JAMES & MARLENE YU

Conservative hippies. Disco owners. Party people.

Marlene and James Yu aren’t just founders. They’re a force of warmth, openness, and generosity.
To know them is to feel welcomed—not just into their home, but into their worldview.

Growing up, their daughter Seraphina saw it firsthand:
Dinner gatherings weren’t limited to family or close friends. They always included artists, business colleagues, scientists, students—anyone curious, kind, or in need of a place at the table.

That spirit of hospitality lives at the heart of the Marlene Yu Museum.
It’s not just a place to see art. It’s a place to belong.

After one event at the Shreveport museum, Marlene and James noticed a homeless person nearby. Without hesitation, they invited him in to share the food.
That’s who they are—always making room for one more.

Their kindness isn’t performative. It’s instinctive.
And it shapes everything the museum stands for.

In the late 1970s, before there was a museum or a foundation, Marlene and James Yu owned a disco on Long Island called Cherries.
It wasn’t just any disco—it was a space where gay men and lesbians came together at a time when most places kept those communities separate.

Marlene would cook Chinese food for the guests—serving dumplings and noodles with side orders of acceptance and joy.
Meanwhile, she was pregnant—with the next generation of this legacy already dancing quietly in her womb.

That disco was more than a business. It was a family built on music, food, freedom, and love.
That same spirit lives on in everything the Marlene Yu Museum and Rainforest Art Foundation do today.