National Museum of Asian Art Announces Major Gift To Endow and Name Jeffrey P. Cunard Curator of Southeast Asian Art

Emma Natalya Stein in the exhibition “The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas.” National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution | Photo by Debra Diamond

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, a NYSEAN Partner, has announced an endowment by Jeffrey P. Cunard as well as an endowed position for Emma Natalya Stein.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art has announced that Jeffrey P. Cunard is endowing the museum’s curatorial position of Southeast Asian Art, which will be known as the Jeffrey P. Cunard Curator of Southeast Asian Art. The inaugural holder of that position will be Emma Natalya Stein, who received her doctorate in the history of art from Yale (2017) and has been on the museum’s curatorial staff since 2019. The museum will now be one of two museums in the nation with a dedicated, endowed curatorial position for Southeast Asian art and cultures.

“I sincerely thank Mr. Cunard for this transformative gift,” said Museum Director Chase F. Robinson. “With this endowment, we reaffirm our commitment to presenting the arts and culture of that region as well as our relationships with our Southeast Asian colleagues, as we move toward a more collaborative model for museums.”

The museum has agreements with museum and institutional colleagues in Southeast Asia, including the National Museum of Cambodia. The Jeffrey P. Cunard curatorial endowment, along with the museum’s recently established Helen I. Jessup Fund in support of Southeast Asian programming, will fund exhibitions on Southeast Asia and support new research in the United States and abroad.