Japantown Art & Media Workshop
San Francisco, CA

General Support

The Japantown Art & Media (JAM) Workshop is located in San Francisco's Japanese-American community in a community center which also serves seniors. A grass roots arts organization, JAM strives to preserve, promote, and produce art and literature that accurately expresses the experiences, feelings, and heritages of Asian Americans. It believes that the arts are a basic right and necessity, and are essential for the enduring health, economic, and social well-being for all people of all ages. It is critical for Asian Americans not only to function as an audience for culture, but to be creators as well.

To accomplish these goals, JAM programs consist of cultural events, art projects, art classes, graphic design services for nonprofit agencies, and an intern-training program. As described by Judith H. Weitz in The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities report "Coming Up Taller," JAM "combines entrepreneurialism with the promotion of Asian American culture through public art projects and graphic design services for businesses and community organizations....[T]he Pan-Asian youth programs involves young people in all phases of the business: design ideas and sketches, client relations and product development." The JAM art programs focus on the diversity of the Asian communities and cross-cultural projects which also provides a forum for youth to address issues in contemporary Asian American culture. For more information, please visit its Web site at www.jamworkshop.com.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation funded JAM's stabilization efforts through the diversification of its funding revenues and the expansion of its programming.