Smithsonian launches fundraising campaign for gallery for AAPI history, art and culture.

IRENE HIRANO INOUYE

To help fill in the Grand Canyon-like gap in American history and culture, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC) has announced the launch of a campaign to have a gallery on the National Mall devoted to the Asian American experience.

The Irene Hirano Inouye Memorial Fund honors the center’s late board chair who dreamed of creating the gallery as a permanent exhibit for AAPI history, art and culture in the nation's capitol.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Americans have been critical contributors to the American story for nearly 200 years. Despite this long history, the AAPI narrative has been in many instances untold or invisible.

“Irene always understood how critical it was for these narratives to be told throughout the Smithsonian,” said Lisa Sasaki, the director of the center. “She dedicated her life to elevating Asian Pacific American stories as the founding president and CEO of both the Japanese American National Museum and the U.S.-Japan Council and as the board chair of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.”

Through the fund, APAC will continue to carry on Inouye’s vision and belief that cross-cultural understanding and celebrating Asian Pacific Americans make the country richer and the Smithsonian stronger. Endowing the center’s directorship secures this vision, bringing to life a much-needed space for learning, discovery, creation and national visibility for Asian Pacific America.

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.

“We are so honored that the Smithsonian has created this memorial fund,” said Jennifer Hirano on behalf of Irene Hirano Inouye’s family. “The intent of the fund perfectly encapsulates the legacy that my mother hoped to leave.”

Inouye was the founding president & CEO of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, which she led for three decades (1988–2008). 

At the Smithsonian, she served on the Smithsonian National Board and on the boards of the National Museum of American History and APAC. In 2010, Inouye co-founded, along with her husband, the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, the U.S. Japan Council. She served as the founding chair of the board of advisors for the Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies at UCLA from 2012 until her death in April 2020.

Established in 1997, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center is a museum without walls that presents innovative, community-centered museum experiences throughout the United States and beyond. 

To donate or for more information about the fund, the public can visit the center’s website. Follow the Center on Twitter and Instagram: @SmithsonianAPA.

New director at the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Center

Lisa Sasaki's work at the Oakland Museum was to make sure that it represented the diversity of California. Last year the Palabuniyan Kulintang Ensemble, representing the Philippines, performed at the museum.

SMITHSONIAN PRESS RELEASE

LISA SASAKI, currently the director of the Audience and Civic Engagement Center at the Oakland Museum of California, has been named the director of the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Center, starting Nov. 14.

Sasaki will report to the Smithsonian’s Acting Provost and Under Secretary for Museums and Research, Richard Kurin. The Asian Pacific American Center provides vision, leadership and support for Asian and Pacific Islander American initiatives at the Smithsonian.

“Lisa is a highly respected museum leader who will bring valuable experience to the Asian Pacific American Center, and I know she will do great things at the Smithsonian,” Kurin said.

Lisa Sasaki

As director of the Audience and Civic Engagement Center at the Oakland Museum of California, Sasaki is responsible for the museum’s marketing and communications, public programs, school and teacher programs, community engagement and visitor services departments. 

She led the museum’s audience development initiative, which helped double the museum visitation in four years.

Before joining the staff of the Oakland Museum of California in 2012, Sasaki was the director of program development at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in Los Angeles (2003–2012), where she directed major institutional projects. 

During her tenure at JANM, she supervised the museum’s curatorial, public programs, web, education, and collections departments and managed and led the strategic planning for programs, exhibitions, audience development and fundraising.

Previously, Sasaki was a museum curator at the Southeastern Colorado Heritage Center in Pueblo (2001–2003) and the assistant collections manager at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Sasaki earned her bachelor’s degree in history and archaeology from Cornell University and her master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Denver. She currently serves on the advisory council for the Council of Jewish American Museums and is the board president of the Western Museums Association. 

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