WHAT WE WANT IS HERE: NEIGHBORHOOD PROJECTS 2012–2018 WHAT WE WANT IS HERE: NEIGHBOR HOOD PROJECTS 2012—2018

ASIAN ARTS INITIATIVE ASIAN ARTS INITIATIVE CONTENTS

Timeline PEARL STREET PROJECT 6 61 Introduction Gayle Isa 9 Advice From the Field 68

Towards Synergy and Transformation: Reflections on Arts and Cultural Organizations as Allies in Community Development and Planning Contributor Biographies Maria Rosario Jackson, Ph.D. 12 72

Poetics and Praxis of a City in Relation Roberto Bedoya 15 STAFF & BOARD 77

The Joy We Make: Culture and Relationships in Funders Urban Planning and Design Theresa Hwang 21 78 Social Practice Lab 50 Credits 80

2 Asian Arts Initiative 3 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 TIMELINE 2012 AAI launches two new neigh- borhood programs, the Social Practice Lab Artist Residency, 2014 1997 AAI issues the first open call AAI moves out of Painted and the Pearl Street Project. Bride Art Center and into to artists and neighborhood the Gilbert Building at 1315 2005 members for Pearl Street Cherry Street. Our first Chinatown Micro-Projects, which are 2016– In/flux exhibition opens scheduled throughout the with a community block next year. party and walking tours of 2018 Guided by a Working Group 7 contemporary artists’ 2013 of diverse neighborhood projects installed throughout 1993 AAI celebrates the culmina- stakeholders, Asian Arts the neighborhood. Asian Arts Initiative (AAI) 2000 tion of the inaugural cohort Initiative publishes the is created at Painted Bride AAI’s Gallery program is of Social Practice Lab Artist generated by a group of People:Power:Place cultural Art Center in response to Residencies, and throws the plan and prepares to pilot community concerns about volunteers who install track first of many Pearl Street the Shared Spaces 共享空間 racial tension. lighting and begin curating a Block Parties. regular season of exhibitions project. each year. 2007 2018 Forced to move to make 2016 AAI celebrates 25 years with way for the Pennsylvania AAI debuts People:Power:- 25+ commissioned works from Convention Center expan- 2011 Place, a multi-year cultural artists across all disciplines, 1996 planning process to bring AAI formally incorporates as sion, AAI says goodbye to the After a large capital cam- including the Then and Now an independent non-profit Gilbert Building, our home of paign, AAI purchases our neighbors together to imag- exhibition, focused on explor- organization! Our Steering over 10 years! building at 1219 Vine Street, ine an equitable future for ing community-building and Committee reorganizes and and begins developing it as our changing neighborhood. community-engaged arts with recruits new members to form a multi-tenant facility. and within the Asian/American our founding Board. community in Philadelphia; and (ex)CHANGE, a series of site-specific projects respond- 2004 2008 2015 ing to the current dynamics of AAI also celebrates our 10th After multiple moves to AAI pilots a new model our communities in neighbor- Anniversary season with a interim spaces, AAI settles of community-engaged hoods around the city. timeline exhibiting The Art of into a newly renovated home curatorial process, which Community Building, a perfor- at 1219 Vine Street in China- culminates in the Sun- mance showcase, and town North/Callowhill. day Breakfast Dining Hall a giant birthday cake! Makeover and a toolkit for future projects.

