Anne Alene

As a leading advisor in customized travel programs, Anne has designed and directed overseas trips for some of the world’s top art institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Getty Research Institute, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Smithsonian Freer Sackler Gallery, and Tate Museum.

An accomplished art historian and travel expert with a focus on Japan, Asia and Europe, Anne specializes in private guiding, independent travel planning, and curated travel programs that often result in highly educational, exclusive, unique and immersive experiences. Anne has earned a well-deserved reputation for crafting outstanding itineraries and providing exclusive access and entry into the international art world.  

Anne did undergraduate studies in Asian Studies and Japanese, and was awarded numerous scholarships including one-year's tuition to study at Nanzan University.  She was then chosen by the Japanese government to live and work in Japan as a civil servant, immersed for three years in developing programs that facilitated international exchange and understanding. Anne returned to San Francisco to work as a Cultural Affairs Officer for the Consulate General of Japan, interfacing with museums, arts organizations and curating art exhibitions for the public.

Anne holds a Master of Arts in Art History, Criticism and Conservation. She served as teaching assistant under prominent Japan scholar Dr. Kendall Brown, and awarded the highest honors of academic achievement as a Phi Beta Kappa.  Her graduate thesis presented Western philosophical influences in the architectural projects of Japanese modernist, Seiichi Shirai, and her graduate research included Japanese aesthetics in contemporary art, the Italian Renaissance, and the reception of Western art in Japan. 

Anne is an advanced student of Omotesenke tea ceremony and speaks, reads and writes fluently in Japanese. As she curates art trips to Japan and throughout the world, her aim is to advise museum institutions, collectors and philanthropists on revitalizing communities through local art and architectural projects. Anne is currently doing doctoral studies and research about site-specific art and architectural installation as a factor contributing to a contemporary renaissance throughout regional Japan.

When not traveling with VIP parties, Anne lives with her husband in California, and conducts art talk programs at museums and galleries in the Los Angeles area. With an evolving art specialization in transnational and comparative art histories, and fascinated by the common threads between Western and Asian art that have evolved throughout the ages, Anne also leads in-depth art historical and contemporary art trips to other parts of Asia and to Europe, with itineraries to South Korea and the Gwangju Biennale, to Belgium, The Netherlands, and TEFAF Maastricht, and to the Venice Biennale, Slovenia and Croatia.