Oscar Tang

Oscar L. Tang is a Chinese-born American financier who is notable as a philanthropist for education and art. He donated millions of dollars to the Metropolitan Museum of Art,^[1] Skidmore College,^[2] and the Gordon Parks Foundation,^[3] In 2008, he gave $25 million to Phillips Academy in what was the school's largest ever single contribution.^[4] Tang resides in New York City.

This 962 A.D. painting by Chinese artist Dong Yuan is one of the earliest landscapes which created the illusion of depth and distance on a silk canvas. Tang bought it for New York's Metropolitan Museum in 1997.

Early years

Tang was born in Shanghai, China, and his family fled from the country when the Communist revolution took over in 1949. He enrolled at Phillips Academy in Andover as a tenth grader and graduated in 1956. His future wife, Frances Young, attended Andover's sister school, Abbot Academy, and she went on to Skidmore College. Tang was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Yale University and received a Bachelor of Science degree. In 1960, Tang married Frances Young.^[5] Tang received an M.B.A degree from Harvard Business School. His wife graduated from Skidmore in 1961.

Business career and family

In 1970, Tang founded an investment firm known as Reich and Tang in New York City. He headed the firm until 1993. The firm was highly profitable. It is now part of the investment bank Natixis. After the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, Tang worked with other high-level Chinese-Americans, including Yo-yo Ma and I.M. Pei, to "encourage rapport and understanding between two countries."^[6] His wife Frances Young Tang was a philanthropist who specialized in landmark preservation. In 1992, she passed away at the age of 53 from cancer.^[7] His daughter Dana Tang married Andrew Haid Darrell in 1998.^[8]

Philanthropy

Phillips Academy

In 2008, he gave $25 million to Phillips Academy.^[4] It was the largest single donation in the school's 230-year history.^[4] The gift was used to support "need-blind admission" allowing smart students from less affluent families to attend the elite boarding school, according to headmaster Barbara Landis Chase.^[4] In total, Tang had contributed $41 million to Phillips Academy, helping boost the school's endowment over $800 million.^[4] Before being instated as the President of the Phillips Academy Board of Trustees, he was a charter trustee since 1995 and a major school volunteer for over two decades. He was instrumental in preserving the buildings and campus of the former Abbot Academy, which merged with Phillips Academy, when there had been discussion about razing the no-longer-used structures; Tang's philanthropy gave funds for preservation of these buildings.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tang is a member of the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.^[9] He gave $14 million in 1997 to enable the museum to purchase rare and valuable Chinese paintings.^[10] His gift included 11 major paintings from the C.C. Wang collection and additional funding toward Chinese art galleries.

Skidmore College

Tang gave $10.2 million for the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in 2000.^[2] In addition to being a trustee at Skidmore, he is also a trustee of the China Institute in America.

References

1. ^ JUDITH H. DOBRZYNSKI (May 19, 1997). "11 Major Chinese Paintings Promised to Met". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/19/arts/11-major-chinese-paintings-promised-to-met.html. Retrieved 2010-01-10. "... Six of the works in the gift will go on display immediately in the galleries, whose expansion was a two-year, $14 million project. The gift is being made by Oscar L. Tang, an investment manager who is a trustee of the Metropolitan and put up the money for the paintings. ..." 
2. ^ ^{a b} HOLLAND COTTER (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900E7D81F39F931A15751C1A9669C8B63). "ART REVIEW; Party Time: Inside and Out, Playful Wit Reigns at Skidmore's New Museum". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900E7D81F39F931A15751C1A9669C8B63. Retrieved 2010-01-10. "The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery is on the campus of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. ... Paid for mostly by a gift from the Chinese-born American businessman Oscar Tang, whose daughter and wife Frances both graduated from Skidmore, the $10.2 million museum ..." 
3. ^ June 7, 2009 (June 7, 2009). "EVENING HOURS; June Moon". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05E2D9113DF934A35755C0A96F9C8B63. Retrieved 2010-01-10. "The Gordon Parks Foundation, which preserves and promulgates the work of Mr. Parks, a groundbreaking photographer, had a dinner at Gotham Hall ... OSCAR TANG," 
4. ^ ^{a b c d e} Globe Staff (February 6, 2008). "Alumnus donates $25 million to Phillips Academy". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/02/investor_donate.html. Retrieved 2010-01-10. "Phillips Academy in Andover announced today that the school had received a $25 million donation, the largest single gift in its 230-year history, from retired Wall Street investor Oscar L. Tang." 
5. ^ "Frances L. Young Betrothed To Oscar Tang, Yale 1960". The New York Times. June 1960. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40712FE3D581A7A93C0A8178DD85F448685F9. Retrieved 2010-01-10. 
6. ^ LIZ PEEK (May 8, 2007). "Lulu Wang Throttles Back (Except on the Racetrack)". New York Sun. http://www.nysun.com/new-york/lulu-wang-throttles-back-except-on-the-racetrack/53990/. Retrieved 2010-01-10. "... a group of high-level Chinese-Americans — who include I.M. Pei, Yo-Yo Ma, and Oscar Tang — created shortly after the Tiananmen Square crackdown to "encourage rapport and understanding between two countries that I love and have great loyalty to,..." 
7. ^ Eric Pace (February 04, 1992). "Frances Tang, 53; Was Philanthropist and Preservationist". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/04/nyregion/frances-tang-53-was-philanthropist-and-preservationist.html?src=pm. Retrieved 2010-01-10. "Frances Young Tang, a philanthropist in the field of education and a preservationist specializing in landmark buildings, died on Friday at her home in Manhattan. She was 53 years old ..." 
8. ^ "WEDDINGS; Dana Tang and Andrew Darrell". The New York Times: Style. February 08, 1998. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/08/style/weddings-dana-tang-and-andrew-darrell.html?src=pm. Retrieved 2010-01-10. "Dana Tang, a daughter of Oscar L. Tang of New York and the late Frances Young Tang, was married last evening to Andrew Haid Darrell," 
9. ^ Bill Cunningham (December 9, 2007). "EVENING HOURS; Season of Giving". The New York Times: Style. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E5D7133CF93AA35751C1A9619C8B63. Retrieved 2010-01-10. "The Acquisitions Fund Benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art held a gala for the opening of the new 19th- and early-20th-century galleries. ... and OSCAR TANG with" 
10. ^ JUDITH H. DOBRZYNSKI (May 25, 1997). "Landscapes Were Never The Same". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/25/weekinreview/landscapes-were-never-the-same.html. Retrieved 2010-01-10. "Southern Tang Dynasty scholar Dong Yuan created the illusion of depth and distance as he painted mountains and rivers on silk. He was a founder of the Chinese monumental landscape style. Last week, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York opened its new Chinese galleries, one of a few surviving works attributed to Dong Yuan, The Riverbank, had pride of place. ... Part of the renowned collection of 90-year-old C. C. Wang, an artist who escaped from Communist China in the 1950's, it had been bought for the Met by the financier Oscar L. Tang." 

External links

• The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College
• Oscar Tang Named Vail Valley Foundation Citizen of the Year 2004
• Oscar Tang '56 Nominated President of Phillips Academy Board of Trustees

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