Yale-China Arts Residency

In collaboration with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, and the David Geffen School of Drama (DGSD), the Yale-China Arts Residency supports collaborative, culturally relevant art in New Haven. The Residency aims to premiere innovative cross-cultural theater, facilitate collaboration across sectors in New Haven, and build international artist networks. Resident Artists, in tandem with Yale-China and the Festival, will work to facilitate cross-cultural, multi-generational learning by producing new art during a six-month period.

What is the Yale-China Arts Residency? 

The Yale-China Arts Residency is a unique opportunity for emerging professional artists at Yale's David Geffen School of Drama to create original work exploring Chinese culture. The residency supports the creation of new intercultural work that – in process and presentation – brings together students, artists, and audiences from New Haven, Yale, and the world. 

风・景 Windscape

Wind 风 is formless and invisible. Wind moves through branches, strikes surfaces, carries memory. In this installation, theatrical designers from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale are creating a space 景 that invites the audience to witness the cyclical rhythm of wind across generations. Visitors experience the evolution of the Chinese language across time as it is written and spoken, transferring movement, breath, history, and individual recollections. Wind travels, wind blows, and wind brings us to the next moment. What do we hear, feel, and remember when entering 风・景 Windscape?

The installation will run from June 19-22 at Yale School of Art Edgewood Gallery as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. More information can be found on the Arts & Ideas website.

Yale-China Artist Residency production by Jinling Duan, Aaron Frongillo, Qier Luo, and Yaya Zhang.

Jinling Duan 段珒苓 (Co-Creator/Sound Designer)

Jinling Duan (段珒苓) is a sound designer and composer from Guangdong, China. She holds a BFA in Sound Design from the Central Academy of Drama and is currently pursuing her MFA in Sound Design at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Jinling specializes in using sound as a narrative tool to craft immersive and emotionally resonant experiences. Her recent sound design credits include Witch (Yale Cabaret), while her work as a sound engineer includes Notes on Killing (Yale Repertory Theatre) and Metamorphoses (Yale School of Drama).

Aaron Frongillo (Project Manager)

Aaron Frongillo is a theatre maker originally from Franklin, MA. He is a current MFA candidate studying Technical Design & Production at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. He is also a graduate of Wagner College where he completed a double major of Theatre Performance and Design, Technology, & Management. He hopes you enjoy the exhibition!

Qier Luo 罗绮儿 (Co-Creator/Lighting Designer)

Qier Luo (罗绮儿) is a lighting designer and researcher originally from Zhejiang, China. She holds a bachelor’s degree in East Asian Languages and Culture from Bryn Mawr College. She is currently pursuing her second MFA in Lighting Design at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Recent lighting design credit includes Coriolanus (Yale), Apologiae 4 & 5 (Yale Cabaret); China Based design: Sanctuary (Shenzhen), A Statue of a Woman Doing Chores (Shanghai), Midnight Movie (Aranya), To Be Buried (Shanghai and Guangzhou); New York-based design: Rooftop Somnambulism (Brooklyn), Venus (Waterwall Productions), The Tenants (NYWF). Philadelphia-based design: Ship (Azuka Theatre), King Lear (Hepburn Theater), Fear Babies (Headlong Institute), Milky Way (The Fidget Space). Bloomington-based design credits include Wonderful Town, The Heiress, Julius Caesar, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, and Prospect Hill. 

Yaya Zhang 张文瑾 (Co-Creator/Visual Designer)

Yaya Zhang (张文瑾) is a set designer from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, born and raised in Nanjing, China. Her journey began with a deep love for drawing and a fascination with how space holds memory and emotion. She is drawn to stories that live between cultures—where language falters and feeling begins. At Yale, she seeks to unlearn limits and reframe Chinese aesthetics through fresh forms and gestures. She believes in theater as a collaborative act of empathy—an art of listening, shaping, and trusting. Her work searches for quiet clarity in complexity and connection across distance.

Arts Residency Partners