[Interview] Smithsonian will continue to flourish: NMAA director Chase F. Robinson

Director says Smithsonian embodies American ideals of curiosity, research, engagement in recent interview amid US administration's crackdown on DEI
When Chase F. Robinson, director of Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, visited Seoul in 2022, he expressed his hope to bring the donated works by the late Samsung Chair Lee Kun-hee to the US.
Fast-forward to 2025, the exhibition, the first-ever overseas exhibition of Lee's donated work as a collection, will finally arrive at the musueum in Washington.
Titled "Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared," the exhibition will run from Nov. 8 to Feb. 1, before traveling to Chicago and London.
'The scale of his collecting in the quality and comprehensiveness is really impressive. This juxtaposition of traditional and modern art will be really interesting to people,' the director said during an interview with The Korea Herald on May 23.
Among the works to be exhibited in the US will include a dozen works of art designated as Treasures and National Treasures by the Korean government, which Robinson mentioned as the highlight of the exhibition.
Lee's collection of some 23,000 pieces, majorly donated to the National Museum of Art and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea in 2020, spans from artifacts to modern and contemporary art.
'Korean art does not have the visibility in the United States, because it is a relatively new field compared to Japanese and Chinese art,' the director said. "But it has started to change."
The museum recently acquired two Korean works of art, donated to the museum, at the end of last year: a Buddhist sculpture from the 18th century and a folding screen named 'The Happy Life of Guo Ziyi (Gwak Bunyang Haengnak-do),' also likely painted in the late 18th century by a court artist.
The director, who was appointed to head the museum in 2018, said the museum has grown extensively in the past five years in terms of its staff and budget, and fundraising has improved considerably — some of which has come from international engagement.
'It is a time of a lot of political and cultural change,' he said when asked about the US President Donald Trump's administration cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. 'The Smithsonian was opened in 1846 and NMAA opened in 1923. I am really confident that we are going to continue to flourish.'
A few days after the interview, Trump said Friday that he had fired Kim Sajet, the director of the National Portrait Gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian Institute, calling her a 'strong supporter' of diversity, equity and inclusion in a social media post.
In March, the US president issued an executive order on the Smithsonian, blaming that it has come under the 'influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology' and 'promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.'
Robinson said there are many other parties and delegation — not just the government — involved to run the Smithsonian Institute.
'The Smithsonian, as you may know, has a unique status — we were set up as a trust — so we are governed separately from the US government. So the board of regents is the governing body, and it is a combination of private citizens and government officials.
"The vice president is on the board of regents, and the chief justice of the Supreme Court is on the board of the regents, and there are congressmen. On the other hand there are lots of citizens and private citizens," he said.
Robinson said the museum has a responsibility to serve American public because much of its funding comes from the government, which is why the museum tries to represent 'all the extraordinary kind of diversity' in art in their exhibitions and programming.
'We try to embody the best American ideals of curiosity, research, openness, respect and engagement,' he said.
yunapark@heraldcorp.com

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