Asian Arts Initiative
Encyclopedia
The Asian Arts Initiative (AAI) is a non-profit organization
in Philadelphia which “engages artists and everyday people” in order to address and explore the unique concerns and experiences of Asian-Americans. The AAI is one of the few art organizations in the country which focuses on a particular community and its issues such as integration
, influence
and “social context.”
In 1993, as a way of raising awareness about social and racial tension, the Painted Bride Arts Center organized an Asian-American festival entitled “Live Traditions/Contemporary Issues,” the first such festival dedicated to Asian American culture in Philadelphia.
In 1996, the AAI separated from the Painted Bride Art Center, became an independent non-profit organization and moved into their own building located in the heart of Philadelphia's Chinatown. In the same year, AAI began its first program, Artists in Community Training (ACT), a program meant to provide training for different artists interested in teaching and leading workshops. In 1998, the Youth Arts Workshops was introduced and offered diverse courses in which students of all ages could participate and in order to develop skills in creative writing
and the visual arts
, including video-making. In the same year, the Rap Series was created as a way for Asian American artists to be able to meet, dialogue and get involved in the community.
In the fall of the year 2000, art shows started to appear in the Asian Arts Initiative building, organized by a group of volunteers. The Gallery program continues to deliver seasons of exciting exhibitions every year.
The Asian Arts Initiative was forced to relocate in August 2008, “due to the expansion of the Philadelphia Convention Center,” to a “three-level, 24,000 square-foot building at 1219 Vine Street,” in the northern part of Chinatown, and is now fighting to make its new location permanent. With funding from the City of Philadelphia, the State of Pennsylvania and private sources, the AAI was able to renovate part of the building into a multi-media facility that includes a gallery space and exhibition area, a theater, a media lab and library, and a generous space for workshops and meetings. Today the Asian Arts Initiative is an active organization which is open to the public and has a yearly budget
of approximately $650,000, and is rapidly growing.
The Asian Arts Initiative is partnered with the National Performance Network and with the Philadelphia Department of Recreation Mural Arts Program (MAP), through which it hopes to promote its belief that “art produced and presented in the community context,” art which communicates the importance of culture, raises awareness towards neighborhood problems, improves society and mediates conflicts, “can be a powerful engine for social change.”
and assorted blog
sites. As stated by spectators, on the Swarthmore Asian Organization’s Blog, regarding the "Cooking con Karimi" show held at AAI, “It was so good, that we missed the scheduled shuttle back and had to take SEPTA back to campus, but whatever, it was pretty awesome.”http://swarthmoreasianorganization.wordpress.com/tag/asian-arts-initiative
, poetry
, writing
, documentary video, narrative film, short video, drawing
/painting
, mural making, hip-hop dance, and DJ techniques, all of which are pertinent to the American teenager, continuous throughout the academic year after school hours or on the weekends.
.
Organization
An organization is a social group which distributes tasks for a collective goal. The word itself is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon - as we know `organ` - and it means a compartment for a particular job.There are a variety of legal types of...
in Philadelphia which “engages artists and everyday people” in order to address and explore the unique concerns and experiences of Asian-Americans. The AAI is one of the few art organizations in the country which focuses on a particular community and its issues such as integration
Social integration
Social integration, in sociology and other social sciences, is the movement of minority groups such as ethnic minorities, refugees and underprivileged sections of a society into the mainstream of societies...
, influence
Social influence
Social influence occurs when an individual's thoughts, feelings or actions are affected by other people. Social influence takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing...
and “social context.”
History
Initially a small part of the Painted Bride Arts Center, the Asian Arts Initiative (AAI) was created by Gayle Isa who envisioned creating a community of artists which could contribute to the growth of the neighborhood and to its cultural revival.In 1993, as a way of raising awareness about social and racial tension, the Painted Bride Arts Center organized an Asian-American festival entitled “Live Traditions/Contemporary Issues,” the first such festival dedicated to Asian American culture in Philadelphia.
In 1996, the AAI separated from the Painted Bride Art Center, became an independent non-profit organization and moved into their own building located in the heart of Philadelphia's Chinatown. In the same year, AAI began its first program, Artists in Community Training (ACT), a program meant to provide training for different artists interested in teaching and leading workshops. In 1998, the Youth Arts Workshops was introduced and offered diverse courses in which students of all ages could participate and in order to develop skills in creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
and the visual arts
Visual arts
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
, including video-making. In the same year, the Rap Series was created as a way for Asian American artists to be able to meet, dialogue and get involved in the community.
In the fall of the year 2000, art shows started to appear in the Asian Arts Initiative building, organized by a group of volunteers. The Gallery program continues to deliver seasons of exciting exhibitions every year.
