Liyen C.

About Liyen C.

I am an artist, community organizer, and arts advocate who secured a 1.25-million-dollar Mellon grant within six months of working at an organization with an operating budget of 4 million.The work of resource mobilization combines my passion for empowering communities towards just outcomes, my expertise in storytelling, and my love of connecting and gathering people together for a common cause. My arts advocacy work stems from my desire as an artist to empower communities to reclaim arts and culture as a birthright. In 2020 I co-founded Arts Accountability Houston along with local artists to ensure artists had a voice in public arts funding. I have been involved in county, city, state-and-national-level discussions on arts funding beginning in 2021, and I am an alumni of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Advocacy Leadership Institute training which concluded in Washington D.C. I initially established myself as an artist in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and my artworks can be found in prominent public and private collections in Aotearoa, New Zealand, Australia, and the U.S.

Experience

1. Development Manager

   Movement Strategy Center

   Jun 2025 — Present · Oakland, CA, US

Education

• University of Canterbury

  BFA, Painting

• University of Canterbury

  MFA, Graphic Design

Skills

• Career Development
• Fine Art
• Painting
• Art History
• Lecturing
• Museums
• Studio Art
• Drawing
• Photography
• Higher Education
• Printmaking
• Public Art
• Art
• Graphic Design
• Branding & Identity
• Contemporary Art
• Galleries
• Art Education
• Sculpture
• Teaching
• Research
• Visual Arts
• Arts Administration