4 Timeline Asian Arts Initiative 5 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Board that the organization has INTRODUCTION formed in the past year.) These examples from GAYLE ISA Asian Arts Initiative’s early years emphasize the responsive nature in which the organiza- tion’s programming has always evolved, as well as one of the core competencies of the orga- nization, which I recall artist “All development is local,” a funder who is now a board Kawaii) to share personal and family histories; and in Jeff Cylkowski once describing member advised me, as we were embarking upon the 1997, in partnership with the Asian American Youth Asso- as “unusually good at bringing campaign for Asian Arts Initiative’s multi-tenant building. ciation (AAYA), launched its Youth Arts Workshop, which groups of people together.” Both Her words have resonated throughout the years, and the has changed in shape and scale over the years—with of these dynamics are significant truth of the phrase is also relevant when describing our the Seeing Voices video project, GenerAsian Next teen to the development of Asian Arts organization’s practice of working in communities. theater, and a more current focus on visual arts—but Initiative’s neighborhood and In Asian Arts Initiative’s case, the organization’s has consistently continued to provide arts education for place-based work. founding—in 1993, in the wake of the Rodney King students from diverse backgrounds, from throughout verdict and the Los Angeles uprisings—was motivated the city. The focus on place: anchoring in response to concerns about racial tension. At that As its arts and community programming grew, ourselves in a neighborhood time in Philadelphia there really were only a handful of Asian Arts Initiative (with a team of staff and partners We generally trace Asian Asian American organizations, and no pan-Asian cultural including Julia Lopez, Magda Martinez, and Lori Sasaki), Arts Initiative’s creative place- organizations. So Asian Arts Initiative began its communi- recognized the need to cultivate more artists of color in making or placekeeping work ty-engaged practice with the ambition and belief that we the (even moreso than now) white-dominated field of arts to the Multi-Tenant Arts Facil- a “win win” situation similar to what the Reading Termi- would be able to speak to and organize our communities education, and pioneered the Artists and Communities ity, an ongoing project prompted by Asian Arts Initia- nal Market merchants had been able to achieve during through the medium/s of arts and culture. Training, or ACT, program, which hired small cohorts of tive’s forced removal from its former (affordable) home the Convention Center’s original construction; another I recently left my role at Asian Arts Initiative, after artists to participate in a series of workshops and a prac- to make way for the Pennsylvania Convention Center’s with Olive Mosier, our Program Officer at the William 25 years serving first as a volunteer intern and then tice teaching engagement to hone their skills in curricu- expansion; and which became an opportunity for Asian Penn Foundation, who ultimately made a $500k grant, as the Founding Executive Director. I have witnessed lum planning, classroom management, and artistic vision. Arts Initiative to position itself as an anchor and a hub of by far the largest Asian Arts Initiative had received to tremendous amounts of evolution, personally, organiza- Most importantly, the program offered many artists an cultural activity in the Chinatown North neighborhood. date, to seed a Multi-Tenant Arts Facility; and with the tionally, in the city, and in the world. In writing this intro- opportunity to decide if working in a community setting More on that in a moment. nonprofit developer Artspace, who was conducting a duction, I am hoping to share key moments from that was a good fit—or in some cases, not—for them. I also recall earlier conversations with local commu- separate study of space needs for artists and arts orga- history, as well as aspirations for what lies ahead. Another program was the Artists Exchange, a nity development and advocacy groups; and going to nizations in Philadelphia, but who determined that they teach-in of sorts to provide artists with an opportunity national conferences where I met and stayed up late did not have the capacity to pursue this project on our The early years: inherently engaged with our to learn more deeply about a community issue—and talking with friends about creative approaches to engag- behalf; and subsequently what felt like an infinite number community a mini-commission to create new work in response. In ing art and community. Later, those connections and of other local and out-of-town developers who we hoped Since its beginnings, Asian Arts Initiative has the first year, on the 20th anniversary of Vincent Chin’s interests afforded me and the organization another amaz- to learn from and/or partner with. always, instinctively and inherently, had a practice of murder, the program explored the broad theme of ing opportunity, to participate in the inaugural year of the Three years and two interim moves later, in 2008, working with communities. Even from the first presenta- anti-Asian violence. In later years, a particularly reso- Douglas Redd Fellowship program along with peers and Asian Arts Initiative opened its offices at 1219 Vine tions at Painted Bride Art Center (where we first started nant topic was Re:location, addressing artists’ role in mentors including Rise Wilson, Prerana Reddy, Luther Street; three years after that, in 2011, Asian Arts Initiative as a programming “initiative”), and Live Traditions / fighting or furthering the dynamics of gentrification and Gray, Lyz Crane, Esther Robinson, and Jeremy Nowak, was able to leverage the purchase of the building and Contemporary Issues festival (Philadelphia’s first ever displacement. who have become thought leaders in the fields of creative complete the next phase of renovations to invite an initial festival of Asian American art), artists and audiences Throughout, many of these projects and the major- placemaking—and who have influenced me and the cohort of tenants to move in and share the building with were engaged in dialogue with each other around broad ity of Asian Arts Initiative’s exhibitions and performance development of Asian Arts Initiative. us. A third phase of renovations was completed in 2014, issues of race and identity. Quickly, the organization programs were led by what we called our Project Teams, Back to the building. In 2005, rumors that the welcoming Philadelphia Young Playwrights and Mural developed an emphasis on working with Asian American staff and volunteers who were responsible for identify- Pennsylvania Convention Center was moving forward Arts Philadelphia as anchor tenants, and helping to stabi- youth, who often had multilingual skills, and who in many ing issues and artists to involve, outreach to a diversity with plans to expand prompted a chain of meetings lize the income stream needed to sustain the building. cases we could reach through the schools more easily of audiences and community members, and varying and conversations – including one convened by the Through the process, I and other leaders within than other generations of their families. degrees of the logistics required to make it all happen. (I Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance with then-chair Asian Arts Initiative had tremendous opportunity to learn In 1995, Asian Arts Initiative organized the ambi- think of these Project Teams as a precursor to the Local of the Convention Center Authority Michael Nutter about and gradually determine our commitment to being tious As I Am youth dance project, engaging a dozen Resource Teams and Working Groups that Asian Arts (before he had declared his intention to run for Mayor) an active neighbor and a “positive force” in the develop- teenagers in storytelling and choreography (facilitated Initiative has since created to help shape its neighbor- who suggested that the artists and arts groups being ment of Chinatown North. by visiting artist Isabel Hon and then-local artist Roko hood-based programming, and the Community Advisory displaced might consider pursuing a co-location plan as 6 Introduction Asian Arts Initiative 7 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 The evolution of practice: a “lab” for community Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission has also been engagement a partner for some of the most impactful projects that TOWARDS SYNERGY AND By the time Asian Arts Initiative moved to the new Asian Arts Initiative has conducted—including the Sunday building, we had already completed several key proj- Breakfast Farm, which artist-in-residence Meei Ling Ng TRANSFORMATION: REFLECTIONS ects to educate ourselves and our larger constituency built alongside men at the shelter, utilizing an empty strip about the neighborhood – including the youth-produced of asphalt in the parking lot to create a verdant garden InvAsian documentary (2000) focusing on the community now in its 4th growing season; the CONSUMPTION proj- ON ARTS AND CULTURAL organizing against a proposed stadium, and the China- ect initiated by Rick Lowe; and, as part of the develop- town Life Stories video (in collaboration with Termite TV); ment and demonstration of a new “community-engaged ORGANIZATIONS AS ALLIES IN the multi-year Chinatown Live(s) oral history project (2001- contemporary arts curatorial model,” a chance to work 2005), featuring diverse workers whose stories demon- with staff and residents to re-envision and makeover the strate the neighborhood’s complexity as more than just a Sunday Breakfast Dining Hall as a place where family-style COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT commercial destination for eating and shopping, but also meals, ambient music, and warm light now welcome and a place where people work and live; and the Chinatown In/ encourage guests to enjoy a friendlier day-to-day quality AND PLANNING flux exhibition (2005-2006) of seven artists’ site-specific of life. projects – in restaurants, storefronts, a senior center, a Asian Arts Initiative’s most recent endeavor has public plaza – inviting residents and visitors to view and been leading the effort to create a neighborhood cultural MARIA ROSARIO JACKSON, PH.D. gain new perspectives on the neighborhood. plan, People:Power:Place, culminating in many ways the A key development took place when Asian Arts work and relationships that the organization has culti- Initiative (supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heri- vated through its years of placemaking / placekeeping. tage) had the opportunity to consult with curator Aimee With guidance from a Working Group of local community For more than 25 years, from the diverse and adapted and executed by artists “trial” period to “get on the same page,” Chang over a series of visits in 2010. Noting Asian Arts stakeholders, the project has included nearly two years perches of philanthropy, government, Aletheia Hyun-Jin Shin and Emily Chow and test what appear to be commonly Initiative’s strength in community engagement, she of planning and visioning workshops, and is now at an academia, and research institutions, as Bluck. CONSUMPTION was an effort held values and practices and assess the encouraged us to focus our resources on programming exciting moment of being able to implement the Shared well as from the perspective of on-the- to re-define the physical presence and fit between artists and hosts. This also that would reflect that strength. (She even offered the Spaces 共享空間 project to carve out space for work- ground arts and community develop- role of Pearl Street, an alley-like street includes assessing what the artist might bold advice—which, for better or worse, our staff wasn’t ing class immigrants and other economically challenged ment organizations, my work has been immediately behind AAI and its various inherit in terms of the host’s relation- ready to accept at that time—that in our gallery, rather people to engage in cultural production and stake claim focused on integrating arts and culture neighboring organizations that serve ships with residents and institutions in than struggle to find interesting things to put on the walls to the rapidly changing neighborhood. into our concept of healthy places where drastically different constituencies the community and gaining clarity about each season, perhaps the organization could install a all people can thrive, and on creating co-existing in the same space.1 From my what this means for the work imagined. permanent exhibit and stop distracting ourselves from a Facing the future: the fight for equity comprehensive strategies to address perspective as someone with roots in Another idea that emerged from the core focus on community engaged projects.) As a pan-Asian organization founded with an inequity particularly in historically urban planning and community devel- observation was the possible utility of At the time, “social practice” was just beginning intention of building bridges among diverse people marginalized communities. These are opment fields, artist residencies can a third-party thought partner/mediator to receive attention as a name for a field, and Aimee and cultures, Asian Arts Initiative has always had an often communities of color, character- be important mechanisms for artists who could offer a safe space for all advocated for Asian Arts Initiative to pioneer a “lab” that inherent practice of community engagement. Now, in ized by media and governmental systems and arts organizations to contribute to parties involved and help navigate diffi- could also provide texts and case studies for educa- a neighborhood that has battled threats including a primarily in terms of socio-economic community improvement strategies in cult elements of collaboration. Last, the tors and artists to hone their practice. Following her proposed baseball stadium, and a predatory casino, and deficits without sufficient consideration ways that can stretch and challenge notion of “funder fit” emerged as a call advice, Asian Arts Initiative convened a national advisory a “neighborhood improvement district” led by outside for their cultural assets, creativity, and conventional practices in community to consider the qualities of supporters committee in 2011 – including practitioners like Pepon interests—a neighborhood that is facing intensified evidence of their resilience. As commu- development, planning, and arts alike. of residencies wisely and, to the extent Osorio, Edgar Arceneaux, Rick Lowe, and Sue Bell Yank pressures of gentrification in a world that is increasingly nity development, planning, and allied My observation of the concep- possible, cultivate a culture of flexibility who helped shape and have continued to inspire and polarized, my hope is that the organization will be able to fields essential to equitable, just commu- tion and evolution of CONSUMPTION, and tolerance for adjustments essential influence Asian Arts Initiative and its Social Practice Lab. align its programs and create new strategies to promote nities begin to more seriously and stra- resulted in key insights about what to the work. In the midst of the initial Social Practice Lab artist the kind of equitable development that we have said that tegically consider artists and arts and artists and host organizations require or In addition to providing a window residencies in 2012-2013, Asian Arts Initiative was also we value. cultural organizations as allies in their could benefit from in order to maxi- into residencies, the observation of given an opportunity to focus on the long-neglected work, what do they need to know? What mize a community-focused residency AAI from 2013 to 2015 also offered a alleyway in “back” of the building on its north-facing ––––– do arts and cultural organizations need experience. One requirement is that window to more deeply understand side. Pearl Street, which runs from the Sunday Breakfast to know? How might this promising both artists and hosts interrogate their the roles that community-based arts Rescue Mission men’s shelter on one end of the block, to Gayle Isa is the Founder and former Executive Director synergy be bolstered? practices in order to distill core values organizations, particularly those like luxury lofts and condos on the other end, with a medley of Asian Arts Initiative. From 2013-2015, I had the unique and corresponding ways of working with Asian Arts Initiative that are committed of social and cultural organizations in between, has been privilege to collaborate with Asian each other and in communities as well to lifting, interrogating and celebrating a site for many Social Practice Lab artists’ focus, and has Arts Initiative (AAI) as an observer of as related logistical and material require- complex racial ethnic identities, can become a symbolic as well as physical connector of the one of its artist residencies; an effort ments. Another requirement, particularly contribute to neighborhood change diversity of people in the neighborhood and the commu- that resulted in CONSUMPTION, a for long-term residencies, in my opinion, and community development. Raising nity beyond. project conceived by artist Rick Lowe is the idea of establishing a “courting” or the visibility and full understanding of 8 Introduction Asian Arts Initiative 9 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 do attempt to expand our lens into only economic impacts. Efforts to both tradition and innovation. They 1. http://asianartsinitiative.org/consumption assessing our condition, making assess the impacts of creative place- take many forms including identi- 2. Florida, Richard. 2002. Rise of the prudent policy choices, and better making increasingly lift up contribu- ty-explicit art and cultural centers, Creative Class. Basic Books. New York. catalyzing and assessing change tions of arts-based activity having mutual aid societies, and even 3. For examples of research on social at the neighborhood level. These to do with impacting individual and sometimes churches and commer- indicators see Social Indicators Research: include research on social indicators collective agency, social cohesion, cial entities. In their roles as hubs An International and Interdisciplinary as well as policy and investment sense of stewardship, narrative of and pillars in geographic communi- Journal for Quality of Life Measurement analysis strategies that look at more place, and physical transformation ties and in communities of interest, https://link.springer.com/journal/11205, and than singular economic bottom lines of neighborhoods among other they are places that have impact International Society for Quality of Life and advocate for triple and quadru- community qualities that have not far beyond what happens inside Research http://www.isoqol.org ple bottom lines. These often are typically been part of how neighbor- of them and are critical to a more 4.Jackson, Maria Rosario. 2018. “Creative aligned with interests in environment hood change processes are under- equitable and just society. The term Placemaking and Expansion of Opportu- and sustainability as well as shared stood or formally assessed.4 All of “cultural kitchens” comes from my nity.” The Kresge Foundation. Troy, Michi- prosperity. Even within these, and these impacts are consistent with observation that often, among public gan. https://kresge.org/sites/default/files/ despite a growing and persistent the aspiration of the AAI residency officials, in efforts to tout diversity library/cp_white_paper_2_for_posting.pdf interest in the inclusion of arts and I observed and what ultimately as a virtue of a place, point to places 5. Jackson, Maria Rosario. 2011. Cultural culture as critical input and desired became the CONSUMPTION project. and events that serve as cultural Kitchens: Nurturing Organic, Creative outcome, this has been, for the most While not intentionally positioned commons: communal tables where Expression. Grantmakers in the Arts arts and cultural organizations as of arts and culture in our human part, marginal or non-existent.3 as such at the time, I argue that people gather to share their culture blog. http://blogs.giarts.org/equity-fo- community development partners, condition and in community change such activity can be instructive to with one another. It occurred to me rum/2011/12/07/cultural-kitchens-nurtur- particularly community rooted small has been an overemphasis on blunt Re-framing the Roles of Arts community development and plan- that while we lift up these cultural ing-organic-creative-expression/ to midsize organizations, is often not economic impacts by arts advocates, and Culture in Community ning fields as they begin to embrace communal tables as virtuous, we do easy. Concepts of art and culture are policy makers, and the community Development and Planning the invitation to evolve. Moreover, as not give sufficient attention to where ––––– often narrow and do not account for development field. In recent years, In recent years, there has community-based arts organizations it is that people actually make the expansive ways of thinking about this emphasis has been fueled by been a surge of interest in how arts, are better understood as possible culture that they then share. Where Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson is the Institute process-based practices nor the concepts that could be useful if culture, and community engaged community development partners, are the cultural kitchens that make Professor at Arizona State University with roles of artists beyond makers of considered critically and not taken design can be part of planning, a better grasp of how they func- that possible? How do they work? appointments in the Herberger Institute physical objects or as performers. to extreme such as “Creative Class” community development, and related tion, their past and future roles, and What do they require to function? for Design and the Arts and the College of Moreover, there is still important coined by Richard Florida and popu- fields. This is evident in increas- insights into their support needs, How robust or fragile are these key Public Service and Community Solutions. work to be done in mapping differ- lar in the early 2000s and “Creative ing artists’ involvement in social are imperative. entities that make so much possible? ent types of community-based arts Economy,” still prevalent today.2 This practice, public practice, tactical In efforts to better understand Asian Arts Initiative, in my practices to elements of compre- overemphasis is not surprising. As urbanism, and creative placemaking. the range of arts and culture organi- opinion, is a unique cultural kitchen hensive community development. a society we measure our condition In the last seven years, building on zations in a given place, a common serving a geographic community as This mapping needs to happen not largely in terms of how our economy my previous work and that of others, frame for distinguishing among well as a more extended community only as the concept of community is doing. Economic considerations I have been specifically involved in organizations is budget size. To be of interest. I posit that its experience development exists currently with a are the dominant currency of policy examining and advancing activity sure, understanding the contours and lessons learned over the years focus on cross disciplinary connec- debates and in the community under the “creative placemaking” of the cultural sector in terms of are valuable not only to the arts and tion (e.g., housing, health, education, development and planning fields, umbrella, with a particular focus budget size has value. But I think that culture field but also to the fields of environment, etc.) but also inclusive economic impacts are the gold stan- on arts-based community develop- in addition to understanding distinc- community development and plan- functions, some of which get little or dard for neighborhood change. I am ment and planning strategies that tions by budget size, it is crucial to ning as they embrace the invitation no attention in concepts of compre- not arguing that we should abandon acknowledge systemic root causes understand distinctions among orga- to integrate arts, culture, and design hensive community development any focus on economic impacts. It is of inequity, build on community nizations by virtue of what they do. into how they address communities, such as community organizing, important and that would be foolish. cultural assets, and involve resident With this in mind, several years ago, I how they conceive of comprehen- visioning systemic and community But I am arguing that we direly engagement in service of equitable started a strand of research on what sive approaches and change, and change, community engaged design, need to expand our prism for how community outcomes. In my opinion, I call “cultural kitchens.”5 The term also how they recognize and track reclamation of cultural identity and we measure our human condition, perhaps one of the most important refers to those places where people, progress. Distilling those lessons narrative, and meaningful physical the criteria we use to make policy contributions of the rise of equitable especially people from historically and framing them into more broadly transformation of community spaces. choices and the ways in which creative placemaking has been the marginalized communities that accessible material for audiences we think about what constitutes invitation to community develop- have experienced violence done to beyond the arts and culture field is Arts and Culture in Assessment of community improvement. ment, planning, arts, and other fields cultural roots, gather to reclaim, part of important work ahead. Our Societal Condition For decades there have been to reckon with how arts and culture mend, and/or build new cultural A key challenge in fully several strands of research and often contribute to community roots and take control of their narra- understanding the plausible roles practice, that while still at the edges, change in neighborhoods beyond tive. Cultural kitchens encourage 10 Towards Synergy and Transformation Asian Arts Initiative 11 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 POETICS AND PRAXIS OF A CITY IN RELATION ROBERTO BEDOYA

