These are the Times: A Fellowship
From 2023-2024, I had the great privilege of serving as a California Creative Corps Fellow with the support of Arts Council for Long Beach and California Arts Council. For this fellowship, I was partnered Khmer Girls in Action to create and facilitate art programming as a way to build community, document history, and build community with our young Cambodian women in Long Beach. Throughout the program, we engaged in arts workshops among other projects.
The following works were created during our time together:
These are the Times, 2022, Ink on voile, 9 x 144" each sash; installation dimensions variable
After countless hours spent with the Young Women’s Empowerment Program (YWEP), multiple focus groups with Khmer Girls in Action’s members, staff, and alumni, we created a mural that tells of sisterhood and neighborhood, advocacy, and the history to which we owe our arrival in Long Beach. It was my pleasure to create their first ever mural in their establishment in 1997. Learn more about our mural here.
A Better World is Possible, 2024, transformation of vintage Volkswagon truck for the 19th Annual Cambodian New Year Parade in Long Beach
The girls from the YWEP spent days in the studio with me as we prepared for the parade. We made signs, banners, and decorated the trucks that would flank our marching youth, members, staff, and alumni. It was a joy to spend time with the girls in preparing for the parade as we communed in creativity and community while discussing important lessons in life, in growth, and in finding our place in our communities. We had a wonderful time eating, painting, eating, laughing, eating, and talking through ideas.
Bloom, 2024, vinyl, cotton, and steel wire
I created a 3-D interpretation of the Khmer Girls in Action logo. [Add plans in sketcbook and process shots]
KGA Gallery, 2024. Acrylic on canvas
To celebrate the work we’ve accomplish, we transformed the hallways into a gallery space to display some of the of the projects that we’ve created together. Some of these included stoles sewn for KGA graduates by community members and KGA alumni, self-portraits made by members of YWEP, and artwork made for Cambodian New Year Parade.