A Community Approach to Preserve Heritage

A Community Approach to Preserve Heritage is a collaborative roundtable that centers the collective responsibility of preserving cultural memory. Bringing together scholars, archivists, community members, and families, the conversation will explore how different groups can work together to safeguard stories, objects, and lived experiences that are often at risk of being lost.

Co-presented by the Heritage Museum of Asian Art (HMAA) and the National Hellenic Museum, this program intends to creates a cross-cultural platform for sharing knowledge, practices, and challenges related to heritage preservation. Participants will reflect on questions such as what should be preserved, how to connect past and future generations, and how communities can actively shape their own narratives.

This is a hybrid event, the roundtable welcomes both in-person and virtual audiences.

Meet the speakers:

• Lillian Chan – Daughter of Andy Hoi-Csiu Chan, a late Chinese painter. The Heritage Museum of Asian Art and his family are currently working to preserve and organize his archive.

• Marianne Kountoures – Executive Director of the National Hellenic Museum

• Riley Ren – Curator of Collections at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago

• Diane Alexander White – Photographer and exhibiting artist at the National Hellenic Museum

• Ayako Yoshimura – Folklorist and archivist, currently serving as Senior Advisor for JASC’s Legacy Center Archives

• Temo 特 – Artist, Psychotherapist, and Cartoonist whose workshop engage with participants' family stories and histories