Smithsonian Asian Pacific American History, Art, and Culture in 101 Objects

By , and

Friday, February 2, 2024 | 6pm to 7:30pm

25 West 43rd Street, 10th Floor, Room 1000
between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan

Asian Americans are the fastest growing group in the United States and include approximately 50 distinct ethnic groups, but their stories and experiences have often been sidelined or stereotyped. Smithsonian Asian Pacific American History, Art, and Culture in 101 Objects offers a vital window into the triumphs and tragedies, strength and ingenuity, and traditions and cultural identities of these communities. Edited by Theodore S. Gonzalves, the book invites readers to experience both well-known and untold stories through influential, controversial, and meaningful objects. Thematic chapters explore complex history and shared experiences: navigation, intersections, labor, innovation, belonging, tragedy, resistance and solidarity, community, service, memory, and joy.

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American History, Art, and Culture in 101 Objects features vibrant full-color illustrations of objects that embody and engage with Asian Pacific American issues, including the immigrant experience, the importance of media representation, what history gets officially documented vs. what does not, and so much more. Objects include:

  • Name tag for Challenger astronaut Ellison Onizuka
  • Photograph of Hollywood actress Anna May Wong
  • Hello Kitty bento box
  • Stella Abrera’s ballet shoes, pancaked to match her skin color
  • Caravan’s Thailand: Songs for Life album
  • Sewing kit of internment camp survivor May Ishimoto
  • Nam June Paik’s Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii
  • The Devanagari typographical font patented by Hari Govind Govil

Theo Gonzalves will be joined by book contributors Saisha Grayson and Grace Yasumura. 

Purchase Book: https://apa.si.edu/apa-101-objects-book/

Author Bio

Presented By:

Dr. Theodore S. Gonzalves is a curator of Asian Pacific American history in the division of Culture and the Arts at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. His areas of responsibility include the research, collection, and exhibition of Asian Pacific American histories and the performing arts. He previously served as director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. A Fulbright Scholar with extensive teaching experience in the United States, Spain, and the Philippines, Dr. Gonzalves has also been awarded senior fellowships at the Smithsonian Institution, UNC Chapel Hill, and the Library of Congress. He was appointed to the Organization of American Historians' Distinguished Lectureship Program and is currently a member of the board of directors of the American Council of Learned Societies. https://www.theogonzalves.com


Presented By:

Saisha Grayson is a curator, writer, and art historian focused on the intersections of contemporary art, performance, film, video, and cultural activism. In 2018, she became curator of time-based media at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where she spearheads research, exhibitions, and acquisitions related to this aspect of the collection. Grayson’s recent projects include the pop-up exhibition Pride @ SAAM (2019), Carrie Mae Weems: Looking Forward, Looking Back (2023), and the group exhibition Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies (2023). From 2011 to 2016, she was the first Assistant Curator at the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art where she served as organizing curator of Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey (2013), co-curator of Agitprop! (2015), as well as originating curator of the site-specific exhibition Chitra Ganesh: Eyes of Time (2014). Grayson received her doctorate from the CUNY Graduate Center.


Presented By:

Grace Yasumura (she/her) is an assistant curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), where she is co-curating an exhibition, The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture (opens fall 2024), which considers the intertwined histories of race and American sculpture. Prior to joining the Smithsonian, she served as the project manager for Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past, a digital archive that investigates how we visualize, interpret, and engage the histories of enslavement through contemporary monuments created for public spaces. She earned her Ph.D. in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Maryland, where she completed a dissertation that considered entangled histories of race, labor, and citizenship in New Deal post office murals.