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.
“Given the museum’s long-standing commitment to the arts and culture of Southeast Asia and to supporting its partners in that region, this was the right moment to provide financial support to secure that commitment in a public way,” said Cunard, who has supported the museum since 1999.
Cunard is the museum’s seniormost trustee and has served on its board of trustees in various positions for over two decades, including chairman of the board. Presently, he is the head of the museum’s collections committee. He has a long history of supporting arts and community activities in Washington and nationally. For example, he co-founded and serves on the board of the Friends of Khmer Culture Inc., a nonprofit organization that has supported efforts to preserve and increase appreciation of Cambodian architecture, art and culture. Cunard is a retired partner of the international law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where he was the managing partner of the Washington, D.C., office for 15 years. He is a graduate of the University of California Los Angeles and Yale Law School.
This gift benefits the National Museum of Asian Art’s Second Century Campaign and the Smithsonian Campaign for Our Shared Future, which will secure funds for all Smithsonian museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo in support of a single, bold vision: to build a better future for all. Learn more about Our Shared Future.
About Southeast Asia at the National Museum of Asian Art
The National Museum of Asian Art is one of two museums in North America with a dedicated Southeast Asian curator, program, associated collections and a vibrant portfolio of performances and community events. The museum also maintains important collaborations with several Southeast Asian nations, including active memorandums of understanding with Cambodia and Indonesia.
From March through September 2026, the museum will present the exhibition “Vishnu’s Cosmic Ocean,” which will be curated by Stein. This exhibition will feature a masterful bronze sculpture of Vishnu creating the universe, the largest ever found in Cambodia, which will be on loan from the National Museum of Cambodia. Stein co-curated “The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Himalayas” (ongoing) and “Prehistoric Spirals: Earthenware from Thailand” (ongoing), and she previously curated “Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain” (2022) and “Power in Southeast Asia” (2017–2021). She also created a robust digital resource for the Southeast Asia collections area. Earlier exhibitions devoted to Southeast Asian art at the museum include “Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia” (2010–2011) and “Vietnam’s Ceramics: Depth and Diversity” (2015–2016).
Comprising close to 900 objects, the museum’s Southeast Asia collections include Buddhist and Hindu sculpture and ritual objects in stone and bronze, gold jewelry, textiles and ceramics from Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and the Philippines. The ceramics collection is the largest and most important outside of Southeast Asia, and it serves as a resource for scholars worldwide. Sculptures from central and east Java, elsewhere in Indonesia, and the Khmer empire are other particular strengths. Indian trade textiles—notably woven, printed and painted textiles from Gujarat made for Indonesian markets—and locally made Indonesian textiles represent recent expansions to the collections and chart new directions for research.
About the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art is committed to preserving, exhibiting, researching and interpreting art in ways that deepen the public and scholarly understandings of Asia and the world. The museum opened in 1923 as America’s first national art museum and the first Asian art museum in the United States. It now stewards one of the world’s most important collections of Asian art, with works dating from antiquity to the present. The museum also stewards an important collection of 19th- and early 20th-century American art.
Today, the National Museum of Asian Art is emerging as a leading national and global resource for understanding the arts, cultures and societies of Asia, especially at their intersection with America. Guided by the belief that the future of art museums lies in collaboration, increased access and transparency, the museum is fostering new ways to engage with its audiences while enhancing its commitment to excellence.
Located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the museum is free and open 364 days a year (closed Dec. 25). The Smithsonian, which is the world’s largest museum, education and research complex, welcomes 20–30 million visitors yearly. For more information about the National Museum of Asian Art, visit asia.si.edu.