About
Nguyen Arts Fund (NF) is a U.S.-based arts organization founded in 2025 by Chau Nguyen and headquartered in New York City. The organization advances a sustainable, paid exhibition model that centers artists’ labor. Working in collaboration with existing galleries, cultural institutions, and alternative venues, NF curates and presents exhibitions across the United States.
The organization operates with a lean, exhibition-based structure that includes Nguyen, a curatorial council, an advisory panel, and a network of organizational partners engaged as needed for each exhibition. A grant writing team and a grassroots fundraising campaign are in development to support multiple exhibitions planned for the upcoming U.S. Semiquincentennial.
Legal and ethical safeguards, including art insurance, UPEPA speech protections, and assurances for artists, will reinforce the project’s integrity. Lastly, the organization is in network with lawyers who can provide oversight for any issue that artists might face.
Notes from Chau Nguyen, Founder and Executive Director
Nguyen Arts Fund is built on a radical but necessary proposition: To pay artists for their creative labor. After more than a decade working within Philadelphia’s arts community at organizations such as Moore College of Art and Design, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Fleisher Art Memorial, Bryn Mawr College, NKCDC, VietLead, the William Way LGBT Center, and Abington Art Center, I have seen the precarity that defines artists’ lives. In recent years, the city has lost many galleries and artist-run spaces, while national art sales have declined. Artists now face heightened economic instability.
Nguyen Arts Fund responds to these overlapping challenges by offering artists paid opportunities to exhibit their work. The organization proposes a network-driven exhibition model that uses satellite venues and existing networks to bypass prohibitive commercial structures. At its core, Nguyen Arts Fund is guided by faith in the transformative power of art and the belief that artists deserve the conditions to sustain their creative lives.
With a growing network of national venues, artists, and a cohort of curators and advisors, Nguyen Arts Fund seeks to build lasting cultural infrastructure rooted in equality, collaboration, and community power.
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