RESIDENCY DESCRIPTION
The Museum of Chinese in America’s Performing-Artist-in-Residence Program will invite a cohort of 3 performing artists to individually generate ONE theme-based NEW project, by utilizing the resources and collections at MOCA. Throughout the residency, artists will be invited to participate in artist-led workshops and will be required to give one work-in-progress presentation to the public in the end of the residency.
PERFORMING-ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
- Provide space and support for performing artists to generate a new work
- Create space for organic artistic sharing and collaboration
- Incubate discourse and community engagement around new ideas and artistic expression
- Encourage artists to take creative risks, while nurturing a safe space for constructive feedback
- Celebrate diversity in artistic expression
THEME
Declaration of Independence 獨立宣言
As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, we are prompted to reflect on the meaning of independence today. What does it mean to declare independence—not just from nations, but from expectations, erasure, silence, and imposed identities? In a country built upon a founding declaration, what new declarations are necessary today?
For the 2025 Performing Artist Residency, MOCA invites artists to critically and creatively explore the theme Declaration of Independence. We welcome proposals that interrogate what it means to be “American,” to seek self-determination, or to stake a claim to visibility, freedom, and belonging—especially within diasporic, immigrant, and historically marginalized communities.
If you were to write a manifesto for your work, what would it sound like? What would it feel like? What are you declaring independence from—family, society, artistic tradition, the industry itself?
Artists must conceive and develop a new project during the residency. Proposals for previously created or pre-existing works will not be accepted. The residency is intended to support the generative process—from research and experimentation to creation and reflection.
Projects must engage with MOCA’s exhibitions, archives, or collection materials. The residency offers space, time, and curatorial support for artists to explore, take risks, and shape new performance-based work.
We encourage bold declarations—poetic, political, or deeply personal—that resonate within the evolving narrative of Chinese and Asian American life in the United States.
RESIDENCY DATES
October 15th, 2025 – March 20th, 2026
RESIDENT ARISTS
Fortune Cookie, Burlesque Performer / Writer / Producer
Fortune Cookie is a native New Yorker born in Chinatown. She is a burlesque performer, writer and producer of the quarterly show at Caveat called “Books and Burlesque.” She is inspired by female superheroes in Asian folklore and mythology, as well as global resistance movements and incorporates acrobatics and projections in her performances. For her residency she is interested in exploring the intersection between performing and writing as a “declaration of independence.”
Yu-Wei Heath-Hsiao, Violinist / Pianist / Educator
Dr. Yu-Wei Heath-Hsiao, known as Yoyo, is an exceptional violinist, pianist, and educator from Taiwan, holding a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Violin Performance from Rutgers University and an MM from the Mannes School of Music. He is a winner of the 2024 Charleston International Music Competition and a recipient of the 2023 Flushing Town Hall Arts Grant. Yoyo serves as first violin at the Berkshire Opera Festival and previously as concertmaster for the Miami Music Festival.
Beyond his classical performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Yoyo’s versatile crossover skills, including piano, dance, and composition, have led to featured appearances at diverse events like US Open Fan Week, Broadway in Bryant Park, the New York Fashion Week Fashion Show, Queensboro Dance Festival, and with groups such as the Weill Cornell Jazz Band and Battery Dance. Formerly an emerging artist at Culture Lab LIC, Yoyo is now the co-creator of the NYC-based Taiwanese show “Islanders-寶島慢播” and a member of the dance group Chieh & Yoyo.
Shuning Huang, Choreographer / Dancer
Shuning Huang, born in Nanjing, China, is a New York–based dancer and choreographer. She holds an M.A. in Dance Education from New York University and a B.A. in Dance Studies from Beijing Dance Academy. Trained in Chinese classical and folk dance, ballet, modern, and contemporary, she brings a cross-cultural and multidisciplinary voice to the stage.
She is a principal dancer with Six Degrees Dance and the New York Chinese Culture Center, and has performed at major venues including the US Open, Queens Museum, Colden Auditorium, and Tilles Center, as well as the Mark O’Donnell Theater, the Tank, Dixon Place, and the New York Botanical Garden. Her choreographic works have been featured at Spark Theatre Festival, The Outlet Dance Project, and other platforms, often exploring the intersections of tradition, identity, and contemporary expression.
