Mounting Tensions: Asian American Museums and the Politics of Community

Today, more than 40 Asian American museums operate across the United States. In the past 2 years alone, 3 such museums have opened, including the AAPI History Museum in Providence, Rhode Island; the Museum of Asian Texans in Dallas, Texas; and the Filipino American Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. More are surely on the way as a bipartisan commission is expected to deliver its report to Congress this fall regarding the feasibility of establishing a national museum of Asian American history and culture. These institutions join older museums like the Wing Luke in Seattle and the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco that date back to the civil rights struggles and immigration reforms of the 1960s. Drawing on sources and methods in U.S. cultural history, Asian American studies, and museum studies, this talk charts the changing landscape of Asian American museums and explores why and how museums have been meaningful forms of community-building and activism for Asian Americans from the 1960s to the present. Understanding these museums as sites of both cohesion and conflict reveals how they have redefined not only museum practice, but also the contours of Asian America.