Culture and Policy in Relation ways humans perceive and conceive into public and its porousness or what cultural plan is rooted in community. cross-cultural understanding of everyday life. It is a celebration As a policymaker and an artists’ the world, a Relation embedded in the the scholar Patricia Reed refers to the It’s not that there’s a lack of reflection and engagement; of what a community is, where intermediary, I often reflect on how spheres of community and publicness? “promiscuous publicness:” the Public- on public, but the aim to sustain its stewardship of place; and it has come from, and where it is policy aims to fix through rules and regu- Relation in the stories of the ecumenical ness of Farmers Market, of Chinatown, neighborhood identity infuses the report access to knowledge and skills to going–its identity and memory. lations, while culture is fluid, and how networks that scale out belonging as of cultural districts, of street fairs, of with an understanding of community as advocate for community cultural these two energies create a perplexing a form of community cultural develop- protest marches, of being in the gallery/ verb—the ways that Chinatown maps it development. WE DEFINE EQUITY AS: and wonderful entanglement that haunts ment that animate the locale, builds the museum or performance hall, of walks boundaries and uniqueness, its relation, Fairness. To counter-balance the lyric, the score, the drama, the crisis, local, the city, the civic narratives that through parks or neighborhoods… all its actions. Achieving cultural equity requires systemic inequities that create lack the economy, the swoons, the sphere of produces the rhythms that connects messy, wonderful and promiscuous, that Both reports generate statements fair and just distribution of of opportunities, representation, exchanges between folks—in Relation. affect and effect to one another. our plans addresses. about equity, that is where publicness resources and the identification and access, equity redistributes A mercurial and key word for me in A cultural plan should not aim to is tied to community life; the locale and remedying of institutional- power and resources based my policymaking role is Relation. I come Equity and Neighborhood Identity contain the promiscuous public sphere. (Chinatown), and the local (Oaktown), ized norms that have systemi- on need to create a more level to this term as I stated in another piece Most recently, I shepherded the It should be porous. which is rooted in the governance of cally disadvantaged categories playing field resulting in more of writing… “like an awkward guest who development of the Oakland Cultural A cultural plan is about public- calls for equity. of people based on, e.g., race, balanced opportunities for those has moved into a sphere of thought. My Plan, Belonging in Oakland: A Cultural ness—the secular we that includes people The Oakland Cultural Plan states: ethnicity, customs, gender identity, who are historically or tradition- association with Relation is both poetic Development Plan, which inform these you don’t know. At the same time, it is sexual orientation, age, religion, ally under-represented. Equity and complex. In this sphere, operating thoughts about cultural policy and also about a community of shared interest, “Cultural equity in a democratic disability, and socioeconomic or sometimes requires people with as reference point to me are the works planning. Planning is a form of generat- of personal ties: a writer’s community, an and diverse society recognizes: citizenship status.” frequent opportunities and privi- of the Martinique essayist, Edouard ing governance that manifest in calls of ethnic community, the refugee commu- all cultures have value; leges to step back to make space Glissant, whose writing on Relation has action that inform the ethical conduct of nity, the hip-hop community, the neigh- cultural diversity makes society Asian Arts Initiative’s cultural plan for and share power with more shadowed my work, like a bewitching individuals and the public linked to art borhood community. A plan needs to be more resilient; and states: participants. bird song. Relation, being the forms of and to policy. about intersectionality how one moves all cultures should have equal understanding the manners of host, of Governance, not government, between communities—the culture of access to opportunities to achieve WE DEFINE CULTURE AS: The intentionality of both plans guest, of interculturality, of kinship, of is central to public life. Governance fluidrelation s. Publicness acknowledges social esteem. The shared resources, beliefs, and foregrounds the human right and eman- public, of policy, the movements of being as the enactment of meaning and by the encounters that happen daily. This equity of opportunity entails: practices that build the defining cipatory aim of empowering talent and within the transformative learning of that I mean the ways of understanding The variance between Community self-determined cultural expres- character of a community, and community as a central ethos of cultural these mentalities.” and experiences make claims on how and Public that comes to play in planning sion, affirmation, and learning; in this case, our neighborhood. planning, of relation in creative placemak- So, how does the Oakland we order and make our lives together lies in the establishment of boundaries, spaces and resources for cultural Culture also extends beyond formal ing and creative placekeeping practices. Cultural Plan and the Asian Arts Initiative as a public, that shape our sociality, and how aesthetics echo in relation of production and participation; arts to include informal interactions When I reflect upon the China- Cultural Plan operate in Relation to the embedded in Relation. I want to lean this and that. The Asian Arts Initiative creating connections and that define the nature and customs town plan and the Oakland plan, 12 Poetics and Praxis of a City in Relation Asian Arts Initiative 13 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 I think about the “we” that animates democracy, or deliberative democracy), ration fails to engage with the phenom- the spatial imaginary that inform these where the system of governance will enon of imagination (poetic will) and THE JOY WE MAKE: CULTURE reports and the racial imaginary that is inform the expressive life of a locale— how it effects decision making within at play in our cities. the animate political will. As a writer artist-centered cultural practices and the AND RELATIONSHIPS IN URBAN Oakland has been a largely and policymaker who works to serve support structures for artists, neighbor- minority city for decades, and the the public, I engage in deliberative hood voice, and their creative processes. default frame of whiteness that domi- democracy as a form of governance Seeing cultural policy as a form of criti- PLANNING AND DESIGN nate creative placemaking discourses in my practice in which dialogue and cal inquiry acknowledges creativity—the has little traction in my town, or in the decision-making are the interlocking composing of the world that artists and THERESA HWANG Asian Art Initiative report that focuses operations that position the inhabitants the imagining public engage in. on the neighborhood and its cultural of the city as active agents in their own Policy and imagination condition production that animates the aesthetic social conditions. (Policy follows mean- each other, and a dialectical relation- Can cultural planning connect people? People:Power:Place is cultural plan people who live, work, and play in speech of Chinatown. The call for equity ing and not meaning follows policy). The ship between the two is necessary to Build power? Strengthen place? as anti-displacement tool; a way to keep Chinatown North/Callowhill. We wanted is essential to creating a just city, and ethics and analysis which is informed preserve the vibrancy of our cities. So Can we redefine cultural planning the existing community rooted in the to turn their daily experiences into to operatize belonging as a civic charge by these deliberative practices permits often urban policymaking is determined as a strategy to create policies that root area as large market rate development policy to ensure their quality and way of that organizes our locales, confronts and allows for conjecture, contesta- by the drive to accumulate as much histories and foster opportunities for rapidly builds. AAI had already been life can continue. spatial racism played out in zoning and tion, debate, power sharing, agenda capital as possible, and the effect is growth for communities of color? displaced once and wanted to prevent As a process, we centered people: philanthropic policies and cultural norms setting, and discursive practices that to destabilize our cities through the Can cultural planning have impact any future upheaval for themselves the community members that activate that support whiteness. imagine and articulate our plurality and displacement of individuals, families and beyond the sector of arts and culture? and others as the Chinatown North/ and give meaning to the neighborhood. constructs equity. This cultural policy, entire communities, prompting one to Unsure if these questions had Callowhill area becomes a hot spot For the cultural plan to authentically Public Will, Poetic Will, Political Will it is a call for dialogue and deliberation ask: Is creative placemaking a Property solutions, we set out to seek answers for new development. As the process reflect the community, the plan must be I often reflect about the entangle- on art and democracy, and how art and Rights Movement or a Human Rights with the cultural planning process: developed, we realized the opportunity led by the people creating the culture, ment of wills that present themselves dialogue infuse our functions as inhabi- Movement in the City Making/City People:Power:Place. to use People:Power:Place as a platform not policy makers or planners. If not, in policymaking. There is public will, tants of a locale in the social actions of Design world of actions?—in the new At first glance, it may seem to leverage planning to foster solidarity, the cultural plan will be superficial, political will and poetic will. As a public policy making and the social actions of localism movement afoot in US cities? strange for an arts organization focused seed community control of develop- aesthetic. We expanded the notion of servant, I think often of public will, in imagination. For me, the people who shape on racial equity to lead community devel- ment, and begin to create a collective cultural producers, to extend past those the context of the plural and the role of Let me end with some thoughts on communities from the ground up—the opment efforts, but Asian Arts Initiative identity for Chinatown North/Callowhill. formally trained in the arts to those that artists, arts organizations, politicians, Poetic Will. urban residents who practice the art of (AAI) understood the value that an arts Rather than limit the impact of the contribute to daily life and validate infor- civic leaders, neighborhood folks, in the I love metaphors. Don’t be harsh poiesis, or making in the sense of trans- organization can play in the improvement cultural plan to the sector of arts and mal methods of expression to include “WE.” We is not the privatized “WE” of on the function and importance of forming the world—should have the real of a neighborhood. AAI used the arts culture, we wanted to examine ways people who grow their own gardens, me and my friends, but the democratic metaphors in daily life. We run business agency. Acts of imagination ultimately and creative strategies to bring planning culture showed up in the neighborhood attend church in the area, do tai chi in ideal of “We the people.” (I joke that my that prompt metaphors. The way people shape the public sphere, where we make and community development policies to and expand the realm of influence of public spaces ­as people that make up charge as a public servant is to serve use images, story, song, movement that meaning together, in shared space. an experiential level to engage a wide cultural planning to create a framework the fabric of cultural interactions and the anarchists and the white glove in make meaning—that enliven, shape and Imagination produces a “common” that audience in determining the future of the for shared values and vision, through make the experience of the area diverse. how I shepherd my Division’s services). imagine our plurality—is important part is continually generated and mutated neighborhood. As a host to the cultural which all community planning could To ensure we made the cultural So how do “WE” belong? How do “WE” of the work of arts administration. through our actions. Both by the imag- planning process, AAI offered an acces- be examined and evaluated. Rather planning process accessible, we present ourselves as the plural? Through I love metaphor, poiesis, the ination that engenders the dolled-up sible entry to planning through hands-on than create a document that road rethought the entire process and Relation, through cultural planning, “bringing into being” associated with front yard with big truck tire painted arts activities and framing neighborhood mapped ways cultural institutions, arts grounded it in experience and informal through community planning, through entanglement of wills that I engage in as pink and turned into a flower pot that development through stories and memo- programs, and artists could thrive, we interactions, so that all members of the public will, that shapes civic, the plural, a public servant. Further to this point. grows pansies, and the policies behind ries, rather than technical policies and used culture as a foundational element neighborhood would understand they and the “WE.” Public will is tethered to I understand as a policy maker how zoning ordinances ultimately affect how development goals. that connected all aspects of daily life could contribute to the plan. During the ethical aesthetic and social contract cultural policy is a form of administration a city speaks—the sounds of the city, We defined culture as the shared and represented the shared values asset mapping, beyond looking at techni- between artists, arts organizations, and also a form of critical inquiry. The the shape of its buildings, the unit of resources, beliefs, and practices that of neighbors. Rather than a discrete cal aspects of the area such as land use, government, and everyday folks that rise of cultural policy research meth- the block, the voices of the people who build the defining character of a commu- element, culture was the connec- and densities of arts programs, we addi- enliven the city. odologies and philosophies primarily live there, their poetics. The poetics and nity, and in this case the neighborhood tive tissue of the neighborhood. We tionally examined fond memories and Political will is tied to the story of within the framework of public policy praxis of a city in Relation. of Chinatown North/Callowhill. Culture also wanted to leverage culture as a favorite places as data points and the “The Clenched Fist,” “The Arm Wres- has created problems for analysis related also extends beyond formal arts to resource, an infinite resource that we all feel of the everyday as design param- tling,” and “The Handshake.” These to artist-centered cultural practices, or ––––– include informal interactions that define generate and can all utilize, to preserve eters. People responded with contri- gestures tell a story of power, of political community-driven cultural planning like the nature and customs of everyday life. and make visible the existing members butions that took the form of stories, will and its outcome—governance. One the Asian Art Initiative. Policy Studies is Roberto Bedoya is the Cultural Affairs Manager It is a celebration of what a community of the community. Beyond integrating snapshots, unforgettable moments, and also needs to understand how democ- a field that overwhelmingly embraces for the City of Oakland, and a Creative Place- is, where it has come from, and where it arts into the public realm of the neigh- corresponded with visions of improve- racy is defined and employed in context “policy” as an empirical science that making Fellow at Arizona State University. is going–its identity and memory and the borhood, we wanted to memorialize, ment that supported more of these (representative democracy, direct separates facts from value. This sepa- expression of the people. monumentalize, and make visible the favorite memories and events. 14 Poetics and Praxis of a City in Relation Asian Arts Initiative 15 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 We made the planning process an created opportunities for collaboration This becomes an important tool to offset exploratory time­, an invitation for each and cohesion, beyond the planning work. displacement, segregation, and other participant to also be a creative person, ­ A long-term goal was to create a more means of stripping space and dignity so all activities were generative and connected group of neighbors, ready to from communities of color. arts based. We used familiar materials mobilize and organize in support of each Cultural planning is also an oppor- from childhood like construction paper other and in support for campaigns that tunity to lift up qualitative and experien- and pipe cleaners, to lower the barrier positively impact the neighborhood. tial metrics of development that move to entry to be creative and alleviate People:Power:Place was an initia- beyond unit counts and return on invest- pressure to sculpt precious artifacts. tive that started out as a way to support ments. By integrating a framework of We invited people to be hands-on, the existing members of the commu- creative expression, we can, and should, express opinions in new ways, in nity, but grew into a larger experiment start tracking the number of relation- the form of a giant model of the that examined ways of expanding the ships built and the amount of joy created neighborhood, a drawing of memories, definition of culture: the role culture has as indicators of impact that foster a a collage of favorite places. Participants in neighborhood development, and how sense of ownership and comfort that is were collaborators, co-authors of the culture can engage people to become integral in community development. cultural plan, not just receptors giving more active citizens and serve as the As a community-engaged archi- feedback on assumed policies and root of place-making and keeping. tect, People:Power:Place was a valuable improvements. Neighbors designed and As the field of cultural planning experience of professional growth and solved solutions. The real experts, not continues to grow, alongside the efforts experimentation. Beyond the project policy makers, designed possibilities for to integrate arts and cultural strate- scope, it was an opportunity for me to the neighborhood. gies into community development, it explore the importance of culture within Chinatown North/Callowhill share becomes necessary to ask why culture my own practice. I had to reflect and ask boundaries but have little social over- sits separately from neighborhood questions about how my own upbring- lap. It is an aggregate place that policy development, rather than an essential ing and experience as an Asian American makers have determined into census part of all aspects of the community. woman has influenced my neighborhood tracts and planning districts, but on the Culture needs to be the foundation of or lack thereof, and how to articulate ground, there is little social cohesion design and planning. Culture is the DNA and integrate the importance of culture between disparate groups. The diversity of a community: the expression of the into my own life and professional prac- of the area is a strength, but an untapped people. Culture is what sets apart neigh- tice, and how culture can be scaled up resource. In the community, there are borhoods and gives unique character to impact the built environment. Culture working artists, immigrant workers from to places. Without it integrated into is the way to craft a counter narrative China, unhoused residents in social planning and design, which manifest to exclusion and embrace a spectrum of service programs, youth, alongside new values into the built environment, we identities. As my investigation of cultural college grads looking for affordable rent, are losing what makes places special. In planning and design continues, I know and more. Few efforts have aligned all immigrant neighborhoods and commu- that cultural practice and culture-bear- these identities, even less have brought nities of color, such as Chinatown North, ers are the tools to subvert and disman- them all together. In hopes to begin culture is embedded within all the daily tle existing manifestations of white fostering solidarity and shared values, practices of life, from meals, to porches, supremacy in the built environment. in addition to addresses, we formed a to the appropriation of public space. By making space for a range of Working Group comprised of various People of color intuitively imbue cultural expressions and identities for communi- stakeholders in the area to advise the aspects of their life into their homes ties of color in neighborhoods, we can cultural planning process. The Working and streets. Cultural planning becomes begin to uproot histories of segregation, Group members shared a table for the an opportunity to honor these infor- erasure of identities, and the upheaval first time, with the same goal of equitably mal practices and author policies and of social networks, to authentically developing the neighborhood while stabi- resources that support these activities. move towards equitable neighborhood lizing and fostering diversity. Community By integrating cultural practices into development. leaders learned of each other’s efforts, neighborhood development, we hold their struggles and successes, and the opportunity to monumentalize the ––––– began to see underlying commonalities people, especially people of color, and of experiences, and clearly saw similar begin to push equitable representation Theresa Hyuna Hwang is a community-engaged desires for a thriving future. As plan- within the built environment while creat- architect and founder of Department of Places, ning meetings continued, relationships ing social and physical infrastructure a participatory design and community engage- beyond People:Power:Place formed and that will support a thriving community. ment practice based in Los Angeles, CA. 16 The Joy We Make Asian Arts Initiative

