YouthCAN — Digital Wing Luke
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YouthCAN

 A Little About Us

YouthCAN is a free, after-school, high school arts program designed to provide students with exposure to arts professions, increase their knowledge and familiarity with the Chinatown-International District, and to connect with the museum, its mission, and its programs.

Students work with teaching artists to explore identity and culture through art and produce creative work that culminates into a group exhibit displayed in the Frank Fujii Youth Gallery at the Wing Luke Museum.

In 2010, YouthCAN received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award.

Contact us: youthcan@wingluke.org | Instagram

With Love, YouthCAN 2021

With Love, YouthCAN features people, places, and memories of the Chinatown International District. This neighborhood has been a center for the AAPI community for decades. By celebrating our history, we can imagine a future for our neighborhood past capitalist ideals and assimilation. Rooted in Canton Alley, the piece connects to the rich history of the area while bringing youth’s own experiences into the space. Each plexiglass square highlights a treasured piece of the CID while the photographs projected represent the places we carry with us. This is YouthCAN’s collective love letter to a neighborhood that is deeply unique and meaningful to the Pacific Northwest. Lovely is a dance choreographed and performed by YouthCAN Leads, Henry & Maddie, in the kitchen of Apartment 6 in the historic Canton Alley. Video footage was collected throughout the neighborhood by the YouthCAN team.

In collaboration with the Love Letters 2.0 Campaign, YouthCAN artists created With Love, YouthCAN. Through our summer quarter, we explored site-specific art and local history. Inspired by guest speakers Tan Nguyen of Soulvenir and Erin Shigaki, YouthCAN discovered new ways to incorporate cultural identity and heritage into our art. In addition to art making, we discussed decolonization in the arts and orientalism in the media. With help from CID Coalition, we learned about community organizing and reimagined a youth-led art space.

Participating YouthCAN Students 
Zereen Hazel Gesmundo | Henry Jensen | Jackie Le | Brendan Nakatani-Wiederien | Anna Nguyen | Violet Pody | Maddie Tanabe

YouthCAN Staff 
Blake Nakatsu | Meilani Mandery 

 

 Drawing Revolution 2020

YouthCAN Summer 2020: Drawing Revolution, was an online studio program with Teaching Artist Mason Wilke, that focused on learning about histories of revolutionary movements to inform how we construct a better future together. Lessons and discussions about contemporary and art historical examples of art within revolutionary movements, led by YouthCAN Student Lead Diego Binuya and YouthCAN Assistant Meilani Mandery, informed students' creative practices that engage in present social and racial justice conversations. Guest teaching artists, Chanel Matsunami Govreau and Alisha Acquaye of the Unblended Project and Joseph Cuillier of The Black School, guided us on a digital poster project which serve as calls-to-action in different areas of advocacy in solidarity with Black community. We also worked with local artist and activist, Carlmelo Ibanez, in learning digital collage techniques to supplement our poster creations. Unblended had recently worked with The Black School on a digital poster project in solidarity with Asian American community during the time of COVID in response to anti-Asian racism, and we hope that our reciprocal projects will continue a relationship of solidarity between our programs and communities. On top of creative projects, students had the opportunity to meet virtually with staff from 4Culture to learn about King County public art programs and resources for young artists, followed by a discussion of post-secondary art pathways led by YouthCAN Student Lead Henry Jensen. View the digital posters on the YouthCAN Instagram. They will also be featured in a limited edition zine along with other creative projects to be distributed to students and community members. 

Participating YouthCAN Students 
Amarra Andresen | Christian Basilio | Diego Binuya | Henry Jensen | Myra Ly-Au Young | Elijah Suarez | Emmy Sung | Mika Semke | Fiona Sterling | Marigold Wong 

Teaching Artist 
Mason Wilke 

YouthCAN Staff 
Blake Nakatsu | Meilani Mandery 

 

Special Thanks
Alisha Acquaye | Cassie Chin | Joseph Cuillier | Dan Glauber | Maya Hayashi | Carlmelo Ibanez | Chanel Matsunami Govreau | 4Culture 

Presenting Season Sponsors
Arakawa Foundation, Ford Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Satterberg Foundation

Season Sponsor 
ArtsFund; 4Culture; Lead Sponsors: Expedia Group; Prime Sponsor: Safeco Insurance, US Bank

Major Sponsor
The Lester and Phyllis Epstein Foundation

Supporting Sponsor
Best Buy, The Bellevue Collection, Deloitte

Partner
Umpqua Bank Charitable Foundation, Key Bank Foundation, Pride Foundation

 

Embodied Culture: Storytelling through Movement and Fashion 

Explore the virtual gallery created by YouthCAN Student Lead, Henry Jensen! 

Fashion and performativity go hand in hand with our daily life. From the minute we wake up, we choose what we would like to wear that day and how we would like to be perceived. Our clothing tells a story and has been doing so for generations. We embody these stories when we put on these garments and through this process, we find ourselves feeling empowered. We perform who we are through visual and physical expression. Through this expression, we allow our identities to shine through, embodying our cultures, narratives, and overall experience as human beings. Each thread, each weave holds who we are and ties us together as a community.  

