Clara Weng

Clara Weng is a private banker at HSBC. She has been selected as this year’s recipient for her contribution to Toronto’s multicultural art scene as the President of Emerging Young Artists, an organization that has been building a borderless community of and for the up-and-coming artists from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Clara joined EYA in its early stage and assumed the President’s role in 2016. She has since grown the organization from 10 to 35 active volunteers, now working in six departments with weekly goals.

Clara has a strong belief and a passion for bringing positive social impact of art and culture on communities. As a volunteer at United Planet, she went to Nepal in 2017 to deliver an art-therapy program for abused youth and stayed to train new volunteers to continue this project that she had started.

As President of EYA, she and her team have successfully obtained grants from Toronto and Ontario Arts Councils every year and produced nine signature art projects, in forms of art exhibitions, concerts and music festivals. In delivering these projects, Clara plays a pivotal role in seeking collaborations and building partnerships with local and international organizations. In total, EYA has connected over 300 young artists and showcased 89 of them from 26 nations. EYA also organizes workshops and provides a creative coding program through collaboration with first-class art institutions outside of Canada.

Clara believes that fusion is important both artistically and socially and endeavours to explore the role of art in stimulating dialogue, facilitating cross-cultural understanding and strengthening transnational community.