as a hierarchy. The museum’s collaborative culture encourages all members of the management team to advocate for their particular departments or issues. Discussion and debate are encouraged and also build support for eventual decisions. As director, Chew also recognizes that for the museum to sustain itself, younger people must play a key leadership role in shaping the organizations programs. To that end, over half of the staff members are in their early 20s. Resources Budget: 2004-05 annual budget – $1,007,058 Development: The following is a breakdown of Museum funding sources and amounts for fiscal years 2001-02 to 2004-05 Some of the foundation funds received in 2002 were multiyear grants that carried over into ‘03 and ‘04, so the growth is a little more gradual than appears below.
In general, Asian Americans still contribute to individuals and organizations in their home countries. This reduces the philanthropic base available for local projects. The Wing Luke capital campaign is an opportunity to turn the Asian philanthropic focus endeavor toward America. Chew feels this is “a first. It states our American manifestation of art and culture is important.” Governance The museum itself is governed by a volunteer board of trustees, which consists of 19 community leaders representing a broad range of communities and interests. In 2003, at the beginning of the capital campaign, the board of trustees engaged its consultant to complete an assessment and recruitment project to prepare the board to carry out a significant campaign and oversee a greatly expanded operation in the future. The Board Development Committee instituted an annual board commitment form to document members’ financial and leadership responsibilities, including participation on at least one standing committee – including Development, Finance & Audit, Facilities and Capital Campaign Steering – as well as ad hoc task forces such as Personnel, Business Plan Review, Donor Recognition and Campaign Branding. The current board is now 16 percent Caucasian, 42 percent Chinese American, five percent Filipino American, 16 percent Japanese American, five percent Korean American, 11 percent South Asian American and five percent Southeast Asian American. The members are 63 percent female and 37 percent male; 21 percent are under the age of 40 and 79 percent are over 40. Partnerships In the past several years, the museum has more actively worked to develop project partnerships with other cultural groups, extending the educational reach of the institution. Today the museum frequently works with the Seattle Public Library and the Northwest Asian American Theatre on joint programs. In 1998, the museum came together with Living Voices and children’s author Ken Mochizuki to produce “Within the Silence: Share the Courage,” an original multimedia performance piece that brings the story of the Japanese-American World War II experience to classrooms. To date, this portable performance piece has reached more than 12,000 people—mostly at school sites—in 15 states and Vancouver, B.C. The museum has also worked with businesses, residents and social-service agencies to spur community pride, promote economic vitality and educate visitors to the International District.[2] Chew sees institutional partnerships as important, but feels successful collaborations still depend on the individuals involved. “The organization has many partnerships. We always look at how we connect to individuals within organizations before we commit. Projects that have dozens of co-sponsors are often pro forma and superficial. In the end it is relationships between committed individuals that make partnerships.” Training The organization supports staff attendance at conferences and encourages mentorships and internships with other institutions. Because many of the Museum’s staff members do not come from the museum profession, they support site visits and training within the profession.
Constraints Programming: It has taken great patience, resourcefulness and sensitivity to successfully pursue the Wing Luke Asian Museum model of program development. Each project has been fraught with specific perils, sometimes engendered by the difficulty of bringing to the same table individuals and groups with a long history of distrust and hostility. “Executive Order 9066: 50 Years Before and 50 Years After” presented the challenge of securing the participation of both the Nisei veterans, who fought overseas during World War II to prove their loyalty, and the “no-no boys,” who resisted military service on grounds of conscience. To this day, individuals from both groups remain bitterly distrustful of one another, but they came together to help create “Executive Order 9066.” “One Song, Many Voices” presented the challenge of a balanced representation of more than ten different ethnic and linguistic groups, many of whom are recent immigrants carrying the scars of rivalry and conflict in Asia.[3] Funding: The museum has no endowment. This means they must raise all of their funds from scratch every year. Because of their unique approach, Wing Luke often encounters funders who don’t understand what they are doing. But Chew understands that this comes with the territory. “We are not about pieces of the frozen past. We can be controversial. We can be scary to people who want a museum that is safe and unchallenging. You also have to realize that there is still a great deal of intolerance out there.”
Advice to Funders While Chew is very grateful to many in the funding community for their support, he also has strong feelings about how funders could better support community-based efforts like Wing Luke.
[Next: Case Study: Zuni-Appalachian Exchange] [Table of Contents] Notes 1. Chew, Ron, "The Wing Luke Asian Museum: Gather Asian American Stories" in "History & Perspectives 2000, Chinese America" (Chinese Historical Society of America, 2000) |
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