2026-27 Aratani CARE Award Applications Opened

UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center announces that the 2026-2027 George and Sakaye Aratani CARE (Community Advancement Research Endowment) Award applications will be accepted between Friday, Oct. 2, and Friday, Dec. 4, at 5 p.m.

Awards will be announced in January 2027.

The Aratani CARE Awards are given to projects that benefit the Japanese American community. Projects that strengthen ties between the Japanese American community and UCLA students, staff, and faculty are encouraged. Award recipients must list and acknowledge UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center and the Aratani CARE Award as co-sponsors on all PR and programs.

Nonprofit organizations and qualified individuals are invited to apply for awards that generally range from, but are not limited to, $1,000 to $5,000. Information about the funding and how to apply is available on the Aratani CARE website: http://www.aratanicare.org/

Recent past awardees include:

• Asayake Taiko at UCSD, “Intercollegiate Taiko Invitational 2026: Ride the Wave,” an annual event held in May at UC San Diego.
• Burn a Light Productions, “The Noble Witness,” a short documentary about 99-year-old wood-carving artist Shoji Oda, one of the last living survivors of the Japanese American concentration camps.
• Collaborative Cataloging Japan, “Transpacific Signals: Japanese American Video and the Circulation of Culture,” a community storytelling initiative highlighting the legacy of Japanese artists and grassroots video makers who experimented with media in the 1970s-1990s.
• Community Partners FBO Kansha History Project, “Appreciating the History of Southern California Nikkei Farmers” at Tanaka Farms in Irvine, where Kansha volunteers presented transcribed prewar farm records to descendants.
• Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute, “Then and Now: From WWII Incarceration to Today’s ICE Raids— Justice Demands Our Voice” program, for the Day of Remembrance, Feb. 28, 2026.
• Greater Los Angeles JACL, “Southern California Intercollegiate Nikkei Council’s Nikkei Professionals” event to connect Japanese American professionals with students preparing to enter the workforce.
• Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, to support the purchase of a kiosk to enable visitors to the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center to interact with the AI-driven StoryFile of Dr. Takashi Hoshizaki, a former World War II draft resister, Ph.D. botanist, and prominent UCLA alumnus.
• Janice D. Tanaka, “Sansei and Intergenerational Trauma,” a public program featuring films by Satsuki Ina, Janice Tanaka, and Janice D. Tanaka, with a panel discussion of the effects of Nisei incarceration experience on their children, Sept. 26, 2026.
• JACL Arizona Chapter, “Gila River Connections: A Celebration of Shared History,” an event bringing together concentration camp survivors, their descendants, members of the Gila River Indian Community, students, and allies, Feb.19-22, 2026.
• Japan History Council of New York, “Mapping Japanese Heritage and Landmarks in New York: Building a Digital Archive for Japanese and Japanese American Communities,” a bilingual digital mapping project led by the Digital Museum of the History of Japanese in New York.
• Kizuna, “Nikkei Community Internship 2026” program offered college students opportunities to contribute to their communities and earn a stiped through work experience at a Japanese American nonprofit organization or small business.
• Kyodo Taiko held its 27th annual Spring Concert at UCLA on May 30, 2026, welcoming students, faculty, Southern California taiko community, and all community members interested in exploring Japanese American culture through the art of Japanese drumming.
• L.A. Artcore Center, “Lydia Takeshita Archive and Exhibit Project” to index and archive the drawings, photos, and publications of Takeshita (1926-2019), a UCLA student, Cal State L.A. professor, and founder of Artcore Gallery in the Arts District and Little Tokyo.
• Little Tokyo Historical Society, “Shimbun: Narrative Short and Feature Film Development,” to develop a film about Sei Fujii, Issei newspaper publisher and community leader in prewar Little Tokyo.
• LTSC Community Development Corporation, to create two videos for the “Okaeri Voices: Next Gen” program to convey the perspectives of younger LGBTQ+ Nikkei on racial and sexual identity, lived experiences, mental health, and current events, for Okaeri’s YouTube channel.
• Lua Kobayashi, “Inochi no Suna: Memories Carried in Sand,” an immersive photography exhibition that highlights archival artifacts and lived stories from Eastern California, to be exhibited at Manzanar National Historic site and later in Los Angeles.
• Nichi Bei Foundation, the 2026 Films of Remembrance: Little Tokyo and Gardena Showcases, which presented incarceration history through film programs with filmmaker panels and community dialogue at the Japanese American National Museum and Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute.
• Okinawa Association of America, Decolonial Community Writing Project, to research and write more than 80 entries on Okinawan culture for a second OAA book on Okinawan history and community in Los Angeles.
• Southeast Japanese School and Community Center, Centennial Documentary Screening and Outreach Program series to introduce their community history through film and cultural arts demonstrations, in commemoration of their 100th anniversary.
• UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, “An Archaeology of Okinawan Diaspora,” the first archaeological project to focus on the Okinawan diaspora in the U.S., documenting the site of an early-20th-century farmhouse built by Okinawan immigrants in Kauai.
• UCLA Nikkei Student Union, NSU’s 40th Annual Cultural Night production highlighting Japanese American culture and history through performances by Kyodo Taiko, NSU Odori, NSU Modern, NSU Soran Bushi, and a drama based on experiences in incarceration camps during WWII.
• U.S. Kabuki Kenkyu Kai, “The Floating Stage: A Kabuki Celebration of Lineage and Renewal,” a multi-generational kabuki project that will offer performances, workshops, and documentation that deepen Japanese and Japanese American cultural life in Little Tokyo in fall 2026.
• Visual Communications Media and Jason Tiangco, “BobVisions 2026,” a three-event independent Asian American film and food series, with one program honoring the life and legacy of pioneering filmmaker Robert A. Nakamura, UCLA professor and Visual Communications co-founder.
• Visual Communications Media LLC and Sharon Yamato, “Iconic Voices: Dramatic Readings from Art Hansen’s Oral Histories of Notable Japanese Americans,” a public program presenting actors portraying renowned figures such as attorney Frank Chuman, war hero Ben Kuroki, draft resister Jim Akutsu, and others.