Following an open call for artists conducted this spring and a community-driven Percent for Art selection panel process, Ma was unanimously selected to design the new Chinatown Welcome Gateway.

 

Jennifer Wen Ma at Loghaven Artist Residency, Knoxville, TN

 

Manhattan, NY – Today, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), NYC Department of Transportation (DOT), and community partners announced that, following a community-driven selection process, artist Jennifer Wen Ma has been selected to design a new Chinatown Welcome Gateway. The artist selection marks another key milestone in the implementation of Chinatown Connections – a multifaceted, public realm improvement project that will celebrate the cultural heritage of Chinatown, improve multimodal circulation in the area, and support local economic development. Alongside the redesign of Kimlau Square and the beautifying of Park Row, the design of the Gateway will highlight the neighborhood’s cultural heritage and fulfill a longstanding community desire for an iconic symbol to demarcate a key entrance to Chinatown.

Ma will now work alongside the project design team – led by Marvel Architects – throughout the development process to ensure her vision of Chinatown Welcome Gateway aligns with the overall project concept. Renderings of her proposed design will be created as part of this process and will be shared as the project progresses.

 

“It is both an enormous honor and a profound responsibility to be entrusted with creating this monument in a neighborhood I have called home and worked in for over two decades. I look forward to collaborating closely with the architects and community to create a project for the community, by the community—one that captures our history, the resiliency, vitality, creativity, and beauty that define the streets of New York Chinatown that makes it unlike any other place in the world,” said Jennifer Wen Ma.

 

Paradise Interrupted by Jennifer Wen Ma. 80 Minute Installation Opera, 2015-2019. Courtesy of Jennifer Wen Ma.

 

“Public art and monuments have the power to strengthen a community’s bonds, identity, and sense of place. The Chinatown Welcome Gateway presents us with the opportunity to accomplish all of this, and in one of New York’s most iconic and storied neighborhoods, where generations of Chinese and Asian Americans have lived, worked, and made themselves an indispensable part of our city. We can’t wait to work with the extraordinary artist Jennifer Wen Ma to bring all of these complex threads together into an artwork that gives Chinatown a fitting, monumental gesture of welcoming and pride,” said Kendal Henry, Assistant Commissioner for Public Art, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

 

“‘Chinatown Connections’ is an incredible example of the city’s dedication to fostering equitable streets and welcoming public spaces, and the Chinatown Welcome Gateway will help create a sense of placemaking while reflecting on the rich history and identity of the Chinatown community,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “Jennifer Wen Ma is a highly-esteemed artist, whose creative vision and commitment to community-centered design are nonpareil—and we look forward to collaborating with her and our city and state partners to bring this project to fruition.”

 

“Jennifer Wen Ma’s selection to the design the Chinatown Welcome Gateway is a pivotal milestone for the Chinatown Connections project and for this vibrant neighborhood,” said Gale Rothstein, NYCEDC. “This achievement is the result of a thoughtful, community-driven decision-making process that ensured local voices and attitudes were at the heart of the selection. We look forward to seeing Ms. Ma’s visionary work create an enduring symbol that celebrates the rich heritage and future of Chinatown.”

 

Molar by Jennifer Wen Ma. Hand crafted glass, tyvek, ink painted glass panels, ink and water, wooden platform, 2016. Courtesy of Jennifer Wen Ma.

 

“I’m happy to hear that the Kimlau Square redesign and the beautification of Park Row is moving forward with the selection of the artist for the Chinatown Welcome Gateway project. I hope that the artist continues to work with the community to design something beautiful that represents the history and culture of Chinatown and I look forward to seeing the completed project,” said Council Member Christopher Marte.

“For decades, Chinatown has called for public investment that honors our history and strengthens our future. The Chinatown Welcome Gateway will be an enduring symbol of our community’s strength, resilience, and pride – and a reminder that our neighborhood matters,” said Assembly member Grace Lee. “I look forward to seeing Jennifer Wen Ma’s design bring our shared vision to life in a way that reflects both the heritage and the future of Chinatown.”

“We congratulate Jennifer Wen Ma on her selection to lead the design of the Chinatown Welcome Gateway,” said Gabe Mui, Adjutant, American Legion Post 1291. “Ma’s selection marks a major milestone in the Chinatown Connections project. Jennifer understands that the Welcome Gateway needs to demonstrate a deep respect for the existing Memorial Arch, and I am confident that she will design a new landmark that harmoniously weaves Chinatown’s history and values with the future.”

“We want to congratulate everyone involved in the Chinatown Connection artist selection process — especially Jennifer Wen Ma, the rest of the design team, and the community members who have worked tirelessly to ensure the rich culture and tradition of Chinatown is preserved and reflected in this effort. This selection marks another significant milestone in the evolution of this critical project and sets the stage for the Lieutenant Benjamin Kimlau Square to become a transformative public space for Chinatown and for Lower Manhattan,” said Wellington Chen, Executive Director of the Chinatown Partnership.

