Grantee Database
JAPANESE AMERICAN CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY CENTER
Grant Year
2022-23
Grant Program
Cultural Districts
Award Amount
$671,429.00
Project Description
With support from the California Arts Council, the Little Tokyo Cultural District agrees to reporting requirements (including Interim and Final Reports), agrees to send a representative contingent to any CAC-convenings, and will further our district’s vision with projects that ensure that our 135+-year-old historic neighborhood remains healthy, equitable, and culturally-rich for generations to come. Over the next three years, we will work with cross-sector collaborators on three major projects, including (1) updating our community’s future vision to articulate a commitment to social justice and racial equity; (2) campaigning for community control of the final undeveloped parcels of publicly-owned land in Little Tokyo; and, (3) using creative placemaking to address homelessness in our neighborhood.
Organization Summary
Our core programs and services ensure JACCC remains an authentic bridge between past, present, and future for Japanese and Japanese American arts and culture.
[VISUAL ARTS]: Our exhibitions bridge traditional and contemporary practices, showcasing the work of Los Angeles-based culture bearers and their students of Ikebana (flower arranging), Chado (tea ceremony), Shōdo (calligraphy), and more.
[PERFORMING ARTS]: Pre-pandemic, we co-produced the Los Angeles premiere of the Broadway musical, Allegiance, starring George Takei (2018). More recently in 2022, we hosted the 45th Anniversary Tour of performer, composer, and taiko teacher Kenny Endo; and, served as the only West Coast host and venue for a concert with OKI, the leading musician of the music of the Ainu, Japan’s northernmost indigenous people.
[CULINARY ARTS]: Aligned with UNESCO’s recognition of washoku (traditional Japanese cuisine) as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, in 2013 we expanded our definition of “arts and culture” to launch a new $4.5M Culinary Arts Center. We showcase Japanese and Japanese American cuisine through workshops, pop-ups, community dining experiences, demonstrations, and, with the Black/African American and Latinx communities, ethnic intersections in Little Tokyo.
[ADVOCATING FOR OUR COMMUNITY]: Through the Sustainable Little Tokyo (SLT) initiative, we support our neighborhood and advocate for a healthy, equitable, and culturally-rich Little Tokyo for generations to come. SLT is a partnership between JACCC (the lead and fiscal agent), the Little Tokyo Community Council (LTCC: an umbrella coalition of residents; businesses; and religious, cultural, and community organizations), and the Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC: a social services organization and community developer). SLT has garnered national recognition within the fields of creative placemaking and racial equity in the arts, receiving support from The Kresge Foundation, Surdna Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Organization
JACCC
Address
244 S San Pedro St
LOS ANGELES
90012-3856
County
Los Angeles
Region
South – Los Angeles & Orange
Phone
(213) 628-2725
Congressional District
California Assembly District 34
State Assembly District
District 54
State Senate District
District 26
