ARTS ALLIANCE - Key Persons
Alan Lo is first generation, Australian-born Chinese who moved to New York City in 2010. He received his Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Commerce from the Australian National University in 1997. Currently, Alan is an Associate Director in the Credit Risk Management group of Macquarie and has been with the organization since 2007 covering various sectors including commercial real estate, infrastructure, corporate lending, and equity investments. Alan has been a member of the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand since 2004 and, prior to his time at Macquarie, worked at various accounting firms and financials institutions in Sydney and London including Deloitte, PWC, and Merrill Lynch.
Alan is passionate about art, music, and travel. His travel pursuits have taken him to more than 40 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. One of his most recent memorable trips was camping with the Grizzlies in Brooks Falls, Alaska. Alan's original intent when moving to the US was to only stay for 2 years, but he is now a proud Brooklyn condo owner, which is shared with his wife and two Korean rescue dogs.
Born in Atlanta to Thai and Indonesian immigrants, Amanda is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and activist. Her work in sculpture, textile, public art, and ritual has reclaimed space in museums and galleries, at protests and rallies, on buildings, in classrooms, and on the cover of TIME. Her work examines the unseen labor of women, amplifies AAPI narratives, and affirms the depth, resilience, and beauty of communities of color. Amanda has been artist-in-residence with the NYC Commission on Human Rights and sits on the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, where she advises the President on how art can foster community well-being.
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing & Operations at WXY
Amy Hau is the Director of Marketing & Operations at WXY architecture + urban design. Prior to joining the award-winning architecture and planning firm, she was the Director of Administration and External Affairs at the Noguchi Museum, where she was part of the senior management team that stewarded the legacy of the world-renowned Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. In her three-decade career at the museum, she played a significant role in the transition of the artist's estate into a museum, including the overseeing of its multi-phase $23 million capital project and the development of its master plan. She has served on her local community board since 2012 and joined the board of the Asian American Arts Alliance in January 2016.
Ani Liu is an internationally exhibiting research-based artist working at the intersection of art & science. Ani's work examines gender politics, labor, reproduction, simulation and sexuality. Integrating emerging technologies with cultural reflection and social change, Ani's most recent work examines the biopolitics of care work and motherhood. Ani's work has been exhibited internationally, at the Venice Biennale, Ars Electronica, Kunstmuseum, the Queens Museum, and MIT Museum. Ani's work has been featured in The New York Times, ArtForum, Art in America, National Geographic, VICE, Mashable, Gizmodo, TED, PBS, The Brooklyn Rail, and WIRED. She is currently an Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
Athena Robles is a visual artist whose work involves drawing, sculpture, printmaking, and installation. Early in her career, she was included in the exhibition New American Talent at the Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin, TX, and she has since exhibited nationally, including at the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, the Soap Factory in Minneapolis, and in New York at the American Museum of Natural History. A Van Lier fellow in 1995, she has participated on panels for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Ford Foundation, and others. Robles has collaborated on projects for the artist collective Godzilla and the Asian American Arts Alliance, where she serves as a board member. Her experience in arts administration and communications includes positions at Creative Capital Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Art in General, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. In addition, she is a freelance writer, copy editor, and consultant on integrated media; publication projects include the Warhol Initiative, published by the Warhol Foundation. Robles holds an undergraduate degree in art and psychology from Drew University and a master's in fine arts from Cornell University. Her collaborative project Counter Culture Cash with Anna Stein was featured on Artnet News and their joint work continues to receive support and recognition from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Front Room Gallery in Brooklyn, among others, and is being presented at symposiums and conferences across the country. She was born in New York City and is currently based in Washington, DC.
Danielle Wu oversees A4's communications strategy as Communications & Database Manager. She was previously a Digital Fellow at Democracy Now! She is also an independent curator and writer, having published in Art in America, Artforum, Frieze Magazine, and The Offing. Her curatorial interests have investigated Asian American identity, race, and gender, including Ghost in the Ghost at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, New York, with scholar Anne Anlin Cheng (2019); Water Works at International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York (2022); and Just Between Us: From the Archives of Arlan Huang at Pearl River Mart, New York (2023).
