Local business donates over $1 mil to Queens College
/
Thomas Chen, center, and his family present a $1,105,000 donation to Queens College President Frank Wu, left, on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. Photo by Dominick Totino
By Jacob Kaye
A local Queens business donated over $1 million to Queens College this week to support Asian contemporary art at the CUNY college.
The Thomas Chen Family/Crystal Windows Endowment will send $1,105,000 to Queens College and will help to bring art exhibitions, student scholarships and visiting artist programs to the school.
A ceremony to celebrate Chen’s donation was held in Queens College’s music building on Wednesday.
“Queens College is profoundly grateful for the generous support of Thomas Chen, whose endowment will enable the college to offer exciting new programs and scholarships,” Queens College President Frank Wu said. “At the same time, Chen’s remarkable life and outstanding career will inspire our students, showing them that with vision and hard work, the American dream is attainable.”
Chen immigrated to Queens from Taiwan in 1982 without much money and unable to speak English. He founded Crystal Window and Door Systems eight years later.
His business has grown into a local success story. Crystal Windows is now one of the largest window manufacturers in the city.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards issued a proclamation to the family Wednesday.
“With this generous gift, Queens College will remain one of the most affordable public colleges in the country and will be better able to offer a first-rate education to talented people of all backgrounds and financial means,” Richards said.
The money will also go toward jump starting the college’s School of the Arts, a new school created in Wu’s 2021-2026 strategic plan. The art school will offer undergraduate degrees in studio art, art history, design, photography and imaging, as well as graduate degrees in studio art, art history and social practice.
“I am proud to make this contribution on behalf of the Chen Family and Crystal Windows to Queens College,” Chen said. “As someone who never had the opportunity to attend college, I believe supporting a prestigious local institution like Queens College with its long history of benefitting immigrants and first-generation Americans makes perfect sense.”
“This is the first major gift to help establish the new School of the Arts, a subject near and dear to my heart,” he added. “This makes the endowment all the more special to me and a wonderful legacy for my family.”
Crystal Windows has become a true family business – Chen’s son, Steve, serves as president in charge of daily operations.
The donation isn’t the first time Chen has taken action to spur the arts in Queens.
The businessman is a founding member of the Taiwanese American Arts Council, which works with the Queens Museum to offer support to Asian artists throughout New York City.
Chen and his family also support arts programs in Queensborough Community College, Queens Theatre in the Park, the New York City Winter Lantern Festival, Flushing Town Hall and the Flushing Taiwan Center.
Additionally, Chen founded Crystal Park, a private sculpture park in Dutchess County, which recently added a life-size bronze statue of former Queens Borough President Claire Schulman.
When Chen first arrived in the U.S., having nowhere to go, he crashed for a few weeks in the home of now-State Sen. John Liu.
Liu, who’s family is also from Taiwan, was in high school at the time.
"Upon arriving in Queens from Taiwan, Thomas Chen slept on my family’s living room floor for a week before securing his first job and, with wit and grit, he pursued and achieved the American Dream,” Liu said. “With all his success over four decades, he never once forgot to give back and provide others with opportunity, and with this endowment continues his life’s commitment first as entrepreneur and in more recent years as philanthropist. We owe Thomas and the Chen family a debt of gratitude."
Simmi So, a Queens College student majoring in studio art and psychology, said that supporting Asian American artists who recently immigrated to the borough can go a long way toward making people feel part of their new community.
“Art helped me to break out of my shell. Through art, I was able to communicate with my classmates, and I started making new friends,” So said. “There is no language barrier in art, and I think that is the beauty of it.”
“It is wonderful to see Queens College encouraging people from different backgrounds and young immigrant artists to learn more about art,” she added. “With the support from Mr. Chen and his family, more young immigrant artists like myself can have the opportunity to achieve our dream and hopefully, one day, there will be more immigrant or Asian artists' work in museums.”
