Female Voices in Art: Shirley Young (1935-2020) was a founding member and Governor of the Committee of 100, and Chair of US-China Cultural Institute
“Women have to struggle much harder and often give up because it is so hard to be accepted or acknowledged. It has remained a man’s world and social environment for too long.”
Shirley Young (b. 1935, Shanghai, China, d. 2020, New
York, US) was a founding member and Governor of the Committee of 100, and Chair
of US-China Cultural Institute. From 1989 to 2000, she was Corporate Vice
President of General Motors and co-leader of its entry into China with the
Shanghai-GM joint venture. Earlier, she was Executive Vice President of Grey
Advertising and President of Grey Strategic Marketing. Shirley served on many
corporate boards including Salesforce.com, Bank of America, Verizon, and
Target. She focused on cultural-educational activities and served on the boards
of the New York Philharmonic, Lang Lang International Music Foundation,
National Dance Institute and The Nature Conservancy – Asia Pacific. She was
Senior Advisor and trustee of Wellesley College and served on the boards of
Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Associates of Harvard Business School, and
Philips Academy, Andover. She received many awards for her business and
cultural activities.
With sadness I read that Shirley Young died on 27 December 2020. In 2019, I had the honour and pleasure to portray Shirley for my project, Artfully Dressed: Women in the Art World, and I also did a short interview with her. Please read below:
Could you tell us something about your role in the art world?
Nurturing Chinese Artists for the international world.
What did you enjoy about being a part of this project?
Seeing the range of women contributing to the arts in so many different ways.
Do you have a favourite artist?
Xu Bing, Cai Guo-Qiang, Lin Tianmiao
What is your earliest memory involving art?
Creating a baroque sculpture from a block of sandstone for Madrigal Art class.
Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world?
Women have to struggle much harder and often give up because it is so hard to be accepted or acknowledged. It has remained a man's world and social environment for too.
What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it?
A Manchu dynasty imperial robe from the seventeenth century belonging to a family friend but bought at Sotheby’s auction.