Embodied Culture: Storytelling through Movement and Fashion is an online exhibit of art created by artists in the Winter 2020 YouthCAN program, the Wing Luke Museum’s arts and leadership program for high school-aged youth. Teaching Artist Alexis L. Silva led activities that engage with the themes of movement and fashion. Through movement and performance exercises, engaging with local artists and neighborhood history, and studying the Wing Luke collection and galleries, students were introduced to many storytelling practices rooted in the API community. The program shifted to an online platform midway through the quarter as public health concerns of COVID-19 continued to grow and the governor’s “Stay Home-Stay Healthy” emergency order was put into effect. Online, our priorities shifted to primarily holding space for each other through digital means, and to continue to support one another in staying creative during unprecedented times. The art displayed in this exhibit is a combination of work that addresses our initial themes and work created in response to the pandemic. 

Statement from the Teaching Artist: 

I am sure many of us have been recalling a time outside of this one. One in which we could hug our loved ones in the middle of a crowded room without fear. Where our lives had a sense of stability and our everyday reality was not changing in the span of minutes. As we move through these unprecedented times, we are finding new and innovative ways to connect with one another and to continue on as a community. Our YouthCAN Students have truly proven the resiliency and importance of younger voices. They have come together to put together a Virtual Exhibit while working remotely from the safety of their homes. The YouthCAN staff and I all agreed that we should open up the submissions outside of just the sessions in order to promote processing and healing. The result was some inspiring looks from our Embodied Culture sessions and some students' responses to the current pandemic. Working with these students has truly moved me as an artist, teacher and overall person. Being able to put this exhibit together and continue working with these students after the closure due to COVID-19 has truly made my days brighter. Their determination and overall willingness to continue growing and creating during difficult times is truly a testimony to the strength of the youth. May we all come out of this stronger, healthier, and willing to create more.  

- Alexis L. Silva 

Participating YouthCAN Students 

Henry Jensen | Elijah Suarez | Emmy Sung 

Teaching Artist 

Alexis L. Silva, Instagram: @brujapapi  

YouthCAN Staff 

Blake Nakatsu | Meilani Mandery 

Special Thanks 

All YouthCAN Winter Quarter Students | Cassie Chin | Dan Glauber | Maya Hayashi | Dean Kubota | Rian Robison 

Presenting Season Sponsors: Arakawa Foundation, Ford Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Satterberg Foundation; Season Sponsor: ArtsFund; 4Culture; Lead Sponsors: Expedia Group; Prime Sponsor: Safeco Insurance, US Bank; Major Sponsor: The Lester and Phyllis Epstein Foundation; Supporting Sponsor: Best Buy, The Bellevue Collection; Partner: Umpqua Bank Charitable Foundation, Key Bank Foundation, Pride Foundation. 

 

 Portraits from the Overflow

Selected Film Photos

YouthCAN Fall 2019  

“We would like to thank the ocean for its action of bringing us all together, in a way, it’s like we are tethered”  

Portraits From the Overflow is an exhibit of art created by the Wing Luke Museum’s Fall 2019 YouthCAN artists. YouthCAN is an arts and leadership program for high school-aged youth that explores a variety of mediums and themes throughout the year.  

With the mentorship of teaching artist Cara Việt Chi Nguyễn, our Fall YouthCAN students wrote poetry, captured the Chinatown International District through film photography, and made collages to begin deconstructing their own understanding of “body sovereignty.” Through a variety of exercises, students were reminded that visual art and written word can work together to help uncover stories within that have yet to reach the surface. The students took a personal and collective journey in developing their understandings of body sovereignty, which culminated in the final projects displayed in this exhibit.  

The poems and collages on the back wall of the gallery were created in the early weeks of the program. Cara challenged the students to create “I AM” poems to explore different facets of their identity. Collectively, the students wrote a group poem, “WE ARE,” which accompanies the polaroids at the entrance of the gallery. Building off an identity mapping activity, the students created collages to practice translating their written work into 2D visual pieces. These early exercises included in the exhibit illustrate the students’ artistic and personal progress over the course of the program.  

As young people and as people of color, our bodies have carried— often unknowingly— the weight of societal expectations and generational trauma. Asking people to reflect on the ways in which their bodies are not free can be startling and eye-opening. The culture and myth of American freedom contradicts the lived experiences of many people who experience body-policing from dominant cultures and systems. The “overflow” is all the parts of ourselves that cannot be confined in societal boxes and labels. Like the water, we are uncontained. This exhibit asks us to imagine a world in which our bodies are truly free. 

