The Virtual Asian American Art Museum (VAAAM) is a multi-year, inter-institutional digital humanities project initiated and led by the following major partners: the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, NYU Libraries, Getty Research Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Bowdoin Art Museum, San Francisco State University, DePaul University, Tome, Artl@s/BasART, and Japanese American Service Committee in Chicago. VAAAM also worked in collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago for the museum’s inaugural regional module “Chicago-Midwest.” The scholarly content for the inaugural module was generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art through its Art Design Chicago initiative, an exploration of Chicago’s art and design history and legacy with presenting partner, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.
Rather than a “bricks and mortar” museum, VAAAM presents curated materials from US and international repositories to visualize, analyze, and contextualize Asian American art history. VAAAM facilitates the discussion of key topics emerging from the developing discourse of digital art history, American art, national and international standards for museum and institutional collection sharing, and digital access while fostering the transnational narrative of Asian American art.
The virtual museum features dynamic interactive peer-reviewed narratives on Asian American art, history, and culture. The curated images, audio, and video components provide researchers, art educators, and the general public with exciting perspectives on Asian American art.