CAAM Receives NEA and California Arts Council Grants

Photo by Nancy Wong, 1981.
The grants will support a Virtual Reality project directed by acclaimed filmmaker Wayne Wang and storytelling from California's diverse Central Valley.

CAAM is proud to announce two grants that will support innovative storytelling in Asian American communities.

CAAM is honored to receive a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). CAAM will receive $65,000 to support the multimedia storytelling project Changing Chinatown, including production of a virtual reality film by acclaimed filmmaker Wayne Wang. Focused on the shifting landscape of San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood, the project will feature a virtual reality work by Wang that revisits the director’s 1982 place-based documentary Chan is Missing. Through public programming such as site-specific screenings, installations, and events at the Chinatown locations featured in the film, audiences will be able to participate in interactive tours of the neighborhood and engage with the contemporary Chinatown community.

“As the only funder in the country to support arts activities in all 50 states and five U.S. jurisdictions, the National Endowment for the Arts announces its second round of funding for FY 2017. This funding round includes partnerships with state, jurisdictional, and regional arts agencies. The NEA will award 1,195 grants totaling $84.06 million to support organizations that employ artists and cultural workers to provide programs for thousands of people from Idaho to Maine; in urban centers such as Cleveland, Ohio and Dallas, Texas; and in rural towns as different as Haines, Alaska and Whitesburg, Kentucky.”

CAAM received a grant in the Art Works category, which focuses on “the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with art, lifelong learning in the arts, and strengthening of communities through the arts.” See the full list and announcement on the NEA website.

CAAM is also delighted to announce that we recently received a grant from the California Arts Council. The grant in the amount of $13,500 will allow CAAM to create a multi-platform exploration of how Asian American artists are presenting our communities and cultures in California’s Central Valley. The public media elements include a half-hour documentary distributed through CA public television stations, web content on CAAM and partner websites, podcasts distributed by Capitol Public Radio and Valley Public Radio and a display for museums, libraries, heritage celebrations and university conferences.CAAM received the grant in the Arts and Public Media grants.

Learn more at the California Arts Council’s website.