Making Waves: The State of the Massachusetts AAPI Arts and Culture Sector

The Making Waves report release event hosted by the Asian Community Fund (ACF) at the Boston Foundation wove research findings, expert insights, and expressive performances into a full morning of exploration and celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) arts and culture—and the sector’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities—in Massachusetts. 

Commissioned by the AAPI Arts & Culture Collaborative, an initiative launched by ACF, Making Waves: The State of the Massachusetts AAPI Arts and Culture Sector represents the first-of-its-kind assessment of the sector, including an updatable inventory of AAPI artists, arts organizations, and cultural events in the Commonwealth. Before diving in to the findings, though, the audience—enjoying visually stunning and extremely tasty culinary creations from Flour and Bao Bao Bakery—were treated to poet Joshua Nguyen sharing My Father and I Trade Bedwetting Stories, written in honor of his father and the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, a poem full of humor, resilience, intergenerational connection, and more. That served as a proof point for what ACF Advisory Board Chair Paul Lee said next: “Art starts the community conversation that brings us all together.” He offered background on the first two annual AAPI Arts & Culture Summits that informed this research effort, and introduced Collaborative Steering Committee member and Global Arts Live CEO Connie Chin. 

Chin lauded the Asian Community Fund for its convening power, saying, “ACF brought us together and listened. That revealed the magnitude and breadth of our artistic community.” Before turning the stage over to ACF’s Danielle Kim and Jobelle Mesa to share report findings, she introduced the performers from the multicultural band Kapatid Kud, who sang and played and had the audience singing “One Step at a Time.”

Stimulating all parts of the brain, the presentation moved on to the data. Kim and Mesa explained the origins and methodology of the report, which included the curation of new groundbreaking inventories (listing 385 AAPI artists and cultural leaders, 242 arts organizations, and 104 recurring cultural events); statewide listening sessions involving 53 participants; and a survey with 150 respondents. These latter weighed in on the strengths, challenges, and opportunities in the sector. For takeaways, see below.

As the data percolated, members of Anubhava Dance Company transfixed the audience with a Bharathanatyam-based dance composition called “Time and Space.” 

More arts professionals and community leaders took the stage next, this time for a discussion moderated by Pao Arts Center Director Cynthia Woo with Amanda Beard Garcia, muralist and founder of Lucky Knot Arts; Priya Giri Desai, filmmaker and producer at Prism Entertainment; Erik Holmgren of the Mass Cultural Council; and State Representative Tram Nguyen, Vice Chair of the House Asian Caucus.

Each panelist brought a unique perspective. Beard Garcia found affirmation in the report’s reflections of her own experiences. Desai emphasized the importance of strategic collaboration and the responsibility of AAPI creatives to tell their own stories—"Just keep doing it,” she said, “and lean into cultural specificity. Make it for ourselves, but others will join the train. Because it’s a cool train to be on.” Holmgren, a classical saxophonist turned public arts advocate, was struck by the report’s themes of hope and solidarity—qualities he noted are in short supply but deeply needed. Representative Nguyen praised the report for centering AAPI voices and called for systemic change, particularly in funding and visibility.