Illustration by Rose Wong

Chinatown Arts Festival 2022

Thank you for celebrating our 5th Chinatown Arts Festival together!

The 5th annual Chinatown Arts Festival (previously Chinatown Arts Week) was bigger than ever before. For the entire month of October, Think!Chinatown hosted a series of cultural programs featuring traditional Chinese arts groups along with emerging Asian American artists. Chinatown Arts Festival celebrated the cultural richness of Manhattan’s Chinatown. Led by festival curators, Yin Kong and Amy Chin, T!C produced cultural events throughout the month. By presenting grassroots Chinatown artists and emerging Asian American artists in context and dialogue with each other, we hoped to bring multiple generations together and connect with a wider arts audience. The festival also highlighted cultural happenings presented by our neighbors to increase awareness of Chinatown’s cultural assets. Check out videos from previous years.

See you at the next one in October 2023!

 
 
 
 
 

Exhibitions

[2021] Xin Mei Liu, Edward Kai Chiu, Adrienne Hugh, Edward Cheng

[2021 artists] Xin Mei Liu, Edward Kai Chiu, Adrienne Hugh, Edward Cheng

MOONSquare

We all know what happens to mooncake tins after the mooncakes are eaten. They become treasure boxes of small things, memories, and preserver of wishes. In the space of a mooncake tin… lid on, lid off, using the box as a frame for an illustration, using the box as a space for sculpture, a space for ceramics… we invited artists to express the spirit of the mooncake tin. — Exhibit Details

Our Stories, Our Landmarks

is a part of an ongoing audio exploration of memory and place, produced by T!C’s Storytelling Team Lead, Rochelle Hoi-Yiu Kwan. This year, in partnership with artist Warren King and his beautiful cardboard artwork, we memorialized and stepped into the lost arts and cultural spaces of our neighborhood, where so many of our personal histories unfurled. — Exhibition Details

We’ll Meet Again

is an exhibition of new sculptures by Alison Kuo exploring themes of memory, family, loss, safety, and belonging, curated by Sophia Ma. Objects sourced from Chinatown shops and the artist’s own family archive serve as the medium and subject matter of her work. Community art workshops and other events accompanied this exhibit. November gallery hours: Thursdays & Fridays from 2-6PM at 1 Pike St, excluding Thanksgiving weekend. — Exhibition Details

HEARTMIND: Exhibitions from the Bob Eng Lee and Asian American Arts Centre Collections

co-curated by Lisa Yin Zhang, Simon Wu, and Jayne Cole, highlights the history of the Asian American Arts Centre, one of the earliest Asian American community arts organizations in the country, with select works from both the Bob Eng Lee and the AAAC collections. — Soft Launch


T!C Programs

Community Events

The following events were produced by artists and groups in and around Chinatown. For most updated information, please refer to their websites.


Chinatown Arts Festival was held on the unceded land of the Lenape peoples. This festival was supported by public funds from the New York City Dept of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Think!Chinatown programs were made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional funding was provided by New York City Dept of Small Business Services, Con Edison and many individual friends. Promotional support was provided in part by the NYC & Company Foundation.