Paul G. Allen Family Foundation & Wing Luke Memorial Fundation

陆海燕

http://www.pgafoundations.com/TemplateMain.aspx?contentId=83


Wing Luke Memorial Foundation
"How You Keep a Story Going" Capital Campaign
In the 19th and early 20th century, Seattle's Chinatown was a fledgling metropolis, filled largely with single Chinese, Japanese and Filipino men processing fish, doing laundry, hauling timber, building roads. They were poor, far from home, and segregated from American society and their own loved ones because of racial boundaries and federal exclusion laws. These bachelors congregated in dozens of cheap hotels and boardinghouses that dotted the small community, oases of familiarity and shared experience.

In 1910, a group of Chinese-American men pooled their funds to build two handsome brick buildings in the heart of Chinatown. The East and West Kong Yick buildings contained storefronts, a slaughterhouse, gaming rooms and, on the top two floors of the East Kong Yick Building, the Freeman Hotel, home to 100 single laborers. The buildings became an important social center and comfort for those immigrants seizing Western opportunity while helping to build a city.

After decades as a hub and way station of immigrant life, the East Kong Yick Building was shut down in World War II during the period of Japanese American internment. It reopened after war's end, but closed for good in the 1970s because of strict new fire codes. Then for nearly 40 years, the living quarters sat vacant and increasingly derelict, the remnants of its former life—the odd gaming piece, an old calendar, an abacus—slowly graying with dust.

Fast forward to the year 2005: The Wing Luke Museum, a small but renowned affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, was bursting at the seams. Its exhibits and programs about the Asian American experience in the Northwest were successful and growing. The museum needed to move into a larger space, but didn't want to leave the neighborhood. That's when descendants of the building's original pioneers spoke to the museum leadership about the possibility of purchasing and revitalizing the East Kong Yick building for its headquarters.

Since then, ambitious plans have been put in place. The museum will increase four-fold in space, with expanded programs and enhanced collections, an 80-seat theater, an art gallery, community hall and heritage center. The building's historic apartments, stores and social clubs will also be preserved and restored as a testament to Asian Pacific American experiences and contributions in the Northwest.

The new museum will preserve a significant historic building and tell the stories of immigrant and refugee populations that have contributed to the American experience. In 2004, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation provided an early leadership gift of $1.25 million to support construction costs and help Wing Luke launch its $23.2 million campaign. Since then, more than one thousand individual donors have contributed to the campaign—many for the first time ever. Wing Luke will not only meet, but exceed its fundraising goal. The new Wing Luke Asian Museum will be open in May 2008 and bring 60,000 visitors to the museum and International District.

"We hope it will be a catalyst for preserving and revitalizing the area," said Ron Chew, the Wing Luke Museum's executive director. "It's very important to the heart and soul of the community."

Web site: www.wingluke.org

Paul  G. Allen 是　比尔．盖茨最早的合伙人,　也是个大慈善家,　他投资的地产就在陆荣昌博物馆附近．他家的基金会很看中博物馆的．．．．．．

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[ 本帖最后由 陆海燕 于 2008-7-19 08:39 编辑 ]