Southeast Asian Arts & Culture Coalition - SF

SEAACC’s mission is to advance the visibility and vitality of each Southeast Asian culture through various educational, social, and cultural activities with an aim to strengthen relationships between Southeast Asian communities in the SF Bay Area. We saw a lack of cultural promotion and preservation in the Southeast Asian community, and knew that there had to be a change. The coalition was started

to help address a need in the Tenderloin community for more cultural awareness. The Tenderloin neighborhood has a long history of being an area with a large concentration of immigrants from Southeast Asia. While the neighborhood does hold annual events celebrating one specific Southeast Asian culture at a time, we wanted to create a strong coalition representing multiple cultures that would work together to share different aspects of each heritage and country in one place, and at one time. We wanted to celebrate the diversity of the neighborhood, bringing awareness to the general public about some of the ethnic groups living there, and to promote the visibility of the multiples heritages of the immigrants living in the area. This has evolved into a general goal to expand the reach of SEAACC's events from the Tenderloin neighborhood, to the San Francisco Bay Area as a whole. SEAACC-SF is currently made up of five (but not limited to) colorful ethnicities which include: Burmese-American, Cambodian-American, Laotian-American, Thai-American, and Vietnamese-American. The diverse participation of our organization allows us to bring in a multitude of people from all walks of life, each of which shares something unique and new to our organization. Its founding members include representatives from the following organizations listed below.

- Au Co Vietnamese Cultural Center
- Burmese Youth Association (BYA)
- International Lao New Year Festival
- Lao Seri Association
- Laotian American National Alliance
- Samaki Project
- San Francisco Recreation & Park
- South East Asian Cultural Heritage & Music Performing Arts (SEACHAMPA)

We have chosen to focus on the arts and culture of each ethnic group as a way to unify our group while also sharing our differences. The five various subjects we exhibit are: Language, Food, Textiles, Traditional Dance & Musical Instruments, and the New Year. As a non-profit organization that focuses on primarily on promoting and educating the beautiful arts and cultural aspect of multiple Southeast Asian backgrounds, SEAACC-SF is completely community-led and do not hold any political affiliation, nor do we support any particular political views. We will continue to hold events in the Tenderloin neighborhood, but we hope to also encourage people living in other areas to come to our local events to learn more and to experience the beauty of each Southeast Asian ethnic culture.