2017 Newsletter
敦 煌 基 金 会
Li Zhen Bo and Sun Ji Yuan. Statue from the Tang Dynasty. January 14, 1964.
Table of Contents 2
Letter from the Executive Director
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The Dunhuang Academy
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2017 Year in Review Conservation Training Program Digitization of Dunhuang Scholarly Exchange Artist-in-Residence Program Public Programming
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Thank You Great Buddha at Binglingsi (Tang Dynasty, 618-907 CE)
The Dunhuang Foundation was founded in 2010 with the mission of supporting the Dunhuang Academy’s efforts to conserve the Dunhuang grottoes and strengthen its international ties. In the space of only a few years and a cross-continental move to San Francisco, the Foundation has grown in both ambition and scope. We now not only fund conservation and research activities, but also programs that expand upon the themes of Chinese culture and art history, Buddhism, the Silk Road and cultural heritage preservation. We are committed to ensuring that Dunhuang remains a locus of contemporary cultural production. 2017 was an exciting year for the Foundation, as we debuted our artist-in-residence program and our scholarly exchange program. Both programs will allow the Foundation to fulfill its goal of connecting Dunhuang’s themes and histories to an ever-wider audience. Due to the generous financial support of our donors and trustees, the Dunhuang Foundation remains on a sound financial footing. However, to ensure the longevity of the Foundation and its programs, we have decided to build an endowment with a goal of at least five million dollars. The endowment will allow the Foundation to grow responsibly and sustainably. As we embark upon the Year of the Dog, the Foundation looks forward to a year filled with excitement and an openness to new ideas. It is an honor to lead
“We are a powerful connective force between the Dunhuang Academy in China and scholars in the US and beyond. We strengthen both
sides.”
— Mimi G. Gates Chairman
such a dynamic and youthful organization. On behalf of my staff and the board of trustees, I wish you a happy and prosperous new year. 狗年大吉! With warm regards,
Christian M. Hudak Executive Director 2
Leadership Board of Trustees Mimi G. Gates, Chairman Judith Bollinger, Treasurer Jeff Xiong, Secretary
Board members: Anne Chao
Jinshi Fan, ex-officio
Lucy Sun
Xudong Wang, ex-officio
Oscar L. Tang Theodore T. Wang Jerry Yang
Staff Christian M. Hudak, Executive Director Julia Grimes, Associate Director Mei Mei Chan, Communications Coordinator
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New Year’s Greetings from the Dunhuang Academy On behalf of all my colleagues at the Dunhuang Academy, I would like to wish you a wonderful Year of the Dog and thank you for your support. This past year has been an exciting one, with continued progress on the Digital Dunhuang project, which seeks to digitize the caves of Mogao and place them online for the broadest possible access. We have met our goal of digitizing 30 caves and invite you to visit them online at https://www.e-dunhuang. com/index.htm. Last December, we inaugurated a “Digital Silk Road” initiative with Tencent, the company behind WeChat. Our hope is that this initiative will increase access to information on the caves and allow more people worldwide to experience their treasures. The Dunhuang Academy has also increased its scholarly exchange programs, including an exchange in partnership with the Dunhuang Foundation last November. Several of our researchers and Deputy Director Zhao Shengliang traveled to the United States for two weeks, during which they met with curators, scholars, and students at a number of institutions. Such person-to-person contact increases the openness to and awareness of Dunhuang in the world. At this time, I would like to thank you for caring about and supporting our conservation and research work on the Dunhuang Caves. We wish you and all those dear to you a new year of great success and good fortune! Wang Xudong Wang Xudong is director of the Dunhuang Academy and has worked there since the 1990s. Prior to his appointment, he held a number of other positions, including Director of the Academy’s Conservation Institute and Assistant Director. Since 2004, he has been the Director of the Key Scientific Research Base for Ancient Wall Paintings Conservation at the State Administration for Cultural Heritage. He was recently appointed Director of the National Research Center for the Conservation of Ancient Wall Paintings and Earthen Sites.
