HISTORY
Asia Contemporary Art Week (ACAW) started in 2001 through an independent joint initiative of Asia Society and a group of visionary individuals from leading museums and galleries in New York known as the Asian Contemporary Art Consortium (ACAC). Its goal was to heighten the awareness and visibility of contemporary art practices from Asia within the United States.
The first ACAW edition took place in November 2002, a two-day symposium that marked a major shift away from perceiving art from Asia as derivative of Western art discourses, to that of sharing its critical contributions to the field at large. Renowned New York Times critic, Holland Cotter, called the event “a turning point for the discussion of art from Asia in America.”