Tran Vu Arts is certified as a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), Woman Business Enterprise (WBE), and Small Local Business Enterprise (SLBE) with the
City of Boston’s Supplier Diversity Program!
Purpose & Mission
Tran is an artist and cultural organizer whose work highlights stories of migration, displacement, and resilience through multimedia projects that engage and empower marginalized communities. Tran’s mission is to connect diverse cultures and inspire transformative social change by merging artistic expression with community activism.
About Tran
The Tran Vu Arts philosophy: Bridging advocacy and impact through transnational, interdisciplinary storytelling
Photo by Harold Than
As a transnational, interdisciplinary, and multi-generational creator and storyteller, Tran is deeply influenced by her Vietnamese American heritage and her organizing experience within the BIPOC and AAPI communities.
Tran’s work explores familial connections, rituals, and social justice. She aims to create thought-provoking art installations, pieces, frameworks, and discourse where communities can have a brave and open space to connect for a common purpose.
Artist Statement
I am a storyteller, connector, and interpreter. My work evokes themes of familial ties, memories, and rituals as they relate to issues of social justice and intersectionality. As a 1.5-generation Vietnamese American interdisciplinary artist and organizer, I am passionate about creating spaces and platforms for cross-cultural storytelling and critical discourse that challenge inequity. My experiences as a person of color working with communities inside and beyond the United States have informed my artistic framing of realities, visions and possibilities. My deepest influences include my family and friends as well as fellow artists and change-makers from the past and present.
As a creative committed to communities and social justice, I am an effective lead artist in trust-based partnerships. I am driven to co-create, support and protect the stories and voices of communities of color, refugees and immigrants. Through active participation and holistic facilitation, I aim to offer new modes of resistance to interrogate and counteract the dominant narrative. I am particularly invested in the intersections of storytelling, cultures, and activism, and spotlighting those who are willing to step out of bounds to advance social change. In my own healing journey, I am continuously exploring and unpacking themes of identity, justice, belonging, and power. The arts serve as portals of re-imaginations which are pivotal to challenge the status quo. I embrace my responsibility to facilitate work that contributes positively to my local and global community.
My mind is pondering
My heart is Vietnamese
My soul is an artist
My spirit is a healer
Photo: Virginia Sutherland
CV
EDUCATION 2020 Executive Certificate Art & Cultural Heritage Law, Georgetown Law Center, DC
2019 Certificate Nonprofit Management and Leadership, Tufts University & INP, Boston, MA 2013 MA New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Arts & Politics, New York, NY
2010 BA Brown University, Ethnic Studies & Visual Arts, Providence, RI
2009 Rhode Island School of Design, Illustration, Providence, RI
2009 Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art, Painting, Pont-Aven, France
2008 Temple University, Photography, Rome, Italy
ARTS ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE 2021-2022 Director of Strategic Initiatives, Silkroad, Cambridge, MA 2017-2021 Director of New Voices, Association of Independents in Radio (AIR), Boston, MA
2019-2020 Core Member Consultant, ArtPlace America’s Massachusetts Assembly, MA 2015-16 Volunteer, Tịnh Trúc Gia, Toa Tàu, LIN Center, Hue & Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam
2014-15 Project Coordinator, WGBH American Experience, Boston, MA
2014 & 2015 Kitchen Manager, Burning Man’s Shamandome Camp, Black Rock City, NV
2013 Exhibitions & Design intern, Paul Chan Studio, New York, NY
TEACHING EXPERIENCE 2022-Present Teaching Seniors at Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly 2020-22 Asian Women in US Course, Asian American Studies Adjunct, UMass Boston, MA
2020-21 Social & Digital Marketing, Asset for Artists, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
2020 Online Series for Artists, CultureHouse & CambridgeArts, Virtual
2020 Creative Resiliency, WBUR’s The ARTery Living Room Livestream, Virtual