Job Titles:
- Artistic Director and Choreographer
Jessica Chen is an American dancer, choreographer and Artistic Director of J CHEN PROJECT, with a mission to create dance works that emphasize identity, cultural diversity, and belonging. Her work has been presented at New York Fashion Week (MoMA), Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, MACY's Thanksgiving Day Parade, TEDx Semester at Sea, and featured in Google Arts & Culture by the Asian American Arts Alliance. Currently, projects include AAPI Heroes: Myths and Legends, R&H Cinderella, Jersey Boys, The Messenger, and Cabaret. She was nominated for the 2023 Bessie Award in Outstanding Choreographer/Creator.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Principal of Common Space Studio
Jon Santos is the principal of Common Space Studio, a New York City-based design studio and acting director of communications design for artist Anicka Yi, a long time collaborator who together with Josh Kline produced work as the Circular File collective from 2007 to 2009. He designed and edited Werner Herzog's Whitney Biennial installation in 2012 and in 2016, he developed original artworks in collaboration with Hank Willis Thomas for the first artist-run super-pac (For Freedoms). Santos exhibits his work internationally and was nominated for a James Beard award and was a recipient of an AIGA Gold Medal.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director at J.P.Morgan Private Bank
Josh Cipkala-Gaffin is an Executive Director at J.P.Morgan Private Bank leading Securitized and US Agent Fixed Income trading efforts. He is also part of the AsPIRE Tri-State leadership team at J.P. Morgan which works to promote professional development and opportunities that support the AAPI community. Prior roles include International Banking and International Strategic Projects at J.P.Morgan and Marsh, respectively. Josh grew up in Pittsburgh and after graduating from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, has spent the last decade living in New York City. He enjoys taking part in the rich art scene that the city provides and likes to create canvas based multi-media art projects in his spare time. He has also run the New York City Marathon several times and earned a Six Star Medal by completing all major marathons. Josh joined the board of Asian American Arts Alliance in 2023.
June Choi was hired as executive director in 1992 and in 1994 A4 received a $325,000 multi-year grant from the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation to launch the Technical Assistance & Regrant Initiative (TARI), allocating cash grants and technical assistance to help stabilize Asian American arts groups in NYC. This would be the first of many regrant programs spanning almost 15 years. A4 continued to publish its monthly Arts Calendar and added a Corporate Funding Guide for constituents. It began publishing a Resources & Opportunities listing of jobs, workshops, resources, competitions and grant opportunities to complement the calendar. Also added to these resources was a directory of Asian American touring artists, Asian American Artists Ready to Tour!. In 1995, A4 moved to 74 Varick Street and in 1996, Lillian Cho was hired as the new executive director.
Job Titles:
- Programs Director
- A4 's Programs Director
Justine is A4's Programs Director, leading the development, implementation, and day-to-day management of all artist and arts organization-focused programs. Before A4, Justine facilitated conversations aimed to build understanding across differences; her bridge-building work has been featured on NPR, The New York Times, and CBS Evening News. Justine believes in the power of art to bring joy, sustenance, and meaning to our lives and has been a long-time supporter of AAPI art and activism; she was a features writer for Hyphen Magazine, a volunteer for Chinese for Affirmative Action and Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), and helped launch the Self Evident podcast in 2019. Justine is also a trained audio journalist and has produced stories for Narrative.ly, Apex Express, a weekly radio show featuring stories of Asians and Asian Americans, and KALW, San Francisco's oldest public radio station. She has deepened her roots as a NYC transplant by serving as a poll worker and as a member of the Advisory Committee for WE ACT, a leading environmental justice group based in Harlem.
Kelin Li grew up in Beijing and moved to the United States for higher education at the age of 18. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland College Park and a Master of Science degree in Quantitative Finance from Carnegie Mellon University. Kelin currently works at Macquarie Group and focuses on investment strategies in credit markets. Prior to joining Macquarie, he worked at TEN-X, a Real Estate FinTech firm, in New York for 2 years where he built analytics products and provided solutions to clients. Kelin has always been passionate about music that he began playing violin at the age of five and later on joined an alternative rock band in college. The most remarkable trip Kelin has done recently was a 4-day backpacking to Machu Picchu in Peru. Kelin joined the board of the Asian American Arts Alliance in 2019.
Job Titles:
- A4 's Grants Specialist
- Development Director at Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia
- Grants Specialist
Kelly is A4's Grants Specialist. In addition to her role at A4, Kelly is the Development Director at Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia. She also served as the Grants Management Consultant at Staten Island Arts for the New York City Artist Corps, a program designed to support artists in communities hard-hit by COVID-19. Kelly has been Development Manager at Allens Lane Arts Center, Development Writer at DataArts, and AIE Program Director at Staten Island Arts, as well as previously working at A4. She has worked as a consultant with Tsuru for Solidarity, the Asian American Writers Workshop, and many others. An avid taiko drummer, Kelly is also a board member of the Taiko Community Alliance. She believes in the power of music and rhythm in social change movements, and the importance of showing up at demonstrations with a drum.
