At Home in Chinatown Storytelling Workshop, 2023, Photo Credit: Mel Taing
As part of our exhibition, At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective, join us for a Residence Lab artist and resident alumni panel Saturday, September 23, from 1:00 pm –3:00 pm, featuring a discussion on community-engaged public art and the future of Boston Chinatown.
Featuring: Maggie Chen, Amanda Beard Garcia, Pihua Lin, Sheila Novak, and Krina Patel, moderated by Lily Song, exhibit curator and urban planner, scholar-activist, and Assistant Professor of Race, Social Justice & the Built Environment at Northeastern University.
Event Schedule:
1:00 - 1:45 pm | Enjoy the exhibit and refreshments
1:45 - 3:00 pm | Panel and Q and A
About the Exhibit:
At Home in Chinatown highlights four years of our unique Residence Lab Arts Residency program (ResLab), in partnership with the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC). The exhibition will be on view from July 27 through October 13, 2023. Learn more about ResLab and stay tuned for more details.
The closing exhibition, At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective, features six past projects by artist-resident teams from each year that gives insight into ResLab’s distinctive creative process.
Participating Artists and Residents: (‘19) Tarik Bartel, Joyce Chen, and Maggie Chen, (‘19) Crystal Bi, Lily Xie , Pihua Lin, and Yuyi Li, (‘20) Maria Fong, Sylvia Chen, and Po Chun Chow, (‘21) Yuko Okabe, Kathy Wu Amy Lam, and Elaine Liang, (‘22) Ann Dinh Alison M, and Winnie Yuen, and (‘22) Amanda Beard Garcia, Yanna Chen, and Xingyao He.
Curated by: Lily Song, an urban planner, scholar-activist, and Assistant Professor of Race, Social Justice & the Built Environment at Northeastern University.
About Residence Lab
Since 2019, local artists and Chinatown residents have taken part in Residence Lab (ResLab), a yearly artist residency that activates spaces in Boston Chinatown through culturally affirming co-designed public art. Over the last four years, this community-driven residency program has contributed to Chinatown’s contemporary cultural identity and spaces. Community members, program alumni, and the public are invited to celebrate the conclusion of the ResLab program with this retrospective exhibition and reception, interactive workshop, and September alumni panel.
ResLab’s curriculum merges neighborhood histories with unique strategies for creating community-centered public art while highlighting the dignity, vibrancy, and imagination of its inhabitants in the face of a long history of gentrification and institutional neglect toward Chinatown residents. The resulting projects, co-designed by artist and resident fellows, were temporarily installed each year at key sites across Chinatown.
Each year, Pao Arts Center and ACDC selected a theme to inspire and inform the program’s workshops and co-creative public installations, based on the 2020 Chinatown Master Plan. Past activation sites and themes include the Chinatown Backyard at the Hudson Street Lot (“Oasis” + “Portal”), Mary Soo Hoo Park (“Collective Care”), and the Tufts Community Common on the Tufts University’s Health Sciences Campus (“Radical Inclusion”).
About the Artists
Amanda Beard Garcia (she/they) is a multiracial Chinese American muralist, illustrator, and brand designer. She holds a BFA in Illustration from RISD. Her work typically incorporates punchy colors, typography, and portraiture while exploring concepts surrounding belonging and activism. Amanda is principal of Likemind Design, a custom mural and branding studio in Dracut, MA. She has been a participant of many local public art initiatives and has designed custom artwork and brand identities for small businesses all over Greater Boston.
Maggie Chen
Maggie Chen (she/her) is a long-time Chinatown resident leader and organizer. Boston Chinatown provided her a sense of going back to China, feeling very kind and very lively. She hopes Residence Lab can make people more focused on Chinatown, and that, through this project, it can attract more young people’s attention to Chinatown, which could help this area to get more energy.
Pihua Lin
Pihua Lin (she/her), a resident of Chinatown for 13 years, joined Residence Lab with the goal of preserving Chinatown's culture and creating more resources and opportunities for immigrants. Pihua works in an after-school tutoring program in Chinatown. She believes that the art created at Residence Lab can be expressed as a resident and reflect the needs of the community.
Sheila Novak (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and curator currently living and working on Gayog̱hó:nǫ́ (NY), Massachusett (MA), & Dakota land (MN). Sheila is currently pursuing her MFA in Visual Creative Arts at Cornell University, has held a Creative Community Fellowship with National Art Strategies (2018), and has been Artist in Residence at the Urbano Project (2020), Hennepin County Medical Center (2015-2017), and Holden Village (2014). Sheila received her B.A. in Studio Art from St. Olaf College (2012).
Artist and educator, Krina Patel began her arts practice in India and continued it at the Arts Students League among other places, in New York City. Working out of her studio in Boston, Krina shares stories and memories through images and texts. Krina engages with visual processes creating images using a range of media from pencils and brushes to digital pens and laser tools. Her creative process is collaborative as she invites viewers to participate directly and/or indirectly in creating and re-creating the art works.
Related Public Program Dates at Pao Arts Center
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 27, 5:30 – 8:30 pm
“Remembering and Remaking Chinatown” Workshop: Thursday, July 27, 6:00 – 7:45 pm
Residence Lab Alumni Spotlight Panel: Saturday, September 23, 1:00 – 3:00 pm