The Museum of Chinese in America in the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan has experienced protests and resignations, a fire and legal problems. Now, the board has chosen a new leader who wants to move the institution forward and reconnect with the local community.
Michael Lee, a nonprofit executive, will be the next director, the board announced on Tuesday. In an interview, he said, “At the end of the day, I want people to know that the museum is here for four things: to preserve history, promote culture, tell our stories and celebrate our accomplishments.”
In 2020, shortly before the pandemic shutdown, a fire ripped through a building housing some of the museum’s permanent collection. Staff members were sifting through the ashes — about 5 percent of the collection was destroyed — as trustees were raising money to buy the main building, at 215 Centre Street, at the same time as the landlord was planning to sell it to developers.
In 2019, the city awarded the museum $35 million through a program for community projects as part of a deal for a local jail — money that allowed the museum to buy the main building. Museum officials said they have opposed the jail’s construction. But some residents have remained skeptical of the museum’s position, and maintain that in taking the money, officials betrayed the neighborhood. Artists withdrew their work from a major exhibition, leading to its cancellation, and to demonstrations by another wave of activists.
Because of the turmoil, Eric Lee, a museum chairman, said the new director needed to be someone who could rebuild trust with the community. So he recruited Michael Lee, a friend from the nonprofit world who is currently the managing director of corporate development at the New York Institute of Finance. Michael Lee then went through a hiring process handled by an outside search firm; he will start in April.
“We wanted an open mind,” Eric Lee said. He added that if the museum wanted to be recognized on a national scale, it would first need to succeed at home.
And there is a large construction project on the horizon: the museum’s renovation, a project designed by the artist Maya Lin that will cost an estimated $118 million and nearly quintuple the institution’s size, to about 68,000 square feet. Plans call for performance spaces, new classrooms and a demonstration kitchen.
But the project has been postponed, as a capital campaign still needs to be organized after the leadership change. Currently, the museum said, its annual budget is $5 million. It had a $1.8 million deficit in 2022, according to its most recent tax filings.
The previous director, Nancy Yao, left last year after the Smithsonian Institution named her founding director of its American Women’s History Museum.
Yao withdrew from the job before starting, after an inquiry into how she had handled sexual harassment claims while leading the Museum of Chinese in America. (The museum settled three wrongful-termination lawsuits from employees who claimed they were fired in retaliation for reporting the sexual misconduct.) When she left the Smithsonian, Yao cited family issues that required her attention.
“She was a director at a really tough time,” Michael Lee said, referring to her time at the Museum of Chinese in America.
He added that he hoped to meet activists and hear them out.
Some locals are skeptical that the museum and the activists who picket it will come to terms. Jan Lee, a founder of Neighbors United Below Canal, which has protested the expansion of a jail, said it would be important for officials to acknowledge the groups’ work, in the museum archives. He also said he wanted to see more structural changes at the board level.
“If you have the same board, you have the same problems,” Jan Lee said. “And they will have to confront uncomfortable things.”
At a moment when some institutions are laying off employees and closing their facilities, Eric Lee said it was important to safeguard organizations like the Museum of Chinese in America.
“I joined the board because I personally cannot see this museum disappear,” he said, emphasizing the role the museum has played since its founding in 1980 in making Chinese American history more visible to students. “Museums are the best ways to create accessible tools about history for the widest audience.”
Michael Lee agreed, saying it was time for the museum to return to its core mission. “As you move farther away from the generation that immigrated here, you lose a lot of things,” he said. “You need a safe place where you can go and learn about your background.”
