AAI Receives 2025 Grants from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage

December 8, 2025 | Philadelphia, PA — Asian Arts Initiative (AAI) is thrilled to be a recipient of both the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Creative Projects Grant and a 2025–2028 Teiger Exhibitions Grant to support three years of programming. These awards support the expanding ambition of AAI’s curatorial program, and represent major investments in the next chapter of our artistic and community-centered explorations.

The grant award from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage will support AAI’s work with Taiwanese Artist Joyce Ho on Joyce Ho: Coffee Protocol, a multi-site, site-responsive exhibition that activates everyday “in-between” spaces such as cafes and bookstores in Philadelphia. The project examines how mundane rituals become the foundation of artistic inquiry. Centering immigrants, BIPOC individuals, and service workers, the project reflects on daily gestures, labor, and gathering that shape urban life beyond institutional systems of power and visibility. The exhibition will be centered at AAI’s Gallery, and extend to five satellite sites for a citywide exploration on the importance of third spaces in our culture.

Support from the Teiger Foundation will enable AAI to develop both solo and group exhibitions over the next three years, deepening the research capacity of our curatorial team, and expanding on programmatic themes such as Asian Futurism, Transnational Adoption and the formation of global families, immigration, and identity. We remain committed to developing this work with community members to ensure our programming is relevant and vital to Philadelphians, while continuing to support local, national, and international artists across the Asian diaspora.

Asian Arts Initiative is deeply grateful to receive these awards for our work supporting the work of brave artists, fostering thoughtful dialogue across our diasporic communities, and continuing to build connections through the power of art.