A Note on the Center's History

For many years now people have been telling me that I, or someone, should write the history of the American Society for Eastern Arts and its descendant, the Center for World Music. Its role in the introduction of Asian performing arts to the people of the United States is important, but still relatively little known.

Now that we have a web site, it struck me that it might be possible to use that as a means to collect and display the facts and artifacts of, at this point, some forty years of rather unique activities.  There is no other organization that I know of with the particular goals of this one.  Its fortunes have ebbed and flowed at different periods over time, but the activities have never stopped.

I also thought of all of the wonderful art work of the past, those boxes of posters and programs and archives of photographs that could illustrate that history.  The potential for personal communication on the Internet might help to garner comments and experiences from those whose lives were affected by interaction with the many artists of stature who participated over the years as teachers and performers.  Having been here from the beginning--even before the beginning--I could perhaps provide a framework for putting together a living history of the organization.

We hope to flesh out the tentative outline of the various eras of ASEA and the Center for World Music listed below, providing for each a summary of its particular history, displays of photographs, posters, programs, and other such documents, and, most importantly, input from former students, artists, and friends of ASEA and the Center. 

For those who participated in that history, we hope that we will be able to help you recall the past.  For those who are new to the Center, we hope to some small extent to bring the past back to life.  So, friends, we are waiting to hear from you and plan to include as many of your comments and reminiscences as possible in order to present a truly well-rounded history of this rather special organization.  Thanks in advance for whatever written or pictorial contributions to our history you may care to make.

Robert E. Brown
February, 1999

Tentative Outline

1. Beginning Years of the American Society for Eastern Arts, 1963-65.
   
   
2. ASEA Programs in San Francisco and Oakland, 1965-73.
   
   
3. Center for World Music in Berkeley, Seattle, and Madison, 1973-1976.
   
   
4. Center for World Music at Fort Mason, San Francisco, 1976-1979.
   
   
5. Center for World Music at San Diego State University, 1979-1982.
   
   
6. Center for World Music in San Diego, 1982-present.

Modified: January 11, 2006