What a year!
2017 isn't quite over yet, but this year marked a major turning point for China Residencies.
As we enter into our fifth year of existence, we're celebrating hosting our 50th artist!
Thanks to all of your encouragement and dedicated support, we're starting to feel like we're getting the hang of it all.
Here's a recap of everything we got up to this year, and a look forward to where we're headed next.
================= HELPING ARTISTS =================
More than a quarter of a million people visited this website since we started, with nearly half of them in 2017 alone. That's 113,000 different people from all over the world!
We supported eleven incredible artists on fully-funded residencies:
LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs is our 4th Crystal Ruth Bell resident at Red Gate in Beijing. She created The Feeling Is Mutual, a "non-literary performance/writing exercise/installation that focuses on mutual care within communities, and more specifically women artists of color."
LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs during a performance in her Feijiacun studio
Louise Zhang devised Soft Horror sculptures at Organhaus in Chongqing, and Natalie Abbott just arrived at CEAC in Xiamen to translate pop into collaborative choreography through our Copyright Agency Cultural Fund-supported Two To Three 二到三 program.
Louise Zhang installing her solo show in Organhaus' gallery
Alisa Yang rode our #slowtrainresidency along the new One Belt One Road government initiative, while Frog Dava Wing traced the ancient routes of Kublai Khan's conquests. An Xiao Mina navigated through the Pearl River Delta and BUFU archived Black & Asian socio-political relationships. All of their train journeys delved into the deeply nuanced and complex multi-cultural landscapes that make up modern China, from their own personal perspectives as diasporic filmmakers, artists, and researchers.
Tsige Tafesse, Sonia Choi & Jazmin Jones of BUFU in Beijing
In NYC's Chinatown, Emily Mock is leading papercutting workshops and staging shadow puppet theatre to sweep away evil as part of the W.O.W Project's second 店面 Residency.
Emily Mock teaching in the Wing On Wo & Co's Studio. Sign up for her upcoming workshops in January!
We're so proud of the three organizations and collectives that take part in our Fiscal Sponsorship Program. The W.O.W Project, Yellow Jackets Collective, and BUFU. These young leaders are shaping movements across North America's Chinatowns, creating generative spaces for QTPOC in New York, and mapping solidarity between multifaceted Asian and African diasporas in California, Jamaica, Ethiopia, China, South Africa and beyond.
If you'd like to fund their efforts directly, you can contributing donations to our three fiscally sponsored organizations:
======== SUPPORTING RESIDENCIES WORLDWIDE ========
As we continue to map and research new programs, we now have 39 programs in the directory.
This year, we visited and interviewed residencies in Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dali, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Kunming, Lijiang, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou, and Xiamen.
Residencies are propelled by the sheer dedication of those who run these programs. This year, we continued our Residency Knowledge Exchange with a focus on South East Asia, inviting Syar Alia of Rimbun Dahan (Malaysia), Anna Lovecchio of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art (Singapore), Coral Lu of Dong Dong & Lulu (Nanjing & Hohot), Emma Lee of Kiwisual (Guagnzhou), and Wong Ker Sin of East Coast (Malaysia) to spend time in Beijing.
Residency directors from China, Malaysia & Singapore dining and discussing in Beijing.
Building connections between residency staff is key. We are glad to be dedicated champions of global and regional networks, as a board member of Res Artis and regular participant in conferences and gatherings like the Alliance of Artist Communities, Common Field, and TransCultural Exchange.
From the start, we've had the dual mission of supporting creative people as well as their hosts. While running a residency is no easy feat, it's sometimes just as difficult for creative people to find out about residencies in the first place. This year, we published a simple 10-step guide for creative people on how to apply for things. As we continue to prototype Rivet (formerly known as res), a website to give people all over the world greater to access creative opportunities, we are excited to continue on at NEW INC, the New Museum’s incubator for art, technology & design, as well as 2018 fellows at the Made in NY Media Center.
We also contributed to publications like the British Council's UK China Now, and wrote an essay for ArtsEverywhere on community-based projects and displacement in China, just a few months before waves of violent evictions starting tearing through communities in Beijing's outskirts. We stand in solidarity with migrant workers and all displaced peoples in this tumultuous year, and send courage and hope for safety, stability, and strong foundations to lay new roots in 2018.
=========== ENDLESS THANKS ===========
To
Crystal, first, foremost, and always.
None of this would exist without her.
China Residencies' founder Crystal,
3D scanned in 2013 at the Brooklyn Museum Artists Ball
To our fantastic board members, Jay Brown, Christina Yuen Zi Chung, Samantha Culp, Daniel Szehin Ho, Emma Karasz, Melissa Karmen Lee, Ming Lin, Thea Mai Baumann, Rachel Marsden, An Xiao Mina, and Adam Short; our intern (and soon-to-be program manager) Josue Chavez, our contributors in film, research, web development and illustration, Nathaniel J. Brown, Rebecca Catching, Grace Naw, Francis Tseng, and Diane Zhou.
We couldn't do this without all the generous individuals who donated to help us continue to exist, and most of all, without all the creative people who find this website useful and the wonderful residencies who host and nurture creativity by helping to bring individuals' ideas into existence.
================== WHAT’S NEXT ? ==================
Thanks to our growing group of generous advisors and supporters invested in the longevity and sustainability of this organization, we'll soon be able to hire part-time staff next year to grow our programs in New York and Beijing!
We set ourselves a pretty ambitious fundraising goal this year, and we're * nearly * there. Will you help us by making a tax-deductible donation to raise the last $1,682.67 we need to round out the year?
================== AND DUMPLINGS ?!? ==================
Our love for dumplings knows no boundaries.
In 2018, we're taking our dumpling parties global!
Next year, we hope you'll join us in NYC on February 18th at Mood Ring, or get in touch to host your own, absolutely anywhere in the world! We're excited to virtually host satellites of our annual dumpling art party from Seattle to Adelaide.
See you next year!
Kira Simon-Kennedy
Co-Founder & Executive Director
China Residencies
