The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University Announces the 2023 Arts & Cultural Organizational Management (ACOM) Cohort
From ACOM: Arts & Cultural Organizational Management (ACOM) provides an executive education-style learning experience to arts leaders from communities that historically are not centered in leadership and development opportunities.
ACOM is a one-week learning intensive that centers community and includes professional development with professors, community leaders, and artists to strengthen strategies and skills. Its tailored curriculum unlocks the resources of Harvard University and is designed to meet the specific needs and interests of the cohort.
<——— Click the image to the left to learn more about the ACOM program, and this year’s cohort.
Call and Response Review
by the Boston Globe
New exhibits at Pao Arts Center create spaces for community reflection
Review by Abigail Lee
To read Lee’s write up, click the image to the left
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Call and Response review
by the Boston Art Review
“Call and Response” Imagines a Radical Collective Future in the Midst of Isolation
Review by Elisa Rowe
To read Rowe’s write up, click the image to the left
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MCC FY23 Cultural Sector Recovery Grant
for Individuals
Thank you to the Massachusetts Cultural Council for selecting me as one of the 4,000 FY23 recipients of the Cultural Sector Recovery Grants for Individuals. I am grateful for this support, which will help sustain my artistic and independent curatorial practice as I continue exploring new ways to support the cultural work of our BIPOC communities.
Visions/Voices
New Narratives Series:
Our Past and Present
July 16, 3 - 6 pm
In collaboration with Greenway Conservancy, Pao Arts Center and Curator Leslie Anne Condon have curated this summer 2022 outdoor performance series which celebrates the cultural power that flows through AAPI communities across the Asian diaspora, in ways that vocalize both struggles and joys. Featuring live performances by Boston-area spoken artists and performers who draw upon a wide range of artistic styles, cultural traditions, and languages from AAPI communities and beyond, the event series activates artist Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong’s YEAR OF THE TIGER installation in Mary Soo Hoo Park. Through their words, dance, creative gestures, and songs, each artist brings greater visibility to our interconnected histories and current realities while offering more playful and empowering visions of our collective future.
This event is the third of the VISIONS/VOICES: YEAR OF THE TIGER performance series. Through a partnership with the Greenway Conservancy, Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong has been commissioned to create an artwork celebrating the Year of the Tiger, as part of an annual project honoring the Chinese Zodiac on The Greenway. Her upcoming artwork, YEAR OF THE TIGER, is a community pavilion and a site-specific public artwork composed of vibrantly colored seating, podiums and sprawling floor motifs. As both stage and seating, YEAR OF THE TIGER creates a new, intergenerational hub to gather outdoors, perform or engage in public programs. Pao Arts Center is proud to partner with the Greenway to bring public events to Mary Soo Hoo Park.
Participating Artists: Cynthia Lin, Lani Asuncion, Payal Kumar of Subdrift Boston, and Adobo Fish Sauce
Curated by: Leslie Condon
Learn more about the outdoor performance series here.
Image Description:
Enlarged photo collage of pink rose petals that are turning slightly brown. The rose petals are set against a background of a darkened sky in outer space, with countless stars in the distance. White text overlays the graphic, with a white Pao Arts Center logo in the top left.
The Collective Imaginary
On View May 27 - July 22, 2022
Our ability to dream and imagine our futures is greatly influenced by how we interpret our AAPI histories. Dreaming of more just and equitable realities can transform whole neighborhoods, communities, and societies, but we can only envision more inclusive and expansive social structures if we fully account for the conditions of our present and past, alongside other historically subordinated communities. This segment of the exhibition features artists who address aspects of our present society and also help us dream of better futures.
Participating Artists: Yanni Niki Li, Ponnapa Prakkamakul, Micah Rose, Jessica TranVo, and Tran Vu Curated by: Leslie Condon
Learn more and check out the virtual exhibition here.
Photo credit:
Jessica TranVo, A Ride Into Space.., Digital Collage, 8 x 10
Image Description:
Enlarged photo collage of pink rose petals that are turning slightly brown. The rose petals are set against a background of a darkened sky in outer space, with countless stars in the distance. White text overlays the graphic, with a white Pao Arts Center logo in the top left.
