Where We Meet: Imagining Gardens and Future is on view from July 18 - October 10, 2025 at Pao Arts Center.
Join us for an evening of creativity and community. In celebration of the Pao Arts Center's exhibition, and the Gardner’s Summer Exhibitions, Ming Fay: Edge of the Garden and Flowers for Isabella.
Join exhibiting artist Mel Taing for an afternoon of garden-inspired portraits and a chance to share your vision for future green spaces in Chinatown.
Join us for the opening reception to our new exhibit, Where We Meet: Imagining Gardens and Future.
Take a Saturday afternoon to relax, create, and meditate with in-person Chinese brush painting at Pao Arts Center. Create an original work to take home featuring the bamboo motif.
Celebrations of Perseverance: Public Art in Chinatown, curated by Lani Asunción showcases temporary public art and performance place-based projects created as part of the 2024-2025 Un-monument initiative. These public art 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.
Celebrations of Perseverance: Public Art in Chinatown, curated by Lani Asunción showcases temporary public art and performance place-based projects created as part of the 2024-2025 Un-monument initiative. These public art 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.
We are excited to invite you to the culmination of Vermillion Theatre’s artist residency at Pao Arts Center, showcasing their innovative work in building connections through art and storytelling.
Vermilion Theater’s bilingual project explores how the intersection of theater, visual arts, music, and mental health awareness can support cultural expression and wellness among immigrant families in Boston. Working closely with the Families Services department at BCNC, Vermilion Theater engages Cantonese and Mandarin-speaking participants in Karaoke and Ping-Pong Nights, by creating a welcoming space for connection and outreach to address critical issues such as well-being and sense of belonging in a fun, supportive environment.
Bring in the Year of the Snake with an elegant reception featuring live music, small plates, and drinks. Enjoy imaginative Lunar New Year-inspired dishes provided by local chef, Asia Mei of Moonshine 152. Experience live performances and the current exhibit at Pao Arts Center. Before the night is over, leave your hopes for the new year on our wishing tree to bring good fortune to the community and local artists.
Join us for an evening of high-energy hip-hop performances to celebrate the Year of the Wood Snake curated by local artist Kold Kwan, featuring performances by Alan Z, Aztech from Hybrid Thoughts, NITA SLAY, and shiori_kubrick.
Pao Arts Center welcomes the Year of the Snake with a special, two-part exhibition: a mural and a salon style gallery exhibit.
Pao Arts Center’s annual Lunar New Year celebration is back! Come by for an afternoon of art, interactive workshops, and performances. All ages are invited to join us for cultural activities as we usher in the year of the snake! Register to receive event updates and reminders.
Join us for a lecture from curator and Professor Aida Yuen Wong. Professor Wong curated our current exhibition, The Inventive Brush: Calligraphic Echoes from China, Japan, and Korea.
The Thousand Bloom uses the chrysanthemum as a metaphor for Boston Chinatown’s resilience in a nod to popular novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Come celebrate the neighborhood’s rich legacy and enduring spirit through three distinct yet complementary parts.
Join community artists Jennifer Duan, Stephanie Li, and Katelyn Lipton for the unveiling of their public art project, Ping Pong Tables of Chinatown: A Celebration of Diversity and Nature. Spend the afternoon participating in friendly ping pong competitions, art making, lawn games, face painting, and win prizes!
Bring the whole family for an afternoon of fun with crafts, snacks, and a peek into Noodle & Bao by Shaina Lu.
Under the glow of the lights of Chinatown, discover new artists who are lighting up the neighborhood with new murals. Meet up at Pao Arts Center and then you will be taken on an exclusive tour of Experience Chinatown murals. After the tour, enjoy award-winning Asian-inspired small plates and drinks at a cocktail reception at Shojo Boston.
RSVP by Wednesday, October 9th.
Artwork: “A Breath into the Future” by Sam Lê Shave. Photo Credit: Mel Taing
Funds raised will support free public arts and culture activities by Pao Arts Center. Your donation will ensure that arts is accessible to all.
