Diversity Award: Fang-Yu Liu

Fang-Yu Liu, senior archivist at the Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc., is the 2026 recipient of the Diversity Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Established in 2011, the award recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.

Liu holds a Master of Professional Studies degree in arts and cultural management from the Pratt Institute in New York, and she earned the Certificate in Arrangement and Description from SAA in 2024. 

Liu’s commitment to inclusive documentation began with the multilingual archival work she practiced at the Cai Guo-Qiang Archive in New York. She developed cross-lingual controlled vocabularies and cataloging protocols that preserved the artist’s handwritten notes in their original languages within digital records. By documenting original-language content (Chinese, English, and Japanese) alongside standardized metadata, she protected the cultural nuance of non-English materials from being lost in translation. She also consulted directly with the artist and his long-term collaborators to process materials while verifying context and correct records.

In her current role at Franklin Furnace, an organization whose mission is to present, preserve, interpret, educate, and advocate on behalf of avant-garde art, Liu leads archival efforts to expand access, strengthen multilingual description, and foreground artists whose work has been historically excluded from the mainstream. Recently, she led a 2026 relaunch of the Franklin Furnace Events Online Database, providing increased public access to more than 1,620 records of performance, installation, new media art, and exhibitions from 1976 to the present. She worked with web developers on improved navigation, advanced search functions, expanded data fields, and direct links to video documentation, ensuring that documentation of social practice art remains freely and democratically accessible. Outside the archive, she organized an exhibition entitled “In Currents: Migration, Memory, and the Making of Home” at Thomas VanDyke Gallery in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, which brought together the works of ten Taiwanese artists from across the United States and Taiwan.

Liu’s tireless work, empathy, and intellectual rigor have not gone unnoticed by her colleagues. Through her work across languages and cultures, she has preserved historical meaning and lessened the risk of modern misinterpretation. A supporter noted, “As a Taiwanese archivist working in an international environment, Fang-Yu brings cultural fluency and ethical clarity to complex archival solutions. Her contributions have had a lasting impact on how our archive documents and represents global contemporary art.” Another stated that “Fang-Yu approaches archival work as an act of care and solidarity. She understands that documenting marginalized and immigrant experiences is both a professional responsibility and a moral commitment.”

Established in 2011, past recipients of the Diversity Award include The Center for Radio Preservation and Archives at WYSO, Christopher E. Haley (founder of the Legacy Slavery Program in Maryland), and Julie Varee (Anchorage Museum).