Asia Society Texas Center

Performing art and culture - through dance, food, film, literature, music, and theatre, astc's performing arts and culture programs celebrate the vibrancy of asian cultures through traditional and contemporary arts to engender curiosity, empathy, and a better understanding of our community and the world. Many of these annual offerings are presented in collaboration with some of houston's most prestigious and diverse cultural organizations like miller outdoor theatre, houston ballet, inprint, oca of greater houston, houston cinema arts festival, houston symphony and more.

Astc's education and outreach department offers unique learning experiences for children, adults, and families to explore diverse asian cultures and the asian american experience. Our permanent education exhibit, explore Asia, provides an interactive ed-tech experience which immerses guestes in asian culture. Our online learning platform, Asia in the classtoom, offers engaging webcomics for students, comprehensive lesson guides for educators, and professional development for educatiors. Through our programming, we provide a platform for communities to celebrate and share culture through family festivals, language classes, summer camps, workshops, and performances. All of our initiatives are designed to spark curiosity, build cultural empathy, and develop global competency and connectivity in houston and beyond.

The business and policy department of Asia Society Texas fosters a better understanding of our interconnected world through programming that elevates dialogue and ideas to combat bias and connects houstonians with global business and thought leaders, authors, scholars, diplomats, and policy experts. Our programs are primarily in-person at Asia Society Texas. In fy22-23 we hosted 27 programs - 25 in-person only, 1 virtual only and 1 hybrid in-person and virtual. The department started an inaugural energy transition series highlighting work being done in the energy industry to improve climate outcomes. Key b&p programs included discussions on u.s. foreign policy, korean security issues, china, asian american women excelling in the legal field and in the newsroom, discussions around philanthropy, mental health, climate change, biomedical innovation and a huffington award dinner honoring former pepsico ceo indra nooyi. Notable speakers included former secretary of transportation elaine chao, former south korean prime minister nakyon lee, alibaba's first american employee brian wong as well as thailand ambassador tanee sangrat, kazakhstan ambassador yerzhan ashikbayev and many others.

The exhibitions department at Asia Society Texas shares the best visual arts from and about Asia with the houston-area community. Through exhibitions and related programs in fy22-23, we featured the works of more than 30 contemporary artists through 4 exhibitions, both from the united states and Asia. Our department's programming deepens appreciation for the arts in Texas. In fy22-23, the organization also created 10 unique programs including a symposium on contemporary art from china, artist workshops, as well as programs about the asian diaspora. Featured artists included lain singh bangdel, xu bing, and bingyi.