Thank You No Thank You

Laos In The House Founder & Creative Director, Catzie Vilayphonh, along with Asian Arts Initiative presents “Thank You No Thank You”, a community-based exhibition.

Our first exhibition in 2015 featured all Lao artists of various backgrounds.

2020 marks the 45th year anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, a significant date for the Southeast Asian diaspora of Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian refugees who fled their homelands from the conflicts. Resettled in America, they now call home the very country which helped destroy their own.

For those refugees living here whose displacement is also the result of U.S. policies, America represents being “home” and “homeless.” “Thank You, No Thank You” is a statement reflecting the expectations of being a “good immigrant” and not “ungrateful refugee.”

Submissions are open to people of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds who identify as Southeast Asian refugees of the Vietnam War, or who have familial connections to those communities at large - we are really hoping to see some Lao/tian names here!

For more information about "Thank You, No Thank You" exhibition and the call for artists, read here.