Composer and sound artist Leo Chang and interdisciplinary artist Chang Yuchen have been named Princeton University Arts Fellows for 2026-2028 by the Lewis Center for the Arts, and will begin two years of teaching and community collaboration at the University in September.

The Arts Fellows program provides support for early-career artists who have demonstrated both extraordinary promise and a record of achievement in their fields, with the opportunity to further their work while teaching within a liberal arts context. Fellows are selected for a two-year residency to teach a course each semester or, in lieu of a course, to undertake an artistic assignment that deeply engages undergraduate students, such as directing a play, conducting a musical ensemble, or choreographing a dance piece. Fellows are expected to be active members of the University’s intellectual and artistic community while in residence and, in return, they are provided with the resources and spaces necessary for their work.

The two artists were selected by faculty in the Lewis Center for the Arts and Princeton’s Department of Music from a pool of more than 1,300 applicants in creative writing, dance, music, theater, and the visual arts.

Chang is a Korean experimental musician, improviser, composer, and sound artist based in New York City. Informed by his transient lived experience, Chang plays with sounds, instruments, forms, and social practices outside of their original context. He does so using electronic audio processing and sound design, performance, individual and group improvisation, graphical notation, and text scores. Since 2019, he has been focused on building electronic performance setups derived from Korean folk practices and instruments.

Yuchen’s work is interdisciplinary, such as writing as weaving, drawing as translation, teaching as hospitality, commerce as social experiment, and publishing, which she describes as “a dandelion spreading its seeds.” She has shown or performed her work at Walker Art Center, Pioneer Works, Beijing Commune, Carnegie Museum of Art, Amant, Artists Space, Para Site, and Taikwun Contemporary. She was an artist-in-residence at Triangle, Smack Mellon, Asymmetry Art Foundation, MASS MoCA, Museum of Art and Design, and Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.

“At this moment, the power of the arts to build community and further our humanity matters more than ever,” said Stacy Wolf, director of fellowships and professor of theater and American studies. “Selected from an exceptionally strong pool of applicants, Leo and Yuchen are brilliant, groundbreaking artists and teachers who will surely transform Princeton students, faculty, staff, and the larger community. We’re thrilled to support their work for the next two years.”

The next round of Fellowship applications will open in July with a mid-September deadline, seeking applications from dance, music, and theater artists. Guidelines will be posted on the Lewis Center website at arts.princeton.edu.