Bill Nguyen appointed Director
Nguyen Art Foundation (NAF) is pleased to announce that Bill Nguyen has been appointed as its Director. From January 2022 onwards, he will be leading the Foundation with Founder Quynh Nguyen and Board of advisors.
Well-respected within the arts community, Bill Nguyen (b. 1988, Hanoi) has taken up a wide range of roles and contributed through multiple trajectories, engaging as an artist, curator, writer, educator and cultural entrepreneur. As co-founder, he opened Manzi Art Space in 2012, a non-profit art organization known for its dynamic programming that celebrates both the traditional and the experimental. Before that Bill worked as an educator for Hanoi Doclab – Center for Documentary Films and the Moving Image, co-designing and facilitating educational workshops for artists and filmmakers. Additionally, he has collaborated with the distinguished artist-run Nha San Collective as a guest curator on various projects, such as ’Skylines With Flying People’, ‘IN:ACT Performance Art Festival’ and ‘Emerging Artists Program’. In recent years, as a member of the curatorial team at The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Bill has further concretized his commitment to developing locally-driven platforms for curation and spaces for the arts, through outstanding projects that build bridges between art, cultural traditions, past histories and current affairs, such as ‘Re-Aligning the Cosmos’, ‘Pollination’ and ’Spirit of Friendship’.
“We chose Bill Nguyen for his rich experiences, his excellent leadership qualities and most of all, for his multifaceted perspectives, having both built grass-roots, independent art organizations and platforms, and worked with prestigious art institutions throughout Vietnam,” states Quynh Nguyen, Founder of NAF. “With his enthusiastic dedication and inspiring vision, we are confident that Bill will bring a breath of fresh air to the Foundation, as well as supporting us to further our mission and contribution towards the nurturing and development of the Vietnamese art scene.”
On his recent appointment, Bill shares: “I am honored by the trust the Nguyen Art Foundation has placed in me. I believe that valuable works of art – or rather, valuable practices in the arts – not only trace and preserve the histories of yesteryears, but also strive to record and reflect on the complexities of the time and contexts we live in today, in the hope that changes for the future can be imagined and realized. To continue this ethos through my work with the Foundation, I am looking forward to diversifying the discussions and research surrounding the artworks in its collection, and maximizing the potential and sustainability of its long-term development and educational projects for our arts community and public. In doing so, I hope to assist the Foundation in writing its own chapter in the history of Vietnamese art, securing its unique position and extending its influence both in Vietnam and far beyond.”