SOCIAL PRACTICE LAB 2012—2018

Asian Arts Initiative’s Social The inaugural Social Practice Lab in Practice Lab artist residency series 2012 convened a panel of National commissions and supports the Advisors, as well as a team of work of creative individuals and Local Advisors from neighborhood organizations in the highly diverse, institutions, to advise 7 artists and rapidly changing neighborhood of artist teams to pursue projects. Chinatown North in Philadelphia. Subsequent residencies have The goal of Social Practice Lab is limited the number of concurrent to allow for experimentation with projects, and expanded the length processes that combine artistic of residency, while remaining excellence and innovation by focused on innovative community building relationships and effecting projects. positive change within the community. Asian Arts Initiative is especially interested in creative projects that address the issue of equity and access to power within Chinatown North and that foster opportunities for access and equitable development.

21 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Clockwise from top left: The Overcomers pose for a 360 degree panorama on Pearl Street; TIME LENS The Overcomers interview and film a subject; a visitor peers into the ANULA SHETTY & Time Lens kiosk. MIKE KUETEMEYER 2012—PRESENT

Time Lens is a solar-powered kiosk installa- rated with men from the ‘Overcomers’ group tion and app featuring a series of interactive at the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, a 360 degree panoramas documenting four long term recovery and education program blocks of Pearl Street in Chinatown North. for shelter guests, to create photographs, Incorporated into these digital panoramas are videos, and interviews of the neighborhood’s archival photographs, and the voices, oral past, present, and future. Time Lens app users histories, dreams, mythology and memories can explore a rich tapestry of stories that of residents of the homeless shelter Sunday inhabit the surfaces, cracks, crevices, and Breakfast Rescue Mission and other commu- portals of Pearl Street. nity members and residents. Artists Anula Shetty and Michael Kuetemeyer collabo- 22 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 23 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Clockwise from top left: Students silkscreen their emoji designs onto the panels; a visitor walks by the completed installation; students design their emojis.

EMOJI ENERGY BEN VOLTA 2012—2013

Ben Volta partnered with AAI’s Youth Arts Work- human body, and electricity as a creative metaphor shop, PECO and the Fabric Workshop and Museum for conflict resolution. The imagery of the project in to create a public artwork that wraps a large turn reflected the energy and ideas of these young section of the Callowhill Substation located at 11th artists and the booming creative energy found and Callowhill Streets. Students in the Youth Arts throughout Chinatown North. Ben Volta’s work Workshop were invited to explore the history of has welcomed others to see industrial space as a electricity, electricity as a utility, electricity and the potential access point for creative ideas.

24 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 25 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Clockwise from top left: Detail of the greeting card installed in the Pearl Street alleyway; Collage of greeting cards; The Overcomers pose during a photography workshop.

POP UP BOOKS COLETTE FU 2012—2013

Colette Fu worked with men from the Overcomers program at Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission. Using pop-up paper engineering, Colette and the Overcomers created a series of pop-up greeting cards containing personal stories written by the men on the theme of the Chinese Zodiac, and illustrated by photographs the men took of the Chinatown North neighborhood. From these images, Colette and the Overcomers produced an edition of the set of 12 cards, and a calendar.

26 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 27 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Clockwise, from top left: “SCIENTIA (knowledge)正义(justice) WRITE SKY IT TAKES A VILLAGE” written across the Philadelphia sky, visitors enjoy the DAVE KYU “sky viewing area” at the Pearl Street 2012—2014 Block Party.

Inspired by input from a diverse range of commu- to 15 miles in all directions. Those three messages nity members, Write Sky is your friendly neighbor- were: hood skywriting project. Five neighborhood groups selected from the call for participants agreed upon 1. WHEN YOU WISH UPON A PARK, message by three uncommon messages to imprint into their Friends of the Rail Park common sky above their Philadelphia neighbor- 2. SCIENTIA (knowledge)正义(justice) IT TAKES A hood known as: Callowhill, Chinatown North, The VILLAGE, message by Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Eraserhood, The Loft District, and Trestletown. Charter School and Roman Catholic High School Write Sky occurred on September 14, 2014, at 3. STILL HERE, message by Hive76, with artists approximately 12:40pm. Three messages were Jacque Liu, Jaime Alvarez, Sarah Kate Burgess, revealed over Philadelphia, and were visible for up and Mary Smull. 28 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 29 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Clockwise, from top left: Lee Tusman and guests gather for tea and con- versation; Informational flyer for theHOT TEA CART, Kathryn Sclavi prepares for a “Deco- rate Your Bike Workshop + Parade” event; the HOT TEA CART parked in the neighborhood.

HOT TEA CART LAURA DEUTCH, KATYA GORKER, LEE TUSMAN, KATHRYN SCLAVI 2012—2013

HOT TEA CART is a mobile service bicycle-driven The artists structured activities, prompts, and cart that hosted a series of mini-events throughout events to instigate and encourage participa- the neighborhood of Chinatown North from April tion from those who came to the cart. They also to September 2013. The purpose was to activate worked with community leaders and residents underutilized spaces in the neighborhood, bring prior to the launch of the cart to structure the attention to needed services, and create a gather- activities around the different needs and interests ing place for exchange among neighborhood resi- of the neighborhood. HOT TEA CART ultimately dents and workers. The consistent offering of the made visible the connections and relationships cart will be hot tea, curated by Random Tea House between people who regularly live, work, and pass based on the theme and tone of a given event. through the neighborhood.

30 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 31 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Clockwise from top left: Visitors test out the interactive STREET MUSIC instruments installed along the alleyway; Youth Arts Workshop STEVE PARKER student plays a recycled drum set. 2012—2013

Working with Youth Arts Workshop students, neighbors, and collaborating artists Jebney Davis and Molly Emerman, these artists have built three projects: 1) Interactive sound sculptures and instru- ments, comprised of found and recycled materi- als from the neighborhood, along the alleyway. 2) Electronic sound collages, comprised of recorded sounds from the neighborhood that play at various intervals in the alleyway. 3) A temporary stage in the alleyway for informal lunchtime performances.

32 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 33 Video still from the Really Good REALLY GOOD Elevator Music documentary.

ELEVATOR MUSIC Construction workers secure the signboard YOWEI SHAW SIGN OF THE TIMES to a flatbed truck, dis- playing one of the three DAVE KYU & SCOTT KIP selected community 2012—2013 messages, verbatim, to be driven around 2014—2015 the city. Really Good Elevator Music is a mobile in the Wolf Building elevator, and also audio installation that features the played in the elevator of Asian Arts Sign of the Times is your friendly Trestle Inn. Each day, the signboard sounds and stories of people wait- Initiative. A listening party was held neighborhood billboard project. The featured a new community message. ing in the neighborhood of China- at Asian Arts Initiative on March 14th, signboard started in a gallery exhi- At the end of the exhibition, the sign- town North. Six local artists with a 2014 where Yowei Shaw discussed bition at Asian Arts Initiative from board was driven around the City of connection to this community were some of the motivations of the proj- Septebmer 4 - October 23, 2015. Philadelphia, displaying one of three invited to create tracks for a Really ect, held a Q&A panel with the musi- The signboard collected messages community messages selected from Good Elevator Music playlist, which cians, and debuted a documentary of from visitors at Asian Arts Initia- the exhibition. was played on loop for several weeks the project. tive, as well as from a local bar, the 34 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 35 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Clockwise from top left: Meei Ling jumps for joy at the Farm; Meei Ling and a volunteer inspect the garden; Visitors pose with a sofa planter; The Farm during its first growing season.

SUNDAY BREAKFAST FARM MEEI-LING NG 2014—2015

Starting in February 2015, artist-in-residence the Overcomers program at Sunday Break- Meei Ling Ng began working with men and fast–advanced techniques for urban, high women at the Sunday Breakfast Rescue production growing so that participants Mission and volunteers from the Chinatown gained knowledge and skills to start up their North neighborhood to set up a vertical farm own urban agriculture operation. The farm and art installation in the mission’s parking lot has provided approximately one ton of fresh along Vine Street. Since it launched, the farm vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers that have has become a venue for food education, food been used in the kitchen at Sunday Breakfast, production, and community building. Meei Ling distributed to Chinatown North community has taught participants–primarily members of members, or sold at local farmers markets.

36 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 37 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 CONSUMPTION RICK LOWE, ALETHEIA Clockwise from top left: Artists and Overcomers carry a found HYUN-JIN SHIN, EMILY CHOW object couch, The final comfort couch in the Finding Comfort installation, BLUCK, JEFFREY HARLEY A view from Pearl Street into the Finding Comfort installation. 2014—2015 CONSUMPTION is a project that grew out the first storefront on Pearl Street, and Kitchen of Rick Lowe’s residency with Asian Arts Initia- of Corrections, a pilot, pop-up restaurant initia- tive. The goal of the project was to explore tive that used prison food recipes and stories ways to bridge relationships between the of incarceration to cultivate dynamic social diverse stakeholders along Pearl Street in and economic exchange between returning Philadelphia’s Chinatown North. CONSUMP- citizens and local residents from the neighbor- TION used multiple strategies to shed light hood. CONSUMPTION was conceived by Rick on the relationships between the homeless, Lowe and led by artists Emily Chow Bluck and the upwardly mobile middle class, and other Aletheia Hyun-Jin Shin, and Chaplain Jeffrey community stakeholders. Strategies included Harley in primary collaboration with a group of neighborhood clean-ups, intensive time spent men (the “Overcomers”) overcoming home- with homeless men, workshops, and commu- lessness, addiction, and incarceration residing nity meetings that led to the production of at a local rescue mission. Finding Comfort, an installation that activated

38 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 39 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Clockwise from top left: Visitors enjoying cheechee at the 3rd Annual Pearl Street Block Party, The Artist hands out Kitchen of Corrections zines to visitors, Neighbors peruse the Before/After installation, The Artists and the Overcomers after preparing and serving cheechee for the Kitchen of Corrections.

