2022 ResLab Cohort, Photo Credit: Amanda Huang
Join us for the opening of our next gallery, At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective, an exhibition highlighting four years of our unique Residence Lab Arts Residency program (ResLab), in partnership with the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC). The opening reception will take place on Thursday, July 27, from 5:30 to 8:30 pm at Pao Arts Center. 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”).
Upcoming 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
Contact Leslie Condon, Visual Arts Manager, with questions Leslie.Condon@bcnc.net