The Virtual Asian American Art Museum (VAAAM) is a multi-year, inter-institutional digital humanities project initiated and led by the following major partners: the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, NYU Libraries, Getty Research Institute, Smithsonian Institution, DePaul University, Bowdoin Art Museum, San Francisco State University, Artl@s/BasART, and Japanese American Service Committee in Chicago.
Rather than a “bricks and mortar” museum, VAAAM presents curated materials from US and international repositories to visualize, analyze, and contextualize Asian American art history. VAAAM facilitates the discussion of key topics emerging from the developing discourse of digital art history, American art, national and international standards for museum and institutional collection sharing, and digital access while fostering the transnational narrative of Asian American art.
VAAAM Team
- VAAAM Project Director Alexandra Chang, Curator of Special Projects & Director of Global Arts Programs, Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University
- VAAAM Technology Coordinator Alexei Taylor
- VAAAM Digital Technology Director David Millman, Assistant Dean for Digital Library Technology Services, New York University
- VAAAM Art + Education Director Dipti Desai, Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Art + Education Programs, Steinhardt, New York University
VAAAM Advisory Committee
- Jasmine Alinder, Associate Professor of History and coordinator of Public History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- Anne Collins Goodyear, Co-Director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art
- Ilene Fort, Senior Curator and Gail and John Liebes Curator, American Art at LACMA
- Mark Johnson, Professor of Art, San Francisco State University
- Laura Kina, Vincent de Paul Professor of Art, Media, & Design at DePaul University
- Adriel Luis, Curator for Digital and Emerging Media, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
- Margo Machida, Professor Emeritus of Art and Asian and Asian American Studies at the University of Connecticut
- Sojin Kim, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
- Tara McPherson is Associate Professor of Critical Studies at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts
- Joanne Moser, Former Deputy Chief Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Karen Patterson, curator at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin
- Béatrice Joyeux Prunel, PI, Artl@s/BasART, Associate Professor for Contemporary Art at the École Normale Supérieure, Paris
- Noriko Sanefuji, Museum Specialist at the National Museum of American History
- John Tain, Head of Research, Art Asia Archive, Hong Kong
- Michael Takada, CEO, Japanese American Service Committee
- Ryan Yokota, Legacy Center Manager, Japanese American Service Committee