NichiBei Creative Artists

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JP

Artistic restaurant exploring sustainability

Artistic restaurant exploring sustainability

Artistic restaurant exploring sustainability

Artistic restaurant exploring sustainability

Artistic restaurant exploring sustainability

空手× デジタルテクノロジー「KATA」

2020.08.25

Facebook更新 (Coleman & Volta)

ストリートダンス meets 盆踊り（仮称）

2020.09.19

Facebook更新 (McKinney)

旅はすみか - The Journey Itself Home

2020.09.18

イベント情報 (marksearch)

サステナビリティを探究するアートレストラン

2020.07.25

Facebook更新 (Schlesinger)

日米キッズ・パブリック・アートプロジェクト

2020.08.25

Facebook更新 (Coleman & Volta)

Introduction

日米芸術家交換プログラムは、日米友好基金（The Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission）と全米芸術基金（The National Endowment for the Arts）の主催のもと、日本の文化庁と国際文化会館の協力を得て、1978年より実施されています。

以後41年間に渡り、毎年米国を拠点とするアーティストが選出され、日本で文化・芸術の研修が行われてきました。2020-21年のプログラムでは発足以来初の試みとして、日米のアーティストがチームを組んで作品をつくり、2021年のオリンピック・パラリンピック開催時期に合わせて東京で展示・上演します。アートを通して長きに渡る日米の友好関係を象徴し、東京オリンピック・パラリンピックを記念する特別企画です。

Projects

01

空手 × デジタルテクノロジー「KATA」

日時：2021年夏

場所：TBA

02

ストリートダンス meets 盆踊り（仮称）

日時：2021年夏

場所：シアターX（カイ）

03

旅はすみか The Journey Itself Home

日時：2021年夏

場所：世田谷美術館他

04

サステナビリティを探究するアートレストラン

日時：2021年夏

場所：世田谷美術館他

05

日米キッズ・パブリック・アートプロジェクト

日時：2021年夏

場所：TBA

News

2020.08.09: 短編ドキュメンタリー公開
2020.08.06: メディア掲載 (Japan Forward)
2020.06.22: ウェブサイトリニューアル公開
2020.04.09: COVID-19感染拡大によるプログラムの方針変更について

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Nichi Bei Creative Artists fellow Cameron McKinney

Nichi Bei Creative Artists fellow Cameron McKinney, the founder and artistic director of New York’s @kizunadance, is collaborating with choreographer @toru_official on an original performance that celebrates the friendship between Japan and the United States. While their project has been postponed until 2021 due to the pandemic, McKinney has remained hard at work. On 9/27, he and members of Kizuna will premiere a new work entitled MISOGI, as part of the We Are Nature Rooftop Series in Brooklyn. MISOGI was created specifically for performance on the rooftops of Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood; the dancers interact with water to celebrate the connection between humans and nature. The performance (which was created via collaborative virtual and outdoor rehearsals) will adhere to pandemic safety measures. (Learn more about the performance and reserve tickets at bit.ly/MISOGI_Dance.) McKinney was also recently honored via the 2020 Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellows Program at The School at @jacobspillow; through the program, he and seven other artists will receive mentorship and support as they perform choreographic research and explore their own creative development (further details at cameronmckinneydance.com and bit.ly/JacobsPillow_Dance). To learn more about McKinney’s work at the intersection of Japanese culture and the language of dance, read his interview with @neaarts at bit.ly/NEA_McKinney. And to learn more about the Creative Artists Program - made possible with support from @japanusfriendship, @neaarts and @i_house_japan - visit nichibei-artists.org/en/.

Tokyo-based multimedia artists Natsuka Endo and Hi

Tokyo-based multimedia artists Natsuka Endo and Hiroyuki Abe are helping to create @journeyitselfhome, a Nichi Bei Creative Artists project that honors the legacy of the 2011 Fukushima earthquake. Working in collaboration with American artist team @marksearchoakland, Endo and Abe are drawing inspiration from the 17th-century pilgrimage of Japanese haiku master Bashō. Their project will feature a mobile writing studio and poetry-focused engagement with local communities. The team will use crowdsourced poetry generated through the project to renew awareness of the Fukushima earthquake's impact. Beyond Journey Itself Home, Endo and Abe’s works include installations that use drawings and videos to depict local histories, communities, and people. To see examples of their art - which also include street scene paintings and dice inspired by Tokyo’s weather patterns - visit hiroyukiabe.com, natsukaendo.com, and instagram.com/natsukaendo. Learn more about Journey Itself Home via @neaarts (at bit.ly/NEA_JourneyItselfHome), @japanusfriendship (at bit.ly/JUSFC_Journey and bit.ly/JUSFC_Journey_Japan), and Japan Forward (bit.ly/NichiBei_JAPANForward). For information about the Nichi Bei Creative Artists Program - made possible with support from @japanusfriendship, @neaarts and @i_house_japan - visit nichibei-artists.org/en/.

Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted aroun

Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted around the world, a team of students from the Queens Knight School of Communication in Charlotte traveled to Philadelphia, where they filmed interviews with Nichi Bei Creative Artists Fellows @benvolta and Gene Coleman. The students' finished documentary can now be seen at bit.ly/NichiBei_Queens. Coleman is a composer, musician and director; his Creative Artists project combines music, Japanese martial arts and brain-scan technology. Volta, a muralist and sculptor, is working with Japanese and American students to create a collaborative work of public art for display in Tokyo. The Queens Knight School student production team spoke with both Creative Artists Fellows about the evolution of their projects, their travels to Japan, and the challenges and rewards of international collaboration; the documentary also features footage of their Japanese creative partners, and commentary from Creative Artists team member Cho Kuwakado. The video was created as part of the “Queens in Tokyo” program, whose Charlotte-based student participants will document the impact of the Tokyo Olympics in collaboration with fellow students from Toyo University in Japan. For information about the Nichi Bei Creative Artists Program - made possible with support from @japanusfriendship, @neaarts and @i_house_japan - visit nichibei-artists.org/en/.

