The fortunes of the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) has been transformed by a £20m donation to advance the study and preservation of Buddhist and Hindu art in Southeast Asia.
Some of the money from the Chicago-based Alphawood Foundation will fund three academic posts, including a senior lectureship in the curating and museology of Asian art. The new posts are part of the academic programme where £15m of the £20m will be spent, with the donation also funding more than 80 scholarships.
Scholarship candidates will be sought from across the region – particularly Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and Laos – from heritage organisations, museums, universities and government departments.
"Soas has been studying and interpreting the development, languages, arts and cultures of Asia for nearly 100 years and this project will draw on that knowledge as well as further reinforce our position as a world-leading centre for the study and interpretation of Southeast Asian art,” Soas director Paul Webley said.
The Alphawood gift includes £5m to support Soas’s development of the north wing of Senate House, a 1930s University of London building in Bloomsbury that is adjacent to the Soas campus.
The founder of the Alphawood Foundation is Fred Eychaner, who took Soas’s postgraduate diploma in Asian art in 2009. The donation to the school is the largest gift in the foundation’s history, and is also one of the biggest arts and humanities donations to a UK higher education body.
Some of the money from the Chicago-based Alphawood Foundation will fund three academic posts, including a senior lectureship in the curating and museology of Asian art. The new posts are part of the academic programme where £15m of the £20m will be spent, with the donation also funding more than 80 scholarships.
Scholarship candidates will be sought from across the region – particularly Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and Laos – from heritage organisations, museums, universities and government departments.
"Soas has been studying and interpreting the development, languages, arts and cultures of Asia for nearly 100 years and this project will draw on that knowledge as well as further reinforce our position as a world-leading centre for the study and interpretation of Southeast Asian art,” Soas director Paul Webley said.
The Alphawood gift includes £5m to support Soas’s development of the north wing of Senate House, a 1930s University of London building in Bloomsbury that is adjacent to the Soas campus.
The founder of the Alphawood Foundation is Fred Eychaner, who took Soas’s postgraduate diploma in Asian art in 2009. The donation to the school is the largest gift in the foundation’s history, and is also one of the biggest arts and humanities donations to a UK higher education body.
