Where Art Meets Activation: Bold, New Experiments this Fall at Asian Arts Initiative

August 1, 2025 | Philadelphia, PA— For over 30 years, Asian Arts Initiative (AAI) has championed art rooted in the Asian American experience through exhibitions, education, and cultural organizing. To continue to support artists as a creative community hub, AAI is reimagining its future by leveraging its building to become a year-round cultural incubator.

“Innovating how we use our building is critical to our long-term sustainability,” said Matt Nelson, Managing Director. “The Evolving Futures grant we received from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage strengthens both our mission and our financial future.”

AAI’s facility will be transformed into a fully activated space offering long-term artist rental and rehearsal space, with a focus on independent public programming. The two newly piloted ground-floor spaces will include an extended production studio rental and a flexible rehearsal area with marley flooring and mirrored walls—ideal for dancers, theater artists, educators, and wellness practitioners.

This model will be tested during the 2025 Cannonball Festival, where AAI will serve as one of three official venues from September through October. The festival’s track record of supporting first-time self-producing artists reflects a broader shift toward artist independence—one AAI aims to support year-round.

Phase I of the plan included community input, business modeling, and the launch of a public forum series. In Phase II, the pilot program will generate data to refine the model for long-term sustainability and inform future capital improvements across the building.

AAI’s exciting 2025 Fall Exhibition Punish, Perform, Possess will feature Vietnamese choreographer, dancer, writer, and activist Anh Vo, whose participatory, performance-based installation explores how trauma is represented and felt across bodies, identities, and cultural systems. Curator Joyce Chung describes the show as:

“An exploration of how meaning is lost or distorted in the attempt to communicate trauma—and how violence can emerge in those gaps. It also reflects on how we reconcile our lived experiences within broader social, cultural, and political systems.”

Spanning 86 days in AAI’s gallery, the exhibition unfolds across sculpture, sound, video, and text, forming a continuous performance. Each element evolves through its material processes or by interaction with the artist, performers, and visitors.

As AAI marks a pivotal year of experimentation, this fully funded strategy to activate every inch of its space reflects its commitment to both creative empowerment and financial resilience. Community feedback and engagement will remain central to shaping AAI’s evolving role in Philadelphia’s cultural economy.