Pao Arts Center

Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Inc

Funding Received: 2016
Boston, MA
$450,000
Funding Period: 3 years and 5 months
www.paoartscenter.org
Folk & Traditional Arts | Health | Urban
https://www.facebook.com/paoartscenter
https://twitter.com/BCNCInc
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Residence Lab is a partnership between Pao Arts Center and Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) to empower and train artists and residents to collectively preserve the Chinatown community through creative and artistic space activation.
photo credit: Katytarika Bartel
Find Your Place with Pao Arts Center
photo credit: Tina Xu
Community members come together to show their love for Chinatown with “Love Letters to Boston Chinatown” mural as part of Experience Chinatown 2020
photo credit: Diya Gosh
Prakriti Dance, “When Body Becomes Voice,” 2019. Chinatown Presents, 2019 With Chinatown Presents we feature work from professional Asian Pacific Islander artists to community members.
photo credit: Andrew Wang
Experience Chiantown 2019. See, hear, and create at our yearly festival.
photo credit: Andrew Wang
Inside Chinatown participant shares more about his photography at the exhibition opening. Inside Chinatown featured work by eleven Chinatown community members who used photography to not only share the experiences, challenges, and successes found in their community, but also to author their own history of what it means to work and live in Boston’s Chinatown.
photo credit: Andrew Wang
Pao Arts Center Grand Opening in 2017
photo credit: Steve Sulewski
Interior of Pao Arts Center, before build out
photo credit: BCNC
Community members come together to learn photography skills at a Pao Arts Center class.
photo credit: BCNC

Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC) and Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) established Pao Arts Center in 2017 as a visionary cross-sector partnership. Located at 99 Albany Street in downtown Boston, Pao Arts Center is Chinatown’s first arts and cultural center. 

Pao Arts Center represents the investment and belief that arts, culture, and creativity are vital to the creation of healthy families and vibrant communities. By bringing together community members across generations, the Center reclaims a critical part of Chinatown history.

Our mission is to celebrate and strengthen the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community of Chinatown and Greater Boston through access to culturally relevant art, education, and creative programs. Pao Arts Center functions in service of BCNC’s and BHCC’s goals to support the social well-being, economic success, and education of their constituents.

Our vision is that in the face of the gentrification of Chinatown and inequitable access to resources that enable cultural agency, Pao Arts Center promotes cultural equity in Greater Boston for the API community.

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See below for recent updates, press, and events from this project

press
Comcast: ASIAN AMERICAN AND ASIAN IMMIGRANT FAMILIES
Dec 3, 2018
Asian Americans and Asian immigrants face unique challenges navigating daily life. The Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Network provides holistic family-centered and cultural programs for more than... Read More
blog
Arts, Culture, & Community Mental Health
Jan 28, 2019
Recent research commissioned by ArtPlace demonstrates how arts and culture strategies can help provide solutions to public health challenges faced by communities across the United...Read more
blog
Public Safety- Beyond the Field Scan
Oct 16, 2017
With our focus this month on public safety, the ArtPlace team thought October would be the perfect time to re-introduce one of our most comprehensive...Read more
blog
Arts and Culture as a Bridge to Community
Jan 03, 2018
This is part two of a two part interview with the Pao Arts Center. The Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center received funding from ArtPlace in 2016...Read more
blog
An Interview with Cynthia Woo of the Pao Arts Center
Oct 10, 2017
In May 2017, the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center finally achieved its goal of creating a communal arts center in the heart of Boston’s historic Chinatown...Read more