Intergenerational Storytelling
January 27 - March 25, 2022
Storytelling across generations allows us to preserve and reimagine family histories and strengthen and advance community narratives. Stories also reinforce culture. Interpreting the stories of our elders for ourselves and each other allows the stories to live on in more expansive ways. How do we reinterpret our ancestor’s stories for ourselves? How do we acknowledge certain generational divides within our evolving society while still honoring our elders? Each artist in this segment of New Narratives addresses such questions through their artwork, sometimes piecing fragments together to tell a new story.
Participating Artists: Melody Hsu, Madeline Lee, Yuko Okabe, Matthew Okazaki, Melissa Teng, and Lily Xie Curated by: Leslie Condon
Learn more and check out the virtual exhibition here.
Photo credit:
Matthew Okazaki, Ojichan's Home. Crystal City, Texas, 1945, Digital collage, 12 x 16
Image Description:
White graphic with a digital collage of a white house. Information for the exhibition is written across the graphic in dark green. The Pao Arts Center logo is in the top right corner in dark green and teal blue.
Embodied Identities
October 21 - December 17, 2022
Our identities as Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are shaped by our racial and ethnic identities and cultural understandings interwoven with our embodied experiences, but what it means to be part of the AAPI community lies beyond our shared biological traits and overlapping ancestral histories. Even the language that we use to categorize and define ourselves, though powerful, is highly imperfect and constantly evolving in response to new considerations. Some of us feel tethered to the cultural norms of our communities, resisting and embracing different elements over time. Others feel closely tethered to the white gaze and the stereotypes projected onto our communities and ourselves. How are the cultural norms of our communities reflected in our bodily expressions? How do our bodies offer opportunities for liberation and healing from the stereotypes projected onto us? The artists included in this segment of New Narratives explore how identity is deeply connected with, but not limited by, our physical selves.
Participating Artists: Maria Fong, Eugene La Rochelle, Brenda Lau, Jennifer Okumura, and Mel Taing Curated by: Leslie Condon
Learn more and check out the virtual exhibition here.
Photo credit:
Mel Taing, Ode to Durian (We Are Ineffable), Digital Photograph, 18 x 24
Image Description:
Digital photo of a figure wearing a white satin dress and hugging a life-sized Durian fruit. The head is tucked away from sight, and the image is set against a golden yellow background with white text laid over.
Collective Liberation
Opening Reception | Friday, October 8, 2021, 6:00 - 7:00 PM
This past winter, a group of Boston-area BIPOC creatives came together for a four-week workshop on collective solidarity through Mass MoCA's Assets for Artists. Since the completion of the program, some of the artists have continued to gather in support of each other's creative work and to explore new ways of living and thriving even in the midst of mutual grief. "Collective Liberation" highlights work from select creatives from this cohort, the first group show for the artist collective.
Exhibiting artists: Lucilda Dassardo-Cooper, Ren Galvan, Dyllan Nguyen, Yuko Okabe, Jessica Roseman, and Leslie Anne Condon
Hopkinton Center for the Arts
98 Hayden Rowe Street, Hopkinton, MA 01748
info@hopartscenter.org | www.hopartscenter.org
Monday–Friday: 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
Saturday: 9:00 am to 2:00 pm
Images from "Nourish" by Jessica Roseman as an artist-in-residence at the Lexington Community Farm. Photo Credit: Olivia Moon Photography
“In the galleries: An intimate panorama
of video art’s variety and breadth”
Washington Post Review
A write-up of Frame & Frequency VII through VisArts by Mark Jenkins of the Washington Post.
“All of the art forms called “time-based” proceed at a pace determined by their creators, but only video and film have the seeming power to speed, slow, stop and even reverse time. That characteristic is conspicuous in “Frame & Frequency VII,” VisArts’s latest survey of international videos. The pieces — eight in the Kaplan Gallery and one in the elevator lobby — range from unhurried to hyperkinetic.
