Cultural Exchange
Connecting on the wall.
Murals create a shared working language: artists, students, and communities learn together while making something permanent in public space.
Hà Nội · Vietnam
Learning across cultures.
In January 2025, Aden Catalani collaborated with Nguyễn Dan Huy, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ba Đình Ward in Hà Nội, to develop a 10-by-75-foot mural celebrating the city’s culinary traditions.
The work formed part of a larger cultural redevelopment initiative and included hands-on mentorship with local artists, community members, Vietnamese high-school art students, and American Vietnam War veteran Nguyễn Anh Tuấn.
The experience helped shape the educational model that would later become Pacific Mural Exchange.
Cultural exchange
Pathways in both directions.
Pacific Mural Exchange’s cultural-exchange vision is to create pathways for artists to learn across cultures through the shared development and production of mural art. As the program grows, PME intends to bring its education, mentorship, technology, project planning, and professional mural-development model into partnerships with communities outside the United States.
The long-term goal is to create a reciprocal exchange. Artists from Portland and the surrounding region would have opportunities to travel internationally, work alongside local artists, and help develop murals within other cultures. In return, artists from those partner communities would have pathways to come to Portland, collaborate on public-art projects, and experience how murals are developed and produced within our culture.
These exchanges would not be based on bringing a predetermined artistic vision from one place to another. Each project would be developed collaboratively, with local artists and communities guiding the cultural context, stories, and meaning of the work. By creating pathways in both directions, PME seeks to build lasting relationships, expand creative perspectives, and give artists meaningful hands-on opportunities to learn from one another through mural art.