About The President Lucia Chen

Lucia Chen serves as President and Executive Director of the T.F. Chen Cultural Center, the Arts for Humanity Foundation, the New World Art Center (NYC, Beijing & Taipei), the Chen Foundation, and TLT & J Enterprises LLC, etc. With over thirty years of experience in the international art and business worlds, as an art dealer, agent, advisor, curator, collector, licensor and investor, Lucia is one of the few successful Asian women in NYC in her field. She has written numerous articles concerning the international art market for various magazines, and she is an avid collector of African art, master prints, and contemporary artworks. Lucia specializes in curating and promoting large-scale exhibitions, organizing and establishing art galleries, and art investment consulting. As a member of the Museum Store Association, Lucia also engages in the licensing and publishing side of art, as well as building up her own product lines of art merchandise at her museum store. On top of her achievements in the art world, Lucia is also a very successful real estate mogul and entrepreneur.

Recognitions

Because of her outstanding achievement and contribution to the art and business societies in Asia and America, Lucia has been featured in

“Who’s Who in America.” (more than 30 years conducting successful business in American, established 7 companies, etc)
“Who’s Who in America Art.” (founded 6 art galleries and one Art Center in SoHo, NYC)
Strathmore’s “Who’s Who“ and “National Register’s Who’s Who.” (business executives section)
“Who’s Who in American Women.” (As an Asian-American woman, she has been very outstanding in business achievement and has contributed to many non-profit organizations and related activities)
“Who’s who in Asia.” (she is the only Asian who has a non-profit organiztion in NYC advancing East -West cultural exchange for over 30 years
Asia Inc magazine, and many other TV interviews and art magazines

A Focus on the Arts & Culture

As a successful real estate investor and developer as well as a connoisseur of art and literature, Lucia Chen is both business savvy and culturally intelligent. Yet her primary love has always been the Arts, and so she funneled most of her energy and resources towards the building up of and operation of her art business.

Over the decades, Lucia has built up a solid reputation as a skillful art consultant and collector herself. Artworks she has acquired for the NWAC as well as private and corporate clients have all enjoyed a steady and continuous rise in market value. Many of her clients have been first-time collectors who started following her advice decades ago.

Building the Empire

Lucia H. Chen was born in Taiwan in 1948. After earning her B.A. at the Normal College in Taiwan, she was a writer, teacher and opera singer. In 1973, Lucia went to the University of Paris to study music and art history, where she met Dr. Tsing-fang Chen. They got married and moved to the United States, where Lucia studied at the University of Maryland, took care of her family and began her career as a private art dealer in Washington, DC.

In 1977, with a bank mortgage and $30,000 USD borrowed from her friends, Lucia Chen bought a house in Silver Springs, Maryland. After two years of preparation, Lucia then bought a 3-story building in the prestigious embassy district of Washington, DC and opened her first art gallery: Gallery New World. In 1984, Gallery New World was relocated to SoHo, NYC. In 1987, Lucia launched a branch of Gallery New World in the thriving east district of Taipei. In 1996, Lucia opened her second Asian art gallery in the Apollo Art building. In 1988, she opened her fourth art gallery at a 4-story historic loft building that she purchased on Spring Street, in the heart of SoHo, NYC.

Over the years, the galleries continued to thrive and expand. In 1994, Lucia started planning the construction of a private museum for Dr. T.F. Chen. In two years, she redesigned and established a six-story 22,000 sq.ft museum building to serve as the headquarters for the New World Art Center and the T. F. Chen Cultural Center — a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Dr. Chen’s vision of a “Global New Renaissance in Love in Love” and East – West cultural exchange. At the time, it was the largest private art museum in NYC.

Up to date, Lucia Chen has produced more than 200 one-man shows for Dr. Chen, has personally established eight galleries, and has published several high-quality limited editions and other licensing products.

As President of the T.F. Chen Cultural Center, Lucia has served as Curator for dozens of large-scale art shows focused on cultural exchange, such as group shows for 150 Japanese artists, 60 Italian artists, 50 contemporary overseas Chinese artists, 30 contemporary emerging artists, French artists, and African American artists. In addition to bringing in artists from around the world, Lucia has created many cultural activities to the Center, such as poetry readings, film screenings, music performances, seminars, etc. Lucia has also curated and organized five large-scale travelling shows for Dr. Chen, each show spanning 2-3 years and touring as many as 19 Museums and Cultural Centers in Taiwan.

From 2002-2008, Lucia’s main focus has been on the “Arts for Humanity World Tour.”

In 2008, during the Beijing Olympics, Lucia organized 5 Museum exhibitions for Dr. Chen in Beijing and Shanghai, such as at the World Museum and the Chinese Millennium Monument. In 2009, Dr. Chen’s “Salute to the Beijing Olympics Series” showed at the newly-built Beijing National Indoor Gym. At the time, Lucia and Dr. Chen also published a new 300 page art book featuring Dr. Chen’s “Olympics Series” in English and Chinese.

During the Beijing Olympics, she organized several high-profile exhibitions for Dr. Chen at important art museums and institutions in Beijing and Shanghai, such as at the newly-built Beijing National Indoor Gym, World Museum at the Chinese Millennium Monument, Bridge Art Center, Elements Museum of Contemporary Art, the Zhu Qizhan Museum in Shanghai, and in the 798 Beijing Art District. She also published a new 300 page art book featuring Dr. Chen’s “Salute to the Beijing Olympics Series” in English and Chinese at that time.

Currently, Lucia is still busy conducting the “Arts for Humanity World Tour.” In 2009, she is also opening a branch of NWAC in the famous 798 Beijing Art District.

Through hard work, perseverance, and a refusal to accept limitations, Lucia Chen has almost single-handedly built her own empire in the field of art that she loves.