Chanika Svetvilas is an interdisciplinary artist who utilizes narrative and lived experience as a way to create safe spaces, to disrupt stereotypes and to reflect on contemporary issues as a cultural worker. Chanika will be joining HIVES as our keynote speaker this spring!

Chanika Svetvilas is an interdisciplinary artist who utilizes narrative and lived experience as a way to create safe spaces, to disrupt stereotypes and to reflect on contemporary issues as a cultural worker. Past projects include: collecting objects and stories that reflected an immigrant history from surrounding New York City communities for a commissioned window installation at the Tenement Museum; stationing a handbuilt mobile immigration booth on the streets of Brooklyn to survey the needs of English language learners with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund; and disseminating immigrant rights information with the youth program, Leadership Through the Arts for the Queens Museum. At The Ohio State University, she interviewed faculty, staff and students who self-identified with disability to speak about accessibility issues and the disability community on campus. Svetvilas is also the co-founder of ThaiLinks, a collective that was based in New York City dedicated to increasing awareness about Thai issues and the Thai American community and co-founder of the biennial Thai Takes film festival, the first Thai film festival in New York State.