40 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 41 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 REFLECTIONS JEFFREY HARLEY

I will never forget my first meeting with Emily about labor relations, social justice, the prison In addition, Emily and Aletheia sat in our I have been hurt and disappointed in the and Aletheia. I didn’t tell Rick at the time, but industrial complex, and the marginalization classes, like Bible Study and Life Skills. They past when trying to work with outside groups. before even meeting them, I had decided that and oppression of people of color. In addition, participated, and through their participation As I stated earlier, the majority of the people if they were the typical idealistic and passion- due to their unique ethnic and life experiences they were welcomed into our community. and groups that come here are very imperialis- ate, but condescending and naïve, young they are well aware of the feelings of people They did this from day one, and I believe that tic and colonial in their attitude and methods. people who thought that they were going to who are “outsiders” in any given commu- this is the reason for their success. You see, by Moreover, they really just use the Overcomers come into the community of the poor and nity. Emily’s father is White, and her mother taking an “incarnational” approach and assim- to extract money from grants and benefac- marginalized and “fix” the people, then my is Chinese. Aletheia is Korean but has lived in ilating in a genuine and transparent manner tors under the guise of serving the home- intention was to not waste my time working Canada, South Korea, and the United States. with the men in the Overcomer Program, less. Therefore, I have become disillusioned with them. The combination of their experiential knowl- Emily and Aletheia were able to glean and with helping these groups. Emily and Aletheia Unfortunately, I’ve had to endure numer- edge, academic training, and artistic abilities collect information from the men that most restored my confidence in the fact that there ous groups and organizations who come into have given them a unique and powerful testi- people never obtain. They entered into genu- are people and groups who are sincere and the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission with a mony, especially when it comes to working ine, transparent, and honest relationships genuine about serving the marginalized and presumption that their work, ideas, and knowl- with marginalized groups like the homeless with the Overcomers, while at the same time oppressed. In addition, instead of taking and edge would come into the lives of the men men at the Mission. maintaining their integrity and womanhood. It extracting resources (even though they were here and bring social, economic, and spiritual I shared with Emily and Aletheia the is very difficult for a woman to not be objecti- paid for their work) they invested monetarily, change. I refer to these people as imperialis- importance of serving with the Overcomers fied in this environment. However, unknown to emotionally, and relationally in the lives of the tic in their attitudes and approach. Thus, I had in tasks that the men have to perform before Emily and Aletheia, when some men would try Overcomers. They invested in my life. I am personally declared that I was finished with trying to implement one’s own agenda. For to make lewd comments and/or observations finishing my Doctoral Dissertation, and Emily working with such people. Emily and Aletheia example, the men have to clean the perime- about their femininity behind their backs, there and Aletheia are the perfect models of what are not those types of people. ter of the building every day at 9:00 a.m. I’ve were numerous men in the community who a volunteer looks like at the Sunday Breakfast Emily and Aletheia are passionate and shared with other artists and organizations rose to their defense. I was so proud of how Rescue Mission and the Overcomer Program. humble. They are artists who are sensitive to that if you are willing to help the men with these two young women were able to make a I have come to respect and admire their work, the needs of others. Moreover, they are well their work, then you will earn the right to connection and impact in the lives of the Over- but I love their character and personalities read, and this informs their work. I mentioned share your work with them. Emily and Aletheia comers in such a short period of time. They better. They have been a pleasure to serve to them the works of Paulo Freire, and they were the first artists, individuals, and/or orga- made a lasting impact in my life as well. with, and I miss them. I know that the Lord has immediately recognized his name and were nization to heed this advice. They were faithful The Kitchen of Corrections was a monu- a glorious future for them, and I am praying familiar with his writings. I am a Chaplain, every day to be at Sunday Breakfast Rescue mental success. It gave the Overcomers, who that they will continue to grow and develop in Pastor, and Theologian. However, I read other Mission at 9:00 a.m. to help with cleaning. have been incarcerated, an opportunity to their life’s work. books and works by people who are not I even had to call them on rainy days and tell express their experiences and voice. Giving Pastors and Theologians. Many artists that them not to come because I knew that they a voice to those who are voiceless is very ---- I meet, while very skilled and gifted in their would be there rain or shine. The men would important. I have never seen any group of Jeffrey Harley is the Education Chaplain at Sunday Break- particular art, have not invested in themselves tell me with astonishment in their voices and men in this program so excited and driven to fast Rescue Mission, and the key community partner for by being familiar with related works from body language how these two women did complete a project, and this was all due to the CONSUMPTION. other academic disciplines. Emily and Aletheia, more thorough work than they did and had no work of Emily and Aletheia. This was a part of however, are well read and knowledgeable issues with getting their hands dirty. the impact that they made on my life. 42 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 43 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Clockwise from top left: Youth Arts Workshop students pose with their audio recording equipment; Students capturing sounds through- out the neighborhood; An installation of audio stories on Pearl Street; Students working with Rachel Ishikawa to capture and learn audio recording best practices; The Chinatown Beats logo

CHINATOWN BEATS RACHEL ISHIKAWA 2016—2017

Our stories reverberate through sound. Our voices, our songs, even the sounds outside our windows help define who we are. Chinatown Beats is Rachel Ishikawa’s Social Practice Lab project that explores the ways we define place and self through sound in the Chinatown North community. This project aims to transform everyday sounds into narratives that map out our own sonic culture. 44 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 45 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 A view into one of the dishes Video stills from the video documents documented for the project. of elders teaching their homemade dishes.

DISH YVONNE LUNG 2016—PRESENT

Dish invites participants to learn their from her. In Dish, participants interview, favorite homemade dishes made by learn from, and video document their their elders by interviewing them and elders making these dishes. Dish, an documenting the process. When Lung’s on going project, not only allows the grandmother passed away a few years participant to learn these homemade ago, Lung’s cousin lamented during his dishes but also help strengthen the bond eulogy how he would never be able to between generations. taste his favorite dish by grandma again, and Lung lamented never learning the dish

46 Social Practice Lab Asian Arts Initiative 47 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018

PEARL STREET PROJECT 2012—2017

The Pearl Street Project luxury loft apartments on hundreds of community Asian Arts Initiative also transformed the four the other, and the wealth members in a day-long partnered with a range blocks of Pearl Street of artists, immigrants, line-up of performances, of artists to commission that run from 10th to and community members creative activity booths, the Pearl Street Pop-Up Broad Street into a more interspersed throughout. an interactive furniture Series, an annual summer vibrant cultural space In the initial phase of build, and a Community series of temporary within Philadelphia’s envisioning Pearl Street Feast that was served installations and projects Chinatown North/ as a culturally vibrant outdoors on the tables that have animated the Callowhill neighborhood. space, Asian Arts Initiative and chairs that had been street, and facilitated Asian Arts Initiative led partnered with Oakland- assembled earlier in the interaction among a multi-year effort to based landscape architect afternoon—engaging neighbors. transform the neglected and artist Walter Hood individuals from all alley into a community and a range of local backgrounds to literally asset that connected the stakeholders. The first- sit at the same table(s) diverse constituents in ever Pearl Street Block to talk with each other our neighborhood and Party culminated the and contribute to a larger beyond; including the initial planning phase and vision for Pearl Street. homeless shelter from one incorporated over three With a national award end of our block to the dozen cultural groups and from ArtPlace America, 50 Pearl Street Project Asian Arts Initiative 51 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Pearl Street Design Concepts In 2011, Walter Hood of Hood lighting that is both functional Design was the first designer that and adds an aesthetic element; Asian Arts Initiative engaged to re- curatorial opportunities for visual envision Pearl Street. arts installations and events; and Hood Design’s resulting plan active agents, entities such as Asian articulated the need for “base level” Arts Initiative and our neighbors of improvements, like installing who can host activities that increase lighting and re-paving to address eyes and feet on the street and standard safety issues, as well as foster productive energy along more “aesthetic” interventions Pearl Street. to further illuminate and activate Ultimately, Hood Design’s greatest the alleyway. Hood Designs’ impact was to suggest that Pearl proposals included: greening Street would need regular visitors strategies such as green walls and to spur any transformation, which rooftops; banners, signage, or other led to the first of many Pearl Street structures that demarcate and invite Block Parties. Renderings for Hood Design’s various audiences to enter Pearl Street; proposals for Pearl Street.

52 Pearl Street Project Asian Arts Initiative 53 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Pearl Street Project

Seasons Photos from the First Annual Pearl Street Block Party.

2013 Season Theater of the Oppressed, 1st Annual Pearl Neighborhood Games Since 2013, the Annual Street Block Party Workshop; Pearl Street Block Party Jino Lee, 2014 Season Wonders of Seeing has brought neighbors 2nd Annual Pearl Exhibition; Street Block Party Jaiya Bandhari, together around creative Splash Painting; 2015 Season Provisional Island, activities, and community Erin Bernard, Radio Transmitter; Finding Home: Mustard Seed, showcases, to experience Follow Your Senses; 2016 Mustard Seed and re-envision together Gee Wesley, Film Festival; Living Library; Mike Hoyt, the future of alley, and the Jacque Liu & One Another Portrait Sarah Kate Burgess, Drawing; neighborhood. In addition, Peach Blossom Spring; Wing Young Huie, 2013 Lee Tusman, Chinese-ness; The Pearl Street Pop-Up A Flag for 4th Annual Pearl Street Chinatown North; Block Party Series presented new Provisional Island, Cobb Oven; 2017 Season strands of arts programming Hot Tea Cart, Big Bright Monster, in the unconventional setting Video Recordings Interactive Installation; Photos from the Second Annual & Screening; Aissulu Kadyrzhanova, of the Pearl Street alley in Pearl Street Block Party. Aissulu Kadyrzhanova, Cherry Blossoms Voices of River Street Mural; Chinatown North. Over the Street Mural; Theater of the Oppressed, Jody Wood, Neighborhood Games 2015, 2016, and 2017 summer Beauty in Transition; Workshop: 3rd Annual Pearl Makoto Hirano & seasons, a collection of Street Block Party Danielle Gatto, temporary installations and 4 Minute Staring Booth; 2016 Season Tatsuya Nakatani, projects have animated Aissulu Kadyrzhanova, Nakatani Gong Orchestra; Fall Wind Jaiya Bandhari, the street. Events and Street Mural; Social Saturday; Twelve Gates Arts, Lani Asuncion, happenings have included Experimental Video Film Obon Festival; Festival; Mustard Seed, visual art installations and Leroy Johnson, 2017 Mustard Seed site-specific performances Workshops with Sunday Film Festival; 2014 Breakfast Rescue Mission; Pearl Street Potluck inspired by the physical and Dindga McCannon, Banner Workshop: social landscape of the alley Where Are you From? Where Have you Been?; and the wider neighborhood. Bhavisha Patel, Plein Air Painting;

54 Pearl Street Project Asian Arts Initiative 55 2016 2015

Clockwise from top left: Performers from the Pearl Street Block Party; One Another Portrait Drawing by Mike Hoyt; The Philadelphia Suns Lion Dancers perform at the Pearl Street Block Party; Chinese-ness by Wing Young Huie; Wonders of Seeing by Jino Lee; Experimental Video Film Festival by Twelve Gates Arts.

Clockwise from top left: Finding Home: Follow Your Senses by Erin Bernard; Peach Blossom Spring by Jacque Liu and Sarah Kate Burgess; Beauty in Transition by Jody Wood; Living Library by Gee Wesley; Voices of River Street 2017 Mural by Aissulu Kadyrzhanova; Cobb Oven by Provisional Island. Clockwise from top left: Visitors share a meal at the Pearl Street Potluck; Big Bright Monster; Cherry Blossoms Street Mural by Aissulu Kadyrzhanova; Obon Festival by Lani Asuncion.

56 Pearl Street Project Asian Arts Initiative 57 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Asian Arts Initiative and Sunday Breakfast THE MAKEOVER MAKE YOURSELF Things feel different now, AT HOME: Rescue Mission, represented by Nick Lordi, if only during lunch time. Director of Men’s Ministry and fellow staff Leading up to the lunch hour, THE SUNDAY about seventy men are sitting BREAKFAST DINING and guests at the shelter, agreed that a comfortably around a dozen physical and social overhaul of the mission’s clean, white round tables in a HALL MAKEOVER room bathed in natural light PROJECT dining hall, where hundreds of meals a day from three newly installed are served, would be the most impact- high windows. Some listen SUE BELL YANK to a preacher on a prosce- ful exhibition the partners could produce nium, flanked by tall banners and narrow apertures, like together. Lordi explained, “For Sunday a church. Some nap, heads Breakfast, it’s everything we do here. We on plastic sacks of clothes or their hands, secure and have a lot of ministries stable in their seats, emanat- and services but central ing palpable relief from the constant movement required to our name is serving by life on the streets. Little food … we took a look vases with yellow flowers are on each table. The large at the environment that room is clean and freshly we were offering and … painted in neutral grays and blues, and THE RESULT large blue sound baffles hang from the Since the dining hall opened in March it was what we thought ceiling, dampening the echoing calls of 2016, many more people have been would have the great- the preacher, who is thoroughly worked coming to the lunch service. Initially, up now. When lunch comes, the tables 61% more people were attending. It’s est impact on lots of people.” For Asian Arts will fill up, and volunteers will serve large hard to say if the makeover is the direct Initiative, engaging in collaborative design, crocks of food to the guests, family-style. cause, but Lordi has shared several They will introduce themselves as table anecdotes—one person stopped him recalibrating traditional systems to allow for hosts, sit down, break bread, and start on the street to gush about the dining conversations. People can serve them- hall; another thought they were in a greater depth of social interaction, and part- selves as much as they want, and they different building when they entered the nering to ensure lasting impact was a natu- stay a bit longer to talk. room for the first time since the reno- vation, solely because of the natural ral integration of the goals it had developed light. Nancy Bastian recalls one guest in collaboration with artists in previous resi- saying to her, “You know, nobody wants us here in the city. They would love for dencies. Now, rather than work- us not to be here.” She shook her head. ing in collaboration with an artist’s “Just imagine walking around with that sort of feeling about yourself. Having a vision, AAI and SBRM were acting space that you feel that you can be in together as a lead protagonists in makes a difference.” The Sunday Break- fast Dining hall now feels intentional, a multi-faceted, socially-engaged and welcoming. Somehow, it feels a design project. little bit more like home.

