Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Eden Chinn. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Eden, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

About two years ago, I co-founded an art gallery and multimedia creative space called All Street Gallery, which has storefront locations in the East Village and Chinatown in New York City. Physical space in New York City is challenging to maintain and, during the height of the pandemic, people developed new ways to stay connected and conduct businesses online. However, during this time period, I felt incredibly impacted by the communities I was able to connect with in person. As a community organizer, I valued these in-person connections, local communities and their efforts to support each other during the most challenging and uncertain times.

Starting in 2018, All Street began as an artist collective and online publication that covered New York City history and its creative communities. In 2020, we began organizing public art activations at significant sites, such as Washington Square Park, Union Square, McCarren Park, Times Square, among others. At each location, we connected with local organizers, passersby, protesters, and other community members striving to make meaningful changes both in their personal lives and through direct action. At our activations, we facilitated the creation of public artworks, including large scale collaborative paintings, with the invitation of the general public to contribute over the course of a day. Many of these pieces are now in the permanent collections of the Museum of the City of New York, the New-York Historical Society, and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA). During the summer of 2022, works by our collective were featured in an immersive exhibition on Governors’ Island at MoCADA’s Abolition House. We continued organizing pop-up exhibitions, activations, and workshops throughout New York City, driven by our passion for community connection through a shared creative purpose. Co-organizing with grassroots groups that had strong local presences inspired us to find our home in the spring of 2022 at 77 East Third Street. In the summer of 2023, we opened our second location at 119 Hester Street.

Although there was risk involved at multiple stages throughout this process, the biggest challenge was transitioning into our physical location and embracing the challenges that came along with it. We not only had to consider the financial responsibilities at stake, but also how to integrate our values into a business that is both mission driven and self-sustaining. In our exhibition programming, our goal is to generate community and provide a platform for emerging and underrepresented artists whose practices engage with contemporary social and political issues.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am an artist, curator, and educator whose work explores the performance of femininity and the construction of self through media. In my personal work, I reflect on how the various media we consume shape our identities and self expression. In my academic research practice, I explore how feminist self-portraiture practices have evolved in response to changes in technology and their attendant advertising conventions.

I studied art history and fine art at Reed College and new media at NYU Tisch’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). While studying at NYU, I began to teach K-12 students visual arts through a nonprofit whose mission is to expand access to the arts in New York City public schools. After receiving my masters, I became an NYU Research Resident, leading the Design Lab at ITP. Through this residency, I gained valuable teaching experience and began educating at the college level. During this time, I also entered into museum education, leading a program for teens to explore intersections of identity in contemporary art. Towards the end of my studies, I co-founded the permanent space for All Street Gallery, and discovered that the combination of creating artwork, teaching, and curating at the gallery had complementary goals.

In my artistic, curatorial, and educational practices, I am motivated by a desire to build community and make art accessible. I am most proud of building a platform to provide artists with a route to exhibiting their work in an environment that embraces pushing traditional boundaries.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I feel most rewarded by creating connections through collaboration, whether that be artistically, curatorially, or academically. By establishing a shared language through art, we are able to communicate in a way that feels intuitive and beyond verbal expression. These collaborations allow me to feel understood, to understand others, and to feel deeply connected.

Beyond these individual collaborations, I am incredibly proud to be a part of such a vibrant creative community that continues to grow. All Street has grown beyond a traditional gallery space and into an artist collective with about ten members who each add their own unique skill set. It is incredible to see what we are able to accomplish when we work together. For example, at one time, we might have an exhibition on view at each location, while other members of the collective collaborate on a short film, a series of workshops, a podcast, among other creative projects. I am continuously inspired by the creativity, warmth, and resilience of the community we have established together. It is so rewarding to work with this team toward a common goal.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Growing up, I feel like I had an attachment to certain ideas of what success looked like. A lot of my idea of success was deeply intertwined with external validation; my performance in school and in my work was validated by receiving good grades and positive feedback. However, as I tried to carve out my own path and do something without a traditional roadmap, I find myself questioning my value in the absence of these systems of validation. Now, I am reliant on a different source of confidence, and have to put my faith in my own sense of purpose. In other words, I have had to unlearn the desire to conform to expectations and to continue believing in myself, especially when it feels most difficult.

Contact Info:

• Website: edenchinn.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/all.st.nyc/

Image Credits
1. Queer Knowing Exhibition Catalog, on view at All Street Gallery in June, 2023. Artwork by Ryan Swedenborg. Catalog design and production by Susan Zelda Steinfield, Eden Chinn, and Shuang Cai. Image courtesy of All Street Gallery. 2. Rx by Eden Chinn. Image courtesy of artist. 3. Penumbra by Eden Chinn. Image courtesy of artist. 4. Queer Knowing installation shot. Artist credits from left to right: Rebecca Panos, Corrine Yonce, and Daniel Ryan. Image courtesy of All Street Gallery. 5. Opening reception of Queer Knowing at All Street Gallery, June 2023. Image courtesy of All Street Gallery. 6. Opening reception of Queer Anxieties at All Street Gallery, December 2023. Image courtesy of All Street Gallery. 7. Installation shot of Queer Anxieties at All Street Gallery. From left to right, artwork by: Hisayasu Takashio, wei, Abby Pressberg, Sarah Shotts, traci johnson, Noah Shipley, K Sarrantonio, Cynthia Chang, Ryan Swedenborg, Henry Newman, Andrew Harrison, Kelly Elkowitz. Image courtesy of the gallery. 8. Installation shot of Queer Anxieties at All Street Gallery. Artwork by track johnson, Cynthia Chang, and K Sarrantonio. Image courtesy of gallery.