….
Also based on her youth, Leslie Condon’s “An Homage to the Asian Women in My Life 1981-2000,” is a series of poses that emulate TV and movie role models for the Boston artist, who grew up as an Asian adoptee of a White family. The video adopts a deliberate gait, giving Condon all the time she needs to dream herself into someone else.
Frame & Frequency VII Through July 2 at VisArts, 155 Gibbs St., Rockville.
Frame & Frequency VII
through VisArts
This week, my video performance piece, An Homage to the Asian Women In My Life 1981 - 2000 is on view at VisArts in Rockville, MD as part of Frame & Frequency VII, an ongoing International New Media, Film, and Video Art screening program curated by Frank McCauley and presented by VisArts.
“These new media, experimental film, and video works explore contemporary visual culture, and present an intimate panorama of the variety and breadth of video art in artistic practice today – including various themes such as appropriation, blending personal narratives with pop cultural experiences, simulation vs representation, repetition, identity and gender politics, as well as formal investigations of film and video as mediums.”
- VisArts
Click the image to learn more about the exhibition, and the other featured artists <———
Absence/Presence
through Raise Karma
I am happy to announce my inclusion in Absence/Presence, curated by Medina Tenour Whiteman through Raise Karma. Whitman chose the small selections of artwork inspired by the “gorgeous emptiness that can bring so much clarity and creativity.”
Raise Karma is a platform that highlights artists and creatives who are exploring creativity through spirituality, something that I’ve been pondering through my artist practice for quite a while. I am especially excited to engage with the Raise Karma community, which includes many from the Islamic faith.
Click the image to check out all the work included in Absence/Presence <———
Grief, Racialized Trauma, and Art
with The Dying Year
On Wednesday, January 13th, I gave a presentation to The Dying Year's end-of-life doula community. Founded in early 2020 by Merilynne Rush MSHP, RN, BSN, The Dying Year provides training and services to other EOLDs, including home funerals, green burial, and advance care planning. As always, I am grateful for the opportunity to honor my sister's legacy by supporting others on their bereavement journey.
To watch the recording of my presentation, please follow the link below.
Disclaimer: During my presentation, I mentioned Sanskrit when I meant to say 'sand mandalas' during one part of the presentation. Apologies. There may be other things that need correction; please let me know.
To learn more about The Dying Year, go to
www.thedyingyear.orgGrief, Racialized Trauma, and Art with Leslie Anne Condon, Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Bundok | Mountain: An Exploration
of Intergenerational Trauma and Healing
Opening Reception
Saturday, December 5 at 6pm
During the first half of the evening, I moderated a discussion between five of the participating Bundok | Mountain artists, on behalf of Creatives of Color Boston. The second half of the evening featured a mix of performances and artist talks by each participating creative.
The virtual exhibition is on view on the CCB website until February 1, 2021, see link below:
Bundok Mountain thru Creatives of Color Boston
Creatures, Beasts, Myths
through the Vacant Museum
From the Vacant Museum
”[T]his show has arrived just in time to help us escape to a world of living things which might inspire, confuse, bewilder, or even unnerve…Now’s the time to simply look around and see the creatures, beasts, and myths around you as they really are, shadows of ourselves, products of our perception.”
I am excited that two of my illustrations are featured in this light-hearted exhibition. My official artist statement:
”The Lao folklore of Phi Kasu tells the story of a nocturnal female spirit, imagined in different versions as the archetypical beautiful maiden or old crone. According to legend, the hovering spirit, comprised of only a head and entrails, roams the countryside after dark feeding on the living beings she comes upon to satiate her gluttony. Like many tales of female morality told through the lens of horror, Phi Kasu is speculated to be a wayward woman cursed by her choices in life. By recontextualizing Phi Kasu as a consumer of Western vices, she is no longer simply a horrific and tragic figure but also a kind of wounded healer. She gains strength through benevolent and violent means, seeking not redemption from the human species and, instead, offering salvation.”
