About Us

Asiarta Foundation is a non-profit arts foundation, established in early 2009, to support vital development, documentation and conservation of the visual arts in Asia. Our principal region of interest is Southeast Asia, with an initial country focus on Vietnam, though much of our work involves exchanges of skills, knowledge and ideas far beyond Asian boundaries.

The Foundation has a complementary set of objectives:

• Grass-roots Artist Support Support talented and creative artists to overcome the constraints they face, helping them to fulfill their artistic potential and share it with society
• Art Conservation Ensure that today’s important art works can be safeguarded and maintained to world-class standards, for the benefit of current and future generations
• Conservation Research and Education Research and make available best practice conservation knowledge and techniques for care of Asian art works
• Art History Research Conduct and support primary and secondary research to record essential – but often undocumented – art history for the benefit of understanding our cultures
• Media and Publishing Support publishing, exhibition and media programmes internationally to increase knowledge and awareness about Asia through its art

Without initiatives to support these areas, many countries in Asia – and broader society in general – risk losing fundamental artistic legacies and original creative spirit. With a strong governmental and educational focus in Southeast Asia on economic development, artistic development – and the vital role it plays in enhancing a community’s identity and way of thinking – is often neglected. All of the Foundation’s activities and programmes are non-commercial in nature.

History and Funding

Building on more than two decades of involvement in supporting Southeast Asian arts, Asiarta Foundation was established in 2009 by Adrian Jones, taking over projects in artist support, research and conservation that had been in operation since 2002. Adrian Jones is the founder of Witness Collection, one of the largest collections of modern and contemporary Vietnamese art, with approximately 2,000 paintings and drawings spanning the 1920s-2000s. Witness Collection has provided support and access to art works, though Asiarta Foundation operates independently and has a charter to support activities across Asia. Funding for Asiarta Foundation has been provided by private donors.

Activities

The Foundation runs multi-year artist residency and support programmes in Southeast Asia that have been in operation since 2006.  Programmes are prepared specifically for each artist but include grants, travel bursaries, expert advice, educational support, provision of high-grade art materials and introductions to international institutions, collectors and media.

Asiarta Foundation’s Asian fine art conservation studio and laboratory was set up by Bettina Ebert. Bettina holds a Masters degree in Conservation of Fine Art from Northumbria University in the UK, where she specialised in the treatment of Vietnamese paintings. The Foundation has an ongoing research and collaboration programme with Northumbria University, which was initiated in 2005. The project identified how paintings in Asia deteriorate differently to those in Europe or America due to specific environmental conditions. The project has garnered worldwide attention, both within the conservation community and the international media.

In early 2010, Asiarta Foundation and the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles initiated a collaborative research project, investigating 20th century Vietnamese lacquer. The Foundation has also assisted a number of international art museums with their research.

In Australia and Vietnam, the Foundation supports a research and publishing initiative led by Dr Boitran Huynh-Beattie, a leading expert on Southeast Asian art, to document important artists who have been active in the south of Vietnam. Due to the social and political circumstances, this period of art history is generally little documented in accounts published in Vietnam or overseas.

Administrative Office

Adrian Jones, Executive Director
Asiarta Foundation, 36th Floor Menara Maxis, Kuala Lumpur  50088  Malaysia
Foundation registration number: 1535416-1-34141