Taiwanese-American New Orleans-based artist Candy Chang challenges the conventional perception of public space and its role in our well-being as a community and as individuals. Renowned for interactive public installations that provoke civic engagement and emotional introspection, her work has examined issues from criminal justice and the future of vacant buildings to personal aspirations and anxieties. Her participatory public art project Before I Die has been recreated in over 70 countries, including Iraq, China, Haiti, Brazil, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and South Africa. Projects include a vacant high-rise pleading for love, a confessional sanctuary in a Las Vegas casino, a site-specific fable in an apartment complex, and a public wall for personal aspirations.

Chang’s work has been exhibited in the Venice Architecture Biennale; the New Museum, New York; Tate Modern, London; The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York. She is a recipient of the TED Senior Fellowship, the Tulane University Urban Innovation Fellowship, the Art Production Fund Artist Residency, and a Black Rock Arts Foundation grant. She was named one of the Top 100 Leaders in Public Interest Design by Impact Design Hub, a “Live Your Best Life” Local Hero by Oprah Magazine, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.