Our Grantees
Grantee Network
They come from all over Asia and the United States. They are today’s established masters in their fields and tomorrow’s rising stars. They are archeologists, architects, artisans, arts administrators, art critics, choreographers, composers, conceptual artists, conservators, craftspeople, dancers, film makers, installation artists, musicians, new media artists, painters, photographers, printmakers, sculptors, video artists, video conservators, and also artists and scholars whose work defies categorization. They are the carefully selected grantees of the Asian Cultural Council.
With the curatorial care and assistance of the ACC team, these artists work intensively, rise to new challenges, and discover the possibilities and implications of their work as experienced in entirely new and different settings. Each is defined by a singularly inspiring talent and vision, and each redefines the cultural landscape through meticulously crafted explorations and projects.
For almost 50 years, the ACC has nurtured over 6,000 artists. Here is a rich archive of their extraordinary work, which beautifully reflects our mission to provide meaningful cultural exchange and to create limitless, lifelong opportunities for artistic collaboration among our network of alumni grantees.
Grantees: 2012 (year)
American Folklore Society
United States2012 | Art History | China
Working in partnership with the Institute for Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou and the China Folklore Society in Beijing, the American Folklore society embarked on the inaugural year of the Forum on Intangible Cultural Heritage (FICH) professional exchange program in 2012 with the support of the ACC. This exchange program enables two folklorists from China to spend three weeks during summer or autumn in the U.S., and two folklorists from the U.S. to spend three weeks in China during that same period. Participants take part in a variety of activities, including visiting academic folklore programs, interacting with folklore scholars, visiting sites of ethnographic interest, and presenting their own work. The goals of the program are to identify future leaders of the folklore studies field and to provide them an opportunity to build ongoing professional connections. Accordingly, each exchange will combine experiences related to the participant's interests in the field with those that will introduce her or him to a selection of the major organizations and people in the country they are visiting.
Anying Chen
China2012 | Art History | United States
to participate in the Advanced Workshop in American Art History, to take place in New York City in August 2012.
Arts Initiative Tokyo
Japan2012 | Arts, General | Visual Art | Japan
ACC supported Syangini Ratnawulan and Duto Hardono from Indonesia, as well as Predeep Mishra and Mnam Apang from India, for their participation in the exhibition Home Again at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. Home Again is a group exhibition featuring pieces showing the artists development and how their experiences in Japan affected their art-making.
Nuri Aryati
Indonesia2012 | Arts Administration | Japan
ACC supported Mr. Aryati's participation in the Second Kobe-Asia Contemporary Dance Festival. The workshop provided an invaluable experience for Ms. Aryati and the development of an important network for her work in the future.
Triyono Bramantyo
Indonesia2012 | Music | United States
ACC supported Mr. Bramantyo while he was scholar-in-residence in the department of ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, one of the world's leading centers in the field, working under the direction of celebrated ethnomuiscologist Professor Sumarsam.
California College of Arts and Crafts
China2012 | Arts Administration | United States
ACC supported Zoe Butt, Executive Director and Curator of San Art, Vietnam's most active independent contemporary art space and reading room in Ho Chi Minh City, to be in residence at California College of the Arts as a guest faculty member in the program in curatorial practice. One of the driving forces behind San Art (founded in 2008 grantee Dinh Q. Le), Ms. Butt is one of the most respected young curators working in Southeast Asia. From 2007 to 2009 she was director of international programs for the Long March Project, a multi-platform, international artist organization and ongoing art project based in Beijing, China. From 2001 to 2007 she was Assistant Curator, Contemporary Asian Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia where she assisted in the development of the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT), key acquisitions for the Contemporary Asian Art collection, and other associated gallery programs. Ms. Butt's work with CCA students and faculty is a critical component within an overarching initiative to establish CCA as a center for the study of Contemporary Asian Visual Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Cambodian Living Arts
Cambodia2012 | Arts Administration | United States
ACC supported the professional development of Cambodian artists and administrators participating in Season of Cambodia, a multi-platform interdisciplinary arts and culture festival held in New York City in the spring of 2013. Cambodian Living Arts will bring Cambodian artists and cultural professionals to Brooklyn Academy of Music, Asia Society, and Lincoln Center among others throughout New York City. Season of Cambodia showcases creative artists of international reputation and influence, gives voice to important new works and practitioners, and celebrates the powerful and significant historical practices, art forms, and artifacts that continue to resonate today. Cambodia's cultural regeneration, fueled in part by the activities of a creative and deeply engaged Cambodian Diaspora, is also a key touchstone for the project.
Wally Cardona
United States2012 | Dance | Asia General
ACC provided support for Mr. Cardona's research trip to Asia that represents the first stage of development for a piece entitled, Honorific. Honorific revolves around choreographer Wally Cardona's deep interest in the potential of embodiment and transference. In the first stage, which Mr. Cardona conducted in Asia, master artists from Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, and India were invited to "make something," working with Mr. Cardona as the vehicle and medium. The resulting final product was shared with the public in a free performance. After his experience in Asia, Mr. Cardona brought material based on the Asian encounters to eight New York City based dancers as 'choreographic records' and served as building blocks for the completed work, Honorific.
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
United States2012 | Arts Administration | United States
to support the Voices from Japan program at teh Cathedral from June-August 2012.
Ting Yuen Timothy Chan
Hong Kong2012 | Music | United States
ACC funding allowed Mr. Chan to participate in the ten-week Aspen Music Festival and School, increasing his performance and training experience.
Chi Yuen Bobby Cheng
Hong Kong2012 | Music | United States
ACC funding allowed Mr. Cheng to participate in the ten-week Aspen Music Festival and School, increasing his performance and training experience.
Wei-Lun Chen
Taiwan2012 | Arts Administration | Japan
ACC provided Ms. Chen with a two-month grant to visit Japan to observe multi-institution biennials and other "wall-less museums" organized by private and public museums and arts institutions. Ms. Chen met with the organizers of events such as the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial and Setouchi International Art Festival in order to explore potential opportunities for future collaboration.
Hung Tammy Cheung
Hong Kong2012 | Film, Video, & Photography | United States
ACC funding allowed Ms. Cheung to travel to the U.S. to explore new film techniques and reconnect with the international network of documentary film while conducting research for her next film project. As a continuation of her previous work Secondary School (2002), which examined a Hong Kong high school and its context within the local education system, Ms. Cheung explored the U.S. education system in order to create a documentary film as a comparative piece.
Chankethya Chey
Cambodia2012 | Dance | United States
ACC support is allowing Ms. Chey to continue working towards a M.F.A. degree in Choreography under the Department of World Arts and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Seoungho Cho
United States2012 | Film, Video, & Photography | Cambodia
ACC provided funding to allow Mr. Cho to spend one month researching and shooting video at Angkor Wat in June 2012. With the footage and research he compiled, Mr. Cho produced a video series that has nothing but the ambience of Angkor Wat - a work not evocative of old myths nor even religion - a work that is a pure visual construction that conveys the temple's "enormous and incomprehensible energy."
City Contemporary Dance Company
United States2012 | Arts Administration | Hong Kong
to support the participation of Yu Cheng Chieh and Marianne Kim in the Jumping Frames International Dance Video Festival 2012.
Alexander Cortez
Philippines2012 | Theater | United States
ACC supported Mr. Cortez in his three-month intensive research period in New York, where he explored contemporary theater activities and brought back his knowledge of U.S. theatre culture to his students and colleagues in the Philippines.
Sonja Dahl
United States2012 | Arts, General | Indonesia
ACC provided funding for Ms. Dahl to spend six months researching Javanese batik and indigo use in Indonesia in 2012. While studying the history, symbology, mythology, and techniques related to Javanese textile arts, Ms. Dahl was invited to work with the Brahma Tirta Sari Batik Studio in Yogyakarta, where she had the opportunity to learn from renowned textile artists Nia Fliam and Agus Ismoyo. She also spent time at the Indonesian Visual Arts Archive, where she researched contemporary artists who use indigo in their work. Through these contacts, Ms. Dahl met a variety of contemporary and traditional batik practitioners. Many fiber-art programs in the U.S. are struggling to stay operational, and Ms. Dahl uses her research in Indonesia to bring a deeper level of culturally sensitive understanding to her teaching.
Wei Dai
China2012 | Theater | United States
ACC provided a six-month grant to observe trends and developments in new media and to research new-media curricula in U.S. universities. Mr. Dai researched interdisciplinary theater in the United States in order to redesign the new-media curriculum at Shaghai Theatre Academy and ultimately to invigorate traditional Chinese theater. He researched, observed, and trained in new techniques, and exchanged ideas with leading practitioners in his field during his stay in the U.S.
DanceWorks, Inc
United States2012 | Arts Administration | China
ACC funding supported American Dance Abroad's three part project to further introduce American dance to international presenters from Asia. First, to invite a group of six Asian presenters to the Guangdong Modern Dance Festival to see the American companies that have been invited to perform. Second, to augment that experience with a one-day symposium. The third element is to support travel for dance companies invited to perform at the Festival.