Schedule
6:00 PM - Check-in and view The Inventive Brush: Calligraphic Echoes from China, Japan, and Korea at Pao Arts Center, 99 Albany Street, Boston
6:15 PM - Tour of Experience Chinatown Murals
7:00 PM - Reception with small plates and cocktails at Shojo Boston, 9A Tyler Street, Boston
Tickets
Single Ticket: $150
Make a bigger impact with a sponsorship of $1,000. Sponsorship includes 6 tickets.
Goods and services are valued at $100 per ticket.
Artwork: “A Breath into the Future” by Sam Lê Shave. Photo Credit: Mel Taing
For questions please contact Wes Boudreau at 617-249-2995 x1091
Everyone deserves to feel safe in a neighborhood where they live and work. During ACDC’s Summer Picnic, Joanna Tam honors the resilient history of Boston Chinatown residents and inspires the community to continue its civic engagement tradition.
The Inventive Brush: Calligraphic Echoes from China, Japan, and Korea, curated by Professor Aida Yuen Wong, showcases the diversity of contemporary calligraphy; it features the works of three Massachusetts-based artists, Mike Yuguo Mei, Michiko Imai, and YoungSun Jang.
Join us on Thursday, June 20, from 6:00 – 8:00 PM for a screening of the film Twilight’s Kiss (“Suk Suk”), 2019 co-presented with BAAFF. The film follows the story of two closeted married men in their twilight years as they navigate their families and personal histories while contemplating a possible future together.
Join us on Thursday, June 20, from 6:00 – 8:00 PM for a screening of the film Twilight’s Kiss (“Suk Suk”), 2019 co-presented with BAAFF. The film follows the story of two closeted married men in their twilight years as they navigate their families and personal histories while contemplating a possible future together.
Join Maddie Lam, Anny Thach, and Pao Arts Center for an evening of poetry and music. The performances take you through an inner landscape of a human heart, charting the atlas of grief and loss, celebration and regeneration. Through prose and poetry, visual narrative, and song, Dandelions in the Stardust is a soft place to land.
This exhibition features works created by students at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School (JQES) who find inspiration from the world around them. Drawing from the works of artists like ceramicist Stephanie Shih, collage artist Romare Bearden, drip-artist Jen Stark, and author Anna Llenas, these young artists celebrate creativity, inspiration, and community in our galleries.
Bring in the year of the dragon with an elegant reception featuring live music, and small plates and cocktails from Shojo Boston by celebrated restaurateur, Brian Moy. Enjoy award-winning takes on old-school Asian dishes and drinks with a flair while experiencing live entertainment and the current Pao Arts Center exhibits, Lunchbox Moments and Chinatown Workers Statues: A Statue in the Making. Before the night is over, leave your hopes for the new year on our wishing tree.
Join Pao Arts Center to celebrate the Lunar New Year!
We will host an afternoon of art, interactive workshops, and performances. All ages are invited to join us for cultural activities as we usher in the year of the dragon!
Directed by Tianding He, SKINLESS reimagines the ancient Chinese legend The White Snake as a queer, gender-bending modern fairy tale.
Lunchbox moments are the formative occurrences in many Asian American kids' lives where a traditional Asian meal is eaten at school and peers in the lunchroom have some reaction, whether it be positive or negative. In order to share these stories and empower the AAPI community, artist Amie Bantz has created Lunchbox Moments: Seek Understanding. Share Stories. Stop Hate. For this exhibition, Bantz collects narratives from members of the AAPI community and physically writes their stories onto spray-painted lunch boxes.
Join us for the opening of our newest exhibits, Lunchbox Moments and Chinatown Worker Statues: A Statue in the Making
Wen-ti Tsen’s Chinatown Worker Statues project pays tribute to the workers who have uplifted Boston Chinatown through their essential labor over the many decades. Upon completion, it will consist of four sets of bronze statues representing four different workers from the Chinese immigrant community: the laundryman, the restaurant worker, the garment worker, and the grandmother tending a child. Fusing public art and community activism, these statues will offer a more complex and diverse reflection of our local history and question who is being honored with statues in our city.
At Home in Chinatown Storytelling Workshop, 2023, Photo Credit: Mel Taing
As part of our exhibition, At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective, join us for a Residence Lab artist and resident alumni panel Saturday, September 23, from 1:00 pm –3:00 pm, featuring a discussion on community-engaged public art and the future of Boston Chinatown.
Featuring: Maggie Chen, Amanda Beard Garcia, Pihua Lin, Sheila Novak, and Krina Patel, moderated by Lily Song, exhibit curator and urban planner, scholar-activist, and Assistant Professor of Race, Social Justice & the Built Environment at Northeastern University.
Event Schedule:
1:00 - 1:45 pm | Enjoy the exhibit and refreshments
1:45 - 3:00 pm | Panel and Q and A
About the Exhibit:
At Home in Chinatown highlights four years of our unique Residence Lab Arts Residency program (ResLab), in partnership with the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC). 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.
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”).
Amanda Beard Garcia (she/they) is a multiracial Chinese American muralist, illustrator, and brand designer. She holds a BFA in Illustration from RISD. Her work typically incorporates punchy colors, typography, and portraiture while exploring concepts surrounding belonging and activism. Amanda is principal of Likemind Design, a custom mural and branding studio in Dracut, MA. She has been a participant of many local public art initiatives and has designed custom artwork and brand identities for small businesses all over Greater Boston.
Maggie Chen
Maggie Chen (she/her) is a long-time Chinatown resident leader and organizer. Boston Chinatown provided her a sense of going back to China, feeling very kind and very lively. She hopes Residence Lab can make people more focused on Chinatown, and that, through this project, it can attract more young people’s attention to Chinatown, which could help this area to get more energy.
Pihua Lin
Pihua Lin (she/her), a resident of Chinatown for 13 years, joined Residence Lab with the goal of preserving Chinatown's culture and creating more resources and opportunities for immigrants. Pihua works in an after-school tutoring program in Chinatown. She believes that the art created at Residence Lab can be expressed as a resident and reflect the needs of the community.
Sheila Novak (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and curator currently living and working on Gayog̱hó:nǫ́ (NY), Massachusett (MA), & Dakota land (MN). Sheila is currently pursuing her MFA in Visual Creative Arts at Cornell University, has held a Creative Community Fellowship with National Art Strategies (2018), and has been Artist in Residence at the Urbano Project (2020), Hennepin County Medical Center (2015-2017), and Holden Village (2014). Sheila received her B.A. in Studio Art from St. Olaf College (2012).
Artist and educator, Krina Patel began her arts practice in India and continued it at the Arts Students League among other places, in New York City. Working out of her studio in Boston, Krina shares stories and memories through images and texts. Krina engages with visual processes creating images using a range of media from pencils and brushes to digital pens and laser tools. Her creative process is collaborative as she invites viewers to participate directly and/or indirectly in creating and re-creating the art works.
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
Join us as we bring joy and laughter to the heart of Chinatown in this family-friendly community celebration.
Cornhole, crafting, music, giveaways and more!
Brought to you by Chinatown HOPE, a collective of eight Chinatown organizations, funded through Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Community-based Health Initiative, with the aim of coming together to leverage and build upon existing assets to have a greater, lasting impact on working class residents in Boston Chinatown.
Chinatown HOPE is a collective of eight Chinatown organizations with the aim of coming together to leverage and build upon existing assets to have a greater, lasting impact on working class residents in Boston Chinatown. Community engagement began in summer of 2022 to understand what the Chinatown community thought a healthy neighborhood looked like, and resulted in our 3 branched intervention. Chinatown HOPE was funded through Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Community-based Health Initiative to decrease social isolation and increase community cohesion by activating open space in Chinatown through gardening, arts, cultural programming, and resident leadership development.
