Smithsonian launches pledge drive to continue telling the Asian Pacific American story

I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story, at the National Museum of American History. Taking Filipino American author Carlos Bulosan's poem as inspiration, this is one of the exhibits created by the Smithsonian APAC telling the stories of the builders and workers of Asian Pacific America.

AMERICA'S STORY includes the story of the people from the Asian Pacific countries. 

It is the story of two continents and a constellation of islands joined by the migration, exchange and competition of people and ideas. Yet, across museums and galleries in the nation’s capital and around the country, we find only fragments of America’s rich Asian Pacific heritage.
For the past two decades, telling that little-known story has been the mission of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, which launches its  2018 Spring Drive tomorrow, March 12.

To support Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center programs, this year APAC is holding a series of seasonal pledge drives, each featuring exclusive thank you gifts. APAC’s first ever pledge drive series will continue with our 2018 Spring Drive.

In past years, APAC has been fortunate to have generous donors whose contributions have supported numerous ground-breaking programs. One recent example was the first-ever national Asian American Literature Festival which served over 2,000 visitors in different venues across Washington, DC in July, 2017. In order to make future programs like the Literature Festival a reality, APAC needs your help.

Federal appropriations cover about 70 cents of every dollar needed by the Smithsonian. Federal support conserves the Smithsonian’s national collections, sustains basic research, educates the public, operates, maintains, and protects the large Smithsonian museum and research complex, and provides other administrative and support services. Private philanthropy bridges the gap between the Federal resources the Smithsonian receives and what it needs to carry out innovative research, expand its national collections, build new facilities, open truly 21st-century exhibitions and expand educational outreach to school-aged children.

"Since our establishment in 1997 as an initiative critical to the mission of the Smithsonian, the vision for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center has been to enrich the appreciation of America’s Asian Pacific heritage and empower Asian Pacific American communities in their sense of inclusion within the national culture," states the APAC website.

"Our understanding of America and America’s standing in the world is richer, more compelling and more powerful when it includes the Asian Pacific American story. This is why we need the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, so it can serve as a dynamic national resource for discovering why the Asian Pacific American experience matters everyday, everywhere, all the time," the statement continues.

With each season’s pledge drive APAC is asking its supporters to go online to give to APAC’s future. APAC’s online donation page can be accessed here, or by clicking the “Donate” button on smithsonianapa.org. Your gift can be of any amount—no matter how big or small all contributions help us build initiatives that bring Asian Pacific American history, art, and culture to audiences across the United States.

Donations of $35 and above qualify for thank you gifts, specific to each seasonal drive. These gifts include never-before-seen, exclusive APAC swag like bags, mugs, and some special limited edition surprises! Information on the thank you gifts available for this drive will be revealed over the next week and throughout the drive on social media and on smithsonianapa.org.

You can help the Center continue to develop innovative programs by visiting their donation page and  making a one-time or recurring donation.
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