Celebrating Wai Look

As part of the Asian American Arts Alliance's (a4) preparations for the 29th Anniversary Benefit Gala, we took some time for a very special task: selecting the very first winner of the Wai Look Award for Outstanding Service to the Arts.

In December 2010, our dear longtime board member, Wai Look, died after a 16-month illness. Wai was a vibrant spirit, deeply committed to the Asian American arts community. Service and volunteerism meant so much to her, as was doing things right.

Earlier this year, the Wai Look Award committee was formed to give shape to a way to best celebrate Wai's life and honor the work that meant so much to her. They issued a call for nominations and gave careful thought to the guidelines. Recently, the group met, shared memories of Wai, and made the hard decision among a strong pool of candidates on who most fully embodied what mattered to Wai.

We'll announce the winner in our e-news on Monday, 3 October.

In the meantime, please join me in thanking the committee for being such thoughtful stewards of this award and the selection process. The committee includes a4 board members Ted Berger, Ravi Rajan, and Athena Robles; former a4 Executive Director Lillian Cho; Wai's sister, Rachel Look; and Wai's friend, Sari Pessah. The award will be presented at the a4 gala on Tuesday, 18 October 2011. Learn how to buy tickets here.