At Home
Stay connected safely and enjoy the experience at home.
Virtual Galleries
Virtual Exhibitions are made possible by a grant from Mass Humanities, a state-based affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which provided funding through the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC).
Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Love Letters to Boston’s Chinatown
In 2020 - 2021, Pao Arts Center invited community members to celebrate and strengthen Chinatown by sharing a love letter. We Invite you to experience these letters, in an interactive map, inspired by community stories and neighborhood history.
This project is made possible by a grant from Mass Humanities, a state-based affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which provided funding through the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC).
3D Exhibit: Wen-hao Tien: Home On Our Backs
Experience Wen-hao Tien: Home On Our Backs with our 3D virtual tour. 2020 has been a year of resilience for all, including Pao Arts Center’s Artist-In-Residence Wen-hao Tien. This exhibit, consisting of five all new works, is distilled from Boston Chinatown stories learned during the artist’s 2020 artist-in-residence at Pao Arts Center. With much personal reflection, enlivened by Chinese folklore and culture, this interdisciplinary work is a refreshing take on nomadism, and on Asian American stories.
3D Exhibit: Homeward Bound
Walk through our 3D virtual exhibit, Homeward Bound. Curated by queer Chinese American scholars, organizers, and artists Mei Lum, Diane Wong, and Huiying B. Chan it centers narratives of home, community, and intergenerational resistance. The exhibition contains multimedia content from written text, video, audio, along with the artworks.
Inside Chinatown
Last fall, we celebrated the opening of our Inside Chinatown exhibition which featured photography by eleven Chinatown community members who used photography to not only share the experiences, challenges, and successes found in their community, but also to author their own history of what it means to work and live in Boston’s Chinatown. Take virtual walk of Chinatown!
Wen-ti Tsen Home Town: Re-presenting Boston Chinatown as a Place of People - Then and Now
Wen-ti Tsen is no stranger to Pao Arts Center — he was an inaugural exhibiting artist at our opening in 2017. Home Town is a public installation which debut in Chinatown in 2016. Last year it was on display at Bunker Hill Community College.
Meet some of Chinatown’s residents here!
Performances
We are updating our YouTube videos to highlight some of our most memorable performances!
Family Activities
Enjoy activities for the whole family by artists who have presented and performed in our space!
Bren Bataclan is a Filipino American, Boston-based artist who hopes to inspire people to spread joy through his art. He displayed his work at Pao Arts Center in 2018.
Ruth Chan is a children’s book author and illustrator living in Brooklyn, New York. She did a reading at Pao Arts Center in August 2018.
Grace Lin is a NY Times bestselling author and illustrator whose work was featured in the exhibit, From Pencil to Page.
Susan Tan is a children’s book author whose character Cilla is based on her own family. She has done two book readings at Pao Arts Center—one in 2017 and one this past January.