JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM RECEIVES GRANT FROM FREEMAN FOUNDATION

Los Angeles, CA—The Japanese American National Museum has received a $300,000 grant from the Asian Arts and Culture Educational Funding Initiative of the Freeman Foundation. The funding will help support JANM’s educational programming and will facilitate free admission for primary- and secondary- school students who might not otherwise have the opportunity to visit JANM.

For over 25 years, the Freeman Foundation has been committed to strengthening the international understanding between the United States and East Asian nations through its distribution of grants. In 2017, the Freeman Foundation launched its Asian Arts & Culture Educational Funding Initiative, which supports educational programs centered on Asian arts and culture exhibits or collections in order to expand the public’s understanding and appreciation of them. JANM was one of only a handful of Asian American institutions invited to submit an application.

“On behalf of the Freeman Foundation we are delighted to support JANM’s efforts to support students’ and teachers’ educational experience through the museum’s exhibitions,” said Graeme Freeman, President of the Freeman Foundation.

“The Japanese American National Museum is deeply grateful for this generous support from the Freeman Foundation. It is a very significant grant which will help to ensure that the programs we offer to school groups are robust and deliver the impact that our student visitors deserve,” said JANM President and CEO Ann Burroughs. “It will also support our continued ability to present exhibitions that promote an appreciation for America’s ethnic and cultural diversity and enable visitors to explore their own heritage and culture.”

The grant will cover admission fees for as many as 25,000 students and their teachers between now and June 2020. As part of their visits to JANM, students experience the museum’s core exhibition, Common Ground: The Heart of Community, often with volunteer docents who encourage the children to understand and appreciate cultural differences and explore their own identity. The funding also supports two temporary exhibitions at JANM: hapa.me – 15 years of the hapa project, which is on view now through October 28, and Kaiju vs Heroes: Mark Nagata’s Journey Through the World of Japanese Toys, which will open September 15, 2018, and remain on view through March 24, 2019.

NOW ON VIEW AT JANM:

What We Carried: Memories & Fragments from Iraq & Syria
Through August 5, 2018
This exhibition of photographs by Jim Lommasson captures cherished personal objects brought to the United States by Iraqi and Syrian refugees who successfully resettled here. Bearing handwritten notes by their owners that explain what the objects mean to them, these moving, intimate images are a testimony to the common threads that bind all of humanity: love for family, friendship, and the places people call home.

hapa.me – 15 years of the hapa project
Through October 28, 2018
Artist Kip Fulbeck continues his project, begun in 2001, of photographing persons who identify as “hapa”—of mixed Asian/Pacific Islander descent—as a means of promoting awareness and positive acceptance of multiracial identity. As a follow-up to kip fulbeck: part asian, 100% hapa, his groundbreaking 2006 exhibition, hapa.me pairs the photographs and statements from that exhibition with contemporary portraits of the same individuals and newly written statements, showing not only their physical changes in the ensuing years, but also changes in their perspectives and outlooks on the world. In addition, hapa.me includes portraits of hundreds of new participants and an interactive section where, on select days, viewers can join the community by having their portrait taken and writing their own personal statement.

Common Ground: The Heart of Community
Ongoing
Incorporating hundreds of objects, documents, and photographs collected by JANM, this exhibition chronicles 130 years of Japanese American history, from the early days of the Issei pioneers through the World War II incarceration to the present.

About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, the Japanese American National Museum promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories and strives to provide a voice for Japanese Americans as well as a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public, JANM has presented over 80 exhibitions onsite and traveled 20 of its exhibitions to locations around the world, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America.

JANM is located at 100 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles. Museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. General admission is $12 adults, $6 students and seniors, free for members and children under age five. Admission is free to everyone on Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and every third Thursday of the month from noon to 8 p.m. General admission prices and free admission times may not apply to specially ticketed exhibitions. Closed Monday, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. For more information visit janm.org or call 213.625.0414.