Why Soup, Why Now

SINCE 2014, Chinatown Soup has been home to a grassroots intervention, providing artists with their first significant exposure, offering affordable studio space, and presenting public programming with strong commitments to local communities.

Inspired by the success of Detroit Soup, a nonprofit startup established in 2010 by two young women to benefit artist initiatives through microfunding dinners, Chinatown Soup built upon this interactive, democratic model to design an art space for a neighborhood that has shifted from an immigrant populated enclave to a hotbed for real estate development and the new art scene.

Drawing from the Stone Soup folk parable and artist-run collectives of 1970s New York, such as Chinatown’s Basement Workshop and SoHo’s FOOD, we’re reimagining how people can work together to live creatively in the 21st-century city. Our connective strategy is an example of creative placemaking, which proposes arts-based solutions to community challenges as economic forces and government policies drive corporate-luxury expansion and displace residents.

As a cultural organization, we are committed to advancing art, justice, historic preservation, and civic engagement so that downtown stays inspired. By opening up the notion of what it means to be an artist, we find ways people can experiment and innovate to preserve neighborhoods.