Ann Woo, Executive Director
International Creative and Performing Arts Center
ANN WOO, dancer and producer, has long been instrumental in introducing Chinese dance to the local communities. Her productions have been presented regularly in major theatres such as Herbst Theatre, Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, Flint Center, and San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Woo served as Executive Director of the Chinese Folk Dance Association of San Francisco for ten years. She co-founded the Asian Heritage Council in the South Bay in 1984 and Chinese Performing Artists of America in 1991. Drawing upon her vast experiences both in high-tech industry and performing arts production, Ms. Woo initiated CPAA’s ties to the local communities. Under Ms. Woo’s management, CPAA has grown significantly in the past twelve years and served over 400,000 in audience. Ms. Woo currently serves as the Chair of the Arts and Culture Committee of the Cupertino-Hsinchu Sister Cities Association. For her outstanding services to the community, she was honored as a “Citizen of Achievement” in February, 1999, by the Sunnyvale-Cupertino Branch of the American Association of University Women and the “2002 Women’s Achievement Award in Art” by Women’s Fund. In 2003, Ms. Woo was honored with the “2003 CREST Award” by the City of Cupertino and “Asian Hero 2003 Award” by Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss.
As an outcome and growth off her many years of committement to the arts, the mission of CPAA and the new INTERNATIONAL CREATIVE AND PERFORMING ARTS CENTER (ICPAC), also founded by Ann Woo, is to introduce international cultures as an integral part of the American society; to promote multi-culture through collaborations, and to promote global culture exchange through international cultural events. As well, The Silicon Valley International Art Competition (SVIAC) established in 2005, presents competitions of piano, all instruments, vocal, ballet, folk dance, art, and other art forms. IPAC, an arm of CPAA, is determined to organize and present the SVIAC as one of its major annual events. In 2015, IPAC embarks on the newest innovations in art education through a partnership with the Arts in Silicon Valley and Akyumen Technologies Corp, the hottest High-Tech electronic inventors.
IPAC provides an opportunity for artists of different fields to form a broad network promoting art training among the youth and to encourage art participation in our local communities. Creating new works - since the concept founding in 1991 - IPAC has produced and presented high quality performances with aworld premier each year in its annual major events. The memorable productions including Sorrow of the Great Wall in 1993, Home of the Rainbow in 1995, Legend of the Dragon in 2000, Middle Kingdom - Ancient China in 2005, New Dream of the Butterfly in 2010, Silk Road Fantasy in 2011, The Nightingale in 2014 and many others have received rave reviews from the critics and praises from the audience. We consider creating new works and giving opportunities to all participants a top priority of IPAC’s artists. Vibrant productions have established IPAC as a highly acclaimed art institute in California.
In 2003, a Dance School and Training Center was developed to provide job opportunities to its resident artists in Cupertino. In 2007, headquarters moved to a 14,000 sq. ft. facility in West San Jose. Since then, IPAC has invested $500,000 in this spacious facility to establish a multi-function art institute including 3 main operations: (A) IPAC as a community center for many local art organizations to create and teach their arts; (B) Academy for youth art training and to create jobs for our artists and (C) A venue to hold local and international events for the prosperity of our communities.
We appreciate the artists, educators, community leaders and especially the parents working together to make the programs of the INTERNATIONAL CREATIVE AND PERFORMING ARTS CENTER a success.
