Asian Arts and Culture Trust

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Asian Arts and Culture Trust

To increase empathy, appreciation & representation of Asian heritage, arts & culture in Canada.

06/04/2026

✨ SOFT ARCHIVE ✨

What happens when a memory changes as we try to preserve it?

Join us for SOFT ARCHIVE, a beginner-friendly photo transfer workshop led by exploring memory, materiality, and transformation through layered image-making. Using acrylic gel medium image transfer techniques, participants will experiment with photographs, found imagery, drawings, and printed materials to create unique works that embrace texture, imperfection, and chance.

Unlike traditional photography, image transfer does not seek perfect preservation. Images may fade, peel, fragment, or transform along the way. These unexpected shifts become part of the creative process, revealing how memory itself evolves over time.

Through hands-on making and conversation, we’ll explore how images carry meaning across surfaces, materials, and moments, and how absence, erosion, and change can become part of the story.

No experience required. All materials will be provided, and participants are welcome to bring their own photographs, drawings, prints, or paper-based materials to incorporate into their work.

🔗 Join us on June 13 at .lychuu 🌱 Register via link in bio as space is limited.

06/01/2026

✂️📄 Manufacturing Knowledge 📄✂️

In a time of endless scrolling, information overload, and hot takes from every direction, how do we reconnect with our own instincts and stories?

Join us for a beginner-friendly collage and DIY poster-making workshop led by that explores memory, assumptions, and personal narratives through cutting, layering, arranging, and creating. Drawing inspiration from collage traditions that have challenged norms and amplified underrepresented voices for generations, we’ll use accessible materials to turn shapes, letters, textures, and images into stories of our own.

Whether you want to archive a memory, question a popular assumption, express a perspective, or simply spend an afternoon making art, this workshop is for you.

No experience required. All materials will be provided, though you’re welcome to bring paper scraps, stickers, washi tape, magazines, or other crafting materials from home that you’re inspired by.

Come make something meaningful. Come make a mess. Come let your inner child back to the cutting board. ✨

🔗 Space is limited. Register via link in bio.

05/15/2026

Somehow, it’s been five years already.

Five years ago, AACT existed only as an idea - a small initiative rooted in the belief that art, storytelling, and community could create space for connection, dialogue, and care.

What began as a few conversations and hopeful plans has grown into a community of artists, creatives, volunteers, collaborators, and supporters who continue to show up for one another in meaningful ways.

Over the past five years, we’ve shared exhibitions, difficult conversations, moments of joy, advocacy, healing, and countless memories together.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey. AACT has always been shaped by the people behind it, and we are deeply grateful for every person who helped build this community with us.

Five years of art, advocacy, and community, and we’re only getting started💛

05/07/2026

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the opening of On Practices of Belonging. To gather together in a room shaped by stories of migration, memory, longing, care, and connection felt deeply meaningful.

This exhibition began as conversations, workshops, shared reflections, and quiet acts of trust. As so many people moved through the space, contemplated on the meanings behind the works, and conversed through the philosophical pondering of life and beyond, we materialized the elusive sense of belonging that this exhibition tries to capture.

Our time spent in the gallery again reminded us that belonging is something we build together✨

We are especially grateful to the artists for sharing their vulnerability, imagination, and experiences with such generosity. We are also grateful for for providing us with a place that we could all dwell and explore the meaning of belonging together.

On Practices of Belonging remains on view through May 29 at YYZ Artists’ Outlet.

Photo credits

Presented by Asian Arts & Culture Trust (AACT).

05/04/2026

🌊🎶 From Visual Art to Sound

What does it mean to truly listen, not just with your ears but with your whole body?

Join us for a unique workshop by that brings together deep listening, visual art, and sound-making through the creation of your own DIY ocean drum. Inspired by the rhythms of water and the movement of sound, this session invites you to slow down, tune in, and explore how sound can be felt, seen, and created.

Through hands-on making and guided listening, you will discover how simple materials can become instruments for reflection, connection, and play. 🌊✨

No experience needed. Just curiosity and a willingness to listen deeply.

🎟️ Spots are limited - please register via link in bio

04/26/2026

On Practices of Belonging
Presented by Asian Arts & Culture Trust (AACT)

📍 YYZ Artists’ Outlet

On view
April 29 – May 29, 2026

Join us for the opening ✨
May 1, 2026 | 6–8 PM

Artists will be present. All are welcome. No RSVP required.

—

Featuring:
.phantruc .artww

—

Bringing together artists working across photography, painting, installation, and digital media, the exhibition considers belonging not as a fixed state, but as a practice shaped by migration, memory, identity, and care.

Developed through AACT’s newcomer artist mentorship program, the exhibition emerges from workshops, dialogue, and shared exploration, reflecting on what it means to arrive, remember, and remain connected across distance and time.

—

See you there!

Presented by Asian Arts & Culture Trust (AACT)
Produced with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council

04/18/2026

On Practices of Belonging

Belonging isn’t a place; it’s something we practice.

This exhibition gathers artists whose works trace how belonging is shaped by migration, language, race, queerness, memory, and power. Across the pieces, lives unfold in-between. To arrive somewhere new can mean learning how to be seen, how to disappear, and how to protect what feels most tender.

Community emerges not just as subject, but as method. Creative practice becomes a way of gathering, of care, recognition, and relation. “Home” shifts from a fixed place to something more fluid: a network of people, practices, and places.

Rituals of remembrance travel across time and distance, carrying story, spirit, and responsibility. The works ask:
What do we keep when we leave?
What do we bury?
What do we carry forward?

Belonging, here, is not a destination.
It is something made, contested, and remade in relation.

We’ll be sharing more about the artists and their practices in the coming weeks, stay tuned!

03/26/2026

🎨✨ Painting the Inner Mind: What if your thoughts and emotions could take shape on canvas?

This workshop with .phantruc on April 19th invites you to explore neurographic painting — a creative practice that blends art, mindfulness, and intuition to transform inner experiences into visual form. Through flowing lines, organic shapes, and colour, you’ll create an acrylic painting that reflects your inner world.

Inspired by the idea that memory, emotion, and perception are deeply connected, this session offers a space to slow down, reflect, and create with intention. No experience needed — just come as you are 💛

🖌️ Acrylic on canvas
🕯️ April 19, 2-4pm
🌿 Guided, reflective, and beginner-friendly
🎟️ Limited spots — register via link in bio

Let your lines wander. Let your mind unfold.

03/05/2026

✨ Step into the world of Shadow Play! ✨
Shadow puppetry is a storytelling form with a long and rich history across many Asian cultures — where light, shadow, and imagination come together to bring stories to life.
Join us for a hands-on workshop led by where you’ll create your own puppets, explore movement and shadow, and discover how light can transform simple shapes into meaningful storytelling 🎭🖤✨

Whether you’re curious about puppetry, love creative play, or just want to try something new — this workshop is for you! No experience needed — just bring your playful spirit. 🌙👋

🗓 Saturday, March 21
⏰ 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM
📍 Lychuu, 41 Baldwin St, Toronto

🎟 Free tickets via link in bio (space is limited!)
If you can no longer attend, please release/cancel your ticket so someone else can join💛🎬

Produced with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.

Address

140-401 Richmond Street West
Toronto, ON
M5V 3A8

Website

https://www.aact.community/

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