The Asian Arts Initiative was forced to relocate in August 2008, “due to the expansion of the Philadelphia Convention Center,” to a “three-level, 24,000 square-foot building at 1219 Vine Street,” in the northern part of Chinatown, and is now fighting to make its new location permanent. With funding from the City of Philadelphia, the State of Pennsylvania and private sources, the AAI was able to renovate part of the building into a multi-media facility that includes a gallery space and exhibition area, a theater, a media lab and library, and a generous space for workshops and meetings. Today the Asian Arts Initiative is an active organization which is open to the public and has a yearly budget
Budget
A budget is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...
of approximately $650,000, and is rapidly growing.
The Asian Arts Initiative is partnered with the National Performance Network and with the Philadelphia Department of Recreation Mural Arts Program (MAP), through which it hopes to promote its belief that “art produced and presented in the community context,” art which communicates the importance of culture, raises awareness towards neighborhood problems, improves society and mediates conflicts, “can be a powerful engine for social change.”
Gallery
The Asian Arts Initiative holds a gallery space that hosts a number of Asian contemporary artists originating in Philadelphia. Sparked by activism against large-scale changes of Chinatown, due to the proposal of a baseball stadium, the gallery was created to exhibit work that reflected the protest of the baseball stadium project. Since the gallery’s opening in 2000, it has continued to host exhibitions ranging from paintings to installations 4 to 5 times a year. It featured several prominent figures in the art community as well as displaying the work of their youth workshops once a year. Visitors and participants become involved in viewing and learning about different artists and their art work through these galleries. Several different benefactors support the Gallery exhibits, one being The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts.Performances
The Initiative contains a large scale of performances, such as dance pieces, comedy and musical performances, choreographies that combine poetry with movement, and also film. On certain days, The Initiative also hosts open microphone nights. The strong emphasis on culture, immigration, the idea of where one lives, and community are often emphasized in most if not all performances.Workshops
The Asian Arts Initiative provides a number of workshops that encourage participation of all ages, races, and ethnicities from all over the city, focusing on specific types of artistic skills. Mural art, cooking, video editing, radio broadcasting, writing, and poetry are amongst the several interests offered, each varying in their duration. Overall, AAI attempts to reach and engage a vast audience through its "communal environment", in addition to utilizing social medias, such as FacebookFacebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and assorted blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
sites. As stated by spectators, on the Swarthmore Asian Organization’s Blog, regarding the "Cooking con Karimi" show held at AAI, “It was so good, that we missed the scheduled shuttle back and had to take SEPTA back to campus, but whatever, it was pretty awesome.”http://swarthmoreasianorganization.wordpress.com/tag/asian-arts-initiative
Youth Workshops
AAI’s Youth Workshops, ongoing throughout the year, focus on a general understanding of, and relation to a larger social context, particularly relevant to the younger Asian-American generation. Additionally, in providing the opportunity to meet others and build a diverse community, the facilities render a safe environment to foster innovation and promote development. The workshops span a variety of artistic outlets, including theater, spoken wordSpoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
, poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, writing
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
, documentary video, narrative film, short video, drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
/painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, mural making, hip-hop dance, and DJ techniques, all of which are pertinent to the American teenager, continuous throughout the academic year after school hours or on the weekends.
Chinatown Projects
In hopes to expand the reaches of influence Chinatown holds on the rest of the city, the Asian arts Initiative has commissioned several projects and installations that are placed in the city of Philadelphia. The idea would expand the influence the Philadelphia Chinatown holds on the community to create a more involved and aware city. The Chinatown programs are meant to change North Tenth Street in Philadelphia, PA from “Chinatown” to a cultural district for all people of Asian descent. These programs include Chinatown TM, a program that “celebrates food, commodity and identity;” Visionary Sightseeing Binoculars, a program full of multi-media workshops to artistically project Chinatown’s future; Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, an investigation of the “art of oral story telling” and Little Red String, a story telling and lantern making workshop created to tie Asian cultural roots to America. The programs are used to invigorate Chinatown’s pride in its heritage as well as instigate social and artistic activism.Artists in Communities Training (ACT)
The Artists in Communities Training (ACT) Program is designed to develop artists’ abilities in a professional context and within a community-building environment. Consisting of a hands-on teaching placement and a six-week series of intensive workshops on educational models and strategies, ACT affords opportunities for future residencies in community settings and schools. According to AAI, these skills are taught, “By providing a course that builds essential skills in communication, lesson planning, classroom, and group management, the Asian Arts Initiative aims to expand the pool of artists of color of all disciplines who can actively convey the power of art-making into the hands of everyday people.” Also, there is an ACT II, which promotes ongoing professional development for Alumni and encourages community building through the artsARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
.