Pao Arts Center Hosts 5th Experience Chinatown Art Festival

Images left to right: Tigers Hot Pot Together by Nell Valle at Liuyishou Hotpot Boston, Intergenerational Persistence by Maria Fong at Dumpling Café, Photo Credit: Sophia Chen

Images left to right: Coffee is always beautiful by Amanda Beard Garcia at APM coffee, Mga Babae Ngayon At Kahapon - Women Today and Yesterday by Anna Dugan at Happy Lamb Hotpot Boston, Photo Credit: Sophia Chen

 Boston, MA- Pao Arts Center’s annual Experience Chinatown Arts Festival returns throughout the summer and fall to celebrate the rich cultural fabric of Boston Chinatown through creative activities for all. This free festival features outdoor performances, a gallery opening, and visual art installations in locations across Chinatown – all aimed at restoring and empowering the Chinatown neighborhood and the Asian and Pacific Islander community.

Throughout the festival’s duration from August 26 – October 28, visitors are invited to view colorful and bold window murals at participating local businesses and organizations, addressing the 2022 Experience Chinatown mural prompt of “What makes a community special?” This year’s window mural artists each responded with intricate works showcasing their unique response to the question, paying homage to Boston Chinatown neighborhood history, personal relationships, cultural heritage, participating business’ history, among other themes. In honor of Pao Arts Center’s fifth anniversary year, the center has commissioned the highest number of window murals in the festival’s history, nine in total.

Similar to previous years, bustling Washington Street will feature the majority of the festival’s murals, including: Nell Valle’s Tigers Hot Pot Together at Liuyishou Hotpot, Anna Dugan’s Mga Babae Ngayon At Kahapon - Women Today and Yesterday at Happy Lamb Hot Pot Boston, Maria Fong’s Intergenerational Persistence at Dumpling Cafe, and Ponnapa Prakkamakul’s Together Everywhere at Q Restaurant. The festival welcomed two new participating businesses this year: WakuWaku Ramen, which will feature Katelyn Lipton’s In the Clouds, and Crave Chinatown, which will showcase Victoria Lai and Jenny Tran’s Wing to Wing. Around the corner from Pao Arts Center at APM Coffee will be Amanda Beard Garcia’s mural, Coffee is always beautiful. Pao Arts Center and the center’s parent organization, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC) will also offer window space for murals by Ashley Jin: Made Together and A Soft Place to Land, respectively. Read all of the muralists’ artistic statements on the Experience Chinatown 2022 page.

Mural Artist Anna Dugan at Happy Lamb Hot Pot Boston (Photo Credit: Ashley Yung)

Mural Artist Amanda Beard Garcia at APM Coffee (Photo Credit: Sophia Chen)

Performances for the Experience Chinatown Arts Festival will occur each week, bringing thousands of visitors to Chinatown to celebrate the wide spectrum of creative forms and talent among local AAPI artists. On Thursday, September 8, Thursday, September 15, and Saturday, September 24, community members will gather to enjoy music, dance, and martial arts performances outdoors at Chinatown Park on The Greenway (near Chinatown Gate). Before the final performance day, Pao Arts Center will also host the opening reception of its newest visual arts exhibit, GHOST ROOTS: A New Ganggangsullae by Soyoung L. Kim.

Director of Pao Arts Center Cynthia Woo shares, “This year's festival is our most ambitious Experience Chinatown program yet, showcasing more visual artists than in previous years and activating the deep partnerships we've built within the Chinatown and AAPI arts communities. More than ever, the power of creativity is needed to inspire connection, and compassion, and to foster individual and social wellbeing."

Participating performing artist, Anju, shares, “Pao Arts Center has supported me in growing as an artist over the last several years by connecting me to a community of people in Chinatown and beyond with shared values and visions for our world. In this community, I have found nourishment, joy, connection, and deep care. I see Experience Chinatown as an expression and celebration of the past, present, and future magic that Boston’s Chinatown holds.”

Pao Arts Center invites community members and neighbors to join, connect and experience something new through the rest of summer and the fall. For more information, go to: https://www.paoartscenter.org/events/experiencechinatown2022

Event Schedule

Friday, August 26 – Friday, October 28

Visual Arts installations on Chinatown storefronts, Pao Arts Center, and Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC)

Residence Lab Activation at Tufts Community Common (186 Harrison Avenue, Boston) (through September 24)

Performances and Exhibit Opening:

Thursday, September 8 | 6:00 – 8:00 pm at Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park

Musical Performances by shiori_kubrick and Orca Bones

Thursday, September 15 | 6:00 - 8:00 pm at Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park

Musical Performances by Maddie Lam and Shaw Pong Liu

Dance Performance by Maple Leaf Senior Dancers

Thursday, September 22 |6:00 – 8:00 pm at Pao Arts Center

GHOST ROOTS: A New Ganggangsullae by Soyoung L. Kim

Saturday, September 24 | 12:00 – 3:00 pm at Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park 

Musical Performances by Alex Wan’s Group and Anju

Martial Arts Performance by Wah Lum Kung Fu and Tai Chi Academy

SaturPLAY by Asian Community Development Corporation (beginning at 1:00 pm)

Activity by Chinese Historical Society of New England

This event is made possible by our sponsors, including: ComcastNBCUniversal * State Street Corporation * Tufts Medical Center * Capital One * Liberty Mutual Insurance * Point32Health * Riemer Braunstein * Rockland Trust Charitable Foundation * South Cove Community Health Center * TJX * Dr. Elaine Li Shiang and the MeiMei Dumpling Company * PNC Bank * The Fuller Foundation * Sasaki * The Sasaki Foundation * Sun Life Financial * BioMed Realty * Emerson College * The Kensington * Maloney Properties * Sensata * Tufts University * Northeastern University Office of City & Community Engagement * The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy * The Tower at One Greenway

Partners: Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC), Bunker Hill Community College, City of Boston, Asian Community Development Corporation, Chinese Historical Society of New England, The Greenway Conservancy