Stevens Creek Blvd. is one of the most important avenues in Silicon Valley, with Adobe’s headquarters at its southern end and Apple’s headquarters at its northern end. Twenty years ago, in the fall, the Silicon Valley Asian Art Center was founded on the top floor of the Central Computer building at 3777 Stevens Creek Blvd. Back then, the surrounding area was lined with car dealerships, and there wasn’t a single gallery along the avenue. At the north end, near Adobe, the ballet and symphony companies of Silicon Valley’s capital, San Jose, were on the verge of disbanding. Meanwhile, in Cupertino at the south end, the director of the Euphrat Museum at De Anza College, the largest community college in the U.S., visited Steve Jobs with the city mayor to seek sponsorship, only to be dismissed by Jobs with a quick “Community activities aren’t my concern.”

Today, twenty years later, the Silicon Valley Asian Art Center has become one of the most influential private art institutions on the West Coast, transforming the art ecosystem of Silicon Valley. It has become a training ground for Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs, investors, and tech professionals to appreciate and collect art. The center has also promoted significant Chinese artists from Silicon Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California, and North America to audiences in mainland China, hosting major exhibitions at the Zhejiang Art Museum by West Lake in Hangzhou, the National Museum of China near Tiananmen Square, and the prestigious Liaoning Provincial Museum in Northeast Asia. Additionally, one of the artists exclusively represented by the center once refused Steve Jobs’ request and didn’t allow him to purchase the artwork he admired.