2025

SCHEDULE

A Museum of the Moment: Case Studies from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art

9:15–10:00 am

| Monday, Sept. 22

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) is dedicated to serving as a national and global resource for understanding Asian arts, cultures, and societies, and their intersection with the United States. Reflecting on NMAA’s history and evolving role, Director Chase F. Robinson will speak about the museum’s commitment to building a future through collaboration, sharing and building knowledge, skills, and capacity across the sector.     

Acknowledging the polycentric world shaped by Asia’s cultural and economic influence, the museum envisions a future grounded in shared partnerships and the democratization of cultural knowledge. NMAA is rethinking traditional museum practices, as will be examined through the museum’s partnerships with Yemen, Cambodia, and Afghanistan. 

Over the past few years, NMAA has collaborated with the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen to care for about 80 objects that had been looted and sold into the international market of smuggled antiquities. The U.S. government seized these pieces and legally repatriated them to Yemen. Several are displayed temporarily in the museum, where they tell the story not only of Yemen’s history but also of the impact of looting and trafficking of antiquities.      

In Cambodia, the museum is partnering with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts to support Cambodian museum professionals with capacity-building activities. This will lead to a co-curated exhibition focusing on repatriated Cambodian cultural heritage.     

With the former director of the Afghanistan National Museum, Omara Khan Massoudi, the museum has collected an oral history, now available in its archives, documenting his and colleagues’ heroic efforts to save thousands of invaluable artifacts during a time of war and destruction, shining a light on the issue of cultural preservation during conflict.    

These examples from NMAA’s global partnerships define the museum’s approach to collaboratively advancing the preservation and protection of cultural heritage, provenance research, and object histories.