Abrons Arts Center, Wing on Wo, and Welcome to Chinatown Team Up to Commemorate Lunar New Year With “From Chinatown, With Love”
First Edition of Special 12-Month Photo Calendar Highlighting and Supporting Local Businesses Available as of February 6th
Abrons Arts Center, Wing on Wo’s the W.O.W. Project, and grassroots initiative Welcome to Chinatown come together to celebrate the Year of the Metal Ox with the launch of the first edition of From Chinatown, With Love, a 12-month photo calendar designed by photographer Mischelle Moy.
From Chinatown, With Love will feature products from 18 Chinatown businesses that evoke celebration of the new year and explore the deep meaning Manhattan’s Chinatown holds for so many in the Asian-American community. A specially curated Lunar New Year gift guide will also detail unique finds at each featured business with physical copies available throughout NYC and available online on Welcome to Chinatown’s website.
The From Chinatown, With Love calendar will be available at participating businesses beginning on February 6; the Lunar New Year gift guide available at various checkpoints in NYC or online beginning on January 26.
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Civic Practice Partnership Program for their promotional support and select printing efforts for “From Chinatown, With Love.”
PRESENTED BY: Wing On Wo’s W.O.W Project is a women and non-binary led community-based initiative that reinvents, preserves, and encourages Chinatown’s creative culture and history through arts, culture and activism. Located inside Wing On Wo & Co., the oldest continually-run family business in New York's Chinatown, The W.O.W Project was established by fifth-generation store owner, Mei Lum, to bring concerns of a rapidly changing Chinatown into a resident-led space for intergenerational dialogue and action. Since its inception in 2016, The W.O.W. Project has held numerous panel discussions about the role of art and social change, an annual storefront artist-in-residency program, film screenings showcasing Asian American women filmmakers, and several Chinatown storytelling open mic nights, that have reached over 1,000 residents. Their core mission is to create space for conversations to happen across language barriers and generational gaps to actively shape the future of Chinatown. https://www.wingonwoand.co/
Welcome to Chinatown is a grassroots initiative to support Chinatown businesses and amplify community voices that generates much needed momentum to preserve one of New York City's most vibrant neighborhoods. What started as a team of two Chinatown residents since its founding in March 2020, Welcome to Chinatown has now grown to a volunteer team of 50+ young professionals, mostly 1st generation Asian American, using their expertise to bridge cultural and generational gaps. Welcome to Chinatown has fundraised $650,000+ for Chinatown, aiding 80+ local businesses to date. https://www.welcometochinatown.com/
After seeing the inequalities in public funding and loan programs, Welcome to Chinatown created The Longevity Fund, its small business relief fund and the only grant program made available exclusively for Manhattan Chinatown’s businesses. The Longevity Fund aims to distribute $200,000 across 40 of Chinatown’s most at-risk businesses to alleviate mounting overhead costs and preserve institutions whose cultural significance stands the test of time for Asian Americans.
Abrons Arts Center is the OBIE award-winning home for contemporary interdisciplinary arts in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood. A core program of the Henry Street Settlement, Abrons believes that access to the arts is essential to a free and healthy society. Through performances, presentations, exhibitions, education programs and residencies, Abrons mobilizes communities with the transformative power of art.
The arts have always been an integral part of Henry Street’s mission. Their vitality was cemented in 1915 with the opening of The Neighborhood Playhouse and again, in 1975, with the completion and dedication of Abrons Arts Center, one of the first arts facilities in the nation designed for a predominantly low-income population. Today, the OBIE award-winning institution is an essential cultural resource, providing diverse audiences with artistically bold work while offering artists opportunities to dynamically grow.
Each year, Abrons premieres over 20 performances, six gallery exhibitions, hosts multiple residencies for performing and studio artists, and offers 100 different classes in dance, music, theater, and visual art. Abrons also provides New York City public schools with teaching artists, introducing more than 3,000 students to the arts. Visit abronsartscenter.org for more information.
