Worcester Arts Council Grant Supports 2nd Southeast Asia Artist-in-Residency at WAM
Funding allows artists from Southeast Asia to work and study in Worcester for six weeks this summer
Nguyễn Oanh Phi Phi, Specular (2013)
Worcester, MA—March 25, 2019—The Worcester Art Museum has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Worcester Arts Council to fund the collaborative Southeast Asia Artist-in-Residence program from August 12 toSeptember 22, 2019. The residency, which debuted last year in collaboration with the Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts and Indochina Arts Partnership, will allow two more artists—Richard Streitmatter-Tran from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Jennifer Teo, representing the artist collective Post-Museum of Singapore—to visit the United States and enjoy six weeks of professional and artistic development.
The Museum will provide each artist with studio space, materials, and equipment for the duration of their residency. In addition to working in the studios, the artists will engage with the regional community by conducting research, giving talks,participating in workshops, and attending local art events. The artists-in-residence will also join Worcester’s StART on the Street event on September 15, 2019. A full schedule of public programs and events during the residency will be available on the Museum’s website after July 1, 2019.
Richard Streitmatter-Tran was born in Bien Hoa, Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. Adopted by an American family in Massachusetts, he grew up on Cape Cod during the 1970s and 1980s and was drawn to works by quintessential New England artists, such as Edward Hopper and Winslow Homer.
Since moving to Vietnam more than 15 years ago, he has established his artistic career in Southeast Asia, as well as Asia and Europe. During his residency at WAM, Streitmatter-Tran will study works by Hopper, Homer, and John Singer Sargent from the Museum’s permanent collection.
He plans to create a series of new works about contemporary Massachusetts using techniques, such as painting with watercolor and gouache on silk, which he has developed in Vietnam over the past few years.
Founded in 2007, Post-Museum is an independent cultural and social art collective in Singapore, which aims to encourage and support a thinking and proactive community. Working in the space between visual arts and social activism, Post-Museum has been creating art, as well as curating, organizing, writing, and lecturing in Singapore and abroad for 12 years.
They maintain an open platform for examining contemporary life, connecting people, and promoting the arts. Post-Museum co-founder Jennifer Teo will represent the group during its residency at WAM, where she will create Worcester Really Really Free Market. Part of a worldwide movement and social experiment, Post-Museum’s ongoing Really Really Free Market series (2009-present) forms a temporary ‘free’ market zone based on an alternative gift economy.
The Southeast Asia Artist-in-Residency program’s objectives are threefold:
to support emerging to mid-careerartists from Southeast Asia, where the infrastructure and institutional support for contemporary artists are scarce, or in some extreme cases nonexistent;
to create meaningful connections between the community of artists, Southeast Asians, and the general public in Worcester with the art and culture of Southeast Asia;
and to focus on the internationally diverse connections within Worcester and the vital global role an encyclopedic museum, such as the Worcester Art Museum, plays in its community.
The Southeast Asia Artist-in-Residence Program is supported by the Worcester Arts Council, a local agency supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. Additional in-kind support is provided by the three collaborating organizations, including the Worcester Art Museum, Indochina Arts Partnership, and the Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts
About the Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts
The Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts, Inc. (SEAC) was founded in 1999 to address the lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate support services for Southeast Asian immigrants and refugees in Central Massachusetts, which include Laotians, Cambodians, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Burmese, and Vietnamese. SEAC’s mission is to help Southeast Asians in Central Massachusetts successfully integrate into mainstream society, thrive, and become contributing citizens while maintaining their unique cultural identity. SEAC provides assistance with more than 10,000 client visits annually, reaches 6,000 people at public events, and offers a robust cultural program to help strengthen the local Asian community and bring healing to displaced refugees and immigrants. In 2015, SEAC earned the Massachusetts Non-Profit Network Excellence Award for the small non-profit category.
About the Indochina Arts Partnership
Established in 1987 by David Thomas, a Vietnam veteran, the Indochina Arts Partnership (IAP) is an organization for art, cultural, and educational exchanges between the United States and Vietnam. Since its founding, the IAP has supported more than 70 artists and cultural representatives through their residency program. The organization’s early success includes important exhibitions namely As Seen from Both Sides(1991), Seven Pillars (1994), and An Ocean Apart (1995), which introduced Vietnamese artists to the American audience for the first time after the war. Since 2016, IAP furthers the discussions of the arts among artists in countries of Southeast Asia, creating cross-sectorial partnerships, and supporting projects that promote cultural diversity.
About the Worcester Art Museum
The Worcester Art Museum creates transformative programs and exhibitions, drawing on its exceptional collection of art. Dating from 3,000 BC to the present, these works provide the foundation for a focus on audience engagement, connecting visitors of all ages and abilities with inspiring art and demonstrating its enduring relevance to daily life. Creative initiatives— including pioneering collaborative programs with local schools, fresh approaches to exhibition design and in-gallery teaching, and a long history of studio class instruction—offer opportunities for diverse audiences to experience art and learn both from and with artists.
Since its founding in 1896, the Worcester Art Museum has assembled a collection of 38,000 objects: from the ancient Near East and Asia, to European and American paintings and sculptures, and continuing with works by contemporary artists from around the world. WAM has a history of making large scale acquisitions, such as its Medieval Chapter House, the Worcester Hunt Mosaic, its 15th-century Spanish ceiling, and the Flemish Last Judgment tapestry. In 2013, the Museum acquired the John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection, comprising two thousand objects of arms and armor. It continues to commission and present new works, such as 2017’s installation of the interactive Reusable Universes and Organic Concept works by Shih Chieh Huang.
The Worcester Art Museum, located at 55 Salisbury Street in Worcester, MA, is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and the third Thursday of every month from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Admission is $16 for adults, $6 for children 4-17, $14 for seniors 65+ and for college students with ID. Admission is free for Museum Members and children under four.
On the first Sunday of each month, admission is free for everyone.
Museum parking is free.
For more information, visit worcesterart.org.