Q&A with Nancy Yao Maasbach, President of the Museum of Chinese in America

Nancy Yao Maasbach is President of the Museum of Chinese in America, a museum in New York City which exhibits Chinese American history. Nancy worked at Goldman Sachs from 1999 to 2005 in the firm's Investment Banking, Executive Office and Global Investment Research Divisions in Hong Kong and New York.

When and why was the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) founded and has it always been at the current 215 Centre Street Address?
Nancy: This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA). The Museum began as a community-based organization founded in 1980 as the New York Chinatown History Project by historian John Kuo Wei Tchen and community activist Charles Lai. It was established to develop a better understanding of Chinese American history and community and to respond to the concern that the memories and experiences of aging older generations would perish without oral history, photo documentation, research and collecting efforts. In 2009, MOCA opened a greatly expanded space at 215 Centre Street designed by artist/architect Maya Lin. Its previous home at 70 Mulberry Street became MOCA’s Collections and Research Center. Earlier this year on January 23, there was a 5-alarm fire at 70 Mulberry Street which housed MOCA’s Collections that had grown to over 85,000 artifacts—the largest singular collection of Chinese American artifacts.

As a young girl growing up in Flushing, Queens with weekly visits to Chinatown; I remember MOCA’s early days at 70 Mulberry Street. My mother learned English and skills at the Chinatown Manpower Project which was in the same building. I would wander through the building waiting for her. Flushing was still predominantly people of European ancestry; it surprised me that Chinese faces and people were the priority at 70 Mulberry either through photos on the walls telling stories, social service offerings or arts and culture instruction.

What are some of MOCA’s main goals and what initiatives support those efforts?
Nancy: The Museum works in tandem with other organizations that aim to redefine the American narrative, one that includes a wider breadth of contributions from people of different ancestries. MOCA is not by Chinese Americans for Chinese Americans. MOCA is by all for all. Misperceptions about what MOCA is, or should be, persist. At times, visitors think that MOCA is a museum of Asian art from the Ming Dynasty, for example, or MOCA carries a robust offering of Chinese teas in the MOCA Shop. These expectations contribute to an underlying sense that Chinese people in America are perpetually foreign or that Chinese Americans should be knowledgeable or aware of Chinese culture. MOCA is fundamentally a Diversity, Equity, Inclusive, Accessible and Belonging (DEIAB) museum.

MOCA’s goal is to make Chinese American history accessible to the general public, ranging from scholars to young children, from community members to international tourists. Through its thought-provoking work, the Museum not only encourages the understanding and appreciation of Chinese American arts, culture and history, but also informs, educates and engages visitors about Chinese American history in the making. The Museum continues to encourage dialogue among its visitors that will transcend generational, geographical and cultural boundaries. MOCA continues to be a platform for cultural dialogue: a self-renewing exchange that brings to life the multiple journeys, memories and contributions of the past and present, woven into a collective narrative that shapes the future of our Chinese American legacy.

In 2020, MOCA was designated one of 20 of America’s Cultural Treasures by a consortium of leading foundations. This designation was a major milestone for MOCA and the American narrative. With everything MOCA offers whether through exhibitions, oral history and archival collections, education programs, and scholarship, MOCA layers history, art, and community.

Before COVID 19, MOCA offered a daily walking tour of Chinatown that was rooted in the evolving dynamic of an historic neighborhood. Since shuttering its operations on March 15, 2020, MOCA has not missed a beat. It has heightened its programming by offering 4-5 programs a week—all free and open to the public. Programs including discussions around Chinese American journeys, allyship, reading clubs, Storytime and MOCA Treasures on the Road have increased MOCA ‘visitorship’ by 500% compared to feet through the door. After routinely asking visitors if they could name an American hero of Chinese ancestry and receiving the answer, “no,” MOCA launched the MOCA Heroes series that highlights the journey of an American hero of Chinese ancestry. Current issues in the series feature Yung Wing, Chinese Railroad Workers, Tyrus Wong, Maya Lin and Jerry Yang.

What can visitors expect to experience if they visit the museum?
Nancy: On-site, audiences have access to fresh, innovative exhibits and culturally rich programs, including a core exhibition featuring nearly 200 years of Chinese American history, interactive educational opportunities for families, children and school groups. Recent exhibits on Chinese American food, the Chinese typewriter and Chinese medicine in America have won acclaim. In October, MOCA opened a temporary space called the MOCA Workshop located at 3 Howard Street around the corner from its main museum space at 215 Centre Street. After the devasting fire that destroyed 70 Mulberry Street, MOCA desperately sought new space to house its salvaged collections. This 4,000 square foot space will be dedicated to public access for research and scholarship, oral history collection and conservation of damaged artifacts from the fire.

