Dana Heng

Dana Heng is an artist who identifies strongly with place. She was raised in Providence, and attended NUA as a student during her years at Classical High School in 2007-2011. She attended the University of Vermont, where she studied sociology and studio art, explored the rural landscape, and also curated arts and music events with regional creators. She has since dabbled in several youth development non-profits, alternative education programs, and grassroots organizing. She received the 2019 RISD Museum Fellowship.

Her major creative interests are dependent to the context of and interaction to the place and community which surrounds her, and this usually manifests in mixed media, collaborative projects, political art, or even heavily orchestrated dinner parties! A six-month stint in the socially isolating, barren land of Arizona helped balance the hectic and overwhelming aspect of social art-making, and she was able to develop her creative practice to focus inward, thinking about how her experiences in the desert intersects with family and identity. She rerooted in Providence, where she mentored photography at NUA in 2016. Now she is the Painting and Drawing RAM at NUA! Her current creative practice remains interdisciplinary and in interaction with the community. Some of her best works can be found in a perfectly cooked pot of jasmine rice, on dinner plates, and in happy bellies.