About
The Asian Theatre & Film Collection was founded in 2023 based on a realization of the lack of platforms and publicity provided to Asian Artists. The site seeks to provide viewers with a plethora of Asian artist created pieces stretching across a wide array of forms of art. Additionally, the site features an artist, cycling each couple of months, in order to provide a deeper profile overview on one creator. There are also artist interviews available to allow viewers to learn more from artist members of the Asian community. Lastly, the site provides an online forum where viewers can pose and respond to discussions revolving around art pieces, comment on Asian community centered current events, or suggest future art piece posts. In the future, the site will allow a forum for new artist to upload and put out their own pieces! The Asian Theatre & Art Collection hopes to become a prominent tool in providing Asian artists who are underrepresented in mainstream media the attention they deserve.
Note from the creator:
Hi! My name is Aria! You might not see any of my own art on this website (I promise you, it's got nothing on any of the talented artists featured here!), but I am a lover of all things creative and cultural! For some background, I am an Indian-American girl, born in the states, and have just about always lived in Central New Jersey. My interest in the arts began with theatre, film, and media production at around eight, when I made my debut into the production world by starring as an actress in an assortment of camp performances, very much to the detriment of all who had to endure my acting! I went on to find my place in the arts in producing, having, through school, created, directed, and edited many short films and worked as the Assistant Director or Production Stage Manager for plays and musicals. As production teams began to take over my life, I found myself taking more note of the complete disregard for equal representation of minority ethnical groups in the media. I suddenly became all the more aware of my school turning only to Disney for all our musicals and to Shakespeare for our English class texts. I grew tired of studying only European art history or watching films casting only Caucasian actors for their standard American dramas. I became angry when I found how scarce a minority singer was played on the radio or when I realized how rarely I'd seen a minority poet in the poetry mailing lists I had signed up for. Plus, at the same time, in all my classes, and through all my social media platforms, I was discovering more and more people who came from vastly diverse places and cultures creating the most beautiful, moving art. I found it atrocious how I could see an entire world of not just competent, but dynamically talented creators who never seemed to see the light of day in mainstream media. So now I've decided to devote myself to making this website. It might not have the view count of the New York Times or the Significance of The Grammy's, but I hope somehow, I can be a part of the fights towards eliminating the race barrier in the equal representation of artists.