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Now through March 11, 2026: Lantern Exhibition
Free and viewable from the street 24/7
Various locations in San Francisco Chinatown & Mission District (Google Maps ):
- Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco’s Design Store, 41 Ross Alley
- City College of San Francisco—Chinatown/North Beach Center, 808 Kearny Street
- Galería de la Raza’s Studio 24, 2779 Folsom Street
- Acción Latina, 2958 24th Street
- Brava! for Women in the Arts, 2781 24th Street
Bay Windows: Illuminating Immigrant Women’s Perspectives is a decentralized exhibition of 15 sculptural lanterns. Each lantern is based on a paper cut designed in collaboration with one of 15 working class, immigrant, Chinese or Latina woman. The artworks explore intersectional lived experiences of issues such as immigrants’ rights, workers’ rights, the high cost of living, affordable housing, public safety, and mental health, plus how the women confront these structural challenges.
The trilingual exhibition (English, Spanish, and Chinese) includes statements and links to video interviews. Audiences can see and hear all 15 collaborating designers speaking in her native language about the stories behind her papercut, and her reflections on the process.
January 24, 2025: Scavenger Hunt
Saturday, January 24, 2025, 11am-2pm
Start your hunt at:
- Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco’s Design Store, 41 Ross Alley
- Galería de la Raza’s Studio 24, 2779 Folsom Street
Pick up your free scavenger hunt guide to find 15 unique lanterns in the windows of five community organizations. Learn about immigrant women’s perspectives via their artworks and interact with the designers to answer trivia questions for the chance to win prizes. This free, fun, family-friendly event is open to the public. More details TBA.
About Bay Windows
Bay Windows / Ventanas en saliente / 窗花 is an 11-month long art process to foster belonging and build cross-cultural bridges between working-class, immigrant, Chinese & Latinx women through the art of papercuts and lanterns.
May–July 2025: Workshops
Lead Artist Christine Wong Yap organized a series of six workshops in collaboration with community partners, interpreters, and guest artists Beatriz Vasquez and Xiaoqing Shi.
The trilingual workshops were tailored for the cohort of 15 multigenerational women, who received stipends as well as monetary support with childcare and transportation.
Participants learned about each other’s cultural traditions, shared stories, and created papercuts about issues which are important to them, including immigration, the cost of living, budget cuts, housing, worker’s rights, public safety, and mental health.
May–June 2025: Guest Artists’ Exhibition
As part of Bay Windows, Yap curated an exhibition featuring the two guest artists to highlight the cross-cultural connections between papel picado & Chinese papercuts (建制/ jianzhi).
2022–2023: Track record
Bay Windows reconvenes a cohort that was first assembled for How I Keep Looking Up / Como Sigo Mirando Arriba / 仰望 (2022–2023), a collaboration with Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco (CCCSF) and numerous community organizations in Chinatown & the Mission District, which resulted in banners carried in the 2023 Chinese New Year Parade (300,000 in-person/televised audience), an exhibition at CCCSF (seen by 20,000 visitors), and features on El Tecolote, Hyperallergic, KGO ABC 7, KTVU Fox 2, KQED, and Sing Tao Daily.
How to Support Bay Windows
Donate
Additional funding will support the scavenger hunt, including hospitality and transportation for the working-class women.
Sponsor or volunteer
Contribute your resources or talents in marketing/publicity, photo/video documentation, translation/proofreading (Chinese or Spanish), and events coordination to our community project.
Spread the word
Visit the lanterns with friends. Come to the scavenger hunt. Amplify the project!
Keep in touch
Hear the latest about Bay Windows via Christine’s occasional newsletter.
Contact Christine Wong Yap at for more info.
Credit: Christine Wong Yap and contributors, Bay Windows / Ventanas en saliente / 窗花, 2025–ongoing, social practice, mixed media; dimensions variable.
Bay Windows is supported by a 2025 Creative Capital Award, Zellerbach Family Foundation’s Community Arts program, Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure Grant, Community Engagement’s Artists & Creatives Grant, A Blade of Grass’ Field Funds, and ASIAN, Inc.
Contributing Designers: AiLan Xie 謝愛蘭, Cammi Xingyu Huang 黃幸瑜, ChunMei Cao 曹春梅, DanLi Xu 許丹麗, Lidia "Lupita" Iraheta, Marcela Escamilla, Mayra Alfaro, MiaoFen Guan 關妙芬, Nadia Rodriguez, Selina Luo 羅玉蓮, Tomasa Ramirez, YongYu "Ah Yu" Lei 雷泳瑜, YongYu "Yoyo" Situ 司徒咏瑜, YuJuan "Ah Juan" Chen 陳玉娟, Yurisma Gonzalez
Project Coordinators: Stephan Xie, Lee Oscar Gomez.
Interpretation & Translation: Andreína Maldonado, Weikun Tang, Lauren Huang, Katie Beas.
Guest artists: Beatriz Vasquez, Xiaoqing Shi.
Photos by Christine Wong Yap, Aaron Stark, Jenna Garrett. Explainer video edited by Nick Schiarizzi courtesy of Creative Capital with subtitling by Stephan Xie. Vertical videos include footage by Versoul, Huan Filippi, Lee Oscar Gomez, and Christine Wong Yap; edited by Christine Wong Yap.
Sincere gratitude to community partners Kearny Street Workshop, Galería de la Raza, and Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, especially Hoi Leung, YY Zhu, Jason Bayani, Mihee Kim, Ani Rivera, and Ivette Rojas. Thanks to Susana Rojas and Xochitl Frausto at Calle 24 Latino Cultural District and Dr. Martyna Ayala at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts for early planning support; and Maysoun Wazwaz and Weston Teruya for feedback and advice.