Job Titles:
- Operations Associate
- Administrator, Organizer, Artist
Leo Chang (he/him) is an administrator, organizer, artist, and scholar from South Korea. As A4's Operations Associate, he performs various administrative and operations duties for the office and the A4 team. He organizes the Nolja! improvised music series across various performance venues in NYC. Leo is an active improvisor, composer, performer, and sound artist in the experimental and avant-garde music scenes. He holds a PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and his dissertation is titled, "Music Making as Assimilation: the Practice of Group Listening."
Lisa (she/her) has over two decades of experience in arts management, development, programming, community outreach, and public relations. She has served as the director of public engagement at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC; the executive director of Washington Project for the Arts; the public relations director at the Drawing Center in New York; and director of development and communications at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City. Lisa is recognized as a strong advocate for creative producers and has developed inclusive programming and outreach initiatives throughout her career.
Michelle Pham is a first-generation Vietnamese-Canadian from Vancouver who has adopted New York as home. She is leading Global Strategy and Operations for the Product Solutions & Operations team at TikTok. Formerly, Michelle held various positions at Google in the Ad Sales division. She was involved in special projects with the Asian Googler Network, where she led efforts to increase Asian-American programming at Talks at Google. A graduate of Bates College, she founded the Asian-American Students' in Action group, an organization dedicated to Asian-American representation and advocacy on campus. An avid fan of the arts, Michelle enjoys collecting textile arts and learning about the history and people behind these pieces.
Job Titles:
- Head of Ventures Platform of Gold House
Oscar Wong is Head of Ventures Platform of Gold House where he oversees strategy, partnerships, and the venture fund's community-leading accelerator that empowers the next generation of leading entrepreneurs. Prior to Gold House, Oscar led Google/YouTube's go-to-market strategy and product marketing teams across the United States and Asia-Pacific region. He was on the founding team behind Grow with Google, the company's $1 billion commitment to create economic opportunity and empower over 10 million Americans to grow their businesses and careers. From launching products in emerging markets to accelerating cross-border opportunities for businesses, Oscar is passionate about driving financial inclusion for all. He formerly led Growth as the first business hire at two startups in consumer fintech and enterprise software. Oscar holds a MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and earned his BA in Economics from Stanford University as a first-generation college student. Oscar is devoted to paying it forward through serving on the advisory boards of the Asian American Arts Alliance, Pasadena Tournament of Roses, Moneythink, and QuestBridge.
Perry Yung is a Chinese American actor and musician originally from Oakland, CA. He is a founding member of the Slant Performance Group and has been a member of La MaMa E.T.C.‘s Great Jones Repertory Group since 1993. He is a recipient of the Japan US Friendship Foundation and Asian Cultural Council awards for shakuhachi crafting. Perry can be seen as Father Jun in HBO's Warrior television series, produced by Justin Lin (Fast and Furious) and Shannon Lee (Bruce Lee's daughter). This dream production allowed him to combine acting with his flute playing career.
Rabia Akram is A4's intern for the 2023-24 school year. She is a senior at Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College where she is majoring in Human Biology and minoring in Asian American studies. She has previously interned at the Urban Outreach Center and the Mayor's Office of Community Mental Health where she gained insight into the complexities of food insecurity and focused on multifaceted approaches to urban mental health. She is also a Speakers and Programming Curator at TEDxCUNY, where she works with individuals from diverse backgrounds to help them develop talks that resonate with a wide audience. She is passionate about history, languages, and artistic expression and enjoys reading curated blogs and watching long form video essays in her free time.
Reena is a second-generation Indian-Filipina-American. Currently, she is Head of Content Strategy for Responsible Innovation at Google. She's held various positions at Google, including Head of Product Inclusion and Creative Lead for Business Inclusion. She's been deeply involved in various efforts across the company related to the development of human-centric AI, including the People + AI Research initiative.
Before Google, Reena was a product owner at IBM's Design Lab, focusing on intrapreneurial employee engagement apps and content strategy (and earned a related design patent), as well as C-suite thought leadership. Prior to IBM, she was Executive Editor at frog design, where she led the firm's external thought leadership and consulted on inclusive innovation content strategy with tech world clients. Before joining the tech world, she was the Innovation Department Editor at BusinessWeek, where she wrote about the value of new user experiences and business models found in emerging markets and within design for accessibility.
She's advised and mentored startups and founders across industries, including Built NY and Owners.com (formerly Owners Network), and incubators such as New Inc., Matter Ventures, and Area 120. Reena holds a BA from Barnard College of Columbia University, an MA from Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and was a Fellow at Columbia Journalism School. A former figure skater and varsity ice hockey player, she spends her spare time these days working toward her black belt in mixed martial arts, paddle boarding, and playing the piano.
