Common Names is a youth-led art initiative founded by Cici Zhu, a young artist and recent resident in the U.S., who is exploring how creative expression can become a way to reflect, release, and reconnect.

Open to people of all ages and backgrounds, the project responds to the emotional complexities that surface through cultural transition, personal growth, and experiences of disconnection. It creates quiet, open-ended spaces — where individuals can engage with private thoughts, moments of uncertainty, or unspoken feelings.

Through drawing, writing, spatial storytelling, and gentle forms of community-building, Common Names builds a collaborative platform that expands organically over time. At its heart, the project does not seek resolution, but presence — offering a space where solitude meets resonance, and where honest expression becomes a bridge between the self and the shared.