FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Five U.S. Artists Awarded 2024-25 U.S.-Japan Creative Artist Fellowship

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Five U.S. Artists Awarded 2024-25 U.S.-Japan Creative Artist Fellowship

MEDIA CONTACT (UNITED STATES): Ms. Niharika Chibber Joe njoe[at]jusfc[dot]gov

MEDIA CONTACT (JAPAN): Ms. Manami Maeda mmaeda[at]I-house[dot]or[dot]jp

Five Distinguished U.S. Artists Awarded 2024-25 U.S.-Japan Creative Artist Fellowship

Washington, D.C.—The Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC) and the National Endowment for the Arts are pleased to announce the selection of five artistic teams for the 2024-2025 U.S.-Japan Creative Artist Fellowship Program. Each team of artists from the United States and Japan will work together on a project (for a total of five projects) that showcases the innovation and creativity that stems from the mutual understanding between the United States and Japan. These art projects will be showcased at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan.

“We are delighted to announce the 2024-25 U.S.-Japan artistic teams for the Creative Artists Fellowship Program,” said Paige Cottingham-Streater, JUSFC’s Executive Director. “As this program enters its 50th year, we are grateful for our longstanding partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). JUSFC and NEA remain committed to fostering cultural and artistic dialogue between the United States and Japan.”

“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to continue its decades-long partnership with the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “At a time when the importance of connection and understanding is so evident, we are pleased to offer this invaluable experience of community and creative exchange for all the artists selected. I look forward to seeing their projects come to fruition and be showcased at the United States Pavilion at the Osaka World Expo.”

The five teams of artists will each receive a $25,000 fellowship award and up to $2,500 for travel. The teams’ projects range across artistic disciplines, from architecture and dance to textile and fiber art and visual arts, and explore subjects including harmony with nature, loss, and the exchange of ideas and culture through dance.

The U.S. fellows are:

The Japanese artists are:

  • Benika Mochizuki, Performing Artist (Akashi, Hyogo) collaborating with J’Sun Howard
  • Mieko Kawakami, Writer (Tokyo) collaborating with Jennifer Jancuska
  • Mariko Kobayashi, Textile Artist (Tokyo) collaborating with Andrea Myers
  • Kira Matsubara-Dane, Filmmaker and illustrate (Yoshino, Nara) collaborating with Katelyn Rebelo
  • Tamotsu Teshima, Architect and Educator (Tokyo) collaborating with Daniel Blau Spiegel & Megumi Aihara

Since 1978, the Japan-US Friendship Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts have worked with the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan and the International House of Japan (I-House) to organize the U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Fellowship Program. This collaborative version of the Program was first launched during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games to promote U.S.-Japan artistic exchange, mutual understanding and to highlight the “collaborative team” approach of the Games.

About the Japan-United States Friendship Commission:  The Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission is a U.S. federal government agency. The Commission was established as an independent federal government agency by the United States Congress (P.L. 94-118) in 1975 to strengthen the U.S.-Japan relationship through educational, cultural, and intellectual exchange. JUSFC is a grant-making agency that supports research, education, public affairs and exchange with Japan. Its mission is to support reciprocal people-to-people understanding and promote partnerships that advance common interests between Japan and the United States. The Commission also serves to maintain expertise on Japan Studies throughout U.S. academic and professional institutions.

About the National Endowment for the Arts: Established by Congress in 1965, the NEA is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. Visit http://www.arts.gov to learn more about NEA.

 

 

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