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Asia Society

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The Asia Society is the leading global and pan-Asian organization working to strengthen relationships and promote understanding among the people, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States. It was founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, the third-generation member of the Rockefeller family, who first visited Asia in 1929 and, furthering the interest of his mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, transmitted a love for Asia to the rest of the prominent philanthropic family. Notably, the Society's New York headquarters exhibits the superb Rockefeller Collection of Asian Art which, though small, includes some of the most important masterpieces of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Korean, Tibetan, Nepalese, Cambodian and Indonesian art in existence.

Mission

The Society aims to prepare Asians and Americans for a shared future by increasing knowledge and enhancing dialogue, encouraging creative expression, and generating new ideas across the fields of policy, business, education, arts and culture. It reaches audiences around the world through its headquarters in New York City, along with a Center on US-China Relations, and regional centers in Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Hong Kong, Manila, Melbourne, Shanghai and, since March 2006, an India Center in Mumbai.

A nonprofit and nonpartisan educational organization, the Society provides a forum for building awareness of the more than thirty countries broadly defined as the Asia-Pacific region - the area from Japan to Iran, and from Central Asia to New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. It also has a fellows program which supports full-time resident fellows at the Society with the mission to shape public understanding of social and political developments in Asia.[1]

Through art exhibitions and performances, films, lectures, seminars and conferences, publications and media assistance, and materials and programs for students and teachers, the Asia Society is a global educational organization dedicated to increasing the understanding of the culture, history, and contemporary affairs of Asia. It also co-sponsors the US-Asia Update Roundtable Series at New York's Council on Foreign Relations.[2]

Exhibits change several times throughout the year. A recent example has been An Enduring Legacy: The Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, featuring significant sculptures, paintings, ceramics, prints and bronzes from the Society's own holdings.

The Society maintains that international studies should be a new basic for all students in the world. In its efforts to bring this about, it has joined up with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to work with urban school districts to create small, international studies secondary schools.

Supporters

The American International Group (AIG) was the major sponsor of the Society's 50th anniversary in 2006. The Society is also supported by contributions from foundations, including both the family's Rockefeller Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and major corporations (see below). Prominent individuals also support its activities, such as the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Henry Kissinger, Rupert Murdoch [1] and Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (the founder's son), and his son Charles, who are both trustees of the Society.

Another supporter of the Society is the new UN Secretary-General, the South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, who gave an address to the Society on September 25, 2006.[3]

Mark Rockefeller (the youngest son of Nelson) and his wife Renee are vice chairmen of the Gala Committee of the Society. The Society's New York Museum is located at 725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street). The chairman of the executive committee is former US Ambassador and long-time associate of the Rockefeller family, Richard Holbrooke; its president is Vishakha N. Desai, who also sits on the board of the Brookings Institution.

Gala Committee chairmen

Annual Dinner Gala Committee:

Some major corporate benefactors

Some major sponsors:

Some major contributors:

Notes

  1. ^ Asia Society Projects - New York Times, 2006
  2. ^ Council on Foreign Relations
  3. ^ Address to the Asia Society by new UN Secretary-General

See also

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