Meet the Recipients of the 2025 Asian Cultural Council Artist Grants

Tsai Yi-Wei was never formally introduced to traditional hand-glove puppetry. Instead, the art form was deeply intertwined with his upbringing in Taiwan, where he was raised by puppeteers who managed a touring troupe. Still, it wasn’t until he took an internship at the Taiyuan Asian Puppet Theatre Museum that he began pursuing the practice on his own.

As a puppeteer and curator, Tsai’s work focuses on bridging traditional puppetry with contemporary practices as a means of cross-cultural exchange and collaboration. Next year, he plans to further develop his practice through the New York-based nonprofit Asian Cultural Council’s (ACC) Individual Fellowship, an annual grant that aims to foster cultural exchange and international dialogue between the United States and Asia, as well as within Asia itself.

Today, ACC announced 37 awardees hailing from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, the Philippines, and Taiwan as this year’s grant recipients. They will receive a total of $920,371 in funding to pursue projects that develop their practices spanning visual arts, music, acting, writing, dance, architecture, choreography, filmmaking, multimedia design, and curation. A complete list of recipients is included at the end of this article.

The cohort consists of 18 grantees for the Individual Fellowship, which awards varying amounts that range up to $35,000 for self-directed projects within Asia and the US, and 16 grantees for ACC’s New York Fellowship, a six-month immersive program based in New York and the greater United States that awards $35,000 to recipients. It also includes three grantees from the Philippines who will receive $15,000 through ACC’s Graduate Fellowship, which finances travel and living costs related to academic study in the US.

The ACC grant will support Tsai’s research on puppetry in Indonesia, he told Hyperallergic in an email. He plans to visit Papermoon Puppet Theatre in Yogyakarta to study its international puppet biennale, Pesta Boneka, and conduct field research on traditional art practices like Wayang Potehi — a hand puppetry form that shares historical connections with Taiwanese hand-glove puppet art.

“This project aims to strengthen cultural dialogue between Taiwan and Indonesia, and to explore new possibilities for cross-cultural collaboration and innovation in puppetry,” Tsai said.

Filipino filmmaker and animator Maria Estela Paiso, who was selected for the New York Fellowship, told Hyperallergic that she plans to use her grant to research the historical use of mixed media in visual arts and cinema, specifically by looking into printmaking in animation.

“Over the course of my three short films, I’ve engaged in a never-ending journey of exploring different media, most recently involving printmaking as moving image,” Paiso said. 

“[This fellowship] will give me dedicated time to deepen my understanding of mixed media animation, as well as opportunities to reach out and learn from printmakers, printshops, and animators in and around New York,” Paiso continued.

Since its founding in 1963, the ACC has helped foster cultural exchange and international dialogue between the United States and Asia, and within Asia, by providing over $100 million in funding to artists, cultural professionals, scholars, and organizations.

See the complete list of 2025 grant recipients below.

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New York Fellowship

Joed Balsamo, Musician (Philippines)

Caro Chan, Actress and Literary Translator (Hong Kong)

I-Hsuen Chen, Visual Artist (Taiwan)

Florence Cheong, Director and Choreographer (Macau)

Joyce Sahagun Garcia, Video Artist and Multimedia Designer (Philippines)

Yuuki Horiuchi, Visual Artist (Japan)

Serene Hui, Visual Artist and Researcher (Hong Kong)

Karl Alexis Jingco, Theater Director and Curator (Philippines)

J-mee Katanyag, Theater Artist and Playwright (Philippines)

tsu-tsu, Dancer and Performer (Japan)

Wataru Mukai, Composer and Performer (Japan)

Maria Estela Paiso, Filmmaker and Animator (Philippines)

Chen Wei Chen, Visual Artist (Taiwan)

Evelyn Yang Ling, Film Writer and Director (Taiwan)

Yen Yu Ting, Visual Artist (Taiwan)

Zhang Ruyi, Visual Artist (China)

Individual Fellowship

Tomomi Adachi, Composer and Performer (Japan)

Chen Jie, Curator (China)

Summer Cat, Literary Scholar (Hong Kong)

Kenji Chiga, Visual Artist (Japan)

Shao Chun, Visual Artist (China)

Anna Kuroda, Dancer and Choreographer (Japan)

Mo Lai Yan Chi, Director, Screenwriter, and Actor (Hong Kong)

Elspeth Mary Lee and Donn Holohan, Architects (Hong Kong)

Cynthia Leung, Architect (Hong Kong)

Esther Lu, Curator (Taiwan)

Lai Ping So, Visual Artist and Editorial Designer (Hong Kong)

Haruko Kumakura, Curator (Japan)

Tsai Yi-Wei, Puppeteer and Curator (Taiwan)

Toby Tse, Musician (Hong Kong)

Peng Wen, Visual Artist (China)

Ye Wuji, Visual Artist (China)

Xiao-Xiong Zhang, Dancer and Creator (Taiwan)

Zhu Ning, Architect (China)

Graduate Fellowship

Alain De Asis, Musician (Philippines)

Aina Ysabel Ramolete, Puppeteer and Theater Artist (Philippines)

Alexa Andrea Torte, Dancer (Philippines)