WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art has announced that Jeffrey P. Cunard is endowing the museum’s curatorial position of Southeast Asian Art, which will be known as the Jeffrey P. Cunard Curator of Southeast Asian Art. The inaugural holder of that position will be Emma Natalya Stein, who received her doctorate in the history of art from Yale (2017) and has been on the museum’s curatorial staff since 2019. The museum will now be one of two museums in the nation with a dedicated, endowed curatorial position for Southeast Asian art and cultures.

“I sincerely thank Mr. Cunard for this transformative gift,” said Museum Director Chase F. Robinson. “With this endowment, we reaffirm our commitment to presenting the arts and culture of that region as well as our relationships with our Southeast Asian colleagues, as we move toward a more collaborative model for museums.”

The museum has agreements with museum and institutional colleagues in Southeast Asia, including the National Museum of Cambodia. The Jeffrey P. Cunard curatorial endowment, along with the museum’s recently established Helen I. Jessup Fund in support of Southeast Asian programming, will fund exhibitions on Southeast Asia and support new research in the United States and abroad.

“Given the museum’s long-standing commitment to the arts and culture of Southeast Asia and to supporting its partners in that region, this was the right moment to provide financial support to secure that commitment in a public way,” said Cunard, who has supported the museum since 1999.

Cunard is the museum’s seniormost trustee and has served on its board of trustees in various positions for over two decades, including chairman of the board. Presently, he is the head of the museum’s collections committee. He has a long history of supporting arts and community activities in Washington and nationally. For example, he co-founded and serves on the board of the Friends of Khmer Culture Inc., a nonprofit organization that has supported efforts to preserve and increase appreciation of Cambodian architecture, art and culture. Cunard is a retired partner of the international law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where he was the managing partner of the Washington, D.C., office for 15 years. He is a graduate of the University of California Los Angeles and Yale Law School.

This gift benefits the National Museum of Asian Art’s Second Century Campaign and the Smithsonian Campaign for Our Shared Future, which will secure funds for all Smithsonian museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo in support of a single, bold vision: to build a better future for all.