Kano and Wong were motivated to found the AAWAA after attending the 1989 national meeting of the Women's Caucus for Art, where they felt that Asian American women were heavily underrepresented, and by joining a project started by Moira Roth to create a collection of slides of artworks by women of color. The first meeting was held at Kano's home in Berkeley in March of that year. In 2007, the organization formally incorporated as a 501 non-profit. AAWAA's Speakers Bureau consists of artists, scholars, writers, and administrators who present at institutions regarding topics such as women's issues, Asian American issues, artists' process, and AAWAA programs. Members of the Speakers Bureau have lectured at numerous institutions in California.
AAWA Board
Cynthia Tom, Shari Arai DeBoer, Sigi Arnejo, Linda Inson Choy, Michelle Lee, Vinay Patel, and Pallavi Sharma.
Advisory Board
Susan Almazol, Renee Baldocchi, Gracie Chidmat, Lori Chinn, Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, Natalie Gore, Nancy Hom, Anh-Hoa Thi Nguyen, Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, and Sue Tom.
Membership
Membership to the AAWAA is open to all, as either an artist member or an affiliate member. Notable members include Kathy Aoki, Bernice Bing, Lenore Chinn, Nancy Hom, Betty Kano, Dawn Nakanishi, Genny Lim, Isabelle Thuy-Pelaud, Canyon Sam, Valerie Soe, Flo Oy Wong, Wendy Yoshimura, and Katherine Westerhout.
''Cheers to Muses: Contemporary Works by Asian American Women'' (2007)
Cheers to Muses is an anthology published by the AAWAA in 2007. The book compiles 77 works, including fine art, poetry, creative writing, and non-fiction work. The works are created by 64 Asian American women ranging in age from 14 to 85.
This program aims to stress an Asian American Women lens to curation, to promote Asian American Women in the arts, from a curating perspective and also benefits the artists who are under represented and lack exposure.
Mural Muses
In 2015, in honor of its 25th anniversary, the AAWAA launched a campaign to create a large collective mural in San Francisco's Richmond District. The mural is to honor the contributions of women artists in the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community. It is a response to the increased racial tensions and vandalism, and to increase the visibility of Asian American female artists. "Mural Muses" will be one of the large-scale murals in the Bay Area to honor Asian-American artists. Melanie Elvena, programs manager at the AAWAA stated that the collaborative mural was another way to raise awareness for Asian-American women artists "in a space that has been traditionally male dominated."
A Place of Her Own
A Place of Her Own is an art-based program, first created in 2008 by the AAWAA director Cynthia Tom. It is dedicated to improving women's mental health and seeks to challenge issues like colonization, racism, forced migration, and gender oppression. It is based around the question in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own: "If you had a place of your own, what would it be?" The weekly workshops over the course of six months lead up to a professionally curated exhibition. PLACE is open to all women, regardless of art ability of experience, and uses various art mediums.
''Shifting Movements'': ''Art Inspired by the Life & Activism of Yuri Kochiyama (1921–2014)''
The AAWAA and the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center presented this art exhibition as part of the United States of Asian America Festival opening at SOMArts Cultural Center from May 4–25, 2017. Shifting Movements features 40 artists working in various mediums, mostly from Asian Pacific American, African-American, and Latin-American backgrounds. The exhibition honors the Japanese-American activist Yuri Kochiyama. Shifting Movements also featured oral history recordings, a public installation created by the community, and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center online exhibition Folk Hero: Remembering Yuri Kochiyama Through Grassroots Art.