2020 Financial Literacy for Artists Workshop, Arts & Public Policy, NYU Tisch, Virtual
2013 Summer Public Art Teaching Artist, Mekong NYC, Bronx, NY 2013 Photo Teaching Artist, NYU Tisch Photo & Imaging Future Imagemakers, NYC, NY
RESIDENCY + FELLOWSHIP 2024 Getaway Artist Fellowship, Moodus, CT 2023 Peace Build Residency, San Francisco, CA 2023 Foundation House Residency, Greenwich, CT 2022 Surf Point Foundation Residency, York, ME
2018-2021 Stable Ground Boston Residency, Northeastern Law Lab, Boston, MA
2017-2020 Asset for Artists Grantee & Residency, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
2019 Creative Community Fellow (CCF), National Arts Strategies, New England 2019 The Creative Entrepreneur Fellow, Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston, MA
2016-18 Critical Collaborations Fellow, NYU’s Global Institute, International
2018 Live Arts Boston (LAB), The Boston Foundation, Boston, MA
2018 Artist Resident, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
2017 Creative City Art Artist, New England Foundation for the Arts, Boston, MA
2017 Artisan’s Asylum Grant, Somerville, MA
2016 Tịnh Trúc Gia Arts Residency, Huế, Vietnam
2014-15 Design for Social Intervention’s Fairmount Cultural Fellowship, Roxbury, MA
2013-14 Emerging Leaders of New York Arts (ELNYA) Fellowship, New York, NY
2013-14 Imagining America PAGE Fellowship, New York, NY
2014 Old Furnace Residency, Harrisonburg, VA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2021 MY LIGHTWORK, Regis College, Wellesley, MA 2021 Healing Cranes Billboard, Project Hope, Roxbury, MA 2018 Spirits | Vietnam Art, Home.stead Bakery Café, Dorchester, MA
2018 Lunar New Year, Boston Children’s Museum, Boston, MA
2017 Huế Pilgrimage, Boston Neighborhood Network, Boston, MA
2017 Pilgrimage to Huế, Fields Corner Public Library, Dorchester, MA
2013 Alumni Exhibition, Steppingstone Foundation Class, Boston, MA
2010 Gia Đình: Talk Stories, Brown’s List Art Center, Providence, RI
2009 Glimpse of Migrant Workers, Brown List Art Center, Providence, RI
GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2021 Connecting Perspectives, The Social Distancing Festival, Virtual 2021 ACCESS: Art, Boston Center for the Arts, Virtual 2020 Dot NOW, UMass-Boston University Hall Gallery, Boston, MA 2019 YELLOW, Athens Institute of Contemporary Art, Athens, GA 2019 No Spectators: Art of Burning Man, Cincinnati Art Museum, OH 2019 Migration, Umbrella Arts Center, Concord, MA
2018 Perform Your Feminism(s), Lamont Gallery, Boston, MA
2018 Art on the Marquee: Round 25, Boston, MA
2018 Art on the Marquee: Round 24, Boston, MA
2016 Winter Solstice Opening, 391 Dudley Gallery, Roxbury, MA
2015 Fairmont Lab Opening, Fairmont Innovation Lab, Roxbury, MA
2014 (1) Day They Will: Arts Activism Exhibition, Kimmel Center, NYC, NY
2010 Identities, Brown University’s List Center, Providence, RI
2009 Contagious, Brown RISD Hillel Gallery Project, Providence, RI
2008 Finale, Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art, Pont-Aven, France
PERMANENT COLLECTION Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA South Cove Community Health Center, Boston, MA
Private Collection, Cambridge, MA Private Collection, Dorchester, MA
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS & AFFILIATIONS Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) Massachusetts New England Sculptures Association (NESA) The Network of Arts Administrators of Color (NAAC) Boston Vietnam Studies Group (VSG)
Tran Vu Arts Contributions
Leading with equity, inclusion, and justice.
Photo by Linh Pham
In 2019, Tran was the National Arts Strategies Creative Communities Fellow and featured as one of the WBUR Artery 25, a series highlighting millennials of color making an impact in the Boston arts scene.
Tran has collaborated with ArtPlace America, the Boston Children’s Museum, MASS MoCA Assets for Artists, Heritage Museums and Gardens. Tran teaches workshops on storytelling, digital marketing, financial literacy, and housing strategies for artists, and has taught in the Future Imagemakers program at NYU’s Tisch Department of Photography.
Most recently, Tran was an adjunct faculty teaching an Asian American Studies course titled “Asian Women in the United States” at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She aims to continue mindful contributions to our communities by serving as a board member of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB) and a funding panel with the Haymarket People’s Fund (HPF).