58 Pearl Street Project Asian Arts Initiative 59 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 PEOPLE: POWER: PLACE 2016—2019 People:Power:Place is a cultural The need for community space planning process that centers the emerged as a community priority role of arts and culture in shaping from the cultural planning process. the Chinatown North/Callowhill Asian Arts Initiative launched neighborhood. By doing so, we a pilot project of cooperative create a vibrant hub of cultural facilities providing low- or no- cost production in a neighborhood that access to residency, rehearsal, places people first. The planning or meeting space for Callowhill/ process was guided by a Working Chinatown North based cultural Group of neighbors, residents, groups. This project, entitled business owners, developers, and Shared Spaces 共享空間, ensures non-profit leaders, to advocate that artists and immigrant creators together for a vision that would be will continue to have a presence in inclusive of both “old” and “new.” our fast-developing neighborhood.

61 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 PEOPLE:POWER:PLACE THE PLANNING PROCESS

Throughout a multi-year cultural historically underrepresented commu- planning process, People:Power:Place nities, including the immigrant Chinese aimed to ensure an accessible and community, formerly and currently equitable process that welcomed unhoused people, low-income artists, comprehensive participation, but also and other working class residents included the voices and involvement of existing in the neighborhood.

257 Bilingual surveys administered in 35 One-on-one meetings Chinatown to ensure the com- with neighborhood munity prevalent in the area were based organizations included in the process and businesses 1 Design resource workshop with invited technical assistance providers 11 Asset mapping events to collectively research the 6 neighborhood Design Workshops with partner organizations

445 3 People shared their Design engagements at thoughts about the cultural existing community events development in the area and street-side workshops

702 Total people involved with informing the Cultural Plan

62 PEOPLE:POWER:PLACE Asian Arts Initiative 63 PEOPLE:POWER:PLACE VISIONING

Workshop participants identified several components that shape the identity and short term priorities from the cultural plan. experience of the neighborhood. The Rather than just community development interventions combined creative strategies or neighborhood improvement tactics, alongside community development goals, these priorities incorporated artists, cultural to ensure that impacts benefit the residents, producers, and community engagement visitors, and stakeholders of the area. to reimagine the possibilities of everyday

Public Art & Installations Cultural Programming Open Space & Infrastructure & Public Safety Business & Industry Housing & Neighborhood Green Space Circulation Services // Higher standard of design for // Inclusive art spaces for people // Lighting and streetlights // Local Asian owned architects and developers of color // Playground/area for kids // Protected bike lanes // Lighting under viaduct small business // Community Gathering Spot: // Beautified PECO site // Free youth arts education // Chinese-style open space for // Safer crosswalks across Vine St // All streets signs in Chinese // Safe and stable studio and Tai chi, ping-pong, chess // Public art everywhere programs exercise and other streets // Wayfinding and informational creative workspaces // Affordable housing // More art celebrating // Low-income summer camp // Parks with seating, gardens, etc. // Safer Vine Street Expressway signage // Retail Stores, like supermarket, // Recreation Center with pool, multiculturalism // Cookouts and summer BBQs // Increased curb appeal with // Easier walking access to or hardware store badminton, arcade, gym // More art under viaduct bridges planters, trees, etc. Franklin Square Park // Library // SBRM Overcomers hired to // Trash cans // Exciting mixed use developments maintain Rail Park // Sidewalk repair

Temporary Music Festivals Programming in Affordable & in Existing Vacant Spaces Safe Artist Develop more Venues Street Trees Studio Space Playground affordable & Shade and Multi- housing for Spring Garden low income Greenway & Street Generational Artists Gathering residents and Bike Lanes Cap Vine Union Festivals on artists Street Ridge Avenue Flex Post Space Merchants Bike lanes on Expressway Association 13th and 10th with Park streets Trash Cans Cultural Center or Recreation Spaces for More Safety Community Center Curb extensions Community Street Lighting Gathering at Vine Street Artists and at Major Multilingual Area & intersections Cultural Intersections Street & Programs Practitioners Wayfinding

Short-Term Medium-Term Long-Term Less than five years More than five years More than ten years Less than $200k More than $200k More than $500k

64 PEOPLE:POWER:PLACE Asian Arts Initiative 65 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018

“Conflict and tension are natural side effects of bringing people ADVICE together. Don’t run from it, but embrace it & work through it. A community that can respect other opinions and still have generative FROM THE discussions is a work of beauty. Training ourselves to build those FIELD communities will save us all.”—DAVE KYU “Slow “The work you do If you could give your down.” to produce and —ERIN BERNARD share your art is not younger self one piece of what the community advice about how to best will need or want. navigate a community- Community-engaged art demands being engaged arts practice or “Don’t entirely shape the final project before you able to adapt your project, what would that begin your work. Through way of seeing— the process of working it is a process of advice be? with people and their environment, there are always unexpected unlearning and successes, unforeseen failures, and other twists and turns you can not possibly re-imagining.” know when art materials are the living —PROVISIONAL ISLAND world. Let your process guide you.” —KATHRYN SCLAVI

“Community engaged art is a conversation. And like most conversations, you don’t always go in knowing the outcome. It’s intimidating entering a process that doesn’t center a product, but remember that it’s also liberating. Lead with questions rather than presumed answers.” —RACHEL ISHIKAWA

68 Advice From the Field Asian Arts Initiative 69 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 “Consider what is at stake, and use this as the starting point to create value for your project. Relationships first. Be patient. Be transparent with the “Practice participants, share your intentions, share resources and keep it real.” and cultivate —LAURA DEUTCH generosity.” “Put more time —JACQUE LIU “Find a balance between adjusting into knowing your process based the community. on community Always be humble and feedback, and grateful that these people believing in your are willing to share their time “If you’re not from the “Engagement with any community vision despite initial with you. Don’t think about requires an honest assessment neighborhood where the resistance. It can of your personal ethics, your results, think about your project is located, ask be incredibly difficult commitment to the community, your to navigate at first, interaction with the people. role in it, and who benefits.” yourself: Do you really —LEROY JOHNSON but each project This will open up new ways need to be a part of the gives you a little of thinking, new directions, project? Is there someone more wisdom in and new relationships for your from the neighborhood this regard.” practice.” —JODY WOOD —YVONNE LUNG that would be a better fit? Could you share resources “Prepare and support the growth of “Art can provide intersectionality between yourself by another artist, designer, diverse groups within the community. Identify the having practical community leader?” common values that provide —THERESA HWANG people with a sense of affinity to their neighborhoods.” skills outside of —LEROY JOHNSON the arts.” —LEROY JOHNSON

70 Advice From the Field Asian Arts Initiative 71 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Mission. As the key community Chinese-ness explores experiences on Asian American Affairs and CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES partner in CONSUMPTION, Jeff of identity in the United States and the Mayor’s Cultural Advisory served as the community liaison the Motherland of China, employ- Council, and was the first Asian in the artist team’s collaboration ing documentary and conceptual American appointed to serve on the with the Overcomers. His research conceits, and occasionally a chalk- Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She Lani Asuncion works in video, sculp- making. He is a Creative Placemaking held numerous workshops through- is exclusively on homeless and board. Wing uses photography as a has been an aspiring dramaturg and ture, performance, and digital story- Fellow at Arizona State University. out the community on paper jewel- marginalized communities. societal mirror and window, seeking taiko drummer, and is currently focus- telling that explores the sociopolitics ry-making, as well as given lectures to reveal not only what is hidden, but ing her creative energy on parenting of community. By using her body Erin Bernard feels strongly that on her work throughout the country.. Walter Hood is Principal of Hood also what is plainly visible and seldom her school-aged daughter. and the camera she is able to navi- access matters and that all spaces Design and a Professor of Landscape noticed, providing a collective portrait gate landscapes and recall personal are museums and galleries if we just Colette Fu makes one-of-a-kind Architecture at the University of of the them who are really us. As an Rachel Ishikawa is an audio producer stories that are transformed into treat them as they are. She believes collapsible artist’s books that combines California, Berkeley. Walter has extension of his public art installa- based in Philadelphia. She makes abstract narratives used to explore the Philadelphia Public History Truck photography with pop-up paper engi- worked in a variety of settings includ- tions that create informal communal pop music under the moniker Shakai her identity as a multicultural, bira- is one path to understanding access neering. Fu’s pop-ups are a way for her ing architecture, landscape archi- spaces, in spring 2011 Wing opened Mondai and also does sound design cial Asian American woman, contin- issues in history museums and to speak, mediate, express, delight, tecture, art, community and urban The Third Place Gallery. Housed in a and scores for theater. She was a ually discovering the negotiation cultural spaces. She views the History and inform. Constructing pop-ups design, and planning and research. building that previously sat empty for Social Practice Lab Artist in 2016-2017. of belonging. She is interested in Truck as an intervention within two allows Fu to combine intuitive design Walter received both a Master of 47 years, Wing has turned the space Recently she’s been producing a lot how stories can be used to explore spaces–within Philadelphia neighbor- and technical acuity with her love of Architecture and Master of Landscape into an urban living room for guest of radio. generations of change, loss, and hoods where people are not typically traveling as she tries to understand Architecture from the University of artists, social conversation, karaoke, transformation. Through new media, listened to or challenged to be author- the world around her. Fu spent 4 years California, Berkeley in 1989. He also and ping pong. Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson’s exper- Asuncion communicates with a digital ities of their own story and within the in Southern China and received a received a Master of Fine Arts from tise is in comprehensive commu- language that transcends race and academy where marginalized voices Fulbright Scholarship in 2008 to docu- the School of the Art Institute of Theresa Hyuna Hwang is a nity revitalization, systems change, class enabling the creation of a new and everyday urban concerns are ment the ethnic minorities of Yunnan Chicago in 2013 in studio arts and community-engaged architect and dynamics of race and ethnicity contextual mix of a place, memory, often overlooked. Province China. When Fu returned, sculpture. His innovative public spaces founder of Department of Places, a and roles of and arts and culture and conjuring of a reconstructed past. she moved to Chinatown North, and are known for the way they embrace participatory design and community in communities. She is Institute Big Bright Monster is an immer- since then has been making pop up the essence of urban environments engagement practice based in Los Professor at Arizona State University Jaiya Bandhari is a UK born painter sive Technology Studio based in books and photographic collages and for their links to urban redevelop- Angeles, CA. She has spent over 13 with appointments in the Herberger and self-taught portrait artist, whose Philadelphia, PA. Big Bright Monster using photographs to tell stories of the ment and neighborhood revitalization. years focused on equitable cultural Institute for Design and the Arts work with oil and canvas evokes a develops virtual reality, augmented people there. Walter was the 2009 recipient of the and community development. and the College of Public Service sincere and striking emotionality and reality, and mixed reality experiences. prestigious Cooper-Hewitt National She was the former Director of and Community Solutions. She is engagement for viewers and clients Gatto + Hirano is a new, Design Award for Landscape Design Community Design and Planning also Senior Advisor to the Kresge of diverse backgrounds. Inspired by Emily Chow Bluck is an artist, educa- Philadelphia-based multi-disciplinary and has exhibited and lectured on his at the Skid Row Housing Trust, a Foundation working with the Arts and the experiences and aspirations of tor, and organizer based in New collaboration between stage/video professional projects and theoretical non-profit permanent supportive Culture Program and the Foundation’s her commissioned subjects, Jaiya York City. She is best known for her director Danielle Gatto and veteran works nationally and abroad. housing organization where she was Learning and Evaluation unit. In empathically captures those moments socially engaged projects created in performance-maker Makoto Hirano. the Enterprise Rose Architectural 2013, President Obama appointed we keep close to our hearts. partnership with communities of color Their creative inquiries are based in Michael Hoyt resides in Minneapolis, Fellow from 2009-2012. She received Dr. Jackson to the National Council and about their stories of struggle a curious excitement about deeply where he is an independent artist her Master of Architecture from on the Arts. She advises national Roberto Bedoya is the Cultural Affairs and search for self-determination. She felt, experiential art of multiple artis- and an arts administrator. He has Harvard Graduate School of Design and regional initiatives on arts Manager for the City of Oakland is also a member of Chinatown Art tic mediums. Future projects include received awards from the Minnesota and a Bachelor of Science in Civil leadership, arts organizations and where he most recently shepherded Brigade. Bluck holds a B.A. in Politics traveling interview-based video State Arts Board, a Northern Lights. Engineering and Art History from the changing demographics, arts and the City’s Cultural Plan, “Belonging & International Relations from Scripps productions. mn Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University. community development and arts in Oakland: A Cultural Development College and a M.F.A. in Community a Jerome Visual Artist Fellowship, and and health. Previously, for 18 years, Plan.” Throughout his career he has Arts from the Maryland Institute Katya Gorker is a Russian born, a McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship. Gayle Isa is a Founder and former she was based at the Urban Institute consistently supported artists-cen- College of Art. artist and filmmaker whose work He has recently been selected as a Executive Director of Asian Arts in Washington, D.C. where she led tered cultural practices and advo- grapples with cultural identity, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative. Gayle has been a Douglas pioneering work on arts and culture in cated for expanded definitions of Sarah Kate Burgess received a language and the complexities of Culture of Health Leader. Redd Fellow focused on arts and low-income and historically marginal- inclusion and belonging throughout Masters of Fine Art degree from translating personal experience community development and ized communities. Dr. Jackson earned his career. His essays “U.S. Cultural Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2002 across film, multi-media performance, Wing Young Huie’s projects explore has served on the boards of the a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from the Policy: Its Politics of Participation, with a focus in Metalsmithing. In and installation. She is an Assistant a myriad of social issues, includ- Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the University of California, Los Angeles Its Creative Potential” and “Creative 2003 she participated in the Oregon Professor of Communication, Media ing immigration, race, adoption, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, and a Master of Public Administration Placemaking and the Politics of College of Art and Crafts Artist in Studies and Production at Chestnut urban and rural life, dementia, faith, the National Performance Network, degree from the University of Belonging and Dis-Belonging” Residence Program. Burgess also Hill College in Philadelphia. Lutheranism, gender, homelessness, and the national Consortium of Southern California. reframed the discussion on cultural lived in Berlin, Germany where she and youth culture. Though much Asian American Theaters and Artists. policy to shed light on exclusionary co-founded Takt Kunstprojektraum. Jeffrey Harley is the Education of his work centers on his home- She has also been a member of the practices in cultural policy decision She has taught metalsmithing and Chaplain at Sunday Breakfast Rescue land of Minnesota, his current series Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission

72 Contributor Biographies Asian Arts Initiative 73 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Leroy Johnson is a mixed-media school of painting, which is known where he facilitates new permanent illustrator. McCannon was born D. Harrington Fellow at The University Michael McCanne is a writer and artist whose work takes the form of for its monumentality of form and public art opportunities. He is the and raised in Harlem and inspired to of Texas at Austin and Artist-In- visual artist. His writing and criti- painting, collage, and assemblage symbolism. co-founder of Takt Kunstprojektraum, become an artist at the age of 10. Residence at the Blanton Museum of cism has been published by The New sculpture. A native of Philadelphia, a project space and residency in She is a fiber, mixed-media, and Art. As a soloist, Steve has performed Inquiry, Fanzine, The Brooklyn Rail, his work is poetic and reflective of his Scott Kip is an artist and restoration Berlin, Germany; and has been a quilt artist who is self-taught and in the US, Europe, South America Art in America, and Jacobin. He holds many experiences in the inner city. woodworker for the nonprofit Friends member of the artist collectives, Vox works intuitively. and Asia, and has worked with Pierre a Master’s degree from Goldsmiths “I am impressed with ‘make-shift’ of the Wanamaker Organ. His studio Populi and Grizzly Grizzly, where he Boulez, John Williams, and David University of London. structures and structures shaped is located in Callowhill/Chinatown curated and led a number of creative The Mustard Seed Film Festival is Lang. He has performed at Canegie Heidi Ratanavanich is a visual by necessity,” Johnson says. “The North, on the sixth floor of the artist programming initiatives. an independent South Asian film Hall, Tanglewood, The Spoleto artist and educator. Heidi’s work inner-city landscape I depict is both collective nexus at 319 N. 11th St. festival in Philadelphia that shows Festival, Le Poisson Rouge, on NPR, uses a range of media—particularly map and metaphor for the actual Rick Lowe is an artist whose uncon- socially engaged films that focus on and has recorded on Cantaloupe and sculpture, video and public/private landscape and the contents of the Dave Kyu is a socially engaged artist, ventional approach to commu- themes specific to the South Asian Mode Records. As an educator, Steve events—to give form to inquiries into collective unconsciousness.” His writer, & project manager based in nity revitalization has transformed experience and are created by a was Director of Education for the the politics of place. Heidi is specif- work captures the city in a way that Philadelphia. Born in Seoul, South a long-neglected neighborhood in predominantly South Asian crew Philadelphia Classical Symphony and ically interested in the intersection is immediate, intuitive, and filled with Korea, and raised in the US, his work Houston into a visionary public art and production team. a Teaching Artist for the Philadelphia of food sovereignty, ecology and experiential understanding, translating explores the creative tensions of project that continues to evolve, two Orchestra. He has conducted several economy and has taught at Rowan the weight of the urban environment identity and community in public decades since its inception. Originally The Nakatani Gong Orchestra residencies at Philadelphia-area University, Moore College of Art and into painting and sculpture. Johnson space. His own creative projects have trained as a painter, Lowe shifted the (NGO) is Tatsuya Nakatani’s large schools and has authored several Design and Mural Arts Philadelphia as has exhibited widely, with past found him commissioning skywriting focus of his artistic practice in the ensemble nomadic sound art project. curriculums for local music programs. an Artist-in-Resident. On most days solo shows at Philadelphia’s Magic planes to write messages 10,000 feet early 1990s in order to address more Consisting of 17 of Nakatani’s adapted Heidi works at Future and Sons, build- Gardens, Tirza Yalon Kolton Ceramic over Philadelphia, and doing every- directly the pressing social, economic, Gongs played with his handmade Bhavisha Patel was born in Kenya, ing and repairing homes. Heidi’s work Gallery (Tel Aviv), Gloucester County thing Facebook told him to do for a and cultural needs of his commu- bows, it is the only bowed Gong educated in England and the USA, has recently been exhibited at 40th St College (Sewell, NJ), and the Camden month.He has made public art with nity. With a group of fellow artists, he Orchestra in the world. Local players and is now working and living in AIR Gallery, Asian Arts Initiative, and County Historical Society. He has communities for Asian Arts Initiative, organized the purchase and resto- from each community are brought Philadelphia. Hehas been painting The Schuylkill Center. received grants from the Mid-Atlantic Mural Arts Philadelphia, and the City ration of a block and a half of dere- together for a technique workshop since 1996. Patel started by dabbling Eileen Shumate is a multidisci- Arts Foundation, the Independence of Philadelphia. His writing has been lict properties—twenty-two shotgun and rehearsal with Nakatani before in photography, oils on wood, and plinary artist exploring modes of Foundation, and the Pennsylvania published in Generocity, the Artblog, houses from the 1930s—in Houston’s he conducts them in a public perfor- watercolors. Oil has become her community building and social justice Council on the Arts. and the Philadelphia Citizen. predominantly African American Third mance of his improvised harmonic predominant medium. The aim of her within a deteriorating natural land- Ward and turned them into Project composition. Through hundreds of paintings is to express the resilience scape. She recently was a fob holder Aissulu Kadyrzhanova is a Jino Lee is a photographer and an Row Houses (PRH), an unusual amal- performances, thousands of partici- of the moment and hope for the resident at Second State Press. She Philadelphia-based artist. Born in 1978 artist based in Philadelphia, PA. His gam of arts venue and community pants have been involved in creating future, by evoking feelings of peace also supports self-taught artists as in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Kadyrzhanova life has been quite nomadic - born support center. these transformative art works. and tranquility. a case manager at the art|works first attended Almaty Art College, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, spent his studios. She studied art and geogra- where she received her initial formal childhood in South Korea, youth in Yvonne Lung is a Chinese American Meei Ling Ng is a social sculptor, Philadelphia Theatre of the phy at the University of Iowa. training in painting. She then studied Clarion (a small town in Western interdisciplinary artist. She received multimedia installation artist and Oppressed (T.O. Philly) is a network at the renowned Surikov Institute of Pennsylvania), then finally made it her MFA from UNLV and her BFA from urban farmer. Meei Ling blends her of people using the tools of theatre Kathryn Sclavi is an artist, educator, the Arts in Moscow, Russia, under to the city of brotherly love! As a TTU. Residencies include Skowhegan installations and other visual art and popular education to disman- and arts integration specialist/consul- the instruction of a prominent Russian photographer, he is on a lifelong jour- School of Painting and Sculpture, Art into urban farming projects that tle oppression. T.O. Philly’s work is tant. Sclavi’s work focuses on creat- painter Pavel Nikonov, whose work ney, hoping to figure out why he loves Omi International Artist Residency, can inspire people to start growing based on the writings and teachings ing imaginative installations, events, continues traditions of the Russian what he loves. and Many Mini Residency. She their own food and reconnect with of the late Augusto Boal, who devel- and participatory experiences through avant-garde movement “Society of received the Leeway Foundation’s nature. All of her projects are based oped the Theatre of the Oppressed collaboration with diverse commu- Easel-Painters.” Kadyrzhanova contin- Jacque Liu is a Philadelphia-based Art and Change Grant twice, a on community engagement. She in Brazil over 40 years ago. T.O. Philly nities. She creates socially-engaged ued her studies in the United States studio artist and an arts administra- Jackpot Grant by The Nevada Arts feels that everyone has an innate also draws upon other theatre games projects designed to encourage by graduating from the MFA Program tor. He was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and Council, and Fleisher Art Memorial’s longing to know the natural world and movement traditions, as well communication, celebrate spaces, in Painting at Tyler School of Art of received an M.F.A. from Cranbrook Wind Challenge. She has exhib- and to be around it and once involved, as models of popular education like and create new dimensions of shared Temple University. The unique blend Academy of Art, a B.F.A. from Alfred ited in California, Texas, Nevada, are able to tap into the sustaining those put forth by Paolo Freire in his experiences. She currently runs an of experiences and education has University, and a Fulbright Scholarship Washington, Maine, and Pennsylvania. and healing power of green spaces book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. art collective based out of Brooklyn made Kadyrzhanova a painter with to study at the Universität der Künste She is a co-founder of Practice Gallery they’re helping to create. These called Shadow Traffic, a group of an original point of view. In her work Berlin. He has exhibited nationally and is a member of the Philadelphia many hands help actively transform a Provisional Island three artists who produce immersive she combines strong realist tradi- and internationally, and is the recipi- Chinatown Dragon Boat Team and straightforward garden or urban farm Provisional Island is a Philadelphia installations within interstitial areas of tions of the Russian school of painting ent of numerous awards and grants. Radical Asian American Womxn’s into a social sculpture. based artist collective consisting of the urban landscape and works with together with more conceptual and Currently, he serves as the Percent Collective. members Michael McCanne, Heidi classroom educators to create arts-in- experimental approach to painting in for Art Project Manager for the City Steve Parker is active as a musi- Ratanavanich, and Eileen Shumate. fused lessons and projects in the the Western art world. In addition, of Philadelphia in the Office of Arts, Dindga McCannon is an African- cian, composer, and educator. He tri-state area and is an adjunct profes- her work is enhanced by the Kazakh Culture and the Creative Economy; American artist, quilter, author and worked as a Fulbright Scholar in sor at Tyler School of Art, Temple Germany, and is presently a Donald University. 74 Contributor Biographies Asian Arts Initiative 75 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 Anula Shetty and Mike Kuetemeyer methodology of community orga- 2014, Wesley held positions at The STAFF & BOARD are award winning media artists nizing and storytelling in her artistic Barnes Foundation, International whose work has been screened at praxis, focusing on building local lead- House Philadelphia, and the Fleisher MOMA, the Flaherty Film Seminar and ership through creative platforms that Art Memorial. Wesley is a co-founder Asian Arts Initiative Staff Vanessa Ramalho Gerry Givnish Robert Minton film festivals and museums world- promote solidarity and community of Ulises, a bookshop and curatorial (2012–2018) Director of Development Founder and Executive Advisor, Founder, Disturbance Abigail Agpaoa Cat Ramirez Painted Bride Art Center Marketing, Inc. voices. Collaborating as an artistic platform dedicated to artists’ books wide. They are co-directors of the Neighborhood Programs Events Producer Sophia Lee Avik Roy video collective Termite TV and have asset in various Korean communi- and independent art publications. Associate Priscilla Regalado Partner, Blank Rome LLP Managing Director, Morph4Sys had extensive experience creating ties, Aletheia seeks to facilitate the Alethea Carbaugh Support Staff Alexander Lord video installations and teaching digi- creation of artistic narrative projects Jody Wood’s work is time- and Operations and Facility Assistant Toki Rehder Senior Audit Manager, KPMG LLG tal media to youth and community as a vehicle to nurture culture, build performance-based, utilizing video, Sarah Chandler Special Project Coordinator Aleyamma Mathew Facility Manager Stanley Rogers Director of Women’s community, and bring awareness to installation, performance, and groups. Their recent work includes Victoria Chau Facilities Custodian Economic Justice, Ms. Foundation creating web sites and mobile media the long standing Korean community community organizing to address Operations Assistant Nicole Seamans for Women apps to explore new ways of experi- in Baltimore. socially charged topics. Working Christina Chen Director of Education Programs Sally Munemitsu encing a place and the oral histories one-on-one with members of her Administrative Assistant Barney Seng Partner and Chief Collaborator, that surround it. Projects they have Lee Tusman is an artist and curator. community, her work aims to collab- Melissa Chen Youth Program Site Coordinator Algorhythm Program and Communications Julia Millan Shaw Kim-Thao Nguyen He has extensive experience work- oratively uncover and meaningfully implemented include Walk Philly and Associate Deputy Director User Experience Designer for the Explore Kilauea Volcano, an interac- ing with artists and musicians from interpret transitional experiences such Nancy Chen Jae Wook Shim City of Philadelphia tive documentary/mobile app project Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, as death, trauma, and social isola- Senior Programs Manager Director of Finance and Eva Ray about the rich and diverse geologic Vietnam and Indonesia. He was a tion. Her work has been honored with Karen Cheung Operations Board Secretary, Former landscape of Kilauea, an active curator of Little Berlin Gallery and grant support from New York Council Neighborhood Outreach Katherine Shozawa Director of Education, Associate Exhibitions Coordinator Pennsylvania Horticultural Society served as Curator of Riverside Art for the Humanities, Rema Hort Mann volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. They Soumya Dhulekar Basmah Sorathia Mary Seng are interested in exploring the use Museum in California. Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council, Youth Arts Workshop Lead Youth Arts Workshop Board Treasurer, Senior Internal of apps as a platform to distribute and residencies with Skowhegan Teaching Artist Program Assistant Auditor, University of Pennsylvania community and creative media. Twelve Gates Arts, established in School of Painting and Sculpture, Jennifer Dunaway Andrew Tan Laurence Tom 2011, is a non-profit organization and Bemis Center for Contemporary Youth Program Site Coordinator Youth Arts Workshop Staff Board Vice Chair, Pastor, Chinese Petra Floyd Elizabeth Thompson Christian Church and Center based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Arts, and McColl Center for Art + Yowei Shaw is an independent Shared Spaces Facilities Associate Director of Administration Geraldine Wang audio producer, youth radio educa- The “gates” refer to the fortified gates Innovation. In 2014, she was a Socially Ellen Hwang Thao Tran Senior Fellow, Partners For tor, and second-generation Chinese- that walled many ancient cities such Engaged Art Fellow with A Blade of Youth and Education Program Youth Arts Workshop Sacred Places American. She has reported for as Delhi, Lahore, Jerusalem, and Grass. Her work has been exhib- Manager Program Manager Ignatius Wang Studio 360, NPR’s Weekend Edition Rhodes - inside which lay the heart of ited internationally, and featured in Gayle Isa Kent Weber Founder, UCI Architects, Inc. Founding Executive Director Gallery Receptionist Mary Yee each city’s art and culture, and today publications such as The Atlantic, Sunday, WXPN, and Philadelphia City Anne Ishii Jeannie Wong Ed.D, Educational Researcher, Paper. She has produced half-hour this reference offers perspectives on Hyperallergic, and MSNBC. Executive Director 25th Anniversary Project University of Pennsylvania radio documentaries on flash mobs history and possibilities. Rachel Ishikawa Manager Graduate School of Education and local political activism, and is Sue Bell Yank is a writer, producer, Youth Arts Workshop Staff Melody Wong the creator of “Philly Street Level,” Ben Volta works with public school and arts educator. Formerly head Stacey Jordan Event and Tech Coordinator Previous Board Members Facilities Custodian Jiawen Xiong (2012–2018) teachers and community members to of Academic Programs at the UCLA a WXPN series of sound portraits Diane Kim Youth and Education Program Pamela Bridgeforth featuring local residents. In 2011, she develop creative methods that link art Hammer Museum, Sue currently Pearl Street Project Manager Manager Director of Programs, PACDC founded Philly Youth Radio, a project to specific areas of learning. Together, works as Director of Communications Melissa Kim Cecilia Yen Bonnie Chong that provides young people of color they initiate students to recognize the and Outreach at 18th Street Arts Pearl Street Project Manager Public Programs Manager General Counsel, with the tools and training to create importance of their own ideas, and Center. Sue is dedicated to working Wayne Kleppe Carol Zou Anthony & Sylvan Pools Facilities Manager Director of Programs Caroline Dellapenna they set out to express a mergence for access to arts education for all, their own radio stories. Dave Kyu (No affiliation listed) of difference within a collective focus. and for a greater understanding of Neighborhood Project Manager Current Board Members Julie Goodman Aletheia Hyun-Jin Shin is a Korean His projects combine academic learn- the power and relevance of art in Catherine Lee Chris Blakelock Associate Professor, community artist. Her life experi- ing and life skill development with an our society. Development and Partner, Cecil Baker + Partners Drexel University ence growing up as a third culture audacious aspiration to create great Communications Manager Manny Citron Ronald Kim Jino Lee Chief of Staff, Mayor’s Office of IT Expert, Senior Advisor, art within an unexpected context. kid, born in Canada, and raised in Youth Arts Workshop Lead Labor, City of Philadelphia TPG Capital US and Korea, informs her interest Teaching Artist Edward Garcia Romana Lee-Akiyama in transnational, inter-cultural, and Gee Wesley is an artist and orga- Patricia Ma Board Chair, Deputy Director, Senior Program Officer-Network social practice art. Recently complet- nizer born in Monrovia, Liberia. Associate Director Finance and Administration, Engagement, Eisenhower ing her Master in Fine Arts degree Wesley is the current Spiegel Wilks Matt Nelson City of Philadelphia Fellowships Operations and Facility Sunanda Ghosh Elyse Lupin Curatorial Fellow at the Institute in Community Arts from Maryland Coordinator Director Of External Relations, President, Elysium Institute College of Arts, she contin- of Contemporary Art, University of Phuong Nguyen Philadelphia Contemporary Marketing Group ues to practice incorporating the Pennsylvania. Prior to joining ICA in Development Associate 76 Contributor Biographies Asian Arts Initiative 77 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IMAGE CREDITS BOOK DESIGN

