Asian Cultural Council, Inc.

The Asian Cultural Council’s mission is to advance international dialogue, understanding, and respect through cultural exchange activities in Asia and the United States to create a more harmonious and peaceful world.

In 2018, the Asian Cultural Council completed a Strategic Study which was approved at ACC’s fall Board meeting in Yokohama and positioned ACC on a path of continued self-evaluation, stabilization, and growth. The Strategic Study identifies clear and realistic goals that will guide ACC’s work in the coming years. From 2019-2021, the ACC will focus on: (1) financial sustainability and growth; (2) addressing challenges, evaluating impact, and strategically expanding ACC’s program; (3) board development and governance; and (4) communications and technology.

The ACC fulfills its mission through fellowships and other programs that support individual artists, scholars, and arts professionals.

In 2020, ACC will continue to implement its fellowship program, awarding, administering, designing and guiding an anticipated 60 fellowships to artists and scholars chosen from approximately 550 applicants. In addition to maintaining this core grant making program and
providing and enhancing the current level of highly customized program services for our grantees, ACC will continue to expand in the effort to produce public programs. These programs engage alumni and provide opportunities for cross-field exploration, as well as advancing international dialogue, connection, partnership, understanding, and respect, all in service to ACC’s vision of a world made more harmonious through cultural understanding and respect.

This will be evidenced in the continuation of ACC’s annual lecture series East-West Dialogues. This series engages leaders from the arts and cultural fields in Asia and the West, enhancing ACC’s capacity for public engagement around its mission of cultural exchange and understanding. ACC will also build on the success of its 2017 ACC Forum: Making the Case for Cultural Exchange, and its 2018 panel on international artist residencies (in partnership with Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation and La MaMa E.T.C.) to produce convenings of arts and cultural exchange practitioners to facilitate dialogue and collaboration among individuals working in the field and the larger community.

Headquartered in New York, with offices and partners foundations in Hong Kong, Manila, Taipei, and Tokyo, ACC has enabled over five decades of cross-cultural engagement and built an extensive network of exceptional alumni.

The ACC celebrated its 55th Anniversary in 2018, and throughout history it has supported creative individuals working in 16 disciplines and 26 countries. In 2019, ACC made 69 grants, a total grant of over $1.3M to 47 individuals, 20 organizations and 2 public programs, across 16 fields from 19 different countries.

By connecting our grantees across borders, we catalyze enduring relationships that sow the seeds for lifelong partnerships, and advance international understanding and respect. Today, ACC’s greatest asset is a powerful global alumni network of leaders in the arts, bound by the shared experience of discovery of the self and the other through cultural exchange. Every day, their commitment furthers our collective progress towards a more harmonious and peaceful world.