JACCC to Receive $140,000 in Two Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts 

The Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC) has been approved for two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

The first grant is a $125,000 Our Town award, which will allow us to work with partners Los Angeles City Council District 14 and Sustainable Little Tokyo to support community engagement activities and the installation of permanent public art in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo's Toriumi Plaza. This is one of 57 grants nationwide, totaling $4,175,000, that the NEA has approved in the Our Town category. These creative placemaking grants support projects that integrate arts, culture, and design activities into local efforts to strengthen and authentically engage communities, center equity, advance artful lives, and lay the groundwork for long-term systems change. 

The second is a $15,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support the music event, “Kankyō Ongaku,” whose title refers to a mix of minimal, avant-garde, and New Age music. Emerging in the 1980s in Japan, kankyō ongaku opened up new ways of using sounds to invoke a natural, introspective environment amidst the urban settings of daily life. JACCC’s pandemic healing program will highlight this music and provide a relaxing environment for those in attendance, including older adults of Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo neighborhood. JACCC’s project is among 1,130 projects across the country, totaling more than $31 million, that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2023 funding.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is pleased to support a wide range of projects, including JACCC’s Our Town and ‘Kankyō Ongaku,’ demonstrating the many ways the arts enrich our lives and contribute to healthy and thriving communities,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, Ph.D. “These organizations play an important role in advancing the creative vitality of our nation and helping to ensure that all people can benefit from arts, culture, and design.”

“We are honored to receive two awards from the National Endowment for the Arts,” said Patricia Wyatt, JACCC President & CEO. “As we emerge from the pandemic, this funding recognizes the work we have been doing to uplift the community through arts and culture. Programs like these allow us to celebrate and share our cultural heritage, and help ensure the Little Tokyo neighborhood will be vibrant for many generations to come.” 

For more information on other projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

Founded in 1972, the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC) is one of the largest ethnic arts and cultural centers of its kind in the United States. The Japanese American Cultural & Community Center weaves Japanese and Japanese American arts and culture into the fabric of our communities. JACCC remains firmly rooted in Little Tokyo, providing a vital place to build connections between people and cultures, locally and internationally. Through inclusive programs and authentic experiences, we continue our living traditions and nurture the next generation of innovative artists, culture-bearers, and thinkers.

Contact

Carolina Roque, Manager of Development & Marketing

croque@jaccc.org