Bodhisattvas at Maijishan (Begun Sui Dynasty, 581-618 CE)
Mogao Caves at Dunhuang
2017 YEAR IN REVIEW
CONSERVATION In 2004, the Dunhuang Academy was designated by the Chinese government as the National Center for Wall Painting Conservation. The Foundation has supported the Academy’s Postgraduate Conservation of Wall Paintings certificate program (壁 画保护硕士研究生班) since 2012. The two-year program draws its students, 10 per cohort, from a consortium of China’s leading universities, including Peking University and Lanzhou University, and in addition to Chinese professors, features instruction from experts resident at the Getty Conservation Institute and the University of London’s Courtauld Institute of Art, the two leading international institutions in wall painting conservation. Since the program’s inception, 50 students have completed the course, which confers a certificate issued jointly by the Dunhuang Academy, the University of London and the Getty Conservation Institute. Graduates have gone on to further studies at the Courtauld, internships with the Getty’s Conservation and Management of the Tomb of Tutankhamen Project, and positions in cultural heritage management at sites across China.
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Artist copying a mural Dunhuang Academy
Digital Dunhuang expands upon the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s commitment to the digitization and sharing of artwork using library resources and seeks to bring the Academy’s vast collection of photographs, videos, 3-D laser scans, paintings and other media together into a single, searchable database. In 2014, the Mellon Foundation asked that the Dunhuang Foundation administrate this grant. We have worked closely with the Academy to assemble a team of consultants who understand the organization’s most pressing needs and are invested in its success. Several of these individuals have worked with the Dunhuang Academy for nearly twenty years. This year, we have identified a Chief Technology Officer to lead this project during the next critical stages of the digitization initiative.
King Sivi Jataka Tale North wall of Mogao Cave 254 (Northern Wei, 439-534 CE) Dunhuang Academy
DIGITIZATION
SCHOLARLY
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Cary Y. Liu Princeton Art Museum
EXCHANGE
In recent years, no longer facing the same challenges as in the past, Sino-American academic relations have taken new form, but relationships between the Dunhuang Academy and American academic institutions have remained underdeveloped. The Dunhuang Foundation hopes to re-engage these relationships through strong Silk Road studies programs. From November 6-17, the Dunhuang Foundation hosted three young scholars and one senior scholar in the field of Dunhuang studies on a tour of major universities and research centers throughout the United States: the scholars traveled to the Getty; USC; Stanford; Berkeley; the University of Chicago; Northwestern; and Princeton before concluding their trip at NYU. During their travels, the scholars had the opportunity to meet directly with high-level conservation specialists, curators, and professors in their field. This personal interaction has sparked a number of proposed Dunhuang Foundation-sponsored academic initiatives for the future, including a series of China-US bilateral exchange programs for students and established scholars.
Neville Agnew Po-Ming Lin Getty Conservation Institute
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ARTIST-INRESIDENCE The Artists-in-Residence Program seeks to reshape the public’s perception of Dunhuang. While Dunhuang’s art historical importance cannot be overstated, the caves largely exist outside of the American public’s imagination. By engaging people through art and ideas and growing the Foundation’s audience beyond its current boundaries, the Foundation enters a larger and more meaningful dialogue centered on the issues of cultural heritage and preservation at the core of its mission. Further, we seek to revitalize the artistic creativity and spirituality of Dunhuang as a historical site of devotional art. The program works with both established and mid-career artists. In August 2017, Bay Area-based artist and Stanford University professor Xie Xiaoze traveled to Dunhuang, creating a series of works inspired by the site. Three additional visual artists – Frank Benson, Patty Chang, and Ei Arakawa -- will visit Dunhuang in 2018, each spending several weeks amid its splendid dunes, mural paintings and sculptures. They will also enjoy the fellowship of the Chinese artists based at the Dunhuang Academy’s Art Institute. Upon completing their residency, participants engage in Foundation-sponsored public programming, such as the presentations of Xie Xiaoze’s work hosted in collaboration with the Asia Art Archive in New York and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco last fall.
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Xie’s Artist Studio at Dunhuang
Ink Drawing by Xie
Xie in Cave 17
Xie Xiaoze’s studio at the Dunhuang Academy
EXPANSION OF PUBLIC PROGRAMMING New York On October 27 at the Asia Art Archive in New York, Xie Xiaoze presented his preliminary findings from his Dunhuang artist’s residency in conversation with Stephen Teiser, professor of Buddhist Studies at Princeton University. The works-in-progress presentation was followed by a richly nuanced discussion which explored the connections between Buddhist religious imagery and Xie’s contemporary artistic exploration of the Dunhuang Caves.
