Museum report·New York
NYU's Institute of Fine Arts launches Chinese diasporic art initiative with $525,000 Asymmetry gift
Announced 28 September 2026: the Asymmetry Chinese Comparative Diasporas Lab Initiative establishes two PhD fellowships and an annual symposium on Chinese and Sinophone diasporas, advancing scholarship through a transnational, comparative framework.

The Asymmetry Chinese Comparative Diasporas Lab Initiative will support doctoral research and scholarly exchange examining Chinese and Sinophone diasporas against other histories of migration, exchange and visual culture. At its centre are two Asymmetry PhD Fellowships in the Comparative Study of Chinese Diasporic Art, plus an annual public symposium bringing researchers, curators and students together. Fellows gain access to the IFA's museum partners — the Met, MoMA and the Whitney — and to Asymmetry's international network of partner museums and universities. IFA director Joan Kee and Asymmetry founder Yan Du both framed the initiative as moving beyond fixed geographic boundaries in art history.


