The Taiwanese American Arts Council (TAAC) and the Yale CHATogether Group have collaborated on the NYC Art Bridge program. Several of the artists in residence at the Taiwanese American Arts Council’s house on Governors Island, Building 7B, which has affectionately come to be called the Taiwan house, have participated in the NYC Art Bridge program and created artwork for it. In this episode I will be speaking to Luchia Meihua Lee, the Executive Director of the Taiwanese American Arts Council, Dr. Eunice Yuen, Founder and Director of CHATogether, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Child Study Center, and LuLu Meng one of the artists in residence at the Taiwan house who participated in the NYC Art Bridge program. We previously had Dr. Eunice Yuen on Talking Taiwan in episode 93 to talk about CHATogether (Compassionate Home Action, Together).
There will be a closing ceremony for the Taiwanese American Arts Council’s house on Governors Island this Saturday, October 28 at 2:00pm. As a special treat Talking Taiwan’s very own Executive Producer Kaju will be performing as the artist Rad Jet at the closing ceremony with a special guest, Rico Jones, six time Downbeat Magazine Award Winner,Tenor Saxophonist. If you are in the New York area we hope to see you there at Building 7B located in Governors Island’s Nolan Park.
Luchia Meihua Lee, Executive Director of the Taiwanese American Arts Council
Eunice Yuen, MD, PhD. Founder and Director of CHATogether, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Child Study Center
LuLu Meng, one of the artists in residence at the Taiwan house who participated in the NYC Art Bridge program
Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:
- The concept behind NYC Art Bridge and its connection to CHATogether
- How NYC Art Bridge connects mental health with the arts
- How graphic media, illustration and other visual art can be used as tools to discuss mental health
- Through NYC Art Bridge there have been talks with the community, AAPI artists, a community art exhibition
- The two community NYC Art Bridge events that have been held on April 29 at the Queens Community College and on September 16 at the Taiwan house (on Governors Island)
- The CHATogether component of the NYC Art Bridge events and how it facilitated discussion among the audience
- The three parts of NYC Art Bridge: 1) an art exhibit 2) workshop, artist talks, role play, conversation with mental health professionals 3) artist interviews
- The purpose of the artist interviews
- How NYC Art Bridge serves to bridge artistic work with child and family mental health
- How art can be a powerful form of expression or communication without words
- How CHATogether use theater as a medium to destigmatize mental health and make people feel more comfortable to talk about mental health
- How CHATogether has components of drama therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy
- How CHATogether and NYC Art Bridge will be presented at AACAP (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry) on October 25 and what will be presented there
- Pages from the graphic novel, Healing the Whole Family are displayed at the Taiwan house
- The graphic novel, Healing the Whole Family, that was based on a New York Times article written by CHATogether member Grace Chiang
- The illustration artwork of Elaine Shin (a psychiatry resident from, Northwestern University) is displayed at the Taiwan house
- LuLu Meng, one of the artists in residence at the Taiwan house who also participated in NYC Art Bridge
- How LuLu went from being a chemical engineer to an artist
- LuLu’s background and childhood in Taiwan
- LuLu’s family portrait artwork piece
- LuLu’s NYC Art Bridge interview and what it revealed
- The artwork LuLu created for NYC Art Bridge
- LuLu’s reflections and thoughts about the CHATogether workshop on April 29 at the Queens Community College
- LuLu’s artwork that has been displayed at the Taiwan house and what inspired LuLu to create them
- What being an artist means to LuLu
- The closing ceremony of the Taiwan house (Building 7B in Governors Island’s Nolan Park) will feature a performance by Talking Taiwan’s very own Executive Producer Kaju, who will be performing as the artist Rad Jet at the closing ceremony with a special guest, Rico Jones, six-time Downbeat Magazine Award Winner, Tenor Saxophonist
Related Links:
Taiwanese American Arts Council: http://www.taac-us.org/
Taiwanese American Arts Council on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taacusorg
Taiwanese American Arts Council on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taac2014/
NYC Art Bridge at the Queens Community College:
Dr. Eunice Yuan’s bio: https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/eunice_yuen/
CHATogether Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/CHATogetherWithUs/
CHATogether Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRX2Nzv65ekzHikAaiyG6YQ
New York Times article about Healing the Whole Family (HTWF), a graphic novel about intergenerational trauma and mental health in an Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) family. It is based off of Grace Chiang’s New York Times autobiographical essay of the same title.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/well/family/childhood-trauma-family.html
Healing the Whole Family graphic novel website:
https://nealiengo.wixsite.com/htwfgraphicnovel/read-the-graphic-novel
LuLu Meng’s website: https://www.lulumeng.space/
LuLu Meng on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lulumeng.space/
LuLu Meng’s family portrait artwork:
LuLu Meng’s light boxes created for the NYC Art Bridge art exhibit:
A Discussion with Dr. Eunice Yuen About Asian American Mental Health (Episode 93): https://talkingtaiwan.com/a-discussion-with-dr-eunice-yuen-about-asian-american-mental-health-ep-93/
Taiwanese American Arts Council: From “Island to Island” on Governors Island Ep 249
Taiwanese American Arts Council: From “Island to Island” on Governors Island (Episode 249): https://talkingtaiwan.com/taiwanese-american-arts-council-from-island-to-island-on-governors-island-ep-249/