This guide focuses on organizing lists and resources on selected professional Asian American artists, architects and designers who have done impactful work. Each section begins with a current index of the people represented, broader resources from the catalog, and a form for suggestions and feedback. This is followed by tabs on specific artists, architects, and designers with books, articles, videos, and journals of immediate relevance to particular people. After, there's a page with resources from outside the UIUC Library collections and system like museums, networks, and collectives in direct connection to Asian American artists, architects, and designers.

Notably, as an identity marker "Asian American" encompasses significantly more than what's reflected on this living document, so there are many ways that this can grow. For the purposes of this guide, the Pew Research Center's publications and fact sheets on "Asian Americans" as a constructed racial and ethnic category were used as points of reference. Let us know in which directions this could better serve you. Do you also want to know more about transnational artistic collaborations? More about technical architectural innovations? About how designers have started local community engagement projects? Sincerely, this is meant as a starting point into what can be a more involved conversation in how we can support your creative research, curiosities, and studies. What do you need that support to look like today and tomorrow?

This guide was created by Tacia J. Díaz Fonseca, Ricker Library Graduate Assistant 2020-2022.

#FromMarginToCenter is born out of the clear need to draw attention to marginalized voices, not only across our society, but specifically in our library. We need to acknowledge that nondominant experiences are not well represented in our collections and resources, and further we need to do something about it.

• Create a growing body of resources designed to highlight contemporary artists and designers across a broad range of identities. Our selection criteria combine staff expertise and interest, current events, and providing a balanced range of resources, knowing that this is an emerging body of material that will evolve and take different shapes over time.

• After putting in the work to create a resource guide, we amplify those voices. We highlight specific creators in our social media, look for ways to collect more material about or by the person in question, and find ways to embed references to these folks in our more general use guides, as well as our  teaching, outreach, reference, and other activities.

For more information, see the #FromMarginToCenter Initiative page on our website.

We would like to begin our guide by recognizing and acknowledging that we, at the University of Illinois Libraries, are on the lands of the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Piankashaw, Wea, Miami, Mascoutin, Odawa, Sauk, Mesquaki, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Chickasaw Nations. These lands were the traditional territory of these Native Nations prior to their forced removal; these lands continue to carry the stories of these Nations and their struggles for survival and identity.

As a land-grant institution, the University of Illinois has a particular responsibility to acknowledge the peoples of these lands, as well as the histories of dispossession that have allowed for the growth of this institution for the past 150 years. We are also obligated to reflect on and actively address these histories and the role that this university has played in shaping them. This acknowledgement and the centering of Native peoples is but a start as we move forward for the next 150 years.

(From the Office of the Chancellor, as recommended by the Native American House) 

As you begin your research, do note that all research, teaching, display, imaging, and circulation of University of Illinois NAGPRA materials and collections without tribal permission is prohibited. Find more detailed information in the NAGPRA procedures.

Materials accessed in this guide are provided for personal and/or scholarly use.  Users are responsible for obtaining any copyright permissions that may be required for their own further uses of that material.  For more information about fair use please refer to the College Art Association Code of Best Practices in Fair Use in the Visual Arts.