Anida Yoeu Ali is an interdisciplinary artist whose works span performance, installation, new media, public encounters, and political agitation. Raised in Chicago and born in Cambodia, she is a woman of mixed heritage with Malay, Cham, Khmer and Thai ancestry. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to artmaking, her installation and performance works investigate the artistic, spiritual and political collisions of a hybrid transnational identity. Ali is the winner of the 2024 Arts Innovator Award and the 2015 Sovereign Asian Art Prize for her series The Buddhist Bug, a multidisciplinary and internationally recognized work that investigates displacement and identity through humor, absurdity and performance.

In June 2024, Anida Yoeu Ali led four other artists from Tacoma embarked on a 12-day cultural exchange to Yogyakarta (Jogja) and Jakarta, Indonesia, immersing themselves in the vibrant creative ecosystems of these cities. Their delegation met with a diverse array of local artists, musicians, curators, creative entrepreneurs, government officials, and art collectives, gaining valuable insights into how these non-Western urban centers have leveraged their artistic communities to foster thriving creative economies.

Anida developed the trip because she believes Tacoma should be part of the international art world and wanted to offer creativity as a passport to accessing and engaging with different cultures from around the world. She is currently developing ArtCity into a collaborative that establishes relationships through cross-cultural and international exchange. She believes exposure to other distinctly different cultures and communities will help make meaningful connections between Tacoma and the world and can offer alternate ways to problem-solve similar challenges within our creative economy.

On Sunday Oct 13th 2024, Anida and the inaugural ArtCity delegates composed of Jamika Scott, Dion Thomas, and Jesi Vega will offer a public form hosted at Tacoma Art Museum from 1-3pm. The presenters will share their observations on how Indonesia’s art scenes continue to flourish and grow despite challenging economic conditions. 

Anida’s hope for ArtCity is to keep offering these travel trips so that Tacoma artists can keep learning innovative strategies that could potentially invigorate Tacoma’s own artistic landscape, and hear about the meaningful connections forged during this enriching cultural exchange.

The “Hello. How are you?” project is a mixed media outdoor installation of giant letters spelling out this common American greeting. The innocuous phrase is both a statement and question intended to invite participation between local and newer residents and between art makers and art viewers. As artists become a complicit part of urban redevelopment, we all must be mindful and responsible to the existing ecology and histories in Tacoma. This artwork urges accessibility – both by displaying the artwork in my Hilltop neighborhood and by putting artists in conversation to the people who live there.

In 2023 Anida received a TAIP (Tacoma Artist Initiative Project) grant which supported the re-fabrication and installation of the “Hello. How are you?” public art installation. With these funds, we remade the letters but this time out of a more durable plastic material—PVC Trim. 

As part of this artwork’s effort to bridge the gap between artists and audiences, it is important that the installation be highly visible and accessible by all.

Community Outreach by and Individual

“I choose to represent my community as an inner city kid & adult by creating murals and large scale works that bring a sense of abstract youthful joy and open the landscape to the youth that travel throughout our cities on in exploration of the space they call home. My works have been featured in youth facilities, community centers and multi-family residences. I choose to use my community service hours participating in youth arts events.” – Lourdes Jackson

“Currently I am in a space with my work where I would like to bring the experience of my travels around the world and the communities I’ve spent time in, domestic and abroad, to my city in a comparison or juxtaposition to the ways in which we relate within our inner cities across America. How we all have our traditional and generational customs, differ but similar at the same time.” – Lourdes Jackson

Community Outreach by an Organization

The Black Night Market is an innovative marketplace filled with vendors, artists, food trucks, activities, workshops, resources, live performances and more.

The Black Night Market experience is like one big family reunion, which has created representation, exposure and economic opportunities for over 800 businesses/artists in Tacoma WA. BNM events are curated to build, empower and inspire our community through the night markets, Poetry After Dark, Black Business Brunch, Black Art Soiree and the Soul Food Festival.

They’ve impacted our communities economically and creatively by providing opportunities for artists to thrive and showcase their talents.

The Black Night Market Holiday markets at the Armory begin on October 19th.

Arts Patron

Named after Henri Matisse, Mattice Hoyt has organically integrated cultural programming into her beauty supply store since its opening in 2020. Beyond partnering with eight local Black artisans to ensure their functional creative work can be purchased in her space, Mattice has consistently desmontrated extraordinary intention in cultivating an open and affirming space for artists in our community.

Committed to youth empowerment, disability rights and strategic amplification of other arts entrepreneurs, Mattice is driven by the purpose found on her store bags: “Because you’re a work of art.”

In 2022, Mattice Beauty Sypply won the Compassionate Tacoma award from the Tacoma City Council and Mayor Victoria Woodards. Mattice Beauty Supply hosts a different charity every month. She offers free hair care kits to elementary students in underserved communities. A conference room attached to the stop offers free opportunities for other small businesses. Mattice also started a social media trend #TacomaTuesday,  where Mattice tags and supports at least two small and local businesses on her days off.

Mattice Beauty Supply currently features art as permanent fixtures for all to see representing over 10 local BIPOC, Queer, and or Woman artists. The conference room has become a hub for artists for all mediums, backgrounds, cultures and identities to show and TEACH their art for our immediate community.

Mattice’s hope for the future is to financially be able to offer the space for free twice a month or more to make art more accessible to more people.