Celebrating “At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective”
“As neighborhoods and communities continue to change, what does it look like to lean into the tensions and challenges with creativity and hope? What does it mean to build shared spaces of safety and belonging? Even if temporary, maybe they create ripples and open up new possibilities.”
Former Residence Lab participants and staff at opening of At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective. Photo by Mel Taing.
On Thursday, July 27, over 100 community members joined Pao Arts Center and Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) to celebrate the opening of our fall exhibit, At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective. The exhibit showcases Residence Lab (ResLab), the unique collaborative artist residency run by Pao Arts Center and ACDC since 2019. The highlight of the opening was the “Remembering and Remaking Chinatown” workshop featuring three past Residence Lab participants (Ponnapa Prakkamakul (‘19), Maria Fong (‘20), and Dianyvet Serrano (‘20)) and moderated by curator Lily Song.
“Remembering and Remaking Chinatown” Workshop. Photo by Mel Taing.
Since 2019, 34 local artists and Chinatown residents have taken part in ResLab, a yearly program 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 through its public installations. Each year, projects are inspired by a theme that is informed by community needs and the 2020 Chinatown Master Plan. As the program is coming to a close, we are taking the time to reflect on the past four years through the exhibition and related programming.
“I recall about six years ago, when I first started dreaming about programming here at Pao Arts Center, I met with Jeena [Chang], the Director of Community Programs & Design at ACDC, thinking about the ways our work could support and complement both organizations’ work and the Chinatown community…Now in 2023 we are celebrating all that our amazing artists and residents have dreamed up and influenced over these past 4 years”
In addition to the installation of various projects around Chinatown, ResLab artists and residents attended educational workshops whose curriculum merged neighborhood histories with unique strategies for creating community-centered public art — highlighting the dignity, vibrancy, and imagination of its inhabitants in the face of a long history of gentrification and institutional neglect. The resulting projects, co-designed by artist and resident fellows, were temporarily installed each year at key sites across Chinatown. 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”).
Throughout the course of ResLab, programming has emphasized spatial justice and shifting, nuanced relationships to space in Boston’s Chinatown. For Dianyvet Serrano, 2020 ResLab participant and storyteller at the “Remembering and Remaking Chinatown” Workshop, being involved in the residency allowed her to “feel more at home [in Chinatown] than in any other community [she’s] ever lived in.”
“Remembering and Remaking Chinatown” workshop storytellers Dianyvet Serrano, Maria Fong, Ponnapa Prakkamakul [left to right]. Photo by Mel Taing.
“Moving to Chinatown in April 2018 was, like most moves, a time of intense reflection and change. Although I was moving to another part of a city that I grew up in, it felt foreign…Fast forward 5 + years, and I’ve been able to find my culture in a place that once felt so foreign to me. I came to Chinatown because of an opportunity for housing, which was given to me by ACDC…But I believe it was art that was the vehicle to help me create a home and belonging here…For now, I belong in Chinatown and I have art to thank for that.”
Rainbow visible from Pao Arts Center after opening reception of At Home in Chinatown. Photo by Cynthia Woo.
Exhibiting artists and residents of At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective
(‘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.
Exhibit curator
Lily Song, Assistant Professor of Race, Social Justice & the Built Environment at Northeastern University.
Related Public Program Dates at Pao Arts Center
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 27, 2023 | 5:30 – 8:30 pm
“Remembering and Remaking Chinatown” Workshop: Thursday, July 27, 2023 | 6:00 – 7:45 pm
Residence Lab Alumni Spotlight Panel: Saturday, September 23, 2023 | 1:00 – 3:00 pm
At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective is currently on view at Pao Arts Center until October 13, 2023.
Read about the exhibition in the local press!
At Home in Chinatown Exhibit: An Interview with Curator Lily Song
by Harmony Witte, Sampan Newspaper
波士顿华埠艺术展：居民眼中的社区 by Li Zhou (李州), Sinovision
On Impact with Dr. Lily Song by Beyazmin Jiménez, DEI | Social Impact | Culture newsletter