Bay Windows / Ventanas en saliente / 窗花

Two women speaking to each other in a workshop in a bright yellow room. One woman is Chinese and one woman is Latinx.

Women working on large tables in an art studio. There are large paper patterns, textiles and tools spread out.

A photo of a contingent with a lead banner in teal and pink with the title of the project in calligraphy, with a mariachi band and banners behind. It's night time and raining but people are smiling.

A large white gallery with windows along the left and bays with banners along the right.

A hyperlocal art process to foster belonging and build bridges between 16 working-class immigrant Chinese & Latinx women through the art of papercuts.

Building upon trust and a successful track record

Thanks to support from a 2025 Creative Capital Award, Bay Windows reconvenes a cohort of 16 women, 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, 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. Bay Windows also re-assembles the prior team of bilingual project coordinators and interpreters for maximum continuity.

Exhibition and workshops on Mexican and Chinese papercuts

Lead Artist Christine Wong Yap will curate an exhibition of papel picado & Chinese papercuts (建制 or “jianzhi”) by artists including Beatriz Vasquez. Held at Kearny Street Workshop from May 10 to June 7, 2025, the exhibition will be presented by Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center as part of its United States of Asian America Festival.

The exhibition will form a culturally-relevant backdrop for a series of trilingual workshops, led by Yap with interpreters and guest artists Vasquez and a jianzhi artist, exploring cross-cultural connections as well as precolonial traditions.

Narratives of political agency

The 16 working-class women include domestic workers, tenant organizers, and family services coordinators. In the workshops, the cohort will share stories and create papercuts to convey how migration has motivated them to address immigration, housing, labor, disinformation, and safety in their communities.

Decentralized, street-level public art installations

Yap will interpret the small, fragile paper cuts into illuminated lanterns displayed in the storefronts of values-aligned organizations in Chinatown, SOMA, and the Mission. The lanterns will be accompanied by trilingual maps and walking tours.

Get Involved

Sponsor or volunteer! Contribute your talents in photo/video documentation, marketing/publicity, picture framing, translation/proofreading of Chinese or Spanish, or fundraising to our artist-led, community-rooted project.
Donate! Financial contributions will go towards stipends for the working-class immigrant women and subsidies for their transportation and childcare; fees for guest artists and interpreters; art materials; and the production of trilingual maps and webpages to reach the 120,000 linguistically isolated Chinese and Spanish speakers in San Francisco.
Mission District-based organizations: Be a space of hospitality. Host design sessions in your conference room. (Summer 2025)
Help us get the word out! Amplify this call now, and share the exhibition, lanterns, and walking tours later, among your community.
Values-aligned organizations, businesses, institutions, or schools are invited to help us uplift immigrant women’s voices. Host a lantern in your storefront along with host walking-tour related programs (Dec 2025–Mar 2026).

Contact Christine Wong Yap at for more information, including how to make a tax-deductible donation.

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.

Exhibition organized with Kearny Street Workshop and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, presented by Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.

Project Team: Beatriz Vasquez, Lee Oscar Gomez, Stephen Xie (list in progress).

Thank you to Hoi Leung and YY Zhu at the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco for unwavering allyship; Jason Bayani and Mihee Kim at Kearny Street Workshop for partnership and fundraising support; Susana Rojas and Xochitl Frausto at Calle 24 Latino Cultural District and Dr Martyna Ayala at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts for advice and support; Weston Teruya for feedback; to all the selection panelists and funders.