Dear Friends, Kevin Dow Social Practice Lab National Kelly Edwards Front Cover, photo by Sang Cun Book design by Studio Anthony Smyrski As we reflect on the learnings City of Philadelphia Department Advisory Committee (2011) Arts + Crafts Holdings Back Cover, (L) photo by Hoang An Tran www.anthonysmyrski.com from the past few years of our of Commerce Aimee Chang Laurence Tom Back Cover, (R) photo by Steve Parker placemaking and placekeeping Carl Engelke University of California Chinese Christian Church p.7, photo by Rodney Jay Atienza work, Asian Arts Initiative Eagle Eye Solutions Edgar Arceneaux and Center p.10, photo by Emily Chow Bluck & would like to acknowledge David Forde Independent Artist Leroy Johnson Aletheia Hyun-Jin Shin some of the many people who Office of Councilwoman Pepón Osorio Independent Artist p.13 Oakland Cultural Plan Community have been part of the journey Blondell Reynolds Brown Independent Artist Mary Yee Meeting with Mayor Libby Schaaf, with us—the artists who have Andrew Frishkoff Rick Lowe Asian Arts Initiative photo by Vanessa Whang contributed their talent and LISC Philadelphia Project Row Houses Renae Dinerman p.17, photo by Hoang An Tran time in learning about local Jane Golden Risë Wilson Trestle Inn p.18-19, photo by Naomi Sun dynamics and developing Mural Arts Program Friends of the High Line Rosalyn Forbes p.20, photo by Tim Kyuman Lee creative strategies within our Anuj Gupta Sue Bell Yank Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission p.22, photo by Anula Shetty & Mike Kuetemeyer neighborhood; our staff and City of Philadelphia, Office of the 18th Street Arts Center Sarah McEneaney p.23, photo by Anula Shetty & Mike Kuetemeyer volunteers who have shown Managing Director Callowhill Neighborhood p.23, photo by Tim Kyuman Lee passion and tenacity in setting Jim Hartling Social Practice Lab Local Association p.24, photo by Ben Volta aside initial hesitations and led Urban Partners Resource Team (2012) Stacey Moseley p.25, photo by Tim Kyuman Lee clean up efforts, organizing Harry Kao Andrew Suggs Philly FixList p.25, photo by Ben Volta campaigns, meetings and events Governor’s Advisory Commission Vox Populi Sunanda Ghosh p.26, photo by Tim Kyuman Lee that have expanded the definition on Asian American Affairs Annie Huynh Friends of the Rail Park p.26, photo by Jano Cohen of what an arts organization’s Glen Knapp Folk Arts and Cultural Treasures Yuka Yokoyama p.27, photo by Colette Fu role in our community can be; Philadelphia Young Playwrights Charter School Marginal Utility p.28-29, photo by Colette Fu our board members who have Ed Kung Carol Wong p.29, photo by Tim Kyuman Lee encouraged the organization to Philadelphia Chinatown Chinatown Learning Center p.30, photo by Tim Kyuman Lee fulfill our promise to facilitate Development Corporation Diana Lu p.31, Flyer provided by Hot Tea Cart Artists “positive change” in the place Karen Lewis Philadelphia Chinatown p.31, photo by Hot Tea Cart Artists that we’ve chosen as our Avenue of the Arts Development Corporation p.31, photo by Hot Tea Cart Artists home; the funders and advisors Cheryl McClenney Brooker Ed Kung p.32, photo by Tim Kyuman Lee who have provided resources Philadelphia Museum of Art On Lok House p.33, photo by Steve Parker for us to engage, experiment, Stephanie Naidoff Jeffrey Harley p.34, video Still from video by Aidan Un and deepen our commitments Independent Advisor Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission p.35, video Still from video by Natasha through this work; and most of Jeremy Nowak Laurence Tom Cohen-Carroll all the community members and The Reinvestment Fund Chinese Christian Church p.36-p.37, photos by Sang Cun partners, including those named Hon. Mike O’Brien and Center p.38, photo by Emily Chow Bluck & below, who have demonstrated Office of Representative Meredith Warner Aletheia Hyun-Jin Shin the strength of a diversity of Mike O’Brien Action Mill p.39, photos by Dave Kyu people, opinions, and approaches Duane Perry Tikki Tsang p.40, photo by James H. Bluck coming together to share values Philadelphia Food Trust Holy Redeemer Church and School p.41, photo by James H. Bluck and forge greater equity for our Valerie Piper p.41, photo by Emily Chow Bluck & immediate neighborhood and the Center for Urban Redevelopment People:Power:Place Aletheia Hyun-Jin Shin larger world. Excellence, University of Working Group (2016) p.44-45, photos by Tom Gralish and the Pennsylvania Alix Webb Philadelphia Inquirer, For reprints of this photo Facility Advisory Committee Susan Sherman Asian Americans United and other photography from the Inquirer, visit (2006–2011) Independence Foundation Ellen Somekawa philly.com/store Peggy Amsterdam Gary Steuer Folk Arts and Cultural Treasures p.46, photo by Yvonne Lung Greater Philadelphia City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Charter School p.47, video Stills from videos by Yvonne Lung Cultural Alliance Culture & the Creative Economy Eric Law p.48-49, photo by Tim Kyuman Lee Kris Bauman Andy Toy Philadelphia Suns p.52-53, renderings provided by Hood Design The Gale Company Enterprise Center Esther Chiang p.58-59, photos by Susan Nam Helen Cunningham Kim Turner Chinese Christian Church p.60, photo by Jino Lee Samuel Fels Fund Office of Representative and Center p.62, photo by Hoang An Tran Diane Dalto Dwight Evans George Pan p.62, photo by Jino Lee Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Geraldine Wang Foo Kitchen p.62, photo by Theresa Hwang Karen Davis William Penn Foundation Gerry Wang p.62, photo by Dave Kyu Arts & Business Council of Greater Patricia Washington Asian Arts Initiative p.63, photos by Dave Kyu Philadelphia Greater Philadelphia Tourism Fred Bostick p.63, photo by Jino Lee Hon. Frank DiCicco Marketing Corporation Sunday Breakfast p.66-67, photo by Annie Seng Office of Councilman Cecilia Yep Rescue Mission Frank DiCicco Philadelphia Chinatown Julie Carpenter Development Corporation Philadelphia Police District 78 Asian Arts Initiative 79 What We Want Is Here: Neighborhood Projects 2012—2018 FUNDERS

Asian Arts Initiative thanks all ArtPlace America National Performance Network the funders for the following programs: The Educational Foundation (NPN) / Visual Artists Network Social Practice Lab of America (VAN) Pearl Street Project Ford Foundation–Supporting National Endowment for the People:Power:Place Diverse Art Spaces Arts (ArtWorks) Wing Young Huie & Institute of Museum and Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Mike Hoyt residencies Library Services–Museums PECO Rick Lowe’s CONSUMPTION: for America PNC Arts Alive A Project on Pearl Street Knight Foundation The Samuel S. Fels Fund Nathan Cummings Foundation Surdna Foundation William Penn Foundation

Surdna Foundation

Asian Arts Initiative advances racial equity and understanding, activating artists, youth, and their communities through creative practice and dialogue grounded in the diverse Asian American experience.

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