Instagram Live Chats
For five straight weeks in April and May 2020, our founder Yng-Ru Chen initiated daily 30 minute chats with friends from the creative worlds, including artists, museum directors and curators, gallerists, non-profit leaders, actors, choreographers, opera conductors, entrepreneurs, food writers, and more. This program was created as a means to check in on people, and to share their thoughts on art and creativity during the time of Covid-19.
A new installment of Praise You began on Tuesday, July 14. Shifting from a daily format to a weekly event, the program gives space to creatives and thinkers during this historic moment of social, political, and cultural reckoning.
We’ve come a long, long way together
Through the hard times and the good
I have to celebrate you, baby
I have to praise you like I should
– Praise You by Fatboy Slim
September 2020
Click the names to watch archived chats
Wednesday, 9/9 – Herb Tam, Curator and Director of Exhibitions, Museum of Chinese in America
Tuesday, 9/15 – Modupeola Fadugba, Artist
Tuesday, 9/22 – Heather Hubbs, Executive Director, New Art Dealers Alliance
AUGUST 2020
Click the names to watch archived chats
Tuesday 8/11- Elaine W. Ng, Editor and Publisher, ArtAsiaPacific
Tuesday, 8/18 – Hank Willis Thomas, Artist
Tuesday, 8/25 – Veronica Roberts, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas, Austin
July 2020
Click the names to watch archived chats
Tuesday, 7/14 – Michelle Millar Fisher, Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Tuesday, 7/21 – DJ April Hunt, Founder and Queenpin of Mixtape + sparkplugPR
Tuesday 7/28 – Paul Ha, Director, MIT List Visual Arts Center
Week 1
Click the names to watch archived chats
Tuesday 4/14 – Sara Raza, Independent Curator
Wednesday 4/15 – Susan Laney, Owner of Laney Contemporary
Wednesday 4/15 – Eugenie Tsai, Curator of Brooklyn Museum of Art
Thursday 4/16 – Philip Tinari, Director of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art
Thursday 4/16 – Duke Riley, Artist
Friday 4/17 – Yuri Shimojo, Artist
Saturday 4/18 – Susan MB Chen, Artist
Sunday 4/19 – Shaun Hasegawa Evaristo, Dancer, Choreographer and Founder of Movement Lifestyle
Week 2
Click the names to watch archived chats
Monday 4/20 – Jon Burgerman, Artist
Tuesday 4/21 – Willem Molesworth, Director of DeSarthe Gallery and VP of Hong Kong Art Gallery Association
Tuesday 4/21 – Amanda Willinger, Chief Digital Officer of LAGOS Fine Jewelry
Wednesday 4/22 – Susan Hapgood, Executive Director of International Studio & Curatorial Program
Thursday 4/23 – Yayoi Shionoiri, Executive Director of Chris Burden Estate and Nancy Rubins Studio
Friday 4/24 – Erin McMonagle, Senior Director of Special Events at the New Museum
Saturday 4/25 – Céline Semaan, Founder of Slow Factory
Sunday 4/26 – Andrew Whitfield, Conductor at Minnesota Opera
Week 3
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Monday 4/27 – Ellen Oh, Director of Programs, Stanford Arts
Tuesday 4/28 – Lucas Kwan Peterson, Columnist at LA Times Food
Wednesday 4/29 – Marguerite Wade, Founder of Marguerite Wade & Company, Set and Production Design
Thursday 4/30 – Sarah Feingold, Co-Founder of The Fourth Floor and formerly General Counsel at Etsy
Friday 5/1 – Brett Littman, Director, The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum
Friday 5/1 – Jeanette Andrews, Illusionist and Performance Artist
Saturday 5/2 – Cristina Gomez, Designer and Formerly Design Director at Tattly
Sunday 5/3 – Kourosh Nouri, Founder of Carbon 12 Gallery, Dubai
Week 4
Click the names to watch archived chats
Monday 5/4 – Faina Derman, Associate Director at White Cube, Hong Kong
Tuesday 5/5 – Sarah Megan Thomas, Actress, Producer, Writer
Wednesday 5/6 – Sarah Galender Meyer, Gallery Director of Creative Growth, Oakland
Thursday 5/7 – Henna Wang and Michael Reynolds, Co-Founders of Gesso App
Friday 5/8 – Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, Curator at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC
Saturday 5/9 – Jeff Giles, Executive Hollywood Editor at Vanity Fair, Los Angeles
Week 5
Monday 5/11 – José Carlos Diaz, Chief Curator at The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
Tuesday 5/12 – Adrianna Dufay and Mac Premo, Mac Premo Studio, NYC
Wednesday 5/13 – Ben Sloat, Artist, Director of the MFA in Visual Arts Program, Lesley Art + Design, Cambridge, MA
Thursday 5/14 – Nicole Berger, Choreographer and Dancer, Los Angeles
Friday 5/15 – Tina Roth Eisenberg, Founder, Creative Mornings, Tattly, Swissmiss, NYC