A fund drive is underway for a Smithsonian AsianAmerican gallery on the National Mall.

$25M campaign to build new gallery gets started

The Smithsonian’s initiative on documenting Asians in America started two decades ago, with a borrowed exhibit in a borrowed museum wing.

There was a National Museum of the American Indian attached to the Smithsonian, and progress was being made toward a museum on the National Mall celebrating African Americans’ history. But Franklin Odo, former director of the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American program, recalls the 1990s as a tough time.

“Whenever we needed to do a public lecture or exhibit, I had to go beg one of these other institutions to lend a space,” Odo said. “We had to really convince our colleagues that this was a field, this was a demographic … that needed to be recognized and needed to be held with some respect.”

On Saturday, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center launched a $25 million fundraising drive for permanent gallery space on the National Mall in Washington.

“The ability to have that visibility and recognition is so important,” said Lisa Sasaki, the center’s director. Despite temporary exhibits along the mall, “there has never been a dedicated space where the public could consistently visit and find out about the history and culture of Asian-Americans.”

Asian-Americans are the nation’s fastest-growing minority and number about 20 million, or roughly 6 percent of the population.

It’s too early to say how large the gallery would be or when it might be secured, but Sasaki said the center is looking at several locations along the mall. The 4,500-square-foot Molina Family Latino Gallery is scheduled to open in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in 2021.

Sasaki said $25 million is a fundraising goal for phase one of the project. Congressional approval is not required for a gallery within existing space, unlike the stand-alone 400,000-square-foot National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016.

Andrew Harnik The Associated Press Lisa Sasaki, director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, said a $25 million fundraising drive launched Saturday is the first step in an effort to obtain permanent gallery space on the National Mall in Washington.