San Francisco On November 10, Xie Xiaoze discussed the intersections between his oeuvre and Dunhuang residency at the Asian Art Museum in conversation with Mimi Gardner Gates. The event welcomed the Dunhuang Foundation to the Bay Area, reflecting our commitment to partnering with the museum to feature diverse content centered around Buddhism, the Silk Road, and cultural heritage conservation. Following a vivid introduction to Dunhuang and its treasures by Gates, Xie examined how his time at the site influenced his artistic practice. He explored how the Library Cave, Cave 17, relates directly to his fascination with books, newspapers, and words as sites of cultural memory and loss. Ink Drawings from Xie’s Residency at Dunhuang
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Houston Internationally renowned theater and opera director Peter Sellars appeared for a one-night only engagement at Houston’s Asia Society Texas Center on December 7 to discuss the significance of Dunhuang to his creative practice, and particularly to his Vimalakīrti Sutra Project. His talk, “Dunhuang and Its Importance to the Future of Humanity,” examined the Vimalakīrti Sutra, a first-century CE allegorical text of Buddhist teachings and subject of multiple depictions at Dunhuang, found in wall paintings and the objects recovered from Cave 17. Sellars described the Sutra as “a radical democratization of Buddhist practice” due to its focus on an enlightened layman, rather than a monk or deity. During the Asia Society event, he illuminated its relevance and that of Dunhuang – locus of migration and meeting point of cultures – to tradition and our world today.
Peter Sellars at the Asia Society Texas Center
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Thank you Patrons Anonymous Anonymous Judith and William Bollinger Anne and Albert Chao Mimi Gates Min Kwaan American Friends of the Shanghai Museum Judith and F Randall Smith Lucy Sun and Warren Felson Oscar Tang Dr. Carter and Su-Hwa Tseng Theodore Wang Jeff Xiong Jerry Yang Sponsors Anonymous Margot and Jerry Bogert Rick and Nonnie Burnes Ranga Krishnan and Sripriya Chithamoor Virginia and Timothy Foo George Norton and Martha San Hertelendy Kossen Ho Chenming and Margaret Hu Ellen Kyriazi Jeffrey and Tondra Lynford Pia and Vivek Rampal Dr. Stephen Wong and Sandie Wong Margaret Han and Felix Wu Donors Anonymous Edward and Chinhui Allen Bettie Cartwright Thomas Choi Dr. Vera Chung Patricia D’Andrade Susan Detweiler Joe and Susie Dilg Charles Dishman Jaune Evans Marsha Vargas Handley Irene Ho Timothy and Anne Kahn Dr. Francis Lee Carrol McCutchen Mary Hale McLean Linda Melrose
Bill and Sara Morgan Trudi Richardson Nancy Sun Alan Block and Ruth E. White Sarah Miles Williams John and Anne Witt Peter Yu Supporters Craig and Barbara Barrett Allyson and Steven Cook Michael and Cece Fowler H. Christopher Luce Lillie Robertson Shining Sung Lois Stark Tania W. Stepanian Shirley Young Contributors Barry Bloom Judith Chapman Karen and Dallan Clancy Pamela Ebsworth Zeina and Nijad Fares Patricia Gladden Hamid and Lily Kooros June Y. Mei Alfreda Murck Members Karen Smalley Bixby Margaret and Fred Boehm Marian and Ta-Sen Chou Linda Copeland Idalice Dickinson Sharon Gurwitz Linda and Barry Hunsaker Jesse H. Jones II Ping and Shirley Kiang May Koo Yifawn Lee Carla and Don Lewis Beverly and George Martin John and Linda Taylor
A special note of gratitude to Anne and Albert Chao for their generous gift of one million dollars in support of the Foundation’s general use endowment. Their transformative gift, along with an anonymous one-million-dollar donation, will serve as the bedrock upon which the Dunhuang Foundation will grow for generations to come. In time, the Foundation plans to build an endowment of at least five million dollars that will allow it to thrive and meet its objectives from a position of strength. Income provided by a robust endowment will enable the Foundation to: • experiment with new forms of public programming, which will grow our membership and attract a broader base of participants; • further develop and expand our grant-making activities • stabilize operations and enhance our staff capabilities
Bodhisattva at Maijishan (Begun Sui Dynasty, 581-618 CE)
ENDOWMENT