A4 Creates Advisory Committee to Bolster Program
NEW YORK, March 21 2024 – Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) announced today the creation of an Advisory Committee that will contribute their expertise and thinking to the future work of A4. The new committee includes M. Claire Chung, Ronald D. Lee, Elliot Lum, Jasmine Wahi, Lilly Wei, Karen Wong, and Shelly Xu.
“A4 is so fortunate to have many dedicated supporters, but there are always areas of experience that we are seeking to help ensure we are serving our community in the most effective ways possible,” said Lisa Gold, A4’s Executive Director.” “By tapping into the broad knowledge base and networks of these respected leaders, A4 will continue to thrive.”
This council includes Claire Chung, who helped launch Christie’s Client Advisory Services in Hong Kong, China’s first online luxury retailer Shangpin, and NET-A-PORTER in China.
“I am very pleased to continue my journey with A4 after serving on the board of directors for six years. A4 has a leadership role and distinctive voice in advancing Asian American artists and the communities that sustain and inspire these artists,” says Ron Lee, former director at A4 and current partner of Arnold & Porter. “As part of the Advisory Council, I aim to help the Alliance strengthen its capabilities and enhance how it conceives and delivers essential services and advocacy.”
Elliot Lum is currently Head of Growth at the ANA Education Foundation (AEF) where he is leading their efforts to shape the future of marketing talent. During his tenure at the AEF, he published a book entitled My Entrepreneurial Confessions where he spent one year interviewing more than 300 millennial founders across 24 states. Prior to the AEF, Elliot was Vice President, Strategic Marketing at Columbia Records where for six years, he put together marketing partnerships between brands and artists. Prior to Columbia Records, Elliot was a brand manager for the Max Fresh business at Colgate Palmolive. He received his M.B.A. from MIT Sloan, where he won a Leadership Award for putting together the school’s first ever marketing conference. He received his B.A. in art history from Columbia University.
Claire Chung is a polyglot speaking five languages with 25+ years experience at the crossroads of art x luxury and digital commerce. She has been an entrepreneur founding start-ups to a senior executive in publicly listed companies. Claire is currently based in Lisbon. Claire started her career at Citibank Art Advisory in New York. She later moved to Hong Kong to launch Christie’s Client Advisory Services and later moved to London to oversee Asian VIP client development. Later, she helped launch Shangpin, China’s first luxury online retailer, and Net-A-Porter in China. Claire serves on the Board of Directors of Bang & Olufsen and Delsey. Claire is a Founding Member & on the Strategy Board of Terra Foundation.
Ron Lee practices national security, cybersecurity, privacy, and government contracts law as a partner of Arnold & Porter. He was a Director of the Asian American Arts Alliance 2017-2023. He is a founding co-sponsor of the Quan Lee Excellence Fund for Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies, University of British Columbia. He is a member of the Advisory Council of Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy and served as an inaugural director and President and Secretary of the Yale Law Journal. Ron holds degrees from Princeton University (A.B. History), Oxford University (M.Phil. International Relations), and Yale Law School (J.D.)
Jasmine Wahi is the Founder and Co-Director of Project for Empty Space, an arts nonprofit organization in New York City and Newark, New Jersey. Her multifaceted curatorial practice predominantly focuses on issues of femme empowerment, complicating binary structures within social discourses, and exploring multi-positional cultural identities through the lens of intersectional feminism. In 2023, Ms. Wahi was honored by The Metropolitan Museum of Art for exemplary social impact work in the arts. In 2020, she became the inaugural Holly Block Social Justice Curator at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. In 2019, Ms. Wahi gave her first TED Talk on intersectionality and visibility, entitled “All The Women In Me Are Tired.”
Lilly Wei is a New York-based independent curator, writer, journalist and critic whose area of interest is global contemporary art, in particular emerging art and artists. She writes frequently on international exhibitions and biennials and her work has appeared in dozens of publications world-wide. The author of numerous catalogues and monographs, she has curated exhibitions in the United States, Europe and Asia. Wei lectures frequently on critical and curatorial practices and sits on the board and advisory councils of several not-for-profit art organizations. She has an MA in art history from Columbia University, New York.
Karen Wong is a cultural leader, educator and mentor. In the fall 2023, Wong taught a graduate seminar “Ways of Experiencing” exploring the ‘the immersive’ through architectural language at Columbia University GSAPP. As the former deputy director of the New Museum, Wong cofounded the initiatives IDEAS CITY (2010-2020), a malleable platform exploring the future of cities; NEW INC (2013-present), the first museum-led incubator for art, technology, and design; and ONX Studio (2019-present), a mixed-reality accelerator and demo lab. These game-changing programs elevate creative practitioners and demonstrate art’s transformative power for cultural and social impact.
Shelly Xu is the Founder of the zero waste design-tech startup SXD. She is committed to reversing fashion’s negative impact on our environment—a reality she has witnessed first-hand growing up in Asia. Shelly has worked at Instagram, Prada, and McKinsey, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School. Shelly’s work has been covered in Forbes, Fast Company, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, and Women’s Wear Daily. Her company SXD has won Top Innovative World Technology at SXSW and the Global Change Award known as the “Nobel Prize of Fashion.” Shelly is also the inventor of two utility patents on design-technology.
About the Advisory Committee
A4’s Advisory Committee advises the organization around areas of their individual expertise as needed. Information about A4’s Advisory Committee, Artist Council, and Board of Directors are available on A4’s website.
About the Asian American Arts Alliance
The Asian American Arts Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring greater representation, equity, and opportunities for Asian American artists and cultural organizations through resource sharing, promotion, and community building. Since 1983, A4 has sought to unify, promote, and represent the artistic and cultural producers of one of New York City’s fastest-growing populations.
A4 serves as a thoughtful convener of the Asian American cultural workforce around issues of race, identity, and artmaking and provides a critical voice for this community. It is the only service organization in the country dedicated to the professional development of Asian American artists in all disciplines.
For more information about A4, visit the organization’s website.
For press enquiries
Danielle Wu, Communications and Database Manager
dwu@aaartsalliance.org
