A photographer based in Tokyo. While Seo specializes in portrait and commercial photography, he also works for the Pacific Kids Mural Foundation as a director. He has been documenting various arts made by kids at the Chara-Rimpa Project.

seohiroaki.com

An artist and president of Team Sakura Art Project Inc. Sakura received a PhD in fine arts from Tokyo University of the Arts. A 2003 ISCP fellow. His project Kodomo Energy Summit, which incorporated arts with green energy education, received a Good Design Award and Kids Design Award in 2015. He also dedicates himself to cultural exchange for kids through the Chara-Rimpa Project.

tsap.biz

The director of Lumbini Kindergarten in Saiki City, Japan. After studying social anthropology in the United States and England, Kuwakado established the Pacific Kids Mural Foundation together with Yasuyuki Sakura and Hiroaki Seo. He works on the Chara-Rimpa Project to promote mural art and cultural exchange projects for kids and communities around the world.

lumbini-kind.net

packmf.org

Ben Volta creates intricate public murals and sculptures, working within the fields of education, restorative justice, and urban planning. His practice stands on the belief that art can be a catalyst for change. As a young artist, Volta was a member of the groundbreaking art collective Tim Rollins and K.O.S. and was awarded a Pew Fellowship in 2015. For almost two decades, Volta has been developing a collaborative process with Philadelphia public schools to create participatory art rooted in an exploratory and educational process.

benvolta.com

While studying sculpture at Pratt Institute, Funakoshi was instead inspired by cooking and transferred to a culinary school in New York City. Funakoshi continued to learn cooking at one of New York City’s most esteemed kitchens, Blue Hill, and traveled to Europe and regions of Asia to further explore food culture. Her travels have taken her across the Pacific Ocean as chef for an Australian cruise ship, as well as chef for a long-established hotel in Bali. In May 2018, Masayo opened her own studio, tea salon, and private restaurant, Farmoon, in Kyoto.

A multidisciplinary visual artist working in sculpture, site-specific installation, drawing, and photography. Schlesinger’s work is fundamentally concerned with place: how the natural environment, architectural context and engagement, and historical precedent contribute to experience and understanding. His upbringing as a second-generation carpenter (with a focus on traditional craftsmanship) and involvement with a small farm have jointly influenced the philosophy of his work. He has exhibited in galleries and museums in the U.S. and Japan.

jesseschlesinger.com

Based in Tokyo, Natsuka Endo and Hiroyuki Abe work together as an artist duo, as well as making artworks individually. Their works are based on artistic research about local history or the people who lived there, making installations with drawings and videos to visualize their memories and personal experiences.

Hiroyukiabe.com

natsukaendo.com

For more than 20 years, the Oakland-based creative team marksearch has been designing interactive opportunities for communities to publicly share personal histories for empowerment. From neighbor-led walking discussions to sidewalk performances, commemorative plaques recognizing generations’ old collective knowledge, and collaborative murals, their global projects preserve neighborhood narratives.

marksearch.org

Shimazaki first began choreographing while he was the director of the ballet department of the Sitter School of Dance in Canada, 1990. He has since choreographed in Europe, America, and in his native Japan for many renowned dance companies, including Japan’s National New Tokyo Theatre, Grand Theatre de Geneve, the Royal Ballet of Flanders, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Introdans, Singapore Dance Theater, and Colorado Ballet. He is presently the directing professor of the dance program in the Music Department of Kobe Jogakuin College, Japan.

toru-shimazaki.com

A New York City-based choreographer, dancer, educator, and author. McKinney founded Kizuna Dance in 2014 with the mission of creating works that celebrate the Japanese language and culture. He recently received a three-month individual fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council to travel to Japan and continue his studies on the intersections of street dance and butoh. He has presented choreographic work nationally and internationally, as well as leading workshops, master classes, and residencies. He is currently on the faculty at the Gibney Dance Center.

cameronmckinneydance.com

A performer of Gidayu-style shamisen based in Tokyo. Tsuruzawa completed a master’s degree in musicology at Tokyo University of the Arts and now teaches at Tokyo College of Music. In 2018 she was designated as an Important Intangible Cultural Property for her artistry by the government of Japan. She has performed with various contemporary music projects in Tokyo and other places, including New York, Boston, and Toronto in 2019 through the support of the Japan Foundation.

Studied under Katsuya Yokoyama and several masters of the komuso shakuhachi tradition. A graduate of the NHK School of Traditional Music, Nakamura went on to study composition and jazz theory at Berklee College of Music. He was awarded a master’s degree in composition and third-stream music at the New England Conservatory. While still grounding his roots in the classical tradition handed down by komuso monks, Nakamura has delved into different musical genres, including rock, jazz, and contemporary music.

akikazu.jp

A composer, conductor, percussionist, and technologist based in Philadelphia, where he is an assistant professor of music technology and composition at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance. Vidiksis holds degrees from New York University and a PhD in music composition from Temple University. His music often explores sound, science, and the intersection of humankind with the machines we build. Vidiksis’s research in music technology focuses on techniques for realtime audio processing, designing gestural controllers for live digital performance, and machine improvisation.

vidiksis.com

Gene Coleman is a composer, musician, and director. A 2014 Guggenheim Fellow and the winner of the 2013 Berlin Prize for Music, he has created more than 70 works for various instrumentation and media. Innovative use of sound, image, space, and time allows Coleman to create work that expands our understanding of the world. Since 2001 his work has focused on the global transformation of culture and music’s relationship with science, architecture, video, and dance. He studied painting, music, and new media at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

genecolemancomposer.com