Tag: Artists

Artists Join Forces in #VotingTogether Campaign To Turn Out the AAPI Vote

An excerpt of digital poster "Show Up For Future Generations" by Bianca Ng.

The Asian American and Pacific Islander electorates are poised to play a pivotal role in tomorrow’s election. Despite historically low voter turnout numbers (often due to structural barriers to voting), data suggest that the AAPI electorate are highly enthusiastic this year. With early voting already underway, Asian American voters have already cast half a million more ballots than in 2016.

To help encourage AAPI voters in 2020, the Asian American Pacific Islander Civic Engagement Fund (AAPICEF) launched the #VotingTogether program, which provides funding to artists to create bilingual artwork that could be shared digitally to help turn out the AAPI vote. Thirteen artists were selected through to AAPICEF’s open call to receive $1,000 to create their projects, which includes songs, dance, and digital artwork.

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“Hungry Ghosts” Art Exhibit to Feature AAPI Artists & Explore “Personal and Collective Struggle”

hungryghosts

I wake up almost every day wishing I lived in California — and not just because of the sun (and the drought) — but also because it is one of the few beating hearts of AAPI cultural and political life; I’m always bummed when I find out about an awesome event or exhibit that I can’t attend because I live elsewhere in the country.

One such event is Hungry Ghosts, the latest art exhibit by the Asian American Women’s Artists Association (AAWAA), a 25-year-old non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the work of Asian American women artists. Hungry Ghosts opens tomorrow (April 2nd) in San Francisco in partnership with the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) and Manilatown Heritage Foundation.

Hungry Ghosts will feature AAPI artists using art to explore “personal and collective struggles”, and how these unconfronted traumas can emerge in the public consciousness in often damaging ways.

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“Divided Attention” explores life & art of pioneering Asian American queer artist Bernice Bing

Pioneering artist and community activist, Bernice Bing.
Pioneering artist and community activist, Bernice Bing.

“Once upon a time it was rare to find any Asians in prestigious art schools.”

This is the first sentence of groundbreaking artist Bernice Bing’s statement for the 1990 six-woman exhibit “Completing the Circle” featuring notable Chinese American female artists, and which showed at the Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco. That this is how Bing chose to begin her statement is telling; Bernice Bing was one of the nation’s earliest Asian American artists to break into the elite world of modern art.

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