Asian Arts Initiative (AAI) is a multidisciplinary arts center rooted in Philadelphia’s Chinatown North, where it connects exhibitions, performances, residencies, youth workshops, and gatherings to the neighborhood’s cultural and political realities. Its programs respond to concerns within Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, especially around displacement and representation. Curator Joyce Chung is committed to cultivating a community of critical praxis, and her projects at AAI explore the complexities of identity and representation through an intersectional lens.
Anh Vo, Common Fetish, 2024 (performance view). Courtesy the artist. Photo: Nguyen Cong Nguyen
Between 2025 and 2028, AAI will mark the 250th anniversary of US independence with a curatorial arc that examines whose freedoms have been upheld or denied. In fall 2025, AAI will begin this exploration of citizenship and identity with a solo presentation by Anh Vo that will address the Vietnam War, queerness, translation, and memory.
In spring 2026, the center will undertake a community-rooted exploration of Chinatown and displacement, in direct response to the contested New South Philadelphia Arena proposal and the grassroots advocacy it has inspired. This program examines the idea of citizenship in the Semiquincentennial by celebrating and exhibiting the creative work of a democratic movement led by people of color.
Frank Wang Yefang, Avatopology, 2023 (detail). Installation view in Avatopology at New York Art Residency and Studios (NARS) Foundation, October 4–November 6, 2024. Courtesy the artist
In fall 2026, Brooklyn-based Frank Wang Yefang will present the US debut of
Avatopology, a multimedia installation series that includes drawings, video, sculptural objects, and a zine, as well as digital conversations with remote workers and creatives living across Estonia, Indonesia, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Developed during the pandemic, Yefang’s project interrogates the cultural and emotional dimensions of globalized labor and authorship in the digital age.
Joyce Chung is Curator at Asian Arts Initiative, where she leads the organization’s exhibition and performance programs. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Chung aims to examine how capitalism and power structures shape lived experiences, creating platforms where art fosters social inquiry and collective engagement. Drawn to performance and time-based media for their capacity to position the body as a site of resistance, reconciliation, and embodied memory, she focuses on underrepresented communities—particularly ethnic and gender minorities—and champions work that challenges normative frameworks. Chung has held curatorial roles at organizations such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul), Gwangju Biennale, Hyundai Card (Seoul), Kukje Gallery (Seoul), and Performa (New York). She holds an MA in the Humanities from the University of Chicago and a BA in Art History from Wesleyan University.
Dave Kyu is an artist and writer, and serves as Interim Executive Director and Director of Programs at Asian Arts Initiative. He began working with Asian Arts Initiative in 2011 and led its first community planning process, creating People: Power: Place: a cultural plan for Chinatown North/Callowhill (2016–18). Kyu oversees the strategy and implementation of its public programs, coordinating alongside advocacy efforts in Chinatown and Chinatown North. He is a cofounder of Practice Gallery, an alternative arts space, and the Philadelphia Assembly, a funding collective that prioritizes Black women, Black girls, and Black people of marginalized genders. Kyu has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Born in Seoul, he is a graduate of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and received a Certificate in Principles and Innovation from the Academy of Municipal Innovation at Philadelphia University.