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Education Grantees 2014

Japan Fest Atlanta, GA 
JapanFest 2014
Project Director: Kazuyoshi Domoto 
$3,200
The JapanFest is an annual festival held in Atlanta
that feature educational workshops, demonstrations, and professional
performances focusing on Japanese art and culture.  This year will mark its
28th anniversary, with its theme as Washoku
and will include Mineko Moreno, a Japanese cuisine specialist, as well as offer
various types of Japanese food demonstrations, exhibits, panel discussions,
tastings and unique food produce for attendees.

University
of Tennessee Chattanooga Chattanooga, TN 
Integrating Japan Into Tennessee Middle and High School History and Geography
Courses 
Project Director: Lucien Ellington   
$4,999
The objective of this project is to assist 20 Tennessee middle and high school
social studies teachers in learning about content, curriculum resources and
pedagogical strategies that will better position them to teach about Japan and
its regional and global relationships so that they can more effectively teach
the new standards-based Tennessee geography courses.  The project will
hold 2 professional development workshops for the teachers 
that will ask participants to submit and refine their ideas about the
creation of Japan-based educational case studies, which will be distributed to
all teachers upon successful completion of the project.

South
Carolina Kyudo Renmei
 Simpsonville, SC  
Seventy-two Seasons of Chado 
Project Director: Jean Murphy  
$2,000
The South Caroline Kyudo Renmei will present its
“Seventy-Two Seasons of Chado” at the Gibbs Gardens
in rural Georgia. Tea ceremonies will takes place
during the event with guests invited to participate and the event will include
educational workshops on tea ceremony and ikebana.

Cedarhurst
Center for the Arts
 Mt.
Vernon, IL  
One World Taiko 
Project Director: Jennifer Sarver   
$2,324
The Cedarhurst Center for the Arts will host the One World Taiko group for 4
performances geared towards not only the general public, but for marginalized
and underserved families within the area. The performances will consist of 1
hour, with 3 of the performances for local schools and the final performance
for the general public. To create larger impact for the event, Cedarhurst will
schedule 2 programs that highlight Japanese culture, including a Story Time for
pre-k and kindergarten students as well as a Family Day for parents and
students.

Center
College 
 Danville, KY   
The Japanese Winter Plum Festival  
Project Director: Steve Hoffman    
$3,000
The purpose of the Japanese Winter Plum Festival is to give life to Sagi-Ryu Kyogen Theatre and to promote cross-cultural
appreciation. Twenty delegates from Yamaguch, Japan,
some of whom represent the Sagi-Ryu Kyogen Threatre, will spend one week on the Centre College campus,
with a culminating event of their visit being the Japanese Winter Plum
Festival. Attendees are invited to view the Sagi-Ryu
Kyogen plays and have the opportunity to immerse themselves in Japanese culture
through various workshops, public lectures, demonstrations and receptions.
 

Japan Center at Stony Brook Long Island,
NY  
Sakura Matsuri – Spend a Day in Japan  
Project Director: Gerard Senese 
$1,000
The Japanese festival will feature a variety of family-oriented workshops,
exhibitions and lectures as well as professional performances in traditional
and contemporary Japanese arts. In addition, tea ceremony demonstrations will
be accompanied by a lecture on the history and philosophy of Cha-no-Yu.
Workshops in Taiko drumming and Japanese folk dance will provide the community
with an interactive experience of Japanese culture.

Whitfield Manjiro Friendship Society
Fairhaven, MA   
Whaling, Japanese Culture and the Whitfield – Manjiro
Story   
Project Director: Gerald Rooney
$2,027
This project will conduct a week-long intensive professional development
workshop for teachers focused on whaling, Japanese culture, and the Whitfield-Manjiro story. Through hands-on demonstrations and
interactions, participants will learn aspects of Japanese language, food and
culture such as kabuki and kamishibai.

Children’s
Museum of Manhattan
 New York, NY    
Hello from Japan! Exhibit    
Project Director: David Rios 
$3,000
The objective of this project is to foster understanding of Japanese culture
amongst families. The exhibit will focus on contemporary and traditional
Japanese culture in a fun and culturally accessible way.  To supplement
the exhibit, the museum will hold workshops and demonstrations that will cover a
wide range of cultural forms such as music, dance, cuisine and visual art,
which will be in partnership with a variety of Japanese artists and arts
organizations in an around New York City.

Lexington
Children’s Theater
 Lexington, KY     
Understanding Peace through Sadako’s Thousand Cranes 
Project Director: Vannessa Grosl 
$2,160
This peace project will aim to educate students at Wellington Elementary School
about Sadako’s thousand cranes, WWII, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The students will
develop origami cranes and have a Soran Bushi tutorial, which will be coordinated through the JOI
Coordinator based in Kentucky.

Northeast
Council of Teachers of Japanese
 New York, NY    
NECTJ Harumatsuri     
Project Director: Masahiro Tanaka  
$1,000
The Japanese Spring Festival is aimed to provide high school students an
understanding of Japanese language and culture in a real life interactive
cultural exchange. The festival will holds interactive
booths and performances focused on Japanese traditional garments, tea ceremony,
flower arrangements.   

Japan
America Society of Vermont 
 Shelburne, VT
    
Community Outreach Optimization Year 2     
Project Director: Lois Obregon 
$4,754
The Japan America Society of Vermont will conduct its second year of
educational outreach activities to its local community, which includes pottery,
ikebana, origami and Japanese language classes. Furthermore, this year JASV
will be holding its biennial matsuri, which includes interactive booths such as
origami and calligraphy as well as taiko and aikido performances.