 

“Jennifer Wen Ma is a public artist of the highest caliber, and with Chinatown’s continued open dialogue, together we can create something truly spectacular for all to enjoy! As a long time resident of Chinatown with deep roots in the community, I truly admire Jennifer Wen Ma’s body of work, especially her Beijing accomplishments which are gold medal winners themselves!” said Triple Edwards, member, Chinatown Connections Working Group. “Her track record of working on so many different projects in communities around the world – and her deep understanding of NYC Chinatown’s unique legacy – have set her up to navigate our residents, stakeholders, and agencies while honoring culture, respecting differences, and facilitating the modern progress Chinatown deserves.”

“Jennifer’s passion for the project, her deep roots in the neighborhood, and her commitment to an inclusive, community-driven process immediately stood out. She brings a true spirit of collaboration and a clear understanding of the significance of this moment for Chinatown. I’m confident she will work collaboratively to create a gateway that reflects the neighborhood’s rich history and delivers the quality of art and public space it deserves,”

said Yadiel Rivera-Diaz, Partner, Marvel Architects.

 

Nature and Man in Rhapsody of Light at the Water Cube, by Jennifer Wen Ma. The National Aquatic Center, Beijing, 2013.  Courtesy of Jennifer Wen Ma.

 

The Chinatown Connections Working Group – including a subgroup dedicated to the Welcome Gateway – participated actively in the selection process, conducted by DCLA’s Percent for Art program. With artists selected from an open call conducted earlier this year, the selection panel consisted of working group members, members of the community,  arts professionals, representatives of the city agency project partners, and the design team. The panel met multiple times both with the artists under consideration and separately to discuss which artist’s creative practice and approach to community engagement and collaboration was best aligned with the goals of the project.

In the end, support for Ma was unanimous among all participants in the selection process. Selection panel participants cited Ma’s approach to design and commitment to community engagement; her understanding of both traditional Chinese artistic traditions and contemporary art; the range of her past works- spanning encounters intimate in nature with layers of meaning, to those grand in scale; and her approach to incorporating community and storytelling into her practice. Ma was also commissioned through the Percent for Art Program in 2023 to design a public artwork for 70 Mulberry Street, a community hub located in Manhattan’s Chinatown that is being reconstructed following a devastating fire in January 2020. Ma’s proposed design for 70 Mulberry Street – “Everchange” – received approval from the city’s Public Design Commission in March 2025.

Led by NYCEDC, NYCDOT, NYS Department of State (NYSDOS), and design team project lead Marvel, the $56 million Chinatown Connections project is financed by $44.3 million in city capital funding and $11.5 million in funding from New York State’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative Program.

A key pillar of Chinatown Connections is robust community engagement and feedback. Over the course of the project’s development, NYCEDC has solicited feedback and guidance from a number of key community stakeholders – including the American Legion, Chinatown BID/LDC, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, United Overseas Fujianese Association of America, along with local leaders and artists – to craft the Chinatown Welcome Gateway Design Brief, which outline the principles, purpose, role, and impact the Welcome Gateway should ultimately embody and accomplish. The Call for Artists, issued through the City’s Percent for Art program administered by DCLA, also relies on community and stakeholder engagement to ensure the artwork reflects the attitudes of the community.

 

Paradise Interrupted by Jennifer Wen Ma. 80 Minute Installation Opera, 2015-2019. Courtesy of Jennifer Wen Ma.

 

Jennifer Wen Ma Artist Bio

Jennifer Wen Ma (b. 1973, Beijing) is an interdisciplinary visual artist who has exhibited worldwide, often creating large-scale public art projects and a range of site and time relevant projects involving and responding to the community. She moved to the US in 1986, received her Master of Fine Art degree from Pratt Institute, NY, 1999. Ma works and lives in New York and Beijing.

Ma’s boundary-defining practice moves across installation, painting, drawing, oral history, public art, video, and performance, bringing together unexpected elements, narratives, and traditions, merging philosophical inquiry with contemporary materials to create poetic, emotionally resonant, multi-sensorial experiences. Projects with international institutions include: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Guggenheim Museum, NY; Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain; National Art Center Tokyo; Ullens Center For Contemporary Art, Beijing; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; New Britain Museum of American Art, CT; and others.

Public art installations include: Everchange, commission by the City of New York’s Percent for Art program for 70 Mulberry Street Reconstruction, scheduled for completion in 2029; A Landscape of Metamorphosis, MGM Cotai, Macau, 2022; Nature and Man in Rhapsody of Light at the Water Cube, The National Aquatic Center, Beijing, 2013; In-Between World—Daydream Nation, Digital Beijing Building, Beijing, 2008; Aeolian Garden, city of Colle di Val d’Elsa, Italy, 2005, and others.

In 2019, Ma was a recipient of the Anonymous Was a Woman Award and grant from NEA. In 2015, she conceived, visually designed, directed installation opera “Paradise Interrupted.” In 2008, Ma was a core-creative team-member for the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony and received an Emmy Award for its US broadcast.

Ma teaches in the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts, NY. More info:  www.littlemeat.net.