Carrying forth a mission to celebrate and promote Asian art in New York City, Asia Week New York is a collaboration of top-tier Asian art specialists, major auction houses, and world-renowned museums and Asian cultural institutions in the metropolitan New York area. The Asia Week New York Association concentrates its efforts on presenting one non-stop, event-filled week in March of every year, drawing collectors and curators from every corner of the United States and an international clientele from across the globe. The annual event fulfills the broader aim of affirming the importance of Asian art in the citywide—and nationwide—cultural scene.
From March 13–21, 2009, a group of 16 galleries, then dubbed the “Asian Art Dealers of the Upper East Side,” collaborated to present an inaugural open house on March 14, 2009. This open house format and the week-long gallery exhibitions that follow would become the model for subsequent editions of Asia Week New York.