Visitors can also expect to see hundreds of students on any given weekday. As MOCA and other marginalized groups in America wait for true revisions and additions to U.S. textbooks to be more inclusive of the American narrative, teachers and educators supplement what is taught in the classroom with a visit to MOCA. Today, MOCA’s diverse professional constituency includes educators, scholars and journalists, as well as artists such as designers, photographers, playwrights, filmmakers, actors and musicians who help conceptualize, implement and participate in exhibits and programs. MOCA also aims to cultivate Asian American artistry through open mic nights, storytelling, play readings and performance.

Last year, there was a tragic fire at 70 Mulberry Street where you archive a lot of MOCA’s work, and the museum is now closed due to COVID-19. How can people help during this difficult time?
Nancy: Humor is a coping mechanism for me. I joked with the MOCA team that if this museum gig doesn’t work out, we should go into document recovery solutions. To be frank, conservation of damaged artifacts is an expensive endeavor. It will cost the museum millions of dollars and a minimum of six years to recover from the fire. At the same time, the silver lining with the fire was that families have been reaching out with their own artifacts and materials. MOCA has a tremendous opportunity to grow its collection while at the same time conserving it for long-time scholarship and research purposes. Taking a page from my Goldman days, we have plans to go on a ‘roadshow’ to collect these items once it is safe to do so.

MOCA has a big dream. It seeks permanence. Despite its designation as one of 20 of America’s Cultural Treasures and one of New York City’s top 25 museums (Conde Nast 2019), MOCA has a $2.8MM annual budget. This number is a rounding error from the last model I built at Goldman. And yet, MOCA is doing the impossible: contributing to redefining and rewriting the American narrative. Hot off the press, MOCA will open a permanent home, 5x larger, on its current footprint in a few years. MOCA has partnered with artist/architect Maya Lin and leading museum design firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates to bring the dream to fruition.

We ring the cowbell for any donation of any size. More cowbells as I like to say. 

How has your illustrious career in finance and a Yale MBA helped you lead this nonprofit and what is your vision for its future?
Nancy: Definitely not illustrious—and that is part Asian humility and part that there are smarter people everywhere. Nonprofit models are different than for-profit models. In my experiences, the pace of change is at a different speed and care is at a greater level. It pains me when a large non-profit organization with ample funding and a substantial endowment runs a deficit. I have not grown the budget since joining MOCA six years ago. In fact, the budget remains 10% lower than my first year and the staff has been cut in half. Yet, we have grown our membership 600%, increased our earned revenue versus contributed revenue, strengthened our balance sheet and offered 3x more programs. Growth is not always with numbers. We looked at ways to leverage technology; we joined the Tessitura Network for our CRM system. At Goldman in Hong Kong, I spent a good amount of time covering the burgeoning IT services sector in China and India. That experience implanted the importance of a good CRM system. Also, if your revenues cannot sustain your expenses, a non-profit has few paths to pursue. If you have no savings, no working capital and no endowment—which is unfortunately the case for many well-meaning, mission-critical non-profit organizations—you will also have no financing options: end of the road. Before COVID 19, I was frustrated with blatant inequity in arts and cultural funding on many levels. The second silver lining this year for MOCA and many other non-profit organizations is that leading foundations like the Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies are changing the system radically. They are meeting organizations where they are, seeing their potential, building infrastructure and partnering together.

I also realize that my for-profit experience does not make me better or smarter than my non-profit colleagues. I have learned so much about myself and what mission-critical work truly means working in the non-profit sector. I always find it curious that when you scroll down an industry list of professions, there is one that reads ‘non-profit’ that is somehow supposed to encapsulate all areas where non-profits exist. Non-profits help build civil society. There seems to be an implicit bias that unless you are a large non-profit organization, you may not be…worthy?

Who is your favorite artist featured at MOCA and why?
Nancy:  Tyrus Wong was a Disney animator. He was the lead production illustrator for Disney’s 1942 film Bambi. I love the story of Tyrus Wong for several reasons. For one, on a personal basis, I first came across Tyrus Wong’s work when I as a sophomore at Occidental College in Los Angeles when I visited a Chinese American friend’s home in Eagle Rock. In his living room, these incredible handmade kites hung from the ceiling. I was not used to seeing art and, frankly, so much color and expression in a Chinese American household. Fast forward 20 years, I realized that the kites were made by Tyrus Wong, the grandfather of my friend. Not a household name, I did not realize Tyrus Wong’s incredible contribution to animation, movies and art until MOCA showed an exhibit of his life and work in 2015. In 1920, Tyrus Wong arrived in America as a ‘paper son’ or an assumed false identity because most Chinese immigration was prohibited under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Although he experienced significant racial bias throughout his career, later in his life he was celebrated. He passed away at 106 in December 2016. He was a bonafide Disney legend.

What is the most important lesson you learned from your time at Goldman Sachs?
Nancy: I can always do better, but sleep is important. And, at the end of the day, the good guys can and do win if we leave our ego at the door.