<——— Click the image to see the exhibition in full
Art Hustle NJ Presents Artists in Conversation with
Thoughts and Prayers Artist Leslie Anne Condon
Last week, I sat down with Thoughts and Prayers curator, Christy O’Connor of Art Hustle NJ, for a conversation on the exhibition, my work for the show, and the current state of the world.
”Visual artist and emerging scholar, Leslie Anne Condon, discusses her work Bullet Points, created in response to the growing instances of police brutality in the United States. Through this illustration piece, she draws connections between state-sanctioned violence abroad on "behalf of democracy" and U.S. police violence against its own citizens. The ways that U.S. foreign policy affects our communities is often invisible to the people who are not directly impacted by these strategies; for others, it can shape their entire lives.”
Click the image to check out the interview <———-
September 2020
New Narratives featured in the
Bay State Banner
Thank you to the Bay State Banner for featuring “New Narratives” in this week’s Arts and Culture section. It was a pleasure to talk with Celina Colby about the project, which features both an online exhibition and storyteller series.
One of my favorite parts of the article:
“Condon hopes the show will illustrate that the Asian American experience in Boston and nationally isn’t a monolith, but a network of unique stories and experiences. “In 2020 we are still fighting for the right to drive and shape our own narratives about our own communities,” she says. “Representation matters. And it’s crucial that we prioritize authentic and diverse voices in support of a more equitable society.”’
Click the image to read the article in full <————
WBUR’s the Artery lists
New Narratives: Reclaiming Asian Identity Through Story
as the #1 event to check out this weekend!
I'm really proud that WBUR's The ARTery chose "New Narratives: Reclaiming Asian Identity Through Story" through Unbound Visual Arts as the number one event to check out this weekend! Even though our storyteller roundtable discussion wrapped on Friday night, folks can still check out the project on the Unbound Visual Arts website.
Our New Narratives Storyteller series is now live on the Brain Arts Organization Inc Blog!
A special thank you to Kevin Lam of the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW) for facilitating Friday night's discussion! And an additional thank you to our other amazing partners: Asian Glow Boston, Dorchester Art Project, the Pao Arts Center through Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, and Subcontinental Drift Boston.
Click the image to read the article in full <———
Thoughts & Prayers: Another Round of Vacant Stares
through ChaShaMa Matawan, NJ and Art Hustle NJ
August 13 thru September 19, 2020
Curated by Christy O’Connor of Art Hustle NJ
Participating Artists:
Nanette Reynolds Beachner, Chee Bravo, Kimberly Camp, Wendy Cohen, Pam Cooper, Leslie Anne Condon, Timothy Dill, Patrick Hay, E. Sherman Hayman, Cheryl Gross & Nicelle Davis, Joy on Fire, Gusty Kincaid, Kathleen Hurley Liao, Local Artist, George Lorio, Tali Margolin, Brian McCormack, ChurchOf.Art, Stacey AS Pritchard, Margaret Roleke, Dominic Sansone, Danielle Scott, Joan Sonnenfeld, Suprina, Kenechi Unachukwu, Jodi Walker, Sue Eldridge Ward, and Kristen T. Woodward.
To learn more about this exhibition, go to:
From the Art Hustle website:
Matawan, NJ, (August 1, 2020)–Thoughts & Prayers, Another Round of Vacant Stares is an analysis of the American gun culture. This exhibition highlights artwork that examines the impact guns have within our nation, as a symbol of power and freedom, or as an instrument to incite fear and cause harm. Firearms affect all American populations and demographics. The artwork featured in this exhibition is meant to facilitate a dialog on the divisive iconology of guns and the power or fear they represent, as they allow some to become empowered, while suppressing others.
We are proud to partner with Moms Demand Action, Gays Against Guns, and #UNLOAD.
Thoughts & Prayers, Another Round of Vacant Stares will be on view August 13th – September 19th 2020, by appointment only, at Chashama Matawan, 60 Main Street, Matawan, NJ 07747.
"The Power of Storytelling within our Asian Communities"
A Virtual Roundtable Discussion
Friday, August 14 from 5 - 7 PM
Please join us for our Storyteller Roundtable Discussion, "The Power of Storytelling within our Asian Communities" as part of the public programming for "New Narratives: Reclaiming Asian Identity Through Story," a project curated and organized by Leslie Anne Condon through Unbound Visual Arts.
Our Storyteller Roundtable Discussion will take place on Friday, August 14th, from 5 to 7 PM, and include short readings by a few of our storytellers, as well as an in-depth discussion and Q&A session facilitated by the Asian American Resource Workshop. Our storyteller panelists include Kathy Wu, Maria Fong, and Michael Rosegrant.
In addition, we wish to thank our amazing partnering organizations: the Asian American Resource Workshop, Dorchester Art Project, Asian Glow Boston, Pao Arts Center, Subcontinental Drift Boston, and the Network for Arts Administrators of Color through ArtsBoston.
Click on the image to watch the discussion in full <——-
New Narratives: Reclaiming
Asian Identity Through Story
Opening Reception Friday, July 24 6 -8 PM
"New Narratives: Reclaiming Asian Identity Through Story," is a project that explores notions of Asian identity within the U.S. through the sharing of visual stories and other creative expressions of identity. Storytelling within marginalized communities is a way to reclaim identity and to allow for alternative, inter-generational perspectives that complicate and enrich our mutual understanding.
By sharing "stories of identity," artists and immigrant communities can reclaim their narratives, which are never singular but made up of countless pluralities. Through this reclamation, modes of representation gain more nuance within and outside of the Asian and Asian American community.
The exhibition and storyteller series features artwork and stories that specifically addresses issues of representation within the Asian and Asian American community, in the context of identity. Both two and three-dimensional work will be considered for this online exhibition, as well as video and short-duration performance work. Options for a physical exhibition will be explored later this fall.
Learn more about the project by going to my New Narratives project page or the Unbound Visual Arts webpage.
CCB Show 'N Tell with
Leslie Anne Condon
Streamed Live on Friday, July 17th
Thank you, Creatives of Color, Boston, for inviting me to participate in your summertime Show ‘N Tell series, in support of Bundok | Mountain, an exhibition on intergenerational healing within communities color, to launch this fall. Please check out my virtual studio tour which includes some insights into my studio practice by clicking the image to the left <——
Call to Boston-Area Asian Storytellers!
"New Narrative" aims to enhance the Boston-area community's understanding of Asian culture and identity through the sharing of visual stories and other creative expressions of identity. Through a series of public programming and other cultural offerings, we hope to help demystify some of the stigmas associated with Asian and Asian American culture and encourage a greater sense of belonging within the various Asian and Asian American communities and its place within the larger Boston-area community. In addition to a virtual exhibition, we will be including an oral storytelling component in our public programming. We invite Boston-area Asian storytellers to submit work by Sunday, July 12 via the official application on the @unboundvisualarts website.
This call is now closed!
Tune in for a virtual tour of my studio
Through Creatives of Color Boston’s
Show ‘N Tell Series
July 17, 2020
Each month this summer, CCB will be shining a spotlight on individual artists on Facebook Live. You'll have the opportunity to get to know some of the most talented artists in the Greater Boston area as they perform, discuss their art, talk about upcoming projects, or even take you on a tour thru their creative makerspaces.
Catch all of this on CCB's Facebook page, Live!
From Asukal*Space: Image still from my performance,
Where They Lie (Mom and Dad) 2009
SUPERDOMESTIC
On View June 20 – August 30, 2020
Participating Artists: Kelli Maeshiro, Aze Ong, Bryana Bibbs, Carol Anne McChrystal, Cher Musico, Leslie Anne Condon, Joana Stillwell, and Reniel Del Rosario
Curated by Janna Añonuevo Langholz of Asukal*Space.
“Superdomestic explores how contemporary art is created, performed, and perceived in the home space. Through an open call, artists were posed with the questions, what makes this work unique from work created for and displayed in institutional or physical gallery spaces? How can the possibilities for viewership and connection between artist and audience be expanded in a domestic setting?
From Manila to Washington DC, these eight artists explore and challenge the limits of the domestic space, offering a framework for a new way of engaging with contemporary art outside of the physical gallery setting. When removed from the context of the gallery, these works become personal and introspective. Intimate performances and gestures without an immediate audience explore the self in states of confinement and mourning. Non-traditional materials are brought into play. Quiet moments become magnified. The absurdity of the White, Western museum is called into question.
The works I’ve curated for this exhibition offer us a glimpse into spaces that cannot exist in a traditional museum or gallery setting. They offer new entry points for creating and exhibiting artwork, redefining our homes into spaces of both production and exhibition within the idiosyncratic systems we create for ourselves.”
- Janna Añonuevo Langholz
To view the entire exhibition, please visit the Asukal*Space website
From Vietnam War to Black Lives Matter:
A Southeast Asian Artists' Talk
Friday, June 12 7-8 PM EST
“Featuring artists from “Thank You, No Thank You,” this was the first of a two-part roundtable discussion on creating work that speaks to refugee identity and activism in art. Curator Catzie Vilayphonh facilitated a discussion with participating artists Natalie Bui, Leslie Condon, MyLoan Dinh, Chantala Kommanivanh, Alex Nguyen-Vo, Sisavanh Phouthavong, and Barbara Tran, who discussed their artwork, the 45th Anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, COVID-19 in the APIA community, and the protests calling for an end to Police Brutality and the protection of Black life.”
Please go here to watch the discussion in full:
From the Vietnam War to Black Lives Matter: A Southeast Asian Artists’ Talk Friday, June 12, 2020
Thank You, No Thank You
A Virtual Exhibition with
Laos in the House
June 5 - August 14, 2020
I am pleased to announce my participation in “Thank You, No Thank You,” curated by Catzie Vilayphonh through Laos in the House and the Asian Arts Initiative.
”2020 marks the 45th year anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, a significant date for the Southeast Asian diaspora of Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian refugees who resettled in America because of the conflicts. While past narratives around the War focus on American veterans, very little amplifies the voices of over 2.5 million displaced Southeast Asians, many who are now Americans themselves.
"Thank You, No Thank You" is a statement reflecting the expectations of being a “good immigrant” and not an “ungrateful refugee.” For those living here whose displacement is also the result of U.S. policies, America represents being home and homeless. This exhibition highlights the struggles, negotiations, and complexities in the identities of Southeast Asian American refugees of war.”
- Asian Arts Initiative
Bundok | Mountain
A Virtual Panel on
Intergenerational Healing
On Saturday, May 2, 2020, Creatives of Color, Boston led a panel discussion on intergenerational healing as part of the public programming for “Bundok | Mountain,” an exhibition described as an “exploration on intergenerational healing within communities of color.”
Please follow the link to watch the recorded discussion in full: Bundok | Mountain: A Virtual Panel on Inter-generational Healing
Call to Boston-Area Creatives
New Narratives: Reclaiming
Asian Identity Through Story
Through Unbound Visual Arts
Boston-Area Asian and Asian American creatives are invited to submit work to "New Narratives: Reclaiming Asian Identity Through Story," a virtual exhibition that explores notions of Asian identity within the U.S. through the sharing of visual stories and other creative expressions of identity. Storytelling within marginalized communities is a way to reclaim identity and to allow for alternative, inter-generational perspectives that complicate and enrich our mutual understanding.
By sharing "stories of identity," artists and immigrant communities can reclaim their narratives, which are never singular but made up of countless pluralities. Through this reclamation, modes of representation gain more nuance within and outside of the Asian and Asian American community.
We are seeking artwork that specifically addresses issues of representation within the Asian and Asian American community, in the context of identity. Both two and three-dimensional work will be considered for this online exhibition, as well as video and short-duration performance work. Options for a physical exhibition will be explored later this fall.
Please go to the official call through Unbound Visual Arts for more information.