I find it important to add a community engagement workshop component to my projects whenever possible. I have been doing workshops as part of my public art commissions and art exhibitions in general to bring communities together. The workshops provides the community a free art workshop to share my practice while promoting well being. My main target audience are under privileged and low income communities especially children, but my workshops are for all ages and people.
Through these workshops, I find it brings joy, wonderment and encouragement to all participants and a sense of pride what they have created. I believe creating art gives them empowerment to voice and show their creativity to the world bringing social change in these communities.
As an Asian American growing up in the U.S with immigrant parents in low income communities, art has always been the first thing that has been cut out of education and in our daily lives. I want to be able to make it accessible whenever possible to children and especially people who have similar experiences who are in the need of up lifting and healing.
Due to lack of documentation in the past, I am including sections of more recent workshops that I have images of.
Upcoming workshops in 2022:
Aurora MLK library- Aurora, Colorado
Adams County Colorado
June 4, 2019
San Fernando, California
The Sheila Kuehl Wellness Center in San Fernando, California is part of Los Angeles County’s Department of Mental Health Services. It is highly efficient mental health clinic which specializes in catering to the behavioral needs of children and adolescents.
It is is designed to support the vision of making a difference in the lives of those young Los Angeles County residents diagnosed with mental illness, by fostering an environment that is inviting, community-oriented, safe, and promotes a sense of wellness in a most economically challenged community.
Ojo De Dios workshop
Project artist Christine Nguyen will lead the workshop where the ojo de dios was one of her inspirations to create a large scale mural and mobile for the lobby.
She will also be signing and giving away coloring books made for the SKWC.
For the new Sheila Kuehl Family Wellness Center, artist Christine Nguyen has designed a photo-based mural, a divider wall, a mobile sculpture, and coloring book inspired by the flora and fauna in San Fernando and the surrounding region. The artwork portrays a meditative and harmonious environment which is a celebration of spirit, comfort, healing and recovery. Together, these works create a playful and inspirational imaginary world that gives a sense of wonder for the patients, visitors and staff at the facility.
April 16, 2019
workshop for staff at the ASSESSOR RECORDER COUNTY CLERK in the County of San Diego as part of Christine Nguyen’s public project.
This project is a way to introduce the artist making the work for the new ARCC building in Santee, California.
A coloring book made specifically for this new building was also distributed to the public and staff at the opening of the building.
Light and Cameraless Action: Community Photoworks 2015
(excerpt from Getty Blog. Click here for full text and images)
High school students explore analog photography with artist Christine Nguyen and create their own cyanotypes, which go on view May 25–31
This spring 25 high school students from Ánimo Venice Charter were invited to explore analog photography, write artist statements, and exhibit their work to the public as part of the Community Photoworks program, organized by the Education Department of the Getty Museum.
This marks the tenth year in a row that the Museum has partnered with the nonprofit arts and writing center 826LA (http://826la.org/), as well as a practicing artist, to introduce students to photography and involve them in the process of art-making and display.
Hands-On Experiments
On April 16, curators Virginia Heckert and Mazie Harris gave the students tours of the photographs exhibition Light, Paper, Process: Reinventing Photography, emphasizing the sense of experimentation and the unique practices of the seven contemporary photographers whose work is featured in the show.
Then, with artist Christine Nguyen (shown below) as mentor, Ánimo Venice students embarked on their own exploration of an alternative photographic process, the cyanotype. (For an introduction to the medium, see this PDF chapter from the Getty Conservation Institute’s Atlas of Photographic Processes.)
To create their cyanotypes, participants first drew on a transparent sheet of acetate with an opaque wax marker that would block the light.
Then they placed objects on top of the acetate and slipped a sensitized sheet of photographic paper underneath. Christine asked the students to consider the outline, shadow, and sense of depth the objects would make.
The next step was to expose the piece to the UV rays of the sun for five minutes.
In the final step, the work was rinsed in water, which functions as both developer and fixer, for about one minute. The completed works were then set out to dry.
Through this process, students transformed ordinary objects, such as shells, leaves, stems, clippings from succulents, swatches of lace, jewelry, and keys into amazing abstract compositions. The stark contrast between the white silhouettes of the objects and the intense cyan background created a dazzling effect.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
MOCA Sunday Studio workshop
relates to the exhibition Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974
July 1, 2012
Artist Christine Nguyen
Sunday Studio is a free monthly event that invites multigenerational, diverse audiences to delve into the concepts, materials, and techniques on view in current exhibitions through discussion-based tours and process-MOCAoriented, experiential projects designed by local and exhibiting artists. Event is free and no reservations required
Long Beach, California
October 4, 2019
Artist Talk and Cyanotype Workshop with students at California State University Long Beach
Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
December 5, 2014
Sao La is a non-profit and independent art project/ collective based in Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City, focusing on relationship among artists, community and art itself.
Cyanotype workshop with Christine Nguyen in conjunction with her solo exhibition at Galerie Quynh