Risha Lee is a Brooklyn-based researcher and art lover. She has held curatorial positions at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Rubin Museum, teaching and research positions at the National University of Singapore, American University of Beirut, and Columbia University, and earned her PhD in South Asian and Chinese art history at Columbia University. Her academic work explored the material culture and porous boundaries that connected premodern people and places via Indian Ocean trade routes spanning India, Southeast Asia, and China. More recently she has been leading user experience research and design initiatives in financial services and government sectors with a focus on improving the ways in which institutions interact with and serve vulnerable populations.
A child of a diplomat, Ryna is a long time New Yorker, recent SoCal transplant, always wandering, global citizen. From her many years of moving from country to country, she's learned the importance of community and has consequently continued to build community wherever she went. She joins the A4 family with a wealth of experience in nonprofit operations, strategy, and community-based work. Ryna has a BA from the University of the Philippines and an Executive MPA from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She continues to enjoy travel, but at home you'll find her playing in the kitchen, tending to her plants, or immersed in a book. She is excited to support A4's work and to nurture her love for the arts.
Shahzia Sikander is widely celebrated for subverting Central and South-Asian miniature painting traditions into dialogue with contemporary international art practices and launching the form known today as neo-miniature. Interrogating ideas of language, trade, empire, and migration through feminist perspectives, Sikander's paintings, video animations, mosaics and sculpture explore gender, sexuality, racial narratives, and colonial histories. Sikander is a recipient of the MacArthur award and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation's Pollock Prize for Creativity, among others.
Job Titles:
- Editor
- Editor, the
- Writer and Editor
Shannon Lee (she/they) is a writer and editor based in New York covering ecology, art, and AAPI culture and identity. She was previously an associate editor at Artsy and a co-founder of Silica Magazine, an experimental platform for environmental journalism. She has written for The Art Newspaper, Hyundai Artlab, Your National Parks Magazine, and Cura, among other publications, and has spoken in-depth about art on Australia National radio, as well as on Artsy‘s weekly Clubhouse. They have regularly volunteered with Indykids, a mentorship program fostering youth journalism, for the past two years. In addition to their editorial career, she is also a musician and artist, periodically. They are currently working on a screenplay about a Korean American crime family. She is proudly from Queens.
Stephanie Shin (she/her) is a New York City based dancer, choreographer, producer, and arts administrator originally from Ames, Iowa, with a degree from Boston University. She has danced work by Brandon Coleman and Marc Nuñez/Gotham Dance Theater among others. Previously, she has worked administratively for the Martha Graham Dance Company and as a software engineer. Stephanie co-founded Synchronous, a creative lab and performance group motivated by a shared desire to collaborate and perform. She is a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement grant recipient. She also produces and curates The Craft: Performances & Cocktails, a performance series in an informal bar setting.
Job Titles:
- Secretary of the Board
- CEO of Sports Court Consulting
Tariq Ahmad, PhD is the CEO of Sports Court Consulting, an agency focused on athlete education and representation for college athletes. Tariq is also a Senior Sport Management Instructor at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, and an incoming Adjunct Sport Management Instructor at Manhattan College in The Bronx. He has worked in the tech and social media space for 10 years, with stops at Meta, MetLife and IBM, focusing on B2B, B2C, and sports initiatives. When he's not working, he enjoys sports (playing and watching), traveling (internationally and domestic), cooking and dining out, and exploring New York City (including sharing pics of the city on Instagram). A transplant from Oklahoma, he has lived in New York City for over eight years, and is a first generation Pakistani-American US native.
Tomie Arai is a public artist, born and raised in New York City. Through the framework of community-led collaborations, Arai uses public art, mixed media installations, and large-scale light projections as platforms to amplify issues of race, gender and social justice. Arai has designed both temporary and permanent public works of art for Creative Time, the GSA Art in Architecture Program, the NYC PerCent for Art Program, the MTA Arts for Transit Program, and the San Francisco Arts Commission. She is a co-founder of the cultural collective, The Chinatown Art Brigade, and is currently an artist-in-residence with CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities.
Described by The New York Times as a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway," composer-pianist Vijay Iyer has earned a place as one of the leading music-makers of his generation. His honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artist Fellowship, a Grammy nomination, and the Alpert Award in the Arts. His most recent albums are Love in Exile (2023), a collaboration with Arooj Aftab and Shahzad Ismaily that is "suffused with unfolding mystery and deep human connection" (NPR), and Uneasy (2021), a trio date with Tyshawn Sorey and Linda May Han Oh hailed as "a triumph of small-group interplay and fertile invention" (The New Yorker). He teaches at Harvard University.