Thirteen artists and organizations to share $115,000 in first-ever Narrative Change Grants from the Asian Community Fund’s AAPI Arts and Culture Collaborative

"For too long, AANHPI communities have been asked to be visible without being resourced. These grants are a direct investment in the artists and storytellers who shape how our communities are seen, and how we see ourselves,” said Danielle Kim, Executive Director of the Asian Community Fund. “When we fund AANHPI narratives, we are not just supporting art. We are building the case that our lives, our histories, and our contributions matter."

The Asian Community Fund is piloting this program in direct response to the findings in its 2025 report, Making Waves: The State of the Massachusetts AAPI Arts and Culture Sector, which highlighted the need for greater investments and coordination across the region’s growing AAPI arts ecosystem. This new narrative change grant program is supported in part through generous gifts from the Barr Foundation and Phi Lambda US Charitable Trust / Phi Lambda Boston Chapter.

Grants from the Building, Becoming, and Belonging pilot program range from $7,500 to $10,000. Art forms and activities supported by these grants include: a public mural, film, dance, plays, theater, graphic novel, books, paintings, zine, sculpture, photography, history, exhibitions, workshops, panels, online archives, and community storytelling. Topics of interest include immigration, identity, disability awareness, linguistic diversity, multiracial identity, transnational adoption, intergenerational history, and engagement with students and youth. 

“By uplifting these histories and journeys, we are uplifting the diverse AANHPI experience, from our resilience to our joy and broadening our collective understanding of what it means to be here, to be an immigrant, to be a refugee, and to be an American in 2026,” said Jobelle Mesa, Senior Program Manager and Lead of the AAPI Arts & Culture Collaborative.

A complete list of grantees included in this round is included below. An AAPI Narrative Change Showcase event, featuring these 13 awardees and their projects, is scheduled to be held at the Boston Foundation on Wednesday, June 10, from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Meet the 2026 Narrative Change Grant Awardees
Grantees are listed by name with project title and grant award amount.

Annika Sarin, “What was lost / Can be remembered” - $7,500
A collective memory art installation based on the artist’s own family archives from Delhi and community maker-space table activated by workshops centering and exploring intergenerational family history. 

Asian American Playwright Collective, “AAPC 2026 PLAYFESTIVAL VIII (9) and AAPC Anthology Volume 9” - $10,000
An Asian play festival and companion play anthology, featuring originally composed plays by Boston’s Asian American playwrights and the largest gathering of Asian actors, playwrights, directors, and technicians in the local area.

Boston Little Saigon, “Vietnamese Boat People Exhibition” - $7,500
An exhibition of a carefully selected collection of local and national written stories, multimedia presentations, photographs, objects, scents, and video essays that capture the resilience and legacy of the Vietnamese community and invite visitors to reflect on stories of migration, memory, and identity. 

Cambodian American Literary Arts Association, “The Stilt House Zine” - $7,500
An annual publication of written works submitted by Khmer writers and distributed digitally and physically at local venues free of cost to ensure accessibility for all. This will also include a launch event with performances of the work.

Chinese Historical Society of New England,  “Reclaiming History—A Journey Through Three Neighborhoods” - $10,000
A permanent oral history exhibit at Josiah Quincy Upper School (JQUS) in partnership with Josiah Quincy Upper School, the Boston Public Library, Boston Little Syria, and local artists and historians, that highlights efforts to resist displacement, cultural loss, and erasure of communal memory, revealing both the profound losses and enduring legacies of community action. 

The Flavor Continues, “Intersections: AANHPI Histories in Boston’s Street and Club Dance Communities” - $10,000
A film interview series centering AANHPI history within Boston’s Street and Club first-generation dance communities, particularly Southeast Asian practitioners in Gateway Cities and East Asian dancers in Greater Boston suburbs.

Jessica Wong, “Between & Becoming: Mixed-Race Asian American Stories of Massachusetts” - $10,000
A statewide storytelling and arts initiative that gathers, interprets, and shares the lived experiences of mixed-race Asians in Massachusetts, elevating historical elements, centering identity formation, intergenerational memory, and belonging through facilitated community storytelling workshops, exhibitions, artist collaborations, and digital archive.

Johnny Nguyen, “What We Carry—Stories Across Generations” - $10,000
A collection of portraits and stories across generations and community members in the Dorchester neighborhood, including but not limited to first-generation immigrants, business owners, activists, artists students, working adults, and caretakers. The published archive, book, and exhibition will highlight resilience, adaptability, courage, healing and hope.

Nirmal Raja, “Amaanat” - $7,500
Amaanat, (Inheritance) is an online archive that aims to record and preserve the connection between immigrants' objects and their stories. The website, related course, and exhibition will give a platform to and investigate the power of material culture to convey cultural nuances, familial histories, and the impact of migration on memory.

Pao Arts Center, “Emerging from Rupture: Chinese Adoptee Voices” - $10,000
An exhibition and corresponding public program that amplifies Chinese adoptee narratives, centering adoptee identity, agency, and self-representation and working across visual, multimedia, literary, and digital forms. 

Sneha Shrestha, “Building Belonging” - $10,000
A public mural and summer community activation program in Union Square by a Nepali-born, Boston-based artist whose work explores language, migration, memory, and cultural presence in public space.

Szu-Chieh Yun, “An Aesthetic That Overcomes Fear” - $7,500
A new series of paintings, expanded mural, and exhibition that explore what it looks like to live on the other side of fear and the possibility of beauty beyond fear—offering viewers a visual language for courage and transformation.

Youme Nguyen Ly, “Hai's Stories / Truyện Hai” - $7,500
A print and digitally accessible graphic novel of Hai Nguyen Ly’s experiences as a Blind Vietnamese American living in Western Massachusetts. An additional Instagram component will invite comic panels of Asian Diaspora artists' experiences living in Massachusetts.

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The Asian Community Fund (ACF) at the Boston Foundation is a permanent resource designed to develop, strengthen and support Asian American and Pacific Islander community power in Massachusetts, to galvanize and unite the diverse ethnicities within this community, and to build a stronger advocacy voice. Since its establishment in 2020, ACF has convened thousands of AAPI residents and allies statewide, distributed over $1.6 million in grants to community nonprofits, and has incubated vital coalitions such as the Asian Business Empowerment Council, the AAPI Arts & Culture Collaborative, and the AAPI Mental Health Collaborative. Click here to learn more about ACF's work.