From Private Passion to Public Impact: Inspiring a Culture of Philanthropy for the Arts
Through and beyond collecting, what drives art patronage today? How is philanthropy evolving with each new generation? What innovative models are emerging – or already exist? This panel explores the role of collectors and patrons in developing the arts ecosystem in Asia and questions how a larger culture of philanthropy can be nurtured.
Speakers
Justine Alexandria Tek – Director and CEO, Yuz Museum, Shanghai; Director, Yuz Foundation, Hong Kong
Alan Lau – Collector, Vice Chairman of M+ Hong Kong, Co-Chair Tate Modern Asia Pacific Acquisition Committee, Guggenheim Museum Asia Art Circle
Vir Kotak – Collector and Founder, The Eight Foundation, Tate Modern South Asia Acquisition Committee, Singapore
Moderated by:
Aaron Cezar, Founding Director, Delfina Foundation, London
Justine Alexandria Tek – Director and CEO, Yuz Museum, Shanghai; Director, Yuz Foundation, Hong Kong
Justine Alexandria Tek, the Director of Yuz Museum Shanghai and Yuz Foundation, has successfully overseen the museum of a series of major international exhibitions such as “Rain Room by Random International” (2015), “Twin Tracks: Yang Fudong Solo Exhibition” (2015), “Alberto Giacometti Retrospective” (2016), “Andy Warhol: Shadows” (2016), “KAWS: Where the End Starts” (2017), “Yoshitomo Nara” (2022) and the “YUZ Project Space of Art” exhibition series that aim to support emerging artists.
Under her leadership, the team maintains strong partnerships with leading international institutions. Its efforts has largely contributed to the collaboration between the Yuz Museum Shanghai (YUZM), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the Qatar Museums (QM), which creates multi-site exhibition programs such as “In Production: Art and the Studio System” at YUZM (2019), “Legacies of Exchange: Chinese Contemporary Art from the Yuz Foundation” at LACMA (2022), “Watering the Desert | Contemporary Art from Qatar” at YUZM (2023) that offer a truly global perspective and captures the world’s attention on China with a brand-new concept “Yuz Flow”.
In the coming ten years YUZM will carry on with its founder Mr. Budi Tek’s philosophy, further explore how to use “art to grow generations to come”, take “flow with Yuz, breathe with art” as its vision for the second stage and make a gradual layout shift from a “white box” to a “satellite network”.
Alan Lau – Collector, Vice Chairman of M+ Hong Kong, Co-Chair Tate Modern Asia Pacific Acquisition Committee, Guggenheim Museum Asia Art Circle
Alan Lau is Vice Chair of M+, Hong Kong’s largest contemporary art museum. He is also Chairman of ParaSite, the longest standing non-profit art space in Hong Kong. He co-chairs the Asia Pacific Acquisition Committee of Tate, and the Asia Art Circle of Guggenheim. He has been a technologist for 20 years, with leadership roles in McKinsey and Tencent. Mr Lau is currently CBO of Animoca Brands, an unicorn blockchain company with investments in over 400 companies spanning entertainment, sports, and games.
Vir Kotak – Collector and Founder, The Eight Foundation, Tate Modern South Asia Acquisition Committee, Singapore
Vir Kotak, a versatile individual residing between Singapore, New Delhi, and the Andaman Islands, wears multiple hats as an adventurer, artist, entrepreneur, and CEO. As the founder of Propelor, a digital freight and logistics platform, and Boxcoworld, a multi-country logistics enterprise, Vir has successfully led various food and bar ventures in different cities. His artistic background includes being a practicing lens-based artist with exhibitions at renowned galleries like Nature Morte and Shrine Empire in Delhi. Alongside his wife Simran, Vir established The Eight Foundation with a focus on supporting contemporary art practices and fostering connections between art, design, architecture, food, beverage, environment, and social practices. The Foundation operates across South, Southeast, and West Asia, promoting cross-pollination and enabling large-scale works that challenge traditional exhibition spaces.
The Eight Foundation, founded on principles of fluidity, flexibility, integrity, and substance, actively collaborates with artists, galleries, thinkers, and curators to create opportunities for groundbreaking works. The Foundation houses a substantial art collection representing diverse artists from its regions of interest and the global art scene. Vir, in addition to his entrepreneurial pursuits, maintains a deep passion for beverages, holding a WSET3 qualification in wines and continually expanding his knowledge in cocktails, beers, whiskies, and other spirits. His interests also extend to American classic cars, with his ’72 Mustang Mach 1 fastback being a long-term weekend project. Vir’s adventurous spirit is evident in his role as an advanced open water scuba diver, contributing to exploring and discovering dive sites in the uncharted waters off the Northern Andaman Islands.
Aaron Cezar – Founding Director, Delfina Foundation, London
Aaron Cezar is the founding Director of Delfina Foundation, where he curates and develops its interrelated programme of residencies, exhibitions and public events. Under his tenure, Delfina Foundation has hosted nearly 400 artists, curators and collectors in residence, across dynamic programmes from Politics of Food to Collecting as Practice, which launched the first ever residencies for collectors. Cezar has also curated external exhibitions and performances at Hayward Gallery Project Space, SongEun Artspace, and as part of the official public programme of the 58th Venice Art Biennale. Independently and through Delfina Foundation, he sits on numerous boards, committees, and advisory groups.