CalArts alum Audrey Chan (Art MFA 07) has been selected as a fellow for 18th Street Arts Center’s first-ever California Creative Corps cohort.
Chan is among the 18 selected for the nonprofit art residency center’s inaugural cohort, comprising cultural practitioners and change-making artists from across California. The fellows, who were selected from 375 proposals, will spend a year developing projects designed to “reduce the barriers to health and well-being in communities that demonstrate the highest level of need.” To realize their projects, fellows will each receive a yearlong salary of $65,0000 (plus benefits) and a production budget of $50,000.
Chan’s project is A FORCE FOR CHANGE, a political education comic book that aims to “[fight] back against harm perpetuated by corporate interests through grassroots organizing and civic and electoral participation.” More about Chan’s project from 18th Street Arts Center:
The comic book is a strategic part of AAPI FORCE-EF (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Civic Empowerment Education Fund)’s statewide “Corporate Hall of Shame” campaign leading up to California’s 2024 elections. AAPI FORCE-EF is a statewide network of grassroots organizations building progressive AAPI political power in California to advance racial and economic justice for all. AAPI immigrant and refugee communities have historically been underserved and marginalized by a lack of culturally and linguistically specific political education materials and campaign messaging. This lack of political and electoral outreach hinders AAPI communities’ political power as a voting bloc and limits their influence on policy makers. AAPIs are poised to make a critical impact on upcoming California elections, particularly around the issues of the environment, housing, and economic justice.
The comic book will be published in English, Chinese, Hmong, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Punjabi, Samoan, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, and slated for distribution to AAPI community members throughout the state in 2024.
Chan is a Los Angeles-based artist, writer, and illustrator who challenges “dominant historical narratives” through an expansive range of media. Her research-based projects have been presented in solo and group shows at multiple venues, including the Mori Art Museum, USC Pacific Asia Museum, Chinese American Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Self Help Graphics, and Ben Maltz Gallery. In 2020, she was named the first-ever resident artist by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), for which she created the massive public mural The Care We Create the following year.
As digital content and social media producer, Taya enjoys lifting up the stories and accomplishments of CalArts' students, alums, and faculty. She fancies herself a visual artist but is really more of an overzealous collector of art supplies.
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