Asian Culture Center of Tennessee

Each year in august, the acctn also puts on the knox Asian festival, a platform for the community to celebrate and showcase its rich cultural heritage, leading to increased cultural understanding, appreciation, and preservation. The knox Asian festival also serves as an educational tool, enlightening the community about various aspects of Asian arts, traditions, and history. By bringing the world to knoxville, it helps dispel stereotypes, promotes cross-cultural understanding, and encourages cultural exchange. In the ten years since we began, our festival has grown to be the largest Asian festival in the southeast in august of 2023, we hosted 13 countries, 40 food vendors, approximately 75,000 people, and contributed an estimated 4.4 million in economic impact to greater knoxville. In the spring of 2024, the knox Asian festival was honored by the southeast festival and events association with the best event award

The acctn operates at the intersection of equity and arts education and strives to reach underserved populations and those living in rural communities and/or isolated settings in greater knoxville and beyond. East Tennessee is a wonderful place to live and raise a family, but with 39% of residents in our area under the alice threshold and low-income families lacking access to digital technologies, disparities in education, healthcare, and economic opportunity persist. These barriers to access mean that many of our region's students lack opportunities for meaningful exposure to other ways of life. Believing that authentic engagement in diverse arts improves quality of life, we seek to add value to education in our region by opening up the worlds of k-12 students (and their teachers and caregivers). This year, we are aiming to reach 5,000 students in 30 schools with our unique, hands-on afterschool programming focused on immersive language learning, cultural exploration, and personal development. Our organization also serves east Tennessee's Asian and pacific islander communities. Despite an unprecedented number of hate crimes targeting the Asian american community in 2020, the Center for the study of hate and extremism reports that anti-asian hate crime increased nationally by 339% in 2021. It is well documented that the racism experienced by racial and ethnic minorities is linked to poorer health outcomes for these populations. According to a 2022 study conducted at the johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health, however, social connectedness serves as an important buffer to mitigating the effects of racism on health and wellbeing. The acctn is committed to uniting people to solve these systemic issues in service of vibrant, healthy, and socially just communities where diverse Asian and pacific islander identities and heritages are represented and honored through intergenerational dialogue, educational programming, and cross-cultural exchange. As communities become increasingly diverse, there is also a growing demand for programs that both celebrate and preserve cultural heritage to pass on to future generations. We address this need for culturally relevant educational opportunities by providing children with the tools and resources they need to connect with their roots on the path to becoming confident, multicultural citizens of the world. Deeply connected to the educational leadership of the greater knoxville community, the acctn meets frequently with knoxville's educators k-12 and university leadership. Whether educational institutions are just looking for exposure to other cultures for community school families with fewer resources; opening up children's worldview and making learning fun; or a more philosophical approach centered on diversity, equity, and inclusion; the acctn is happy to tailor its programming to specific needs. Our partnership with the knox county and city governments also allows us to reach thousands of people every year to do our japanese outreach programming by connecting us to knox community schools and knoxville-area senior centers. We strive to reach traditionally opening up the worlds of underserved children through classes and demonstrations of traditional arts like sushi making, origami, calligraphy, tea ceremonies, kimono classes, japanese banjo music, language, dance, and storytelling. The joi coordinator position is key to exposing a greater number of students to new cultural experiences, which furthers our mission of a more peaceful, more diverse, and more harmonious society made up of vibrant and welcoming communities populated by global citizens. Our desired impact is to connect to each other in friendship, forging stronger relationships throughout our community. By doing so, we are helping younger generations become better citizens of an increasingly globalized world. To accomplish this, the acctn is partnering with the japanese government and kcs to develop outreach programs for learning japanese arts and cultures in k-12 schools in east Tennessee. In our years bringing high-quality cultural programming to knox county schools, our area's community schools, and local senior centers, we have consistently demonstrated our dedication to equity-both in our practices and our programming-engaging with underserved groups and communities to help bridge gaps in arts participation. There is so much that a community benefits from every time a cultural event is organized. People not only open their minds to other people and their cultures, but the host community also becomes a Center of interest for individuals and organizations looking to boost the economic capacity of that particular community. As an organization focused on promoting cultural diversity and understanding in our Tennessee community, the acctn is succeeding in popularizing Asian cultures and contributing to east Tennessee's economic development. Our vision is of vibrant, healthy, and socially just communities where diverse Asian and pacific islander identities and heritages are represented and celebrated through cross-cultural exchange, intergenerational dialogue, and educational programming. Our mission is to promote a peaceful, diverse, and harmonious society that prepares today's children to take the stage as true global citizens. Our ultimate goal is a vibrant and welcoming community for all.