YOUTHCAN ARTISTS 
Diego Binuya | Eden Fenta | Henry Jensen | Halle Kristina | Sharice Lee | Oisin Kang-O’Higgins | Ronan Kang-O’Higgins | Elijah Suarez | Charisse Vales 

TEACHING ARTIST
Cara Việt Chi Nguyễn (Website: caranguyen.carbonmade.com; Instagram: @caradox)

YOUTHCAN STAFF  
Blake Nakatsu | Meilani Mandery 

SPECIAL THANKS
Cassie Chinn | Jessica Rubenacker | Maya Hayashi | Ellen Kahan 

Presenting Season Sponsors: Arakawa Foundation, Ford Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Satterberg Foundation; Season Sponsor: ArtsFund; 4Culture; Lead Sponsors: Expedia Group; Prime Sponsor: Safeco Insurance, US Bank; Major Sponsor: The Lester and Phyllis Epstein Foundation; Supporting Sponsor: Best Buy, The Bellevue Collection; Partner: Umpqua Bank Charitable Foundation. 

 

 Site-Seeing: How We Remember AAPI Seattle

Hover over artwork for exhibit text

During the Summer 2019 program, students spent two and half weeks with teaching artist Roldy Aguero Ablao exploring Chinatown International District and their relationship to the neighborhood. Through daily art challenges, the students worked with various found materials and art supplies to interpret their experiences in Japantown, Chinatown, Little Saigon, and Filipino Town. The summer session posed the question, “How are AAPI sites remembered and how do memories and histories manifest in the neighborhood today?” During JamFest, The Wing’s annual music festival, YouthCAN created site-specific art installations around the neighborhood, trying the neighborhood’s past and present together through interactive art. 

For their final projects which are on display in this exhibition, students were asked to choose a site with these questions in mind: 

  • What historical events and/or individuals are present at this site? 

  • What characteristics of the sites bring these stories out? 

  • Does the site hold cultural meaning? Does the site embody difficult stories? 

  • What role does the site play in the life of the (API) community today? 

There are many sites important to the AAPI community that are overlooked by visitors and Seattle residents alike. Chinatowns across the country are grappling with the challenge on inviting tourists in without losing the authenticity of their neighborhood. As new developments pop up left and right, community members are determining how sites can live on as their histories are being erased by gentrification, displacement, and time. AAPI history is more than just monuments and historic buildings. It is also the memories made by the generations of people who live, work and play here. Interrogating the importance and functions of landmarks, YouthCAN students chose sites with personal, historic, or cultural significance to unearth the stories they want to remember. 

YouthCAN Artists
Diego Binuya | Carmina Cura | Henry Jensen | Oisin Kang-O'Higgins | Carmina Cabaya Phan | Elijah Suarez | Madelyn Sung | Charisse Vales 

Teaching Artist
Roldy Aguero Ablao 

YouthCAN Staff
Meilani Mandery 

Special Thanks
Cassie Chinn | Maya Hayashi | Jessica Rubenacker 

Presenting Season Sponsors: Arakawa Foundation, Ford Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Satterberg Foundation; Season Sponsor: ArtsFund; LeadSponsors: 4Culture, Expedia Group; Prime Sponsor: Safeco Insurance, US Bank; Major Sponsor: The Lester and Phyllis Epstein Foundation; Partner: Umpqua Bank Charitable Foundation.

 

 
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See below for our newly digitized exhibit:

Creative Connections - Design Brings the Neighborhood Together

 
 
 

For the Winter 2016 program, YouthCAN participants worked in small groups on design projects for our community partners: Phnom Penh Noodle House, IDEA Space, Hing Hay Coworks, World Pizza, Sun May Trading Co., and the Wing Luke Museum.  

The community partners acted as our clients and commissioned projects such as re-designing menus and brochures, creating new signage, and making entirely new products. We learned about design and how to make our own professional business cards with the help of our teaching artist Erin Shigaki. 

It is important to help the Chinatown-International District neighborhood through these projects because it helps our own community. Good design revitalizes local culture while preserving local history, and also, it’s important to help businesses promote themselves so they can continue to do well in the neighborhood. 

—Lillian Nguyen, Youth Lead

YouthCAN Artists
Shea Dailey | Maria Galan | Sabrina Horn | Jarek Keovilay | Ludin Mejia | Jessie Nguyen | Katie Nguyen | Julia Seuferling | Dora Thach | Ryu Wilke 

YouthCAN Leads
Tamar Manuel | Lillian Nguyen 

Teaching Artist
Erin Shigaki (Website: http://www.purplegatedesign.com/; Instagram: @purplegatedesign)

YouthCAN Staff
Minh Nguyen | Heather Chan 

Special Thanks
Tricia Caparas | Bob Fisher | Ellen Kahan | Raj Makker | Terry Marks | Doan Nguyen 

Creative Connections logo by Shea Dailey 

Presenting Season Sponsors: The Wing Donors, Ford Foundation, The Kresge Foundation; Program Sponsor: Nordstrom, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture; Additional Season Support: ArtsFund, 4Culture, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. 

YouthCAN Winter 2016 was supported by World Pizza, and Young Tea. 

 

Check out some WOrks in Progress!

Keep on scrolling to view some of YouthCAN’s current pieces in development!