ACC Announces Fellowship Award Winners for 2011



2011-07-11


Asian Cultural Council Awards 11 Million HK Dollars in Grants

For Nurturing Local and Regional Talents in the Arts


Eighty nine new fellowships totaling 11 million HK dollars have been awarded by the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) to recipients from 21 countries of Asia and from the United States for programs of cultural exchange in the arts. Thirteen Hong Kong and China arts professionals were among the recipients. Many among the recipients will be making their first-ever international trips.

Headquartered in New York, with offices in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Taipei and Manila, the Asian Cultural Council is a non-profit organization focusing on customized cultural exchange experiences in the arts and is funded by private donors from Asia and the U.S.

Hong Kong ACC donors contributed 3 million Hong Kong dollars to support the following thirteen arts professionals from Hong Kong and China who will be participating in individualized programs that are tailored to their needs and research projects.

The majority of the recipients are emerging artists in the early stages of the professional careers. Recipients from the field of visual arts are Lee Chi Hoi, Hong Kong’s most prominent literary cartoonist; Li Mu, conceptual artist from Shanghai and Jiang Yipeng, vice-director of the Bejing Center for the Arts.

Shanghai documentary filmmaker Gan Zhao, will become a visiting scholar at New York University; Tsinghua University architectural historian Luo Deyin will take part in a special program at MIT and Hong Kong architect Tony Ip will spend a month in the U.S. exploring collaborations between architects and environmental engineers.

In the field of music: Hong Kong composer Chen Yeung Ping will begin doctoral studies at the University of California in San Diego while two students of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, violist Zhao Meng Wen and pianist Wong Wai Yin are participating in the Aspen Music School’s highly acclaimed summer intensive program.

Three prominent choreographers from China have also been awarded fellowships: Wang Mei, professor of modern dance choreography at the Beijing Dance Academy, Fei Bo (photo), resident choreographer of the National Ballet of China and Yang Yuntao, Assistant Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Dance Company who will take part in an exclusive residency at the Shen Wei Dance Arts in New York.

Kenneth Hui, ballet student from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts received a grant to visit the renowned American Dance Festival this summer where he will first hand see some of the most innovative international performances and meet renowned choreographers and dancers from around the world.

In other Asian countries, Chankethya Chey, a 27-year old Cambodian classical dancer will become the first performing arts student from Cambodia to be accepted into a graduate program in a university in the United States as he enters the University of California in Los Angeles. Sengphone Keophanhya, a 29-year museum administrator from the Luang Prabang National Museum in Laos will make his first trip outside Laos to study photo conservation at the George Eastman House and the Rockefeller Archive Center in New York.

Since the establishment of the Hong Kong program in 1986, the Asian Cultural Council has awarded more than 500 fellowships to leading arts professionals from Hong Kong and China for programs of advanced study and research in the United States. This group of individuals is part of a network of over 6,000 outstanding cultural workers across Asia who have been supported by the ACC since it was first established in 1963 in New York by John D. Rockefeller 3rd.

ACC alumni include Chen Kaige, international filmmaker from China; Hong Kong theatre director Ko Tin Lung, visual artists Cai Guoqiang, and Japan’s Takashi Murakami, all of whom received support from the ACC during the early years of their professional careers.

The Asian Cultural Council will begin receiving applications September 1, 2011 for the next grant awards. Click here for more information.

Download press release in English and Chinese.

 

 

Media Enquiry:

Marissa Fung Shaw / Michelle Vosper / Ann Tsang : 2895 0407 / acc@acc.org.hk