Xiaowen Zhu appointed Director

The Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA) has announced the appointment of Xiaowen Zhu as its new Director. Zhu has worked internationally in Shanghai, New York, Los Angeles, London and Berlin as a director, author and lecturer. She has organised numerous exhibitions of contemporary art, focusing primarily on the non-profit sector and bringing underrepresented artistic practices from Asia to Europe and beyond.

Formerly assistant director at Times Art Center Berlin, Zhu led institutional projects including the solo exhibition Earwax (2022) by Wong Ping, curated by Hou Hanru, the group exhibition Más Allá, el Mar Canta: Diasporic Intimacies and Labour (2021), curated by Pablo José Ramírez, and Neither Black / Red / Yellow Nor Woman (2019–20), curated by Nikita Yingqian Cai and Xiaoyu Weng. She has also organised exhibitions, public programmes and publications with artists including Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Jane Jin Kaisen, Christine Sun Kim, Ho Tzu Nyen, Koki Tanaka, Nguyen Trinh Thi, Shen Xin, Thao Nguyen Phan, Ming Wong and Zhou Tao.

Based in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art has supported art and artists of Chinese, East and Southeast Asian heritage for over 30 years. Its exhibitions have featured work by leading artists including Patty Chang, Gordon Cheung, Xu Bing, Chen Chieh-jen, Cao Fei, Chen Man, Yang Zhichao, He Chengyao, Samson Young, Charwei Tsai and Sun Xun.

CFCCA’s galleries have been closed to the public since Covid-19 restrictions came into force in March 2020 and are due to reopen later this year.

CFCCA is also pleased to welcome Philomena Chen, Simon Li, Yung Ma, aaajiao (aka Xu Wenkai) and Bonnie Yeung to its Board. The organisation additionally announces the appointment of Ella Luo as its first ever Community Development and Engagement Manager and Huina Zhang as its new Chief Operating Officer.

These significant appointments come at a time of transformation and growth as CFCCA re-examines its purpose and works to embed collective and sustainable change to better serve its communities, including increasing the representation of people with lived experience of Chinese and East Asian heritage and culture within the organisation.

Under Xiaowen Zhu’s directorship, CFCCA will strive to widen its outreach in the art world and across society through a re-envisaged, transcultural programme and a reactivated, dynamic research framework – interconnecting the past and present of the institution’s mission and exploring what CFCCA can become as a 21st-century arts organisation.

Xiaowen Zhu said: “I’m thrilled to join and lead CFCCA, a 36-year-old British contemporary art institution that has created a legacy of supporting artists and cultural practitioners from East Asia and all over the world. Located in the heart of Manchester, a city known not only for its significance of manufacture and transport since the Industrial Revolution but also for its celebrated music, literature and art scene, CFCCA provides a public space of engagement, enrichment and experimentation for local, national and international communities. I can’t wait to work closely with the board to set our goals for the coming years and to form a new team that’s at once committed to our mission and creative in thinking and making things happen.”

Nick Buckley Wood, Chair of CFCCA’s Board of Trustees said: “We are delighted that Xiaowen is joining as Director and will lead the revitalisation of our space in Manchester and the widening of the institution’s national and international footprint. Alongside our refreshed Board and growing team, we look forward to seeing the institution enter the next stage of its development with a focus on relevance, diversity, digitalisation, sustainability, cross-cultural dialogue and, most importantly, great exhibitions for the public.”

The Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA) is a non-profit art institution specialising in presenting and supporting contemporary art practices with a focus on those of Chinese, East Asian and Southeast Asian (CEASA) heritage. Situated in an award-winning building in the heart of Manchester, CFCCA has delivered diverse and vibrant public programmes, including exhibitions, events, residencies, research and other forms of community engagement and partnership projects for over 36 years. CFCCA strives to foster cross-cultural exchanges between Manchester, the UK and the world through forward-thinking visual arts programmes that increase the visibility of underrepresented artistic practices from the diasporic CEASA community and enrich the lives and cultures of local and global audiences. The values that underpin this working vision and mission are creativity, compassion, interconnectedness and collectivity.

In August 2021, an independent audit commissioned by CFCCA’s Board created a roadmap to address long-standing issues around organisational management and diversity, inclusion and equality. Since the publication of the report the Interim Executive Director and Board have put in place new internal policies and procedures and undertaken recruitment to increase the representation of people with lived experience of Chinese and East Asian heritage and culture within the organisation.