
Lunar New Year 2025
Saturday & Sunday, February 15 & 16, 2025
800 Grant Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94108
* free and open to public
Artists: Dragon Papa, Jade Wu, and City Studio
About
It's the year of the wood snake!
Lunar New Year is coming to Chinatown and Edge is excited to share more contemporary art activities with you during this festive season of beginnings. Celebrations, rituals, and artistic expressions marking the Lunar New Year bring powerful reflections of API cultural identity, shaping the way we understand ourselves and our shared histories.
At Edge, we believe art is a dynamic force for storytelling, blending tradition with innovation to honor the legacies of the past while envisioning a bold future. The Lunar New Year traditions of San Francisco’s Chinatown embody this spirit, offering a vibrant expression of communal narratives, cultural heritage, and intergenerational connection.
This year, Edge joins the community in hosting an array of activities to celebrate the Lunar New Year throughout Chinatown!
Artisanal Candy Making with Dragon Papa
Dragon's Beard Candy, a 2,000-year-old artisan Chinese dessert, traces its origins back to the Han Dynasty, where it was served to Chinese royalty. Its name is derived from the thin, feathery threads that cling to the chin when consumed, resembling a dragon's beard. Dragon Papa will be demonstrating how to recreate this delectable treat.
Red Envelope Paper Art-Making by Jade Wu
Jade Wu (伍玉珍) is a recognized artist specializing in red-envelope art, celebrated as the Creative Red Envelope Lantern and Fans Competition Champion and Outstanding Overseas Chinese Honoree. Her work includes community-centered teaching, offering red-envelope art workshops at schools and senior centers, and designing annual Lunar New Year decorations for the California State Building.
Screen Printing with City Studio
City Studio is an intergenerational art project that fosters creativity and community growth. Run by artists and educators Amy Berk and Chris Treggiari, City Studio works to bring activism and art to youth in the Bay Area while bridging communities through public art projects. They will conduct printmaking activities as, hopefully, a connection point to fellow youth, artists, and community.
These two-day Lunar New Year events are free and open to the public. All are welcome to join the Chinatown community in ushering in the new year!




About Dragon Papa
Derek Tam, a fifth-generation candy-maker in San Francisco's Chinatown and owner of Dragon Papa, is one of five candy-makers in the United States, and the last in the Bay Area, who possess the expertise to craft the intricate confection: Dragon’s Beard Candy.
About Jade Wu
Jade Wu (伍玉珍) is a recognized artist specializing in red-envelope art, celebrated as the Creative Red Envelope Lantern and Fans Competition Champion and Outstanding Overseas Chinese Honoree. Her work includes community-centered teaching, offering red-envelope art workshops at schools and senior centers, and designing annual Lunar New Year decorations for the California State Building. She has also contributed her artistry to the Lunar New Year Parade and Autumn Moon Festival, showcasing her dedication to preserving Chinese traditions.
Beyond her artistry, Ms. Wu worked as a Field Representative for Assemblymember Phil Ting, where she was honored with a Resolution award for 20 years of service to API and Chinese American communities. She has bridged the gap between the state government and the Chinese community on key issues like education, housing, and healthcare. Deeply devoted to Chinese culture, Ms. Wu embodies traditional virtues of respecting the elderly and loving the young, leaving a lasting impact through her creativity and advocacy.
About City Studio
City Studio uses mentorship as a program pillar that gives important learning and experiential project outcomes. With screen printing and public art programs taught by founders Amy Berk and Chris Treggiari, they provide teaching opportunities and community support to local artists and arts educators. These programs aim to provide opportunities for artists to earn a living
wage and gain valuable teaching experience while receiving mentorship from Amy and Chris. Integral to the City Studio team are teen mentors that are a crucial part of the program. Many have been students for several semesters and they work with the younger teachers while acting as teen leaders for the projects. This partnership creates a robust intergenerational ecosystem that serves to empower and uplift everyone involved.
Chris Treggiari’s artistic practice strives to investigate how art can enter the public realm in a way that can engage people in our communities. Chris focuses on highlighting diverse community experiences, histories, and personal stories through participatory, mobile platforms that encourage exploration from the viewer. Often these participatory platforms entail creative methods, which aim to turn the passive viewer into an active art maker who can participate in sharing their personal voice in a community dialogue. Chris has shown internationally including the Venice Biennale 2012 American Pavilion as well as nationally at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the San Jose Museum of Art, and The Oakland Art Museum to name a few.
Amy Berk is an artist and art educator who taught at the San Francisco Art Institute from 2006-2022, serving as Chair for the Contemporary Practice program from 2011 to 2013. She directs the award-winning City Studio program which engages underserved youth in their own neighborhoods through sequenced art classes that are both rigorous and joyous. She has shown her work internationally, was one of the founders of the web journal stretcher.org and the artist group TWCDC.com. Since 2019 she and Chris Treggiari have collaborated on ARTIVATE which creates opportunities for youth to explore artmaking and citizenship in the public sphere.