leadership camp vii: a̷s̷i̷a̷ ̷u̷n̷a̷u̷t̷h̷o̷r̷i̷z̷e̷d̷

AAAinA is pleased to announce the open call of the 7th iteration of Leadership Camp. Initiated in 2016 by Christopher K. Ho, artist, teacher and Executive Director of Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong between 2021-2025, this long-standing program brings together arts practitioners at varying stages of their careers to discuss through an “Asian” lens a wide range of topics impacting art, art practice and the arts profession. This Camper-led program encourages discussion, debate, and knowledge sharing and begins with an overarching theme, an initial set of “framing questions,” and a reading list. Different for each Camp and proposed by the Camp leaders themselves, the program’s themes have included: “Envisioning Institutions,” “Engendering Leadership,” “Model Minorities and Model Majorities,” “Other Racisms,” “(Im)material Ruins,” and “Vaguely Asian.” Expanding on these themes, some initial questions have asked: Might once marginal spaces now constitute institutional instruments for change? How can Asian social structures….inform models of contemporary leadership, and how might artists, curators, gallerists, and scholars in Asia and elsewhere productively and selectively deploy these? With Asia constituting 60 percent of the world’s population….are there best practices for being a global model majority and a US minority alike? What if the “other” in “Other Racisms” is replaced with “our”?

Leadership Camp combines closed seminar-type discussions of selected texts with presentations by participants and guests which culminate in a final project or program. In 2025 participants collectively created a zine of their research, notes, and findings and presented them through a public program.

This year’s Leadership Camp’s theme, a̷s̷i̷a̷ ̷u̷n̷a̷u̷t̷h̷o̷r̷i̷z̷e̷d̷, has been proposed by Umber Majeed and Danielle Wu who will organize and moderate the sessions, with the support of AAAinA’s programming team. Exploring ideas of fraudulence, mimicry, and authenticity through the lens of Asian and Asian American identity, Majeed and Wu’s initial framing questions for the first session can be accessed HERE.

Prior to the first session on Saturday, February 21, 10:30am – 1pm at Asia Art Archive in America, 23 Cranberry Street, Brooklyn NY 11201, participants will receive by email PDFs of the readings we will use as points of departure.