Artists in Residence
Creative Attention: Art and Community Restoration residencies (2022)
Christine Wong Yap and youths from Eastside Prep and the Palo Alto Art Center's Teen Leadership Program, Belonging: Perspectives from Youth and Elders in Palo Alto and East Palo Alto, 2022. Mixed media. Courtesy of the artist.
Artists Christine Wong Yap and Marcel Pardo Ariza have been artists in residence as part of the Creative Attention: Art and Community Restoration exhibition and initiative at the Palo Alto Art Center.
Christine Wong Yap engaged local teens and seniors in a residency project focused on places of belonging in Palo Alto and East Palo Alto, resulting in a site-specific Belonging map that was installed in the Art Center Gallery in March and the publication of an accompanying zine. Wong Yap conducted workshops about belonging with 12 students at Eastside Prep and 19 participants in the Palo Alto Art Center’s Teen Leadership Program. She asked participants, “Where do you feel (or where have you felt) a sense of belonging?” and “Do you carry a sense of belonging with you?” After leading teens through calligraphy exercises, Wong Yap invited them to hand-letter statements of belonging, resulting in the artworks visible in the later part of the zine. In addition, Palo Alto Art Center teens interviewed seven older adults at Avenidas, asking them the same questions about belonging. The teens took reference photos that were used in a cartooning workshop to create the portraits used in the Belonging map and in the zine.
Download the zine:
Belonging: Perspectives from Youth and Elders in Palo Alto and East Palo Alto(PDF, 3MB)
Marcel Pardo Ariza is currently working in residence with the Avenidas Senior Center’s Rainbow Collective, hosting a series of workshops celebrating intergenerational LGBTQ+ personal stories.
Find out more about the Creative Attention residencies in this recording of a virtual artist residency conversation with Wong Yap and Pardo Ariza.
Winter 2021 Sanctuary Print Project Residency
The Palo Alto Art Center collaborated with the Sanctuary Print Project on a residency in Winter 2021.
The Sanctuary City Project utilizes primary and secondary research methods which includes talking with civic institutions, nonprofits and their constituents, as well as periodicals, think-tanks, and internet research. Through this process of collecting and researching, the project then utilizes engagement platforms to share its research and continue collection with the public. The engagement platforms used include interactive installations, public projections, billboards, banners, tote bags, mobile food, and mobile printshop projects. Through the combination of research and community engagement the Sanctuary City Project hopes to educate and engage with participants and institutions, creating inclusive spaces where deeper dialogues surrounding sanctuary cities and immigration policy can take place. In the end, this process allows for continued development of the methods and outcomes surrounding public conversations concerning sanctuary cities and immigration.
Creative Ecology Residency (ended 2017)
Creative Ecology was an innovative art and science residency program that promotes learning about and appreciation of the natural world through the creative process, engaging artists, art and science educators, and the larger community. A collaboration between the Palo Alto Art Center and the Junior Museum & Zoo, the program intends to showcase the similarities between artists and scientists and demonstrate how both use similar tools to experiment and learn about the world around them. This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
