NEW YORK, USA — The Asian Cultural Council (ACC) announced its 2023 fellowship and grant recipients, awarding 30 grants totaling more than $750,000 in its four programs: New York Fellowships, Individual Fellowships (international), Graduate Scholarships, and Organization and Project Grants. The multi-faceted support provides artists, scholars, and arts professionals with funding and opportunities for research and cultural exchange between Asia and the U.S.
The ten 2023 New York Fellows are from China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan. During their six-month New York City-based stays, the artists pursue a diversity of projects, from targeted research to open-ended explorations. With logistical and programmatic support provided by ACC staff, Fellows are connected with peers and ACC alumni, travel, and seek new experiences. Since ACC’s founding 60 years ago, these activities have nurtured mutual understanding that is globally impactful, expanded individual artistic practices and activities, contributed to new scholarship, and allowed grantees to share their experiences with their communities and beyond.
Grants to 18 Individual Fellows, either single parties or two collaborators, enable the recipients to spend between one to six months traveling and undertaking self-directed research in the U.S. and Asia.
The 2023 awardees were selected by panels of esteemed professionals in the performing and visual arts assembled by ACC’s international offices in Hong Kong, Manila, Taipei, and Tokyo. Awardees represent ACC’s 16 eligible disciplines: Archaeology, Architecture, Art History, Arts Administration, Arts Criticism, Conservation, Crafts, Curation, Dance, Ethnomusicology, Film/Video/Photography, Literature, Museum Studies, Music, Theater, and Visual Arts.
ACC Executive Director Judy Kim said, “This year’s cohort of grantees embodies a wellspring of creative expression. By expanding their artistic and scholarly pursuits through the transformative experience of cultural immersion, exploration, and discovery, they exemplify ACC’s core mission of advancing international dialogue, enabling cultural exchange, and fostering empathy. ACC grants provide the elusive commodities of time and space, lessen financial burdens, offer support as grantees navigate new cities, and allow them to freely chart their own course.”
The application process reopens in November 2023, including grants for U.S.-based artists and scholars to travel to Asia.
Highlights of New York Fellowships:
Corinne De San Jose | Visual Art | Philippines
A self-taught multi-disciplinary artist and film sound designer, Corinne plans to research contemporary sound art, specifically sound art as site-specific installations, as well as public art around New York City.
Jun Yin Lam (JUN LI 李駿碩) | Film | Hong Kong
An award-winning filmmaker and playwright, Jun (JUN LI 李駿碩) will research African-American and Asian-American visual and performing arts, study films that are not shown and distributed in Hong Kong, and engage with other filmmakers.
Yu Cheng-Ta | Visual Art | Taiwan
Yu is a multimedia artist who will explore the diverse and complex multiculturalism in New York within contemporary media through social observations on Asian issues, social classes, and international politics, thereby nurturing a second artistic identity, the interdisciplinary and performative persona of FAMEME.
Highlights of Individual Fellowships:
Yuki Kobayashi | Visual Art | Japan → Hong Kong | six months
Yuki, known for his action-based performances, will conduct research on the Chinese martial art Wing Chun, material inaccessible in Japan, to help develop a long-term project, as well as engage in cultural exchange with Hong Kong-based performance artists and Wing Chun practitioners.
Lin On Yeung | Visual Art | Hong Kong → U.S. | two months
Award-winning publisher and editor, Lin will investigate artists’ books and different forms of indie publishing culture in New York and beyond, network with and gain insights from American counterparts, and investigate the development of printed books as an art form.
Madoka Mori | Music | Japan → U.S. | four months
Through her fellowship, composer Madoka aims to discover a new language of music by absorbing different influences in New York City’s multicultural milieu; learn about socially engaged art, the current focus of her activities; and build a network to help realize a global collaboration project.
Maria Christine Muyco | Ethnomusicology | Philippines→ U.S., Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia | four months
Composer, ethnomusicologist, and educator Maria (ACC 2010) will conduct a series of ethno-music/dance workshops in New York to reinforce cultural expression and community exchange among participants and members of Southeast Asian organizations in New York. These collaborative experiences will be documented and eventually published in a book with shared authorship.
ACC Graduate Scholarships are awarded to a select number of international students from ACC-eligible countries who have received admission to degree-granting graduate programs in the U.S. ACC prioritizes applicants who pursue study abroad opportunities because comparable programs are not available in the applicant’s home country and/or whose fields are under-represented in their home countries. Scholarship awards support living expenses but do not cover tuition assistance. The 2023 recipient is Chinese dancer and choreographer Zelia ZZ Tan who will pursue an MFA degree at the California Institute of the Arts with a double major in Interactive Media for Choreography (School of Dance) and Performance (School of Theater).
Organization and Project Grants are awarded to support cultural exchange opportunities for individual project participants in collaboration with organizations. Host organizations offer residency, peer-to-peer exchanges, performances, and public programs to facilitate project participants engagement with the public or creative communities. The 2023 recipient is Office Alb, based in Japan and led by choreographer/dancer Akiko Kitamura. Support will enable exchange and international collaboration among artists from Southeast and South Asia. Japanese artists led by Kitamura and local artists from the Philippines, India, and Indonesia will collaborate to conduct fieldwork and workshops together.
