Ngoc-Tran Vu

Ngoc-Tran Vu (she/her) is a 1.5-generation Vietnamese American interdisciplinary and transnational artist and cultural strategist whose socially engaged work draws from her experience as a community organizer, educator, and healer. Tran moves between mediums and materials to work in painting, photography, sculpture and social practice so that her art can best resonate and engage with its audience intentionally. Born in Vietnam, Tran came to the United States with her family as political refugees and grew up in Boston’s Dorchester and South Boston working-class neighborhoods. Tran received her MA in Arts and Politics at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and her BA in Ethnic Studies and Visual Arts at Brown University.

Tran also received a certificate in Non-profit Management and Leadership from Tufts University & Institute for Non-profit Practice (INP) in 2019 and an executive certificate in Art and Cultural Heritage Law at Georgetown University Law Center in 2020. Furthermore, she is a graduate of the Center for Third World Organizing’s Movement Activist Apprenticeship Program (MAAP) as well as the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), Hai Bà Trưng School of Organizing, Undoing Racism®, and AARW’s Dorchester Organizing and Training Initiative (DOT-I). Tran currently serves as a board member of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB).

In 2019, Tran was the National Arts Strategies’ Creative Communities Fellow and featured as one of the WBUR Artery 25, a series highlighting millennials of color making an impact in the Boston arts scene. Tran has collaborated with ArtPlace America, the Boston Children’s Museum, MASS MoCA Assets for Artists, Heritage Museums and Gardens. She teaches workshops on storytelling, digital marketing, financial literacy, housing strategies for artists, and has taught in the Future Imagemakers program at NYU’s Tisch Department of Photography. Most recently, she taught Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston as an adjunct instructor.

Previously, Tran worked at Silkroad and AIR (Association of Independents in Radio) to support and advocate fiercely for freelance producers and media makers in mission-driven storytelling audio. Tran works across borders and is based in Boston’s Dorchester community. www.tranvuarts.com/ | @TranVuArts