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Anne Ishii’s 2018 move from New York to Philadelphia was twofold: the writer and editor longed to live here and she could lead to the esteemed Asian Arts Initiative.
“In my world as an Asian American, this is one of the most important places of cultural leadership, arts production, and really at the bleeding edge of thinking about creative placemaking and what cultural power looks like,” Ishii said. “I was just shocked that more people didn’t know about it.”
It’s been an eventful six years: overseeing AAI’s art education, and community programs, keeping its building at 12th and Vine constantly active, pivoting to community care programs during the pandemic, becoming a cultural thought leader during the summer of 2020 and its calls for racial equity, and hosting a television series on WHYY-TV.
Ishii has now decided to step down from the Asian Arts Initiative, effective Aug. 15.
“In the last year I had been thinking about how to reduce my work capacity. I personally am feeling like I need a lighter workload,” she said. “The organization can’t afford to have an executive director who works any less than full-time.”
As AAI searches for a new leader, its director of programs Dave Kyu will serve as interim executive director. Ishii said she will remain in Philadelphia to begin a position at another organization, but is not yet at liberty to reveal her next position. She will remain as a consultant to AAI for about a year.
“This isn’t to say that where I’m going next would be demanding less of my expertise or my time, but I wouldn’t have to be holding six different kinds of work,” she said. “Being place-based, it’s 26,000 square feet of a building and every square foot requires an ounce of attention.”
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