This reporter attended the opening reception of the exhibit called “At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective” and the accompanying workshop “Remembering and Remaking Chinatown” at the Pao Arts Center on July 27th. The exhibit featured work and photographs of the processes of six local artists who participated in the Residence Lab and completed site-specific projects during the last four years of the program. There were 4 key themes on display in the show, including art as cultural belonging, public play, art of protest, and art as world-building. During the workshop, Ponnapa Prakkamakul, Maria Fong, and Dianyvet Serrano spoke about their time in the program. Hearing them speak about their projects really served to bring the photographs and accompanying art in the gallery to life. The exhibit paints such a vivid picture of the history and the exciting future of Chinatown. It also served to bring the community together in the Pao Arts Center. The gallery space was full of smiling and laughing people greeting one another. Many people lingered after the workshop to get a chance to catch up with friends and neighbors. “At Home in Chinatown” is on display through October 13th looking ahead, a “Residence Lab Alumni Spotlight Panel” will be held at the Pao Arts Center on September 23. I spoke with curator Lily Song about her role in the exhibit.
SAMPAN: Will you tell us a little bit about the show and what visitors can expect to experience?
Lily Song: The show “At Home in Chinatown” centers on the Residence Lab program that was initiated together by Pao and ACDC (Asian Community Development Corporation) starting in 2019. They had a four-year run and the initiative brought together Boston-based artists with Chinatown community members to co-create site-specific installations and creative interventions around key sites or at key sites in Chinatown. There were eleven projects in total over four years. This retrospective showcases six of those eleven projects. In addition to the six projects, it overviews the Res Lab curriculum and process and also incorporates examples of arts-based community engagement exercises that could inform Chinatown’s preservation and continued development toward a more equitable future.
SAMPAN：What do you want people to take away from this show?
Lily Song: I hope that people can appreciate the role of the arts in inviting creative engagement in the issues that our neighborhoods and communities face today. There is something about the arts that is accessible, and also hopeful in a way. It allows people to center their own perspectives. Especially with place-based art, it can help people engage with the environment and even sometimes suspend skepticism and just kind of dream up how things could be different. The projects present compelling examples of the transformative power of the arts, how activists and residents who are fighting displacement and injustices in their neighborhoods can incorporate arts and culture-based strategies into their ongoing work.
SAMPAN: What did you learn about curation through the exhibition?
Lily Song: The experience of working with the two Chinatown-based organizations and Res Lab participants were so stimulating. They brought such rich perspectives on spatial change and community building Chinatown. To ground the exhibition in the history and social practices of Chinatown, I also turned to community-based research and accounts of Chinatown, including those by Tunney Lee, Cynthia Yee, Michael Liu, along with photo archives at local libraries. What I learned about curation is that it is a process of learning and discovery. As important is figuring out how to share what you learn and what moves you with different audiences so they can hopefully do something with it.
SAMPAN: What are the roles the Asian CDC and the Pao Art Center played in the exhibit?
Lily Song: As the two organizations that launched and ran the Res Lab program they had, of course, the firsthand experiences contacts with all the artists and residents, and all the materials and photos. So, they were my teachers and facilitators, and I got to be a member of their team.
SAMPAN: What is your favorite memory from the curating process?
Lily Song: My favorite memory was the day before the opening. I was running a two-day spatial justice workshop with ACDC’s Summer Leadership Academy. With the nine youths and the SLA teaching team, we stopped by the gallery for a sneak peek. I put together a little worksheet with questions like: “What does at home in Chinatown mean to them personally?” “Why are Chinatown boundaries contested and in flux?” “How does each of the six projects address a critical issue in Chinatown?” “How do they use arts to promote spatial justice?” It was so rewarding and meaningful for me to see everyone respond to the exhibition and discuss the questions. I couldn’t help but wonder what the next generation of arts-based activism led by Chinatown youth leaders could look like.
