The Vancouver Art Gallery has established its first international Asian Art Council to advise the Institute of Asian Art, the museum’s inclusive plan to advance scholarship and public appreciation of art from Asia.

The council includes artists Xu Bin and Kimsooja; collectors David Chau and Lin Li; Vishakha Desai, special advisor for global affairs and professor at Columbia University; Roobina Karode, director and chief curator of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi; and Fumio Nanjo, director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Zheng Shengtian, a respected Chinese scholar, curator, and artist, is the Institute’s adjunct director while Diana Freundl takes on the role of associate curator for Asian art.

Together, the team will guide the Gallery’s Asian art projects, including exhibitions, public programs, and collection acquisition.

Since 2014, the institute has presented a number of shows highlighting art from Asia, including The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Emperors and Unscrolled: Reframing Tradition in Chinese Contemporary Art, and it has plans to showcase works from renowned Korean artist Lee Bul and New Delhi-based Bharti Kher in the near future.

The Institute of Asian Art has been given a prominent place in the proposed new gallery building.