A Night of Art and Community: Recapping the Celebrations of Perseverance Opening

Photo Credit: Wenbin Huang

“Hearing from the artists, their process, and deep commitment and consideration to the community helped me feel a lot more connected to my culture. I feel so reassured hearing our values, visions, and practical concerns align!”

— Visitor

On Thursday, March 20, 2025, community members, artists, and audiences joined us for the opening of our most recent exhibition, Celebrations of Perseverance: Public Art in Chinatown, 2024-2025. Curated by Pao Arts Center’s Public Art Project Manager, Lani Asunción, this exhibit showcases six public art projects from the City of Boston’s Un-monument initiative. These projects create space for joy and community celebration of cultural identity, through uplifting Chinatown as a neighborhood, cultural hub, and monument within the city of Boston.

The six featured projects include:

abundance among us: dragon and friends by Sheila Novak, Cass Li, and Wen-hao Tien with project support from Maria Fong

Imagine Safety by Joanna Tam

Ping Pong Tables of Chinatown: A Celebration of Diversity and Nature by Jennifer Duan, Stephanie Li, and Katelyn Lipton

Sprouts of Resilience: A Journey from Seed to Tofu by Ying Ye

The Thousand Bloom – A Chrysanthemum Grows in Chinatown 千朵花開:唐人街長出一朵菊花 by Anita Yip
POLINATURE: Chinatown by Ecosistema Urbano

“That’s how public artists inspire conversations, by using art to inspire conversations. One of the reasons why I decided to make a project that’s about safety and make it a participatory project is because I’m very inspired by the civic engagement history and the activist history in Chinatown that I didn’t know about when I first moved to Boston. I feel that it is important for me to first use this project to celebrate this history and hopefully inspire people to continue to participate in civic engagement, especially in times like we live in right now.”

— Joanna Tam

The highlight of the opening reception event was an artist panel, moderated by Asunción, in which all artists participated in a lively discussion about the intersection of their artistic practice, public space, and community. A few quotes from the artist panel below:

“What I’ve found with public art is that it’s an invitation to a conversation. I’ve learned over time that public art is not neutral and so celebrating joy as a form of resistance is also a form of saying, here we are, this is where we stand.”

— Anita Yip

Visit the exhibit to learn more about the ways in which Chinatown is a neighborhood, cultural hub, and monument itself within the city of Boston. Celebrations of Perseverance: Public Art in Chinatown, 2024-2025 is on view now through June 20, 2025 during gallery hours.

“To connect that with our public art piece, we specifically wanted it to be mobile so it can be accessible through multiple organizations and many places. It’s also very antithetical to a monument because usually you think about a monument being very static in one place. But with the ping pong tables, as we’ve donated to ACDC, you’ll see them pop up in multiple community events. And with that, it allows, not only kids, families, but also people in their twenties, thirties, and also, others as well to potentially interact in one space. And it’s kind of like a way to say, like, oh, there is a way to build community in a world that’s pushing against all that connection.”

— Jenn Duan

Works featured in the exhibit were created as part of the Un-monument initiative, presented by Pao Arts Center, curated by Lani Asunción, in collaboration with the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture brought to you by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.