Lily Yeh papers
name: label: Creator
content: Yeh, Lily
label: Names
content: Village of Arts and Humanities
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
label: Occupation
content: Educators -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Asian American artists
label: Topic
content: Arts in prisons
label: Topic
content: Women painters
label: Topic
content: Women educators
label: Topic
content: Asian American muralists
label: Topic
content: Mural painting and decoration
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The collection was donated in 2022 and 2024 by Lily Yeh.
creator: label: Creator
content: Yeh, Lily
setName: label: See more items in
content: Lily Yeh papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of Lily Yeh measure 2.0 linear feet and 61.69 gigabytes and date from 1988 to 2024. The papers document Yeh's career as a painter, educator, and social reformer through prison project files consisting primarily of correspondence with inmates at Bellefonte, Graterford, and other Pennsylvania prisons; and files documenting the exhibition Unimaginable Isolation: Stories from Graterford Prison including correspondence, photographs of the exhibition and the artists and artwork included, and printed material about the exhibition. Also included are digital files related to Lily Yeh's work with Village of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, Chong An and Dandelion projects in China, and South Sudan and Rwanda Healing projects in Africa.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Lily Yeh (1941- ) is a painter and educator based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is the founder and director of The Village of the Arts and Humanities, a community arts organization in North Philadelphia.

Yeh was born in Guizhou, China in 1941, grew up in Taiwan, and immigrated to the United States in 1933, completing her studies at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts. She was a professor of painting and art history at Philadelphia's University of the Arts from 1968 until 1998. In 1986 she began working with local residents to create a park in an abandoned lot in North Philadelphia, transforming the space into an art park where in 1989 she founded The Village of Arts and Humanities. Dedicated to neighborhood revitalization through the arts, the Village ran art, writing, and theater programs, and published a magazine, "The North Philadelphian." Through community presentations and letter writing programs between young people and prisoners from the Philadelphia area, many of whom had been imprisoned for life without parole as teenagers and young adults, Yeh facilitated the sharing of life experiences and the circumstances that could lead to arrest and incarceration. She sought to encourage young people to stay in schools, express themselves through art, and contribute positively to their communities. In addition, Yeh corresponded with prisoners about their interests in art and writing, ran workshops and art classes for inmates, and held exhibitions at Bellefonte, Graterford, and other prisons in Pennsylvania. 

Yeh began collaborating with the prisoner-run organization Lifer's Incorporated at Graterford Prison in 1997. She worked with Graterford inmates to organize and curate the exhibition Unimaginable Isolation: Stories from Graterford Prison. The exhibition and related events traveled to various locations in the Philadelphia area from 2001-2002.


Yeh expanded her vision globally, collaborating on art projects with residents of the Korogocho slum near Nairobi and pursuing similar projects in Ghana, Ecuador, The Ivory Coast and the Republic of Georgia. Through the Rwanda Healing Project she worked with survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide to transform a village, and worked with the children of migrant workers in China to establish the Dandelion School.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 61.69 Gigabytes
label: Extent
content: 2 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1988-2024
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.yehlily
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Gigabytes
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as four series.

Series 1: Prison Projects, 1988-2024 (2.0 linear feet, 56.51 Gigabytes; Boxes 1-2, OVs 3-10, ER001-ER031)

Series 2: Village of the Arts, 1994-2002 ( 0.279 Gigabytes; ER032-ER037, ER050-ER053)

Series 3: Asia Projects, 2007-2019 (2.88 Gigabytes; ER038-ER049, ER073)

Series 4: Africa Projects, 2005-2021 (2.02 Gigabytes; ER054-ER072)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared by Ricky Gomez 2024. The collection was prepared for digitization and the finding aid updated by Stephanie Ashley in 2025, and the papers were digitized in 2025 with funding provided by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Born-digital material in the collection was processed in 2025 by Ricky Gomez.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: The bulk of the collection was digitized in 2025 and is available on the Archives of American Art website. Items not digitized include blank versos of photographs and the full text of some publications for which only covers and/or relevant pages have been digitized. The banners, except for one, have not been digitized due to size.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of Lily Yeh measure 2.0 linear feet and 61.69 gigabytes and date from 1988 to 2024. The papers document Yeh's career as a painter, educator, and social reformer through prison project files consisting primarily of correspondence with inmates at Bellefonte, Graterford, and other Pennsylvania prisons; and files documenting the exhibition Unimaginable Isolation: Stories from Graterford Prison including correspondence, photographs of the exhibition and the artists and artwork included, and printed material about the exhibition. 

Records reveal Yeh's relationship with multiple inmates and her encouragement of their interests in art and writing. They include letters from prisoners sharing life experiences with Yeh and with the young adults participating in the Village of Arts and Humanities programs, and include art produced by prisoners in the form of poems, plays, sketches, sketchbooks, and banners. Born digital material includes additional inmate correspondence, photographs of inmate artwork, and videos of inmate interviews and performances at Graterford.

Village of the Arts material is all digital and consists of project descriptions and artist statements, article interviews and questionaires with Yeh, award speeches by Yeh, commemoration for German Wilson, and images of mural creations by participants.

Asia projects material is all digital, and focuses on Yeh's work with the Chong An Project and the Dandelion Project. Materials consist of project descriptions, production of a calendar for Dandelion Project, images from workshops and mural creations, videos, and some correspondence and participant comments and reviews. Some of the material for the Dandelion Project is in Chinese.

Africa projects material is all digital, and it focuses on Yeh's work with the Rwanda Healing Project and South Sudan Project. Material consists of project statements and descriptions, speeches, comments by participants, correspondence, videos, and images. Some of the project descriptions for the Rwanda Healing Project are in Spanish.