Grantee Database

Seiko HIHARA

• 2026
• Visual Art
• Japan to Vietnam

To conduct research across Vietnam on the history of ethnic embroidery, the social role of handicrafts and handwork, and labor in the garment industry. Hihara’s research has a particular focus on tailoring traditions and individual craftsmanship developed during the French colonial period, which have become obscured within contemporary industrial systems. She will also carry out interviews with workers who have experience working in Japan, examining the structures embedded in textile production and handwork in relation to historical and social contexts. She will further examine the transformation of minority embroidery practices into the souvenir economy in the north and, through engagement with local communities, reflect on the structures embedded in textiles, seeking to make visible what remains unseen in Japanese society.

Michelle HỒ

• 2026
• Literature
• United States to Vietnam

To build relationships with local writers, study poetry, and research contemporary literary trends in Vietnam. Hồ hopes to learn about how the poetics of contemporary Vietnamese writers are being formed in an increasingly globalized literary world dominated by English and Western ideologies. By connecting with established and emerging writers and literature professors, she will examine how histories of colonialism, imperialism, and war have shaped the literary landscape, and how various generations in Vietnam have navigated literary production, publishing, and community-building under these conditions. Hồ also plans to attend and host workshops and informal gatherings through which she can cultivate meaningful relationships and opportunities for collaboration with members of Saigon’s literary scene.

Phu HOANG

• 2026
• Architecture
• United States to Vietnam

To examine architectural and cultural links between urban tube houses and rural communal houses in Vietnam. Hoang’s fellowship investigates relationships between these two foundational building types that link domestic and civic life and embody centuries of cultural adaptation, social hierarchy, and climatic response. Through site visits, archival research, and interviews with architects, researchers, homeowners, and community members, Hoang will explore how spatial practices express climate adaptation and shape social and familial life. Hoang’s research aims to deepen cross-cultural dialogue around climate-responsive design and trace how these enduring forms continue to shape architectural thought.

Jessica Su-Yin KWOK

• 2026
• Curation
• United States to Indonesia, Vietnam

To research feminist historiography, performance, and time-based practices in Indonesia and Vietnam. Kwok will investigate feminist and feminized performance practices in the two countries, drawing on methodologies articulated by Indonesian art historian Wulan Dirgantoro. By engaging artists and scholars in Indonesia whose practices exemplify the feminist strategies Dirgantoro identifies, Kwok aims to learn how feminist performance emerged historically within Indonesian art discourse and how practitioners continue to navigate intersections of religion, politics, and agency. In Vietnam, she will meet artists and collectives whose works traverse ritual, domestic labor, and the politics of visibility to understand how feminized gestures and embodied practices articulate critical perspectives on gender, sovereignty, and social constraint. Kwok hopes to learn how feminist performance in both countries circulates through transnational exchanges and shared vocabularies of intimacy and desire.

Adachi Tomomi

Country / Region:
• Japan

• 2025
• Music
• Japan to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam

To explore experimental music practices, connections between artists, and their relationship to traditions in Southeast Asia by engaging with local musicians and organizers.

• 2009
• Music
• Japan to United States

To travel to the United States for 6 months to research the contemporary style of "Intermedia" music.

James Q. Chan

• 2024
• United States to Bhutan, Vietnam

To investigate how mobile libraries address educational and cultural disparities in Bangladesh and Bhutan in rural communities grappling with socio-economic challenges.

Cathy Che

• 2024
• Literature
• United States to Philippines, Vietnam

To retrace her parents' journey in Vietnam and the Philippines, leading to her mother playing a background extra in Apocalypse Now while being stateless in a refugee camp after fleeing the Vietnam War, for research into a memoir called Fade In centering on their story.

Montez Press Arts

• 2024
• Museum Studies
• United States to Vietnam

To conduct ‘Bands of Frequency’, a research project about artist-run spaces in Ho Chi Minh City.

Huong Ngo

Country / Region:
• United States

• 2024
• Visual Art
• United States to Vietnam

To 3D scan and mold objects, architecture, and spaces in Vietnam that have triggered memories for overseas Vietnamese generations.

Meg Okura

• 2024
• Music
• United States to Vietnam

To explore traditional Vietnamese music, including that of the H’mong and Jarai people, through the study of the Dan K’ni—the mouth violin.

Lydia Yee

• 2024
• Visual Art
• United States to Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam

To undertake a comparative study of the influence of popular and vernacular cultures in East and Southeast Asia on contemporary art.

Maho Watanabe

• 2022
• Theater
• Japan to Indonesia, Vietnam

To travel to Indonesia and Vietnam to meet and research with collaborators of "TERASIA - Theatre for Traveling in the Age of Isolation," a long-term project exploring views on life and death in various parts of Asia.