Galleries

Yoland Skeete Research Files on Newark Chinatown

APA Staff
Newark014Date Range: 1999 – 2009
Survey Conducted: Fri, 2011-05-06
Creator: Sumei Multidisciplinary Center

History: Founded in 1993 by a group of artists, musicians, and writers, the Sumei Multidisciplinary Arts Center (permanently closed as of 2021) aims to support emerging and established artists through exhibitions, lectures, seminars, workshops, and residencies. Sumei serves as a platform for artists around the world to connect with communities in Newark, and provides educational programming and art workshops for elementary to college age youth throughout the area. The organization aims to be a space for community building and engagement through art, writing, video, and performance. Read more →

Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Archive

APA Staff
Date Range: 1800 – 2011
Survey Conducted: Fri, 2010-12-10
Creator: Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)

History: The Museum of the Chinese in America started as the New York Chinatown History Project in 1980 by historian John (Jack) Kuo Wei Tchen, community organizer Charlie Lai, and artists, historians, and students who recognized that the memories and experiences of older members of the community were in danger of becoming permanently lost to later generations. They hoped to address this problem by creating opportunities for collecting, preserving, and displaying historical materials reflecting the lives of Chinatown residents and workers over its long and complicated history. Read more →

HN (Hsiang-Ning) Han Archive

APA Staff
Date Range: 1969 – 2013
Survey Conducted: Mon, 2012-10-22
Creator: HN (Hsiang-Ning) Han

History: HN Han (Hsiang-Ning Han) is an internationally renowned artist, documentarian, curator and art educator, known for his evolving artistic style and creating his own form of pointillism with a spray gun. By reviving and transferring 19th century Post-Impressionism to 1970s New York, he influenced New York art movement during the height of New Realism.

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Fashion Moda Archive

APA Staff
Date Range: 1978 – 1993
Survey Conducted: Fri, 2008-10-31
Creator: Fashion Moda

History: Founded in 1978 by Stefan Eins, Fashion Moda quickly became an important voice in the art world during the late 1970s to mid-1980s. Dubbing its South Bronx location as the Museum of Science, Art, Invention, Technology, and Fantasy, Fashion Moda crossed boundaries and mixed metaphors, which helped to redefine the function of art in the then post-modernist society. Its South Bronx location allowed Fashion Moda the freedom to explore the question “What is art?” and “Who defines it?” Mostly funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and other funding agencies, the space encouraged the production of art that was not hamstrung by the contemporary art market and by academic art training. As such, it was a center where white downtown artists interacted with artists and the community of the South Bronx. Fashion Moda was one of several Bronx-based organizations contributing to the borough’s efforts at cultural renewal through the arts in the 1960s and 1970s when the Bronx, in many minds, embodied urban decay. It acknowledged and embraced the artistic contribution of the neighborhood’s new immigrants from the Caribbean, Latin America, and the American South who had replaced the earlier, mainly European immigrants from Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In particular, Fashion Moda celebrated the street life of its neighbors in exhibitions of graffiti art and performances of hip-hop music and break dancing.
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A.I.R. Gallery Archives

APA Staff
Date Range: 1972 – 2006
Survey Conducted: Thu, 2008-10-23
Creator: A.I.R. Gallery

History: Founded in 1972 when women artists had few spaces to exhibit, A.I.R. (Artists in residence, Inc.) Gallery is the first artist-run nonprofit gallery for women artists in the United States. With a mission to advocate for women in the visual arts, founding members Dotty Attie, Maude Boltz, Mary Grigoriadis, Nancy Spero, Susan Williams, and Barbara Zucker selected fourteen artists to join them as original members and together set organizational policy. A.I.R. membership is kept at twenty New York artists who constitute the organization’s governing body and vote in new members. Exhibitions constitute the main activity of the organization. These include solo shows for Gallery Artists, sponsored shows for Fellow Artists, and group shows that include the broader community of women artists. Asian and Asian American artists, including Kazuko, Angie Eng, Diyan Achjadi, Juri Kim, Barbara Takenaga, Michi Itami, Carol Kumata, Hui-Lin Chao, Jinnine Pak, and Eva Lee can be counted as members or exhibiting artists.
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