Passport to Africa: Honoring Ambassador William Lacy Swing

Robert and Eleanor Zahner Center for Education / Community Meeting Room
Coral Gables Museum
September 19 @ 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Join us to celebrate the legacy of Ambassador William L. Swing with a cocktail reception hosted by his widow,  Mrs. Yuen Swing, and their friends Alan Bernstein and Dave Lawrence. This special event will raise funds for the care of the Swing Collection of African masks and passports, recently donated to Coral Gables Museum by Mrs. Swing.

Over four decades, William Lacy Swing (1934-2021) served in six United States Ambassadorial postings, in the Republic of the Congo, Liberia, South Africa, Nigeria, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo before retiring from the US Foreign Service in 2001 and embarking on a second career with the United Nations (UN). Mr. Swing served as UN Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Western Sahara (2001-2003) and the DRC (2003-2008). He was elected Director General of International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 2008, steering the Organization for the next decade through its greatest period of expansion since the organization’s foundation in 1951. Under Mr. Swing’s stewardship, IOM grew into an agency with an annual operating budget of an estimated USD1.5 billion and more than 10,000 staff working in over 150 countries worldwide. Ambassador Swing collected African and Haitian Art, both traditional and contemporary. Mrs. Yuen Swing recently donated this selection of masks and passports from the William L. Swing Collection to Permanent Collection of Coral Gables Museum.