Grant Recipient Details

Location
Cambridge, MA
Project Title
Home Town: Re-presenting Boston's Chinatown as Place of People - Then and Now
Fiscal Year Awarded
2016
Grant or Program
Creative City Boston - Artist Grant
Grant Amount
$10,000
  • Various locations in Chinatown | August – September, 2016

Home Town: Re-presenting Boston’s Chinatown as Place of People - Now and Then draws attention to the powerful threats of developments and gentrification displacing the Chinatown community. Life-size, cutout figures derived from century old archival photos occupy public places and street corners in Chinatown. In addition, several photo stations compile portraits of willing people in Chinatown for a community album that seeks to correct a marked absence in most historical archives. 

Wen-ti Tsen is a painter and public artist. He was born in China and grew up in Europe before coming to the U.S. to study painting at the Boston Museum School. Since the mid-1970s, he has been engaged in making art that explores cultural connections: personal paintings and installations, large-scale public art sculptures, and community organization to express social issues via a variety of art forms.