Who Really Owns This Art? A Smithsonian Insider Gets Honest
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Your favorite museum might be built on stolen goods. Nicole Dowd works inside the Smithsonian, and she's not here to defend it. Saadia Khan sits down with Nicole to break it all down. As Head of Public Programs at the National Museum of Asian Art, she's sitting with the uncomfortable truth: Western museums have a colonial problem, and a fresh coat of "inclusivity" paint won't fix it. We get into repatriation, who really has access to art, the model minority myth, and what it means to be Korean, adopted, and suddenly surrounded by Korean treasures every day at work.
This is the museum conversation nobody wants to have and exactly why we're having it.
Link to NMAA website: https://asia.si.edu/
Link to IlluminAsia 2026 programming: https://asia.si.edu/whats-on/events/event-series/illuminasia-arts-and-culture-festival/
NMAA IG: @natasianart| post about IlluminAsia
NMAA FB: https://www.facebook.com/NatAsianArt | post about IlluminAsia
Join us in creating new intellectual engage...
Your favorite museum might be built on stolen goods. Nicole Dowd works inside the Smithsonian, and she's not here to defend it. Saadia Khan sits down with Nicole to break it all down. As Head of Public Programs at the National Museum of Asian Art, she's sitting with the uncomfortable truth: Western museums have a colonial problem, and a fresh coat of "inclusivity" paint won't fix it. We get into repatriation, who really has access to art, the model minority myth, and what it means to be Korean, adopted, and suddenly surrounded by Korean treasures every day at work.
This is the museum conversation nobody wants to have and exactly why we're having it.
Link to NMAA website: https://asia.si.edu/
Link to IlluminAsia 2026 programming: https://asia.si.edu/whats-on/events/event-series/illuminasia-arts-and-culture-festival/
NMAA IG: @natasianart| post about IlluminAsia
NMAA FB: https://www.facebook.com/NatAsianArt | post about IlluminAsia
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