A new article from @japanforward highlights the fi

A new article from @japanforward highlights the five Nichi Bei Creative Artist Fellowship teams, whose projects celebrate international friendship and collaboration. The article explores the work of Philadelphia-based composer and musician Gene Coleman and his teammates Akikazu Nakamura, Sansuzu Tsuruzawa and @vidikulous, whose project KATA features original music, brainwave-scanning technology and martial arts; the collaboration between Cameron McKinney (founder of NYC-based @kizunadance) and renowned Japanese choreographer @toru_official on a dance project that examines the friendship and artistic bonds between the United States and Japan; the work of Sue Mark and Bruce Douglas (interdisciplinary artists known as @marksearchoakland) and their team members @hiroyukiab and painter @natsukaendo, whose collaborative poetic exploration @journeyitselfhome honors survivors of the 2011 Fukushima disaster; muralist and sculptor @benvolta, who is working with Japanese arts educators Cho Kuwakado and Yasuyuki Sakura to teach students how art can celebrate Japanese and American achievements in sports, science, and education; and San Francisco-based designer and artist @jesse_____singer, whose collaboration with chef and @farmoon_kyoto founder @masayofunakoshi will take the form of an installation and performance-based work that explores sustainability in the context of food, agriculture, architecture, and the fine arts. “Even though the pandemic continues to take its toll on the art world,” McKinney said, “the strength and resiliency of the JUSFC collaborations born out of this crisis will be hard-fought and life-long because now, more than ever, artists are baring every part of their soul.” Read the full article, which features all five Creative Artists Program projects, at bit.ly/NichiBei_JAPANForward. For information about the Nichi Bei Creative Artists Program - made possible with support from @japanusfriendship, @neaarts and @i_house_japan - visit nichibei-artists.org/en/.

Nichi Bei Creative Artists team member Cho Kuwakad

Nichi Bei Creative Artists team member Cho Kuwakado is an arts educator, a Buddhist priest, and the director of Lumbini Kindergarten in Saiki City, Japan. He is also the co-founder of the Pacific Kids Mural Foundation (@packmf), which promotes mural art and cultural exchange for young people in Japan and abroad, via an initiative called Chara-Rimpa. Kuwakado began to train in Buddhist practices at age five; he later studied anthropology in California, London, and New York. In 2013, Kuwakado and his Creative Artist teammate Yasuyuki Sakura worked with 64 kindergartners to paint a large mural in a single day, in celebration of Lumbini Kindergarten's 50th anniversary. This mural was the first project of the Chara-Rimpa initiative; other Chara-Rimpa murals were subsequently created in California and Mexico. Learn more via the Pacific Kids Mural Foundation (packmf.org/about) and read an interview with Kuwakado about Buddhism and public art at bit.ly/Kuwakado_Indigo. For his Nichi Bei Creative Artists project, Kuwakado is partnering with Sakura and Philadelphia-based muralist @benvolta to create a collaborative work of public art that draws inspiration from innovators and educators like Benjamin Franklin and Fukuzawa Yukichi. Their final project, which has been rescheduled for Summer 2021 due to the pandemic, will use artworks created by Japanese and American children to explore how art, innovation, and sport can change the world. Watch a video about the project at bit.ly/Kuwakado_Video, and read more via Nichi Bei Creative Artists (at bit.ly/Kuwakado_NB) and via @japanusfriendship (at bit.ly/Volta_Kuwakado). For information about the Nichi Bei Creative Artists Program - made possible with support from @japanusfriendship, @neaarts and @i_house_japan - visit nichibei-artists.org/en/.

Nichi Bei Creative Artists team member @masayofuna

Nichi Bei Creative Artists team member @masayofunakoshi is a renowned chef from Kyoto, Japan. Together with California-based Creative Artists fellow @jesse_____singer, Funakoshi will create a temporary, experimental restaurant that explores sustainability through the lens of food and agriculture. The team’s research was interrupted due to the pandemic, but their project is now scheduled to be presented in Tokyo in 2021, as safety conditions allow (learn more about their collaboration via @japanusfriendship, at bit.ly/JUSFC_MeetOurGrantees). Funakoshi studied sculpture at New York City’s @prattinstitute before changing paths and enrolling in culinary school. She gained experience working as a chef in New York City, on an Australian yacht and for a hotel in Bali, and then founded the renowned Kyoto restaurant and tea salon @farmoon_kyoto in 2018. Housed in a converted wooden machiya townhouse, and open only from Thursdays through Sundays, Farmoon follows the principle of Ichigen-san Okotowari, which translates loosely to "no entry without introduction"; in order to be served at the restaurant, new guests must be introduced by regular customers (learn more at bit.ly/Farmoon_WeAreJapan). Watch Funakoshi discuss her background and approach to cooking at bit.ly/Funakoshi_Video, and follow her on Instagram at bit.ly/Funakoshi_IG. For information about the Nichi Bei Creative Artists Program - made possible with support from @japanusfriendship, @neaarts and @i_house_japan - visit nichibei-artists.org/en/.

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