Asia Society Mourns Passing of Honorary Life Trustee Cynthia Hazen Polsky
Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky welcome incoming Asia Society President and CEO Kyung-wha Kang in April, 2024.
Cynthia Polsky with President's Forum speaker Indra Nooyi in 2009.
Cynthia Polsky, Vishakha Desai, and Leon Polsky
Lulu Wang, Melissa Chiu, Stephanie Foster, Betsy Cohen, Cynthia Hazen Polsky, Henrietta Fore, and Vishakha Desai at Asia Society's Celebration of Asia Week gala in 2012. Photo by Billy Farrell
Cynthia Polsky and Melissa Chiu at the Arts of Kashmir exhibition opening in 2007. Photo by Elsa Ruiz
Mira Nair, Cynthia Polsky, and Vishakha Desai. Photo by Elsa Ruiz
Leon Polsky, President's Forum speaker Julie Taymor, Vishakha Desai and Cynthia Polsky in 2005.
Cynthia Polsky, President's Forum speakers Siddhartha Mukherjee and Sarah Sze, Vishakha Desai, and Leon Polsky in 2012. Photo by Suzanna Finley
Asia Society mourns the passing of our longtime friend and Honorary Life Trustee Cynthia Hazen Polsky.
Cynthia was a visionary who understood that art and culture can bridge divides and transform understanding. An artist herself, she described her first trip to Asia in 1960 as "the single most eye-opening experience of my life," leading to a lifelong passion for preserving, collecting, studying, and exhibiting Asian art.
At Asia Society, her involvement began in earnest when she joined our Board of Trustees in 1984. She brought her passion, knowledge, and enthusiasm to our exhibitions, our permanent collection and acquisitions, and our programming at large.
In 2004-2005, Asia Society Museum presented the exhibition In the Realm of Gods and Kings: Arts of India | Selections from the Polsky Collections and The Metropolitan Museum of Art reflecting Cynthia and Leon Polskly's keenly felt engagement with India and its culture since that first visit in 1960.
Though she had a deep connection with Indian art, she committed herself equally to our work across Asian cultures. An early supporter of our Park Avenue building renovation and expansion in 2001, she was also an advocate for our contemporary art program from its nascent stages. Her steadfast support of these efforts, and of work across multiple disciplines and histories, extended beyond the walls of the museum to our work on human rights and social issues, contemporary affairs, international education, and foreign policy.
Cynthia's wisdom and foresight guided and shaped our programming and our entire institution, along with so many other cultural organizations that she so generously supported. Her decades-long contributions and visionary guidance will impact our work for generations to come. Our profound condolences to Leon Polsky and to her beloved family.
Asia Society's signature President's Forum series, in which the president of Asia Society interviews prominent guests on broad range of topics, has been generously supported by the Hazen Polsky Foundation since 2002. A list of President's Forum speakers follows.
Asia Society President Nicholas Platt:
- Tan Dun, 2002
Asia Society President Vishakha Desai:
- Amartya Sen, 2004
- Julie Taymor, 2005
- Maya Lin, 2005
- Thich Nhat Hanh, 2007
- Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2008
- Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, 2008
- Indra K. Nooyi, 2009
- Reza Aslan, 2009
- The Honorable Tun Abdullah Badawi, 2009
- Mira Nair, 2009
- Irina Bokova, 2011
- Sarah Sze and Siddhartha Mukherjee, 2012
- Maya Soetoro-Ng, 2012
- Celebrating Beate Gordon, 2013 (memorial)
Asia Society President Josette Sheeran:
- Arianna Huffington, 2014
- Nicholas Kristoff, 2015
- Maurice (Hank) Greenberg, 2015
- Ajay Piramal, 2016
- General David H. Petraus, 2017
- Lesley Stahl, 2018
- Ambassador William J. Burns, 